The Covert Element (26 page)

"There are a couple really straightforward ways we bust meth
operations. The first one is ‘cause some store calls us and says so-and-so is buying lots of Coleman lantern fuel, or Sudafed, or iodine.
That’s what these guys use to make meth. So we just follow up on
the tips from the stores and make a lot of busts that way.

"The second way is the smell. Meth labs stink to high heaven.
Neighbors come bitchin’ to somebody about the smell. We look in
the windows. Or the windows are all taped shut. Either way, it’s an
easy bust.

"And that’s just the little Mom and Pop labs. It’s simply not
possible for anybody to run a large scale operation without
somebody knowing, and telling, about it."

I was becoming more disheartened.

"What about that farm house? The neighbors wouldn’t have
complained there. And the cookers might be bringing in ingredients
from all over the place, not just Ottawa County."

"The back roads aren’t as anonymous as they look, Beck.
Neighbors are nosey in the country, just like in town. As soon as
there’s a few cars goin’ in and out of that deserted farmstead, the
neighbors are gonna stop to visit. You know, just to be neighborly.
Or they’re gonna call the sheriff and wonder why so many ‘strange’
cars are on their little country road. The farmers all know each
other’s cars and trucks and what not. Too many strangers is a red
flag. Sooner or later we’d get a call and that’d be the end of the meth
business."

"How else do you find meth labs, Gunner? There must be other
ways." I was searching for a method by which one might circumvent
traditional means of detection.

"Nope. Unless a buddy snitches or something, that’s pretty
much it. They’re just not that hard to find. We don’t need any other
ways."

I pondered the situation a moment.

"Before the ‘Mex . . .’ I mean, up to this point, have we ever had
any large meth operations in Ottawa County? I don’t remember
seeing anything in the papers about a big bust or anything."

"No. And we won’t either." Gunner sounded irritated. "Haven’t
you been listening? It’d be just stupid for anybody to even try."

I kept probing, despite Gunner’s reticence to consider the
possibility.

"Okay. Now hear me out. This is just hypothetical. All right?
Just humor me for a minute."

Gunner sighed and leaned back in his chair.

Would I ever learn?

"You said stores report large sales of the lantern fuel that’s
used to make meth, right?"

"Uh huh."

"Can a person use something besides lantern fuel?"

"Yeah. You can use diesel. Makes for dirtier product. But some
guys do it."

"How about iodine? Any substitutes?"

"Not that I know of. So that right there would tip us off. People
don’t just go buyin’ all the iodine off the shelves at the drugstores.
Heck, folks hardly even use it for cuts and scrapes any more."

"Gunner, you’re not thinking large-scale enough. We used to
use iodine by the gallon out on the farm when I was growing up. We
washed cow teats with iodine in water before milking. The whole
pig barn floor would get doused with diluted iodine whenever some
kind of pig disease would come through. Farms have that stuff all
over the place."

"I s’pose that’s true. But how ‘bout the Sudafed? Farmers don’t
give that shit to their cows when they get the sniffles."

I considered some more.

"What about these meth cookers that keep stealing anhydrous
ammonia out of farmers’ spray tanks? I see that in the paper all the
time. Where does that come in?"

"I’m not part of the Drug Task Force. But there’s something the
cookers make out of anhydrous that goes into meth."

"So maybe we need to do some research," I said. "It sounds to
me like there’s at least
some
possibility that farmers might use a lot
of the meth ingredients right in their daily operations. We already
know they use iodine, anhydrous, and diesel fuel. And smells are
normal around a farm. All kinds of smells. Have you ever been
around when they spray nitrogen on a corn field? Smells just like
cat pee. And isn’t that what they say a meth lab smells like?"

"Yeah."

"So don’t you think this is worth looking into further?"

Gunner rolled his eyes.

I waited.

"Aw, hell. I haven’t got anything else goin’ on. I’ll ask the drug
enforcers about ingredients. Maybe Beth can do something on the
internet and you can find out more that way. She’s awful good at
that computer stuff."

I don’t think I can ask Beth for help on this one.

"She is, Gunner. That’s the truth. I’ll see what we can find out.
There’s probably something on the web. Where else would a
twenty-first century dope-head get his recipes."

I left Gunner’s office, wishing I had Beth’s assistance.
If wishes
were horses, beggars would ride.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

It was the Monday after Gunner and I had accepted our
respective missions to investigate the production of
methamphetamine. We had planned to meet at my law offices this
afternoon to discuss our findings.

Gunner arrived at Becker Law Office promptly at two o’clock.
My receptionist executed her instructions to show him to my
private office. She knocked once, then opened the door and
announced Gunner’s arrival.

"Chief Deputy Gunderson to see you, Mr. Becker."

"Gunner. Good to see you as always." I glanced at Alison as
Gunner entered and took a seat in one of my upholstered side
chairs. "You may close the door, please, Alison. Thank you."

