2
Randall Webb and Cooper Grange sat patiently at the table in the conference room while Ruiz helped Matt Horn into a seat. When Horn was settled, Webb nodded at Ruiz who went out of the room but left the door open. Hunter and Collins came into the room, closed the door and sat at one end of the table. Horn looked at them until Webb spoke, introducing everyone at the table.
Horn said nothing.
‘What can we do for you, Mr Horn?’ Webb asked.
Horn shifted in his seat and grimaced. He looked at Hunter and Collins.
‘Shouldn’t you, like, read me my rights or something?’
‘Why would we do that?’ Grange said.
‘I don’t know. Isn’t that how it’s done?’
‘Why don’t you tell us your story and we’ll see where we go from there,’ Webb told him.
Horn shifted again. Everyone waited for him.
‘I killed those men. The drug addicts. It was me.’
Some opening gambit.
Webb leaned forward and clasped his hands on the table.
‘Why don’t you start at the beginning, Mr Horn. I find that usually helps.’
‘How far back do you want me to go?’
‘That depends. When did it start?’
‘In Afghanistan.’
His voice wavered, phlegm at the back of his throat.
‘I lost my legs there.’ He looked down and rubbed his thighs.
‘You were ambushed?’
He narrowed his eyes and looked at Webb. ‘You know about that?’
‘Yes. Is that where it started?’
‘I suppose it is. If we hadn’t been caught up in that …’
‘Tell us about it,’ Webb said.
‘It was Seth and Andy. Until Andy got killed. But mainly Seth. He lost it after I got sick.’
‘Andy?’ Grange asked.
‘Andy Johnson.’
Grange flipped through the file in front of him on the table.
‘The Scottish RMP corporal?’
‘Yes. He wasn’t the same after he got shot. Losing part of your skull will do that.’
‘I’m not following,’ Webb said. ‘Johnson is dead now?’
Horn nodded.
‘Take it back a step and tell us what’s going on,’ Webb said.
‘I needed money for treatment and Seth didn’t have it. Andy had been back in Afghanistan working private security after the army discharged him. He made some contacts over there – through another soldier, guy called Jack Butler. Drug contacts. Heroin. Saw a way to make some money. Seth told him no the first time he mentioned it. But he got so desperate, so angry at everyone and everything, that he would have done anything.’
‘For you?’
‘Yes.’
‘Why?’
Horn cleared his throat.
‘He had a son. He died when he was real young and Seth split from his wife after it. I don’t think he ever recovered from it. He saw me as a replacement.’
‘He told you that.’
‘Not in so many words.’
‘Which is why you getting sick …’
‘I nearly died. Technically I was dead for a minute or so before they revived me.’
Webb sat back again, looked over at Hunter.
‘You have any questions, Detective?’
Horn looked at Hunter.
‘You said that you killed them,’ Hunter said. ‘What did you mean by that?’
‘I’m a chemist. I came up with the idea of mixing the heroin and fentanyl. I wanted to be useful. Didn’t want to get on the wrong side of Seth and Andy. That’s not a good place to be.’
‘But you didn’t get it right.’
‘Actually I did. I knew what I was doing.’
Hunter frowned.
‘I don’t understand. If you got it right, why are people dying?’
‘I changed it. Didn’t tell Seth.’
‘You wanted people to die?’
‘Yes.’
Horn showed no emotion now. As though he had stamped it down to where he couldn’t feel it any longer.
‘Why?’
‘So that it would stop. So that we would get caught.’
‘Why did you want to get caught?’
‘The Mexicans.’
Hunter was starting to see it all fit together now.
‘They were going to take you out,’ Hunter said. ‘For muscling in on their trade?’
Horn smiled, but not like it was funny.
‘No, not like that. They wanted to buy us out. It appealed to them mainly because they would have a manufacturing facility right here inside the US border. They wanted to flood the market.’
‘Would certainly avoid the need to get the product across the border.’
‘Exactly. And they were soldiers too. Or at least the guy we dealt with was.’
‘Brothers in arms crap,’ Grange said.
Horn shrugged.
‘This is still my country and I couldn’t sit by and let it happen.’
‘One thing I don’t understand,’ Hunter said. ‘Where does Johnson fit into this?’
Horn made a face like he thought it was a dumb question.
‘He ran the UK operation. Or at least he did before Seth found out he was taking half the profits for himself. Seth told Butler to kill him.’
Webb looked at Hunter who put his palms up indicating he was done asking questions for now.
‘So, Matt,’ Webb said. ‘What was this all about? I mean, why raising all this money? Are you planning to attack your own country?’
Horn frowned and shook his head.
‘Is that what you think?’
He laughed.
‘What?’ Grange asked.
‘It started off because we were all broke and desperate. After that, they got used to the money. That’s all it was. That’s why they’re selling out to the Mexicans. We’re getting five million dollars in cash.’
‘This is all just about money?’
‘Is there anything else?’
Grange sat back in his seat looking disgusted.
‘So, Matt, what is it that you want from us?’ Webb asked.
Always the pragmatist.
‘To stop it. All of it. I thought I said that already.’
‘But you want a deal. Immunity. For helping us. Am I right?’
‘Whatever. I don’t care any more what happens to me. Just stop it.’
‘How do we do that?’
‘I’m meeting Seth tomorrow morning in town for breakfast. I’ll tell you where and when and you can pick him up with minimum fuss. And I’ll tell you who the others are and where we make the stuff. It’s up in the mountains.’
‘You’ll give us everything?’
‘Sure. I mean, if you want it.’
There was a knock at the door. Grange stood and pulled it open. Cahill was there with Logan.
‘Uh, there’s a detective in Scotland that you guys might want to talk to,’ Cahill said.