“What the hell were you doing there?” Aldrich yelled.
It was the next morning and Beadsworth and I were in Aldrich’s temporary office. The police department had given him this office for the duration of the investigation. It had your standard: desk, chairs, lamp, cabinet, bookcase, and a few other items.
Aldrich was pacing back and forth.
“Will someone tell me what the hell you were doing at a club?”
He was talking to me.
“Scoping the place out,” I said.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Checking the place out, sir,” I said.
“Who authorized you to check this place out?” he demanded. He was now leaning across the desk.
I glanced at Beadsworth.
“I did, sir,” Beadworth said.
Aldrich looked disappointed. “I expected more from you, Detective.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” said Beadsworth.
“It was my fault,” I said.
“Of course it was your fault,” Aldrich shot back. “Who else’s fault would it be?”
I’d been hoping Aldrich would say it was no one’s fault.
“I have an injured officer.” He shook his head. “The drug squad is already going through so much. We don’t need this. You know how hard it was to keep it out of the papers. If anyone questions us we have to say the officer was off duty. We would have to lie. You know why?”
Beadsworth and I didn’t answer.
“It would have jeopardized our mission.” He stood up. Adjusted his coat. “You were only supposed to observe and not get involved. What were you hoping to find?”
“RACE,” I said but then realized I should have kept my mouth shut.
“RACE?” he blasted. “What if you had seen RACE, what would you have done? Do you remember our mission?”
I did not open my mouth.
“Our mission is to find where Nex is being produced and distributed. If you had intercepted they would have realized how close we were. They would have become cautious. We DO NOT want them to be cautious.”
“How is Barnes?” Beadsworth finally asked.
“He’s at Toronto East General, recovering. He took a hard hit on the head and his memory is questionable,” Aldrich answered. “We were lucky to get him out of that place without anyone knowing.”
“Can we-” I started.
“No. You will continue with the investigation.” He paused. “We are fortunate Constable Barnes’ injuries weren’t more severe. Detective Herrera is with him; he will rejoin the operation in due time.”
Aldrich blew air through his nose. He was staring out the window. “We need a break. We need a lead. We need anything.” He turned to Beadsworth. “What about this import and export company?”
“We’re monitoring it,” Beadsworth said.
“If you feel there is a cause for intervention I will authorize it,” he said.
“Yes, sir.”
“What about the surveillance cameras at the club? Did they catch anything?”
“We have not viewed the tapes yet…but…”
“But what?”
“One tape is missing.”
Aldrich looked like he was going to lose his head. “A tape missing?”
“Yes.”
“Did you question the owner of the dance club?”
“Yes. He said he left his office for a minute and perhaps at that time someone took the tape.”
“Where are the other tapes?”
“At the Video Services Unit.”
Aldrich nodded as if he was thinking. “Dismissed,” he said.
We got up, but before we could leave, Aldrich said, “Not you, Officer Rupret. I’ll like to have a word with you.”
I looked at Beadsworth who refused to make eye contact.
“Officer Rupret,” started Aldrich when we were alone. He was looking straight at me. “You were with Constable Barnes when this unfortunate event happened. Is there anything you would like to tell me that you-didn’t or forgot to tell-Detective Garnett last night?”
Last night Garnett had driven me home. The ride was not pleasant. Garnett was not pleasant. But it wasn’t just him. It was the fact that Barnes got hurt-and got hurt while with me. Garnett drilled me on every point: what time I got there? What did I do? Whom did I talk to?
Beadsworth had instructed me to keep my answers vague, which I did. I told Garnett about the girl who wanted to buy me a drink and the kid, Jeff, but nothing specific.
“Who was this Jeff?” asked Aldrich.
“Some guy.”
Aldrich sensed I was hiding something.
“What did he look like?” Aldrich asked.
“He was short, black, wore funky clothes,” I lied. I had a feeling if I told Aldrich the truth he would start investigating the kid’s background. I didn’t want the kid involved in this mess. He was at the House of Jam to have a good time. He had just graduated.
“Officer Rupret, remember what I said when we first met?”
I thought hard. “I was…young…creative…good looking…and imaginative.” I stopped, hoping that was it.
“No.” Aldrich shook his head. “That there would be a lot demanded of you and I hoped you were prepared for it.”
I remembered now.
“I’m afraid I was wrong. You are not prepared for it.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“You’re not fit for this unit and you’re most certainly not fit for Intelligence. After we are through I will have you sent back to parking enforcement.”
My blood was boiling. My middle finger was twitching rapidly. Introduce me. Please introduce me. Just once.
I held back.
I was cut deep with Barnes getting hurt. This was salt rubbed on those cuts.
“Remember what I said to you, sir?” I said.
He listened.
“I’ll quit the force.”
“Are you resigning, Officer Rupret?”
“No. Not until the task is completed.”
He paused and then waved me off, “Dismissed.”