She reached inside and pulled the heavy oak door closed.

Gunner was admiring his chair.

"I’d forgotten how cushy you’ve got it out here."

"Yeah. When you pay for your own chair, you get one you like."
Just a bit of friendly public sector sarcasm. "You could buy one just
like mine." I reclined in my oversized, swivelling, high-backed,
super-comfortable lawyer’s chair.

"If I got a contraption like yours and tried bringing it down to
my office," Gunner said, "I’d get laughed right outta the place. How
do you get clients to keep a straight face anyway?"

That was enough friendly banter. We needed to get down to
business. Gunner didn’t know it, but a clock was ticking somewhere
. . . a clock named Fuentes.

"I found out some stuff," I said. "Do you want to go first?"

Gunner slid forward in his chair, placing his hands on my
oversized mahogany desk.

"Yeah. The drug task force guys were pretty helpful. I found out
a few things."

He pulled a folded piece of yellow paper out of his uniform
breast pocket and read from it.

"Seems there’s two ways to make meth. The red, white, and
blue way. And the Nazi way."

He looked up to see if I was impressed. I wasn’t. My Google
search had turned up the same thing . . . probably in more detail.

Gunner read on.

"With the good ol’ American method, you need seven
ingredients, including Sudafed, ether, and hy-dro-chlor-ic acid." He
looked up again. "All those chemicals are closely regulated, like I
told you before. Somebody would report it to us if a customer
bought a whole bunch of any of that stuff. So the bad guys can’t
make tons of meth that way."

He looked for my agreement. I nodded.

Gunner returned to his paper.

"But the Nazi way is easier – less ingredients, but still some
weird shit. Like for instance, you need red phosphorus and
lithium."

He looked at me again.

"That’s the stuff they make batteries out of," he said.

"Uh huh." You couldn’t get anything past Gunner.

"Anyway . . . I don’t know where anybody would get red
phosphorus except a drug store or drug supply company. And if
somebody tried to buy that many batteries . . . enough to make lots
of meth . . . flags would go up all over the place. So the guy from the
drug task force agrees that a large scale meth operation in Ottawa
County is impossible."

Gunner folded the paper and returned it to his pocket. Case
closed.

"Is that all you’ve got?"

Gunner twisted in his chair.

"Whattya mean, is that all I’ve got? That’s plenty. The drug
enforcement
expert
says he’d catch anybody trying to make a bunch
of meth in Ottawa County. So it’s not possible."

"Did you ask him where to get red phosphorus?"

"No. But it’s a chemical I’ve never heard of. It’s gotta be from a
drug store or chemical supplier, like for a university lab or
somethin’."

"You’ve got some with you right now."

Gunner patted his breast pockets.

"What the hell are you talking about? I don’t even know what it
is. Why would I have some?"

"It’s in your bones."

"I’ve got red phosphorus in my bones." Gunner studied my
ceiling, then looked back my way. "Okay. So do I have to cut off an
arm or leg or somethin’ to make my meth?"

"I suppose you could do that. But it seems like it’d hurt a lot
less if you just bought some bonemeal fertilizer, or maybe a load of
seaweed. Or you could get it from a quarry by the truckload.
Farmers use it as a fertilizer, just like cow manure."

Gunner was nonplussed. Eventually he came up with
something.

"Okay. Just for the sake of arguing, which you seem to like to
do, do I have
lithium
in my bones, too? Or I suppose that’s also
used to make cow manure?"

"Phosphorus isn’t used to
make
cow manure . . . it’s used
instead
of cow manure. And no . . . lithium isn’t a fertilizer."

"Okay then." Gunner leaned back in his chair, folding his hands
across his slight belly. "So it’s still not possible because of the
lithium."

"You know what’s in computer batteries?"

"Um . . . let me guess. Lithium?"

"Uh huh. And how about the batteries in all those new electric
cars. What do you guess is in those batteries?"

"What’s this, Sixty Questions?"

"I don’t have a clue what ‘Sixty Questions’ is, but the answer is
that those car batteries contain lithium, too. Quite a bit of it,
actually."

"What’s your point?"

I could tell Gunner was getting irritated with the Socratic
Method. I should probably cut to the chase.

"Here’s the point. The Nazi recipe for meth only requires four
ingredients. Lithium, red phosphorus, iodine, and anhydrous
ammonia. We already know that farmers use bonemeal, ammonia,
and iodine in bulk all the time. Those three chemicals being present
in a farm setting wouldn’t raise any flags at all. And we’ve got lots of
farms in Ottawa County."

"Okay. So the lithium?"

"Do those old car or computer batteries ever get stolen? Or sold
for reprocessing? How well are reprocessing companies regulated?
Do we know they’re not connected up with the mob as a lithium
supplier? What happens to the car batteries in those hybrid cars
when they go to the junk yard? Do they still have batteries in the
trunk?"