“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?”
Fitzsimmons 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.”
“It helps if you know your Greek mythology,” said Robie.
“Come again?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“You’re right. Nothing matters for either of you anymore.”
He led them to the edge of the quarry. There was something large lying on the ground with a tarp over it.
Fitzsimmons lifted the tarp to reveal Bender’s body perched on what looked like a seesaw. They noted there were chains and weights wrapped around the corpse.
“Now, the disposal method. I think you’ll find it relatively straightforward.”
“Wait!”
They all turned to see Patti Bender striding toward them.
She didn’t look at Fitzsimmons, Robie, or Reel as she passed by.
She knelt down next to her dead half brother. “Give me some privacy,” she said quietly.
Fitzsimmons nodded at the guards, who grabbed Robie and Reel and hustled them away. Fitzsimmons slowly followed, glancing back twice at Patti.
From a distance Robie and Reel watched as Patti gently touched Bender’s face and crossed herself. Robie could see her lips moving but couldn’t hear what she was saying.
She finally rose and walked over to them. She had on dirty jeans, a compression Under Armour shirt, and a parka. A Glock rode in a holster on her hip. Her boots were dusty. Her hair was tied back with a rubber band.
She studied the ground for a few moments before looking up at Robie.
“I will never forgive you for this,” she said. She glanced at Reel. “Both of you.”
Reel said, “I didn’t shoot your brother, so I don’t think forgiveness is my problem. I think it’s yours.”
She slipped a knife out of a holder on the back of her belt and held it against Reel’s throat.
Reel looked down at her, her features relaxed. “That’s the easy way, Patti. I would expect better from you after coming up with your drug empire.”
“We did have a plan, Patti,” said Fitzsimmons nervously. “And I think we should carry it out.”
Patti put her hand up to Fitzsimmons and he instantly fell silent.
Robie noted that the two guards had stepped back and would not make eye contact with the woman. It was clear to Robie that Patti Bender and not Fitzsimmons was running the show and had the respect of the guards.
Patti slid the blade along Reel’s throat, drawing a bubble of blood a centimeter from where Reel’s carotid wobbled at the surface.
She smeared the drop of blood along Reel’s throat before putting the blade away.
“You came here for the truth?” she said.
“Only reason we came to this place,” said Reel.
“You won’t find it. Truth doesn’t exist.”
“Your partner here has already tried to wax philosophical with us. But we’re blue-collar types doing a job. No ivory towers need apply.”
“I didn’t mean that,” said Patti. “When I say truth doesn’t exist, it’s a fact, not a theory.”
“So does this mean you’ve been sampling some of your product, because I’m not following,” said Reel.
“I loved Derrick even though we had different fathers.”
“I really can’t believe that, since you murdered him.”
“The moment you brought him here you killed him. My brother was the law. This place is not about the law.”
“Meaning he would have exposed you and sent you to prison. You killed him to avoid that happening. Doesn’t sound like love to me. Sounds like every selfish crook I’ve ever come across.”
“I did what I did so he wouldn’t find out what I’d done. I don’t care about prison. I’ve been living in one all my life. But I didn’t want Derrick to know this about me. I couldn’t have lived with that.”