Jem…Chapter 175

*Officer Robert Fraser…

They had to head in through the back logging roads that surrounded a corner of the town up and towards the mill area and all of its old yards and holding areas. It was a maze of woodlots and side roads and muddy and rutted in many places as the areas was full of both company held woodlots and private ones and hunting shacks and camps.

They drove fast but quietly flashing lights with no sirens anytime they came close to a side road to warn off any logging trucks from crossing their path and then they were right back off again.

And that was all the way until they hit the road that the GPS location had been on and then they slowed until a third of a kilometer away and then they pulled over making room for the emergency vehicles if they were needed and went in on foot.

It was a bad place for any of this, the woodlot was old and it looked to have been replanted a long time ago but no one had done much clean-up of the cut zones so the whole area was full of old branches and sticks and dangerously buried stumps that were hard to see in the dark.

Then there was barbed wire hidden in the brush.

He hit his radio three times just three quick pops for caution. Drug dealers very often planted traps and things that would hurt thieves and competition though they considered hurting law enforcement a bonus too.

Barbed wire here and there…a can and string noisemaker like… chunks of plywood with spikes through them ground to points hidden under leaves.

No heavy ordinance but still you could get hurt really easy doing this work.

The scent was there as they got closer.

That ammonia meets cough syrup and burned licorice sort of smell all blended together with this underlay of chlorine in the air and there was the scent of garbage as well as this lingering scent of sewage as they’d just run a pipe from the bathroom of the old mini-home trailer that had to at least be from the sixties.

There was the scent of fuel too.

The lights were on and there were tire tracks all over the place. It was a busy spot apparently with at least seven different ones that he could see as they moved in…pairs at different angles of approach and one covering the other, hand signals, and then moving as carefully as possible all the way up to the trailer and the windows and then the front and back doors…he motioned for two officers to take look out at opposite sides of the trailer ends in case they had a door in the floor and tried to make a run for it from underneath.

Then they went in…one guy at each door with the mini-ram and with a whoomp and crash they hit smashing the doors open and breaking the doors easier than popping out the locks that were there.

Splinter flew and they went inside with Officer Fraser Bellowing “RCMP! This is a raid!”

They cleared fast room by room and there was no one inside.

Someone had tipped them off because things were still cooking and catalyzing in trays and there was still product out along with scales and baggies.

He frowned they dropped things and they ran.

Someone warned them this was going to happen and he didn’t know if that might have been McWhitter or this came from the bikers or if it came from someone else.

The warning could have come from someone on the inside.

“Alright all of us outside until we can get the breathing gear on this isn’t safe at all.”

There were a lot of nods and they went outside. Most officers here even some of the locals had unfortunately had experience with meth labs these days so most of them were familiar with the drill.

Still… “Watch were you’re walking, we have footprints and tire tracks and I want plasters of all of it please and can we get evidence collection up here along with our fired department team and have them disconnect the gas tanks and the chemicals.”

This is where it slowed, dragged to a crawl as it became an exercise in patience and being meticulous. He stayed the course rather than harry off to go do nothing useful and pace over another warrant, one to search The Marshall homes and businesses. That was in the hands of the CP herself and she was taking it to who she needed it to go-to herself tonight.

He was needed here to ride herd and make sure that everything was done right, to keep a watch for someone that might destroy evidence or tamper with it…anything, anything might do the trick from fingerprints to DNA to something that might just point to anyone they needed to take down.

There were several tracks from motorcycles found here and there which was a bonus, they had two bikes in custody already and if they had a match to Guff and Zee-zee they could definitely bury them with that extra bit of leverage.

Actually there were good signs everywhere from overall looks. Lots of food containers with things from take-out to bottled water to soda and from what he could see a lack of rubber gloves.

That was good that meant prints and both hot and cold surfaces would print well from heat rising oils from the skin and the cold literally congealing them on them and some of the outside trash had to be made sure was labeled as outside.

That was important as if they found something that wasn’t contaminated with the cook inside the trailer but the print oils had traces of the cook chemicals in them then it would tell them whoever drank, ate or handled whatever got tested was a part of the cook crew. And it was really easy to test for ammonia residue.

And there were decent odds they would be in the system and that would lead to lists of known associates and relatives this wound give them places where they could flush out the cooks.

Warrants for phones and for billing and credit information.

There was a reason RCMP still got their targets.

Then lastly if that wasn’t panning out fast then He’d petition for some of the Black Ice to be leaked. That there was some that got taken or grabbed before the police arrived and that would bring out the junkies who could be turned and pressed for info and it might just draw the cooks out who’d be pissed off that the new guy would be making money off their work.

The new guy of course would be an undercover officer.

It was tedious going making sure everything was done right that even there being a pair of officers that was video recording the collection of evidence.

No mistakes, no mishaps, and leave nothing untested.

They went into the late, late hours of the morning until everything was cast and dried, tagged and listed and he personally signed off on each piece of evidence and took a picture of it as well.

It was a long hard night and it wasn’t nearly done…

The call came once they got back into town limits and he had an out of town Oshawa RCMP detachment member waiting for them with two extra cars and a live in the ink warrant to execute a search of Adam Richard Marshall the second’s offices and The Marshall family compound.

Once he made sure the evidence was off and secured by the Sherriff that had just came back a few hours ago from that first run he sent the off again with one of the new RCMP escorting them this time just to be extra careful.

A very quick stop for coffee and to eat and for everyone to do their business and they were off.

