After dropping off the samples at the Toronto Drug Analysis Service Laboratory, or DAS, for short, we drove back to Scarborough where Nemdharry and Terries were observing the export company. We met a block away. Nemdharry was drinking coffee and Terries was in the unmarked cruiser. She stepped out once she saw us.
“Anything?” Beadsworth asked.
“The building contains eight units.” Nemdharry read from a small piece of paper. “Two dental offices, one used-parts wholesaler, two clothing wholesalers, our export company, and two vacancies. But the management said one unit might be leased by the end of the week.”
“Doesn’t seem like the best place to start a clandestine laboratory,” Beadsworth said.
“No, it doesn’t. In the morning a white U-Haul truck came and went around the back. It left forty-five minutes later.”
“Do you know where?’
“No idea. We’re timing the schedule. Hopefully, we’ll make out a pattern. What’s surprising is that when I was talking to the manager of the building, I happened to walk past that unit and there was no smell. No chemicals burning in the back.”
“What does the front look like?” Beadsworth asked.
Terries spoke, “It has nothing except for a sign that says LLPM Imports amp; Exports, and a receptionist. No chairs, and the back area is entirely sealed off.”
“Then why have a receptionist?” I said.
Terries answered, “I think it’s just to show they are a legitimate company. While I was there the receptionist didn’t get a single call.”
Beadsworth wiped something off his coat and then said, “We believe we have a sample.”
“Nex?” Terries said.
“We’re not sure. It could be anything.”
“What does it look like?” she asked.
“Like Ecstasy.”
“Shit,” Nemdharry said. “Where is it?”
“We dropped it off at DAS. We’ll find what’s in it. I would like to talk to the owner of this coffee shop.”
“Yeah, sure,” Nemdharry said.
They left Terries and I at the car and walked down the street.
We were alone.
There was silence.
I looked at my feet and she was looking away.
I had to say something. “So you like the job?” I asked.
“It’s not bad. A good learning experience,” she said, smiling.
Silence again.
“How about you?” she said.
“Yes, good learning experience.” I found I couldn’t think of anything clever to say. My mind was frozen. I tried to stay cool, calm, and collected. I leaned on the car and looked across to the many shops lining the street.
There was a Laundromat, a drycleaners, and a convenience store at the corner. Beside the convenience store there were a couple of guys trying to place a sign above the window. The sign read: BUBBLE T SHOP.
“Have you ever tried bubble tea?” I turned to Terries.
“No, really.”
“Neither have I. Maybe someday we could try it together.” I stopped. I couldn’t believe I had just said that. I looked away not wanting to hear what she was going to say next.
She smiled. “Maybe some day.”
I was relieved.
Nemdharry and Beadsworth came back.
It was a long, slow day.
Next morning, we drove to DAS and inside found our analyst. She was a short round woman who wore black-rimmed glasses. She also wore the traditional long white coat. Her name was Eileen Mathers.
“What is it?” asked Beadsworth.
“I’m not sure,” she said. “Come with me.” She scanned a white card, the door beeped, and then we heard the sound of unlocking. She took us inside to the laboratory. There were many analysts wearing similar white coats, hovering over microscopes, looking through charts, staring at monitors, and examining liquids in test tubes.
It reminded me of my grade-nine science class.
“From the information you provided,” Eileen said. “It’s supposed to blow up inside the human body?”
“Yes,” Beadsworth said.
“Are you sure you don’t mean it dissolves in the body?”
Beadsworth looked at me and I at him.
“No. From what I’ve been briefed it is supposed to blow up.”
“I don’t think that’s possible. Pills and tablets don’t blow up. They dissolve. Capsules do dissolve faster than tablets because their outer layer is made of soft gelatin shells.”
“I think it is supposed to work instantly,” I said.
“For it to take instant effect it is better if it were taken intravenously, or even inhaled or snorted. Tablets take time to break down. Come, I’ll show you something.”
She took us to the corner where there were three glasses filled with liquid propped on top of a table. The glasses were labeled with yellow stickers. The first glass: Exhibit A-Orange, the second glass: Exhibit B-Green, and the third: Exhibit C-Brown.
She pointed to the glasses. “These are the samples you submitted. I cut a small piece from each tablet and placed them in water at precisely the same time. Exhibit A was the earliest sample. Look closer.”
The water had turned white with visible chunks of what used to be the orange tablet resting at the bottom.
“You can see,” Eileen began. “The tablet did not dissolve entirely. Just as it made contact with the water the tablet broke up into pieces and then fell to the bottom.” She pointed to the small clumps. “I have not stirred so most of the tablet dissolved on its own.”
We moved to Exhibit B. The glass was completely clear.
“It’s translucent. This sample has dissolved entirely but it took a good half-hour to do so. “We moved onto the last glass-Exhibit C. The tablet was completely dissolved but you could still see tiny white particles floating at the top.
“Once the sample touched water it immediately fizzled and shrank. But there is still this white residue and a white film at the top of the glass.”
She turned to us. “What we are seeing is the evolution of the sample. Whoever is trying to manufacture this is trying to produce the effect you mentioned. But from my experience it is not possible. I’m not saying it is impossible. With the technology these days I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“What’s in it?” Beadsworth asked.
“I’ll show you.”
Being inside the small room, filled with all sorts of equipment: beakers, test tubes, and other science equipment, I was getting claustrophobic. If I were forced to work in here I’d end up drinking one of those green or brown liquids just to escape.
We went to another table and the analyst fixed a bright light on a ceramic plate.
“I’ve scraped a bit off from each tablet,” she said. With a tiny scoop she placed a small amount of white powder onto the plate. “This scraping is from the orange pill-the earliest sample.”