Ms. Zee slammed her hand on the table. Suraj took a step back, while Kong stood his ground. “He was a police officer,” she yelled. “What if we were discovered? Do you know our plans would have been destroyed? Do you know how much I’ve invested in this? Both of you placed our operation in jeopardy. If he was killed, the entire force would be after you two.”
Joey and Hause were also in the room.
Ms. Zee turned to Joey, “Did you talk to anyone?”
“No. I would never do that.”
Her stare pierced into his heart.
“All I did was get a drink and maybe dance a little, that’s it,” he pleaded.
She believed him. He had no reason to talk to anyone.
Martin entered. He didn’t look too happy. Ms. Zee couldn’t handle any more trouble.
“What is it?” she said.
“Can we talk alone?” he said.
She dismissed all of them with a wave of her hand.
“Four of the five businesses are up and running,” he said.
“Then what is the problem?”
“The start-up costs have been huge; from registering the businesses to hiring the employees. With no immediate revenues we won’t be able to run these businesses forever.”
“Call Burrows,” she said. “Let’s have a word with him.”
A few minutes later, Ed Burrows entered the room, looking weak and tired. He’d spent all his waking hours trying different combinations of the drug, but nothing so far that could get the results they wanted.
“Mr. Burrows,” Ms. Zee said. “Do you have any news for us?”
He thought hard about his answer.
She rephrased her question, “Will we ever be able to produce Nex?”
Ed Burrows didn’t have an answer.
We drove to DAS to meet our analyst, Eileen Mathers. She motioned us to follow her. We went inside the lab and to a corner.
“What have you found?” Beadsworth asked.
“What we already knew,” she said. She was holding several sheets of print-outs. She pulled out the first sheet. It showed two graphs. The graph resembled the display of a sound synthesizer or a heartbeat monitor with steady lines, but sudden abrupt peaks.
“As you can see-” she started.
I interrupted her, “Can you explain how this gas photography machine works?”
“Gas chromatography,” she corrected me.
“That’s what I mean,” I said. I was curious. Also, I needed something to divert my mind from the conversation with Aldrich.
“Gas chromatography is an analytical method used to separate mixtures. It indicates, based on the component’s volatility, solubility and absorption of the relative quantity of each component.”
I stared at her blankly.
She tried again. “Gas chromatography separates the different components in the sample. The mass spectrometer identifies the atomic composition of each of the components. This data is then compared by a computer to a database of hundreds of known drugs and other compounds to see if there are any matches.”
“Interesting,” I said, nodding. I had no idea what she was talking about.
She was not talking to an intelligent adult; she was in fact talking to an eight-year-old who, as far as science was concerned, was more interested in looking at comic books than reading a text book.
“How does that work exactly?” I asked.
“First we dissolve the solid with a solvent, and then, using an injector, pass it through a long tubular column with a stream of helium gas. It separates the liquids on the basis of their boiling points. As they exit the columns, the mass spectrum detector records the drugs. Then you have this.” She held up the graphs again.
“Yes,” I said, not understanding. “The graphs.”
“Each peak represents a single component. If we have several components in a drug then we’ll have several peaks. The first graph shows the amount of each component, the other the time it took to emerge from the drug.”
She pointed to the one peak. “This is the analysis of the first sample-the orange tablet. From the Mandelin test we already knew it contained Ketamine but this further verifies it. Ketamine is the sole component in the tablet.”
She pulled out the second print. This one had two peaks.
“This is for the green tablet. Earlier, through the Marquis test, we had verified it contained Ketamine and caffeine, but we did not know how much. If you look at the graph, caffeine has a higher peak, almost five times as large as Ketamine.”
She pulled out the third graph. This one looked like it had gone berserk. It had many peaks.
“This is a mixture of many components. The largest being Ketamine-just by looking at the peak you’ll agree. Then caffeine, then MDMA-”
“What?” I said.
“Ecstasy.”
“Thank you.”
“Then pseudo ephedrine.” Before I could say something she said, “If taken in large quantity it has the same effect as speed. You’ll find it in Sudafed.”
I looked satisfied so she continued.
“Then DXM, found in Vicks formula. Finally, methamphetamine, more potent than amphetamine.”
“That’s a lot of components in one drug,” Beadsworth said.
“Yes, but not uncommon. That is why it is so dangerous. This particular tablet contains components that give you the speedy effect with ephedrine, caffeine, and methamphetamine. The relaxation effect with DXM. And the altered state of consciousness effect with Ketamine.”
“So it can numb you, relax you, and then pop you back out?” I asked.
She thought about it and then said, “Yes.”
Beadsworth and I looked at each other.
“But, it will not take immediate effect,” she said.
We both blew a sigh of relief.
“Is there any way for it to take immediate effect?” Beadsworth asked.
“Intravenously. That’s the only way I can think of.”
She handed Beadsworth a brown envelope: The Certificate of Analyst.
Beadsworth didn’t look inside; he just nodded and thanked her.