Дэвид Балдаччи - The Fallen

Decker was six-five. Ross was about five-nine. Unlike Decker, he had to stand on the chair to reach the spot that would open the door.

After checking through the blinds to make certain the hall was clear and then leaving them open, as they had been, Decker made his way out. Passing by the reception area, he spoke to the same woman.

“I actually couldn’t wait any longer. You don’t have to tell him I was here. I’ll catch up with him another time.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“No, thank you . Oh, one more thing.”

“Yes?”

“Is there a gym here for the employees?”

“A gym? No. Why?”

“Last time I was here I saw a gym duffel in Ross’s office. I thought it might have had workout clothes inside.”

“It probably does. He works out at my gym, right after he leaves here. Like clockwork. I sometimes work out with him. Doesn’t hurt to get in good with the boss.”

“Right. Does he change here or at the gym?”

She looked puzzled. “At the gym. They have locker rooms and showers.”

“Well, good to know he’s keeping in shape,” said Decker.

Really good to know , he thought as he hurried out.

Decker got into his truck and was about to drive out of the parking lot when he turned in the opposite direction and headed over to where the new construction was under way. He parked his car, got out, and walked as close to the construction site as he could. Workers were racing everywhere and forklifts and trucks and Bobcats were hurtling around carrying materials. Obviously, the police had allowed the work to recommence. Decker studied the activity for a bit and then took a closer look around the area. He spotted something, bent down, and picked it up. Examining it for a moment, he stuck it in his pocket. He got back into his truck and drove off.

On the way, he called Kemper and asked her to meet him in front of the Mercury Bar.

He was waiting for her when she pulled up. He climbed into the SUV, pulled out the bottle, and briefly described to her how he’d found it.

“Can you check to see what it is? I think I know, though.”

She looked at the bottle. “It’s almost certainly either heroin or fentanyl. They look the same, which is why dealers lace one with the other. Problem is, it takes thirty milligrams of heroin to kill someone, while it only takes three milligrams of fentanyl to do the same. So, you said you got this from a hiding place in Ted Ross’s office?”

“Yeah. And there’s a ton more in there. I think the shipments are coming in through the fulfillment center.”

“Why ship it there? Why not to his home or a PO box?”

“Far easier to search a home or PO box. The fulfillment center gets millions of packages. Like finding a needle in a haystack, if you’re the cops.”

“But don’t they track all those boxes pretty closely? How is he getting them out of the computer system there?”

“He’s the manager of the place. If anyone could think of a way, he could.”

“How did you even know he had a hiding place in his office?”

“Toby Babbot. He’d drawn plans of the fulfillment center. I found a set of official construction drawings and compared them. Babbot’s version showed only one discrepancy from the construction drawings. A two-foot-deep deviation in Ross’s office.”

“How’d Babbot find out about that?”

“He worked on the construction of the fulfillment center and later worked in the office there. He might’ve discovered it that way. I used a tape measure. Maybe he did the same.”

“Do you think he knew what Ross was going to do with that space?”

“Well, Babbot ended up dead, so chances are he did know, or at least suspected.”

“I’m surprised that Ross would keep this in his office.”

“It’s actually pretty secure. You can’t accidentally open the closet. He had to stand on a chair and turn a part of the molding to do it. And the panel was seamless. You could look at that wall all day and not know a door was there. And he had a Steelers jersey hanging there to disguise it further.”

“How did he have something like that installed and no one know about it?”

“He might have done it himself. He told me he worked construction before he moved on to the fulfillment center. Or maybe one or more of the construction guys is in on this and did it for him. As the manager, he had free run of the space and was overseeing all the construction work.”

“But how would a guy like Ted Ross get mixed up in a drug distribution operation?”

“He once described himself to me as the little guy, the underdog. And he said that when the little guy gets a chance to punch back, he needs to go for it. I think that was the reason he gave me the contact information for a lawyer for Amber to sue Maxus. He hates the big guys. And Alice Martin told me that his father, Fred, treated him and his mother really badly. Ted told me the same thing at the funeral. Maybe that screwed him up too. I can vouch for the fact that Fred Ross is a pretty unpleasant guy. That and a boatload of money would be a hell of a motive. Or maybe they approached him because he was the fulfillment center manager and they wanted to use that as their cover.”

“Decker, this really is awesome work on your part.” Kemper paused. “And now I’ll return the favor. I found out what you wanted to know about Randy Haas.”

“Our dying declaration guy who fingered your two agents?”

“You asked if he had family and whether he might have been sick. Well, you were right on both counts. He had a wife and two young kids. And he had pancreatic cancer. Advanced. He had maybe two months to live.”

“And the family? How are they doing?”

“They apparently had a financial windfall. They’re living in Bel-Air, California, in a home that cost three million.”

“And their explanation for that?”

“Life insurance. A ten-million-dollar policy.”

“That’s not cheap.”

“No, it’s not. But the premiums were fully paid up.”

“Okay, but I doubt that Haas listed ‘drug dealer’ as his occupation on the application. I can’t believe a legit insurance outfit would have sold him a policy that large. His odds of dying early were way too high.”

“The policy wasn’t written by an American company. It was an overseas outfit that we’ve tried to find out about, but so far we’ve run into a stone wall. It could have just been a way for his family to be paid off in exchange for his lying about my two agents.”

“Life insurance again,” said Decker thoughtfully.

“Right. But how’d you know we’d find out Haas was terminal?”

“Because I believed he lied about your guys. He set them up to take the fall. They weren’t rogue. I think they had stumbled onto what was happening here in Baronville and they had to be taken out. And Haas, who was already a dead man with a family to take care of, was the one to help do it. He made you think your guys were bad, and the real bad guys killed them. And his family reaped the benefit of his lying declaration. For all we know, he injected that fatal dose of morphine himself.”

“Okay, we have a major fentanyl ring operating in Baronville. And they’re using the fulfillment center to bring it in. What do you think Ross does with it?”

“He must take it from the center and pass it on to others. He’s got a duffel bag in his office. I think that’s how he’s getting it out. I found out he goes to the gym after work. But why carry your gym clothes in with you to work when the gym you’re going to has locker rooms and showers? Why not just leave them in the car until you get to the gym?”

“But don’t they have security there to check bags and stuff?”