Lee walked in, followed by the others. Jacobs put his hand on the wall to find a light switch and flipped it on. It didn’t take long to figure out what was going on here. The room was lined with boxes. Some were open, and some were closed. They were against the wall, in the middle of the floor, big and small. Some were covered with blankets or sheets, and some were just out in the open.
They’d found one of Mallette’s stashes. Jacobs started walking around, as Thrower kept Lee in his sights. Jacobs started looking in some of the open boxes.
Lee was nervous as he watched Jacobs look around. “I swear I didn’t take anything. I swear.”
“Boss thinks differently,” Jacobs said.
Lee wiped the sweat pouring off his face. He figured his time on earth was coming to an end soon. “No, I wouldn’t. I swear I wouldn’t.”
“Convince me.”
Lee gulped, though a small look of hope now appeared on his face. “OK. OK. I can do that. I can do that.”
“So what’s going on here?” Thrower asked.
“You don’t know?”
“About why Mallette thinks you’re stealing?”
“Oh. I dunno. I dunno. Maybe it’s because when we did inventory last week we were a little short. But I swear that wasn’t from me.”
“Aren’t you in charge of this?” Jacobs asked.
“Yeah, but it’s not just me in here! I mean, Rich has got people coming and going to deliver stuff all the time. Any one of them could’ve taken a little more than they were supposed to.”
“Shouldn’t you have known that?”
Lee threw his arms up. “C’mon, it’s not that easy. I mean, keeping this place secret, people coming and going, all the stuff in here, you see it, there’s millions of dollars of stuff in here. I’ve told Rich before, I need help.”
“He don’t have help to give.”
“But that’s not my fault. We need like three more guys here. It’s not just me.”
Jacobs continued looking around, opening boxes and inspecting them. They mostly consisted of drugs. But some boxes had guns in them. And some had ammunition. But Lee was right, there had to be millions of dollars of merchandise in the place.
“Mallette didn’t tell us exactly how much all this stuff is worth,” Jacobs said. “What’s the tally?”
“As of last week, it comes out to thirty million dollars on the street.”
Jacobs whistled. “Big haul. How long’s this been here?”
Lee looked at him curiously. He thought it was a strange question to ask. Surely, everyone in Mallette’s organization would know that. “You don’t know?”
Jacobs could see a seed of doubt in Lee’s mind and had to quickly relieve it. He knocked a box over for effect, making it seem like he was a hot head. “Boss don’t tell us that kind of stuff! We’re the muscle for him, got it?”
Lee took a step back, the fear showing back up in his face. “Yeah, yeah, I got it.”
“I asked a question.”
“Oh, yeah, uh, it’s been here for like two years.”
“He had this here even before he got sent up?” Thrower asked.
“Yeah.”
“You been here working this all that time?”
“Yep. Every single day. Even when I was sick. I was here. I’ve been nothing but loyal to him. I’ve never said a word about this place to anyone. I looked after it while he was gone, and I haven’t done nothing to earn his distrust.”
“Except for the missing stuff,” Jacobs said.
“I told you, that wasn’t my fault. I can try to make it good somehow.”
“And how are you gonna do that?”
“I dunno. Just give me a day or two to figure it out. I’ll make it work.”
“A day or two and you’ll be out of the country.”
“No, I would never do that. Rich has been good to me, giving me a chance here, and I’d never do nothing against him. I swear.”
“Well, I guess we got a problem here, then, don’t we?” Jacobs said.
“What do you mean?”
“Boss sent us here for one reason.”
Lee put his hands up in front of him. “No, please don’t. Just give me a chance. I swear I won’t say nothing. I’ll make it good.”
Jacobs and Thrower both took steps toward the man, trying to intimidate him further, though it really didn’t take much to accomplish that.
“Look, I can give you money,” Lee said.
Jacobs and Thrower stopped. “What money?” Jacobs asked.
“I got some saved up.”
“How much?”
“About fifty thousand. It’s all I got. You can have it, though. Just don’t kill me. Let me go. Please.”
Jacobs tapped Thrower on the arm. “Maybe we can figure out another way, here.”
“What do you mean?” Thrower asked.
“Maybe we can figure out a way we don’t have to kill this guy.”
Lee nodded. “Yes, let’s figure out a way. I’m open to anything.”
“How much you know about Mallette’s other operations?”
“A little. Not everything, though. You know him. He only lets people know what they need to know.”
Jacobs went over to a desk that was against the wall and found a legal pad and a pen. He motioned for Lee to follow him over. Once he got there, Jacobs directed him to sit down.
“Write down everything you know,” Jacobs said. “Whatever it is. Write it down.”
It took a minute or two, but Lee wrote down everything he knew about Mallette’s operations. Other sites, addresses, and people. Some of that time was spent thinking. It didn’t take long, though. The man didn’t really know all that much, except for the part he was responsible for.
When Lee was done, Jacobs picked up the list and read it. “Not much here.”
“It’s all I know,” Lee replied. “I swear it is.”
“What are these other places?”
“Just some other spots he holds merchandise in. If he’s got more, I don’t know them. These three spots are all I know.”
“And the names?” Jacobs asked.
“The people in charge of them.”
“They all like you? Don’t know much?”
“That’s how Rich does business.”
Jacobs nodded. “I know.”
“Which brings us down to you,” Thrower said.
Lee’s eyes opened wide, knowing his time was short. He had to do whatever he could to stave that off.
