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Fitzsimmons shrugged. “We can give people the same big pop much more safely with our crossover synthetics. And our drugs are made to exacting standards. Our facility is maintained to Big Pharma production standards. We actually have clean rooms where some of our most delicate processing takes place. We make custom products to order, too. We’re even thinking about using drones to deliver some of the stuff. You know, taking a page from Amazon. People do that right now to get stuff into prisons all over the country.”
“But it’s all illegal drugs,” pointed out Reel.
“I know all sides of the argument,” said a smiling Fitzsimmons, as he put the bottles and plastic bag back where he had gotten them. “People are going to use drugs regardless of what the law is, right? So we’re giving them a pure, safe product for their doping pleasure. And it’s not just druggies. Oxycodone is a painkiller. Do you know how much pharmaceuticals charge for it? It’s a disgrace. We’re actually making it affordable for people. I consider it a public service.”
“You mean servicing their addiction,” said Robie.
“We can mince words all day,” said Fitzsimmons amiably.
“How much money are we talking about?” asked Reel.
“Last year was our best, but this year I think we’re going to top it. Well into the nine figures,” he said. “Who knows, some day we might top a billion a year. And that’s with gross profit margins of nearly seventy percent.”
“Is that because your labor costs are so cheap?” said Robie. “I mean it’s not like you’re paying these people, right?” He nodded toward the blue-scrubbed workers.
“Well, we do have to feed and house them, if for a limited time.”
“So they’re not permanent workers?” said Reel.
“Nothing in life is permanent. Only death is permanent.”
“Very philosophical of you.”
Fitzsimmons smiled. “I actually studied philosophy in college. It balanced out the science part of my brain.”
“And what does Scott Randall do for the ‘business’?”
“He has his uses. He gets his healthy cut plus other things. That’s all I’ll really say on the subject.”
“And Patti Bender?”
Fitzsimmons smiled again. “She’s a free spirit. I met her when she came out to California for a few months. We really hit it off. We could see that our strengths and ambitions played well together. I let her know what I was thinking and she said she thought she could help. This operation was actually her idea. She knew about this silo. She also had a relationship with Scott Randall. She’d done some guide work for him. I just supplied the science. So I came out here as Dolph because she thought it would be good cover. And she said there were lots of ‘alternative’ groups in this part of Colorado. What was one more? I set up my neo-Nazi operation. In the background she actually helped with recruitment. There are a lot of lost souls around here looking for answers. For structure. Looking to belong to something. And I became their answer. But it was all just a sideshow for this operation, although it did help me meet people who provided excellent distribution for our product. We even ship internationally.”
“So Patti really came up with this whole idea?” said Reel.
“I think she got the concept from her mother’s marijuana business, which is a very nice, profitable, and legitimate business. But Patti wanted more than that. And to tell the truth, I think she loves the risk.”
“When I first met her she just seemed like a relatively simple person who was independent and liked the outdoors,” said Robie.
“She is that, plus a lot more. There are several more layers to the woman. I’m not sure I’ve seen them all, actually.”
“But what does she do with the money she makes? She certainly doesn’t dress like she’s rich. And she and her buddies go off acting as guides.”
“Oh, she likes the money. And I can tell you that she has a beautiful hideaway on an island in the Caribbean. I think she may end up there one day permanently.”
“So she goes off to the Caribbean and her mother and brother have no clue?”
“She disappears for weeks at a time,” said Fitzsimmons. “It’s the nature of who she is. Her mother and brother are well accustomed to that.”
“She killed a police officer who happened to be her brother,” said Robie.
“Well, the way I see it, she had no choice. She was actually quite fond of Derrick. And she blames you for his death. Had you not involved him, he never would have come here and he’d still be alive.”
“That’s one way of looking at it,” said Robie.
“How exactly do you distribute the drugs?” asked Reel.
He wheeled around on her. “Why? So you can go and tell a certain Apostle all about it?”
Reel said nothing, her features inscrutable, but Fitzsimmons still smiled.
“I saw through that a long time ago. And when he ‘rescued’ you, my suspicions were confirmed. But he’s not a real concern. He thinks I’m into guns and other stuff, not drugs. As to our distribution, it’s a trade secret and not something you need be concerned with.”
“So where are they?” asked Robie.
“Who is that?” said Fitzsimmons as he watched the workers.
“Roger Walton, Valerie Malloy, JC Parry, and Clément Lamarre.”
“Well, we’ll have to see. But don’t you want to ask about our workers here? You already commented on our not paying them.”
“They’re the prisoners, right?” Reel said.
“We needed people to help connect up that quarry room with our facility. Fortunately, we were also able to do the work at night and dump the debris into the quarry.” He added with a smile, “Along with the workers, of course. Then, we needed to have people on the manufacturing line.”
“And of course you didn’t want to hire them and actually have to pay them,” said Robie.
“Well, there’s that and also the fact that there are too many damn undercover cops around. If they infiltrated our operation? Well, that would be problematic. Thus, we made an executive decision to utilize ‘disposable’ workers.”
Robie and Reel looked at each other. Reel said, “So you just kill them?”
Fitzsimmons said quietly, “We terminate their work status at the appropriate time.”
“And exactly how do you do that?” asked Robie.
“I invite you to use your imagination,” replied Fitzsimmons. “But I can show you one method. Two birds with one stone, you see. And I’m the sort of person who always goes for the shortcut.”
Reel studied him. “And the fact that you’re telling us all this means that you don’t expect us to be able to tell anyone else?”
Fitzs
immons smiled, but it never reached his eyes. “I thought that went without saying.”
Chapter
66
THEY REVERSED COURSE on the golf cart and soon found themselves back where they had started, at the quarry.
“We’ve gotten rid of your truck and Bender’s police car, of course,” said Fitzsimmons. “No one will know where you’ve gotten to.”
“You have to know that an army of police and Feds are going to descend on this place like locusts, don’t you?” said Robie.
Fitzsimmons said, “I quite understand that your Mr. Walton is a VIP in DC. And that you two are also highly valuable. Now, with the entire police force of Grand, Colorado, missing, the locusts, as you say, will descend. So that means we have to move our operation. And we’re going to do it very quickly, starting tonight.” He suddenly scowled. “You know, in an ideal world an idiot like Clément Lamarre would not be allowed to bring down an operation like this.”
“In an ideal world scum like you wouldn’t have the opportunity to build an operation like this,” retorted Reel.
Fitzsimmons ignored this and continued. “We traced every person he could have told, from Holly to your Mr. Walton. Patti knew he was well connected. When he started snooping around, asking questions, getting a guided tour of Roark’s facility, that concerned us.”
“So you knew about that?” said Robie.
Fitzsimmons gave him a condescending look. “I know about everything. I just couldn’t figure out how you two came to learn about this place.”