From a cool storage she pulled out a small glass bottle, “This is a Marquis reagent consisting of sulphuric acid and formaldehyde. I first saw it in Amsterdam. Now it’s widely used everywhere.”
She tilted the bottle and discharged two drops of fluid onto the scraping.
We waited.
“No reaction,” said Eileen. “Good.”
She pulled out another small bottle, this one not from the cool storage. “This is a Mandelin reagent.” She did the same as before by placing two drops on the scraping.
This time the reagents rapidly turned dirty orangey-brown.
“Just as I thought,” Eileen said. “It’s Ketamine.”
Beadsworth nodded. He understood.
“What’s Ketamine?” I said, looking around. I didn’t want to sound stupid but I had to ask.
She said, “Ketamine is an anaesthetic used primarily by veterinarians. It’s a central nervous system depressant. Taken in higher doses Ketamine causes hallucinations and delirium. Numbness in the extremities is also common. So when you said the drug is supposed to numb, right away I thought of Ketamine, but I wasn’t sure. In liquid form it can be injected into the muscle and the effect can usually be felt within four minutes. If swallowed, the effects come from ten to twenty minutes, but only in higher concentrations. So it would be more viable to keep it in liquid form. Lets look at the second tablet.”
She placed more scrapings on a clean ceramic tile and again discharged two drops of the Marquis reagent. The reaction was green.
She looked at us with one raised eyebrow. “The color dyes of the tablets are an indicator of what’s in them. This contains caffeine and Ketamine. Caffeine being the prominent substance in the tablet.”
“Caffeine?” I said. “The stuff in coffee?”
“Yes,” she answered. “Caffeine is a stimulant.”
“I get it,” I said, as if I had just discovered the cure for cancer. “Ketamine knocks you out and caffeine brings you back in.”
“In simple terms, yes.”
I smiled at Beadsworth. Now look who’s smart.
Eileen said, “Now for the last tablet. I can already tell you what’s in it.” She performed the same procedure using the Marquis and the reaction was blackish brown. “This tablet contains many substances, with Ketamine being the primary. My guess, the secondary substances would be caffeine and methamphetamines. These tests that I have performed only indicate the most prominent substance in the tablets. The Marquis test was made specifically for Ecstasy. So if there are any other substances the fluid might not change colour or react. Also, these tests don’t indicate how pure the substance is or how much of it is in the tablet, but it is a fine primary indicator. What I’m trying to say is that I wouldn’t be surprised if it contained cocaine, speed, or acetaminophen.” She paused. “I’ll have to do a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer analysis.”
“Uh?” I said.
“The most accurate drug testing method available. It will tell us accurately what substances are in the tablets and how much.”
Beadsworth touched his beard as if in deep thought. “What I don’t understand is, this isn’t something new or innovative.”
“That’s what I thought too. We’ve had hundreds of pills or tablets that contain these kinds of ingredients. I’ve even had pills brought in that are sold as Ecstasy with just caffeine, sugar, and flu medications in them.”
“A perfect cure for the common cold,” I laughed. But neither of them laughed back.
“The only way it could be unique is if the delivery is as fast as it states,” she said.
“But you said that is not possible,” Beadsworth said.
“That’s right.” She pulled out the form Beadsworth had submitted. She adjusted her glasses and then glanced over it, reading it again. “I can’t see this doing what it says. It’s like any other tablet out there.”
Beadsworth nodded and his eyes narrowed in contemplation.
Eileen said, “I’ll provide you with a Certificate of Analyst when I thoroughly process the tablets.”
We thanked her and left.
The sign, BUBBLE T SHOP, had just been placed out in the front. From inside Martin stared out to the street across. He had leased the shop for six months. The plan was to set up several Nex labs all over Toronto. Instead of one large manufacturing plant, they would have several mini labs.
The costs were large, of course, but the logic was that if one lab got raided the others would keep up production. With a product like Nex the costs were nothing compared to the profits. All that was needed was demand. Once demand was established, supply was no problem.
Martin was on the phone now. The cops standing across the street had made him a little edgy. Many things made him edgy.
For one, he was now unsure if the desired Nex could actually be produced. He was, in fact, becoming unsure of the whole scheme. There were too many factors he could not avoid. One: how potent Nex could be. Two: whether they could be the sole providers of Nex when it came out. Others would make generic versions of it. Three: whether Ms. Zee could handle such a massive operation. But how could he complain, with the kind of money he was being offered? Lawyers are a dime a dozen and this was good money.
He shut the phone and closed his eyes. He had been arguing with Ms. Zee about moving the store elsewhere. The cops were too close. Their focus was on the building across the way, but in the end it’d divert to them. He’d advised they relocate as soon as possible. But Ms. Zee thought otherwise. The cops would not look under their noses. They were expecting Nex to be produced in a large building, not underneath a retail store.
Then Martin thought of their informant in the police force.
Driving back from DAS I was excited. This was just another regular, made-in-the-basement type of drug. Aldrich was getting all worked up about nothing. I turned to Beadsworth but saw that he didn’t share my enthusiasm.
“Cheer up,” I said. “This isn’t as bad as we thought, is it?”
Beadsworth didn’t answer.
I tapped the steering wheel with my fingers. “We can cruise through this investigation,” I said. I was looking forward to wrapping this case up. I was also looking forward to Aldrich’s commitment that once we had completed this investigation I would be transferred to the intelligence unit. I would fit in nicely in the intelligence unit.
I smiled, the widest smile possible.
“This isn’t right,” I heard Beadsworth say.
His comments snapped me out of my happy thoughts. “How is it not right?” I said.
“This could mean many things,” he started. “One, this is a decoy. Provide us with different versions of the drug, hoping that we will get off track. Two, the desired drug has already been produced.”
I thought about it and it kind of made sense.
I hadn’t known Beadsworth long enough, but now I could count on him to ruin my happiness.