It was five forty eight AM when they had the gate guards at The Marshall estate open the gates with an officer making sure that no calls up to the main house were made to warn them of then showing up at the doors.

There was an older gentleman named Simon that opened the doors for them after they had surrounded the estate and rang the doorbell.

“Can I help you gentlemen?”

“We’re here to execute a search warrant of the house and the grounds and to ask Adam Richard Marshall the second some questions.”

“Do you have a warrant sir?”

“Yes we do right here. Can you wake Mr. Marshall Senior so we can serve this to him?”

“I will wake Mr. Marshall Officer, may I see the warrant?”

“No, this has to be served to Mr. Marshall senior.”

Officer Fraser knew a little about the man, Adam Richard Marshall the first’s personal valet. A man from Scotland who had spent various amounts of time in the military over there before retiring to private security and then retiring from that to this personal position.

The man was in a well-dressed pair of pjammas when he answered the doors and he looked over Officer Fraser in this calm yet old vet styled steely resolve.

“Very well if you will wait here sir.”

The man Simon moved off and turned on lights as he did so in the halls until he went out of sight and the waiting was hard.

This was made even more so as word came over some of the radios that Marshall the eldest had gotten up and was taking coffee in the kitchen while he was on a phone.

Old bastard knew he was being watched.

One of the OPP officers commented. “The old fucking prick just raises his coffee cup at me and took a sip.”

Officer Fraser said. “Keep it calm, he knows if we go or do anything further then we’ll be legally shooting himself in the foot.”

“He can’t keep us waiting.”

Fraser said. “He can if he’s waiting for his lawyer.”

“Really?”

“We can’t serve the warrant until he or his council shows to take it and we can’t trespass past the common grounds to serve him.”

Three hours, three hours later his lawyer arrived from Toronto by helicopter.

Three hours they watched Marshall the elder arouse his household and his son who looked hung-over and worse and Adam Junior who looked relatively awake.

That alone made Officer Fraser frown to himself. The kid was definitely involved in shit, he knew it, Angel and her reports pretty much pointed in this direction and pointed at him and they’d even had that phone call together at the motel.

The kid should have been awake, he should have been at least nerved up a little bit but he had apparently enough nerve or arrogance that he had actually slept.

And while waiting they actually sat together in plain sight and drank coffee while their kitchen staff made them all a very leisurely and very nice breakfast.

The father though, the man Adam Junior had told him actually ran or rather owned the motel looked the least able to handle them outside of the main house, at the windows, staged just off the patios and at all of the doors.

He excused himself twice…the second time he was a little ruddy and was sniffing his nose and looked even more agitated.

The Youngest and Eldest literally acted like they didn’t notice the behavior or that they were there at all.

The gloves were off once his expensive lawyer and his whole legal team showed up and went through the warrant and made calls before allowing them inside.

And the lawyer’s people literally videotaped them doing the search of the house and of the grounds.

The house was huge, it was literally a manor house with a t- shaped construction and three stories and an old, old copper roof that was from the heyday era of the railroad hotels, made of cut stone rather than brick it had been of course renovated and updated since it was originally built of course.

Everything was either cutting edge and the best of everything or antique and very expensive.

And one of the first things that you noticed was the pictures in the foyer.

History going back to the nickel and mining heydays in the province and logging and pulp and paper there we pictures and framed stories and all these things pointing to just how deeply this family went into all of the movers and shakers in Ontario and very much other places as well including some with Marshall the Eldest with Senators and members of parliament and even some of the prime ministers.

It was a blatant display of power made to prove or drive home a point whenever they’d make people wait here.

The three stayed in the dining area off of the kitchen the entire time as the search went on and on and on until the drug dogs found scents.

A stash in Adam the second’s car under the rubber of the stick shift a half drunk half pint of expensive vodka and a twist top cigar tube with several grams of cocaine and a coke spoon. A further search found a small collection of empty single shot booze bottles in the trunk as well.

And then in his bedroom there was a meth pipe in the bathroom drawer at his sink and a baggy of the Black Ice.

And Adam the second’s fingers when examined by the dog set it off barking and him running from the dog and the officers out through the patio doors only to get tackled by the OPP officer that had been angry at the nerve of The Eldest.

Fraser looked at the old man who looked not even the least bit mad at the police presence but angry and even disgusted by his son.

“You will tell the officers the truth, and you will hold nothing back Rick…I’ll not have this…you will not tarnish our good name you little son of a bitch.”

He ordered his family lawyer to go with him.

Fraser looked past the old man to Adam the youngest who was still seated and unfazed and unsurprised and sat sipping his coffee staring, almost glaring at his father getting taken away.

Was he wrong about the kid?

He wasn’t even out of high school yet really.

And he wasn’t in one of those fancy private prep schools either but a real and public school too.

But he literally ruled there, and he was from all of the reports a huge bully.

He certainly seemed pissed at his father.

And not surprised, so maybe he knew his old man was really dirty.

And the dog had matched the smell…Second had not just snorted his way to clarity while they were waiting but he had torched up his pipe too. The thing was still a little warm when they found it.

And he smelt like Black Ice a little too…enough the dog smelled it past his washing his hands and brushing his teeth.

And the Crown Prosecutor would definitely go full court press with all of this.

There were a lot of things that were just not what he was expecting out of this and yet…

Yet he couldn’t shake the feeling that the kid…the kid was really wrong in the soul.

Every instinct he had from the armed forces and being an RCMP officer were just saying despite the evidence right now that the kids was trouble.

He waited until the search of the house and the grounds was done and both the youngest and the eldest were clean.

There was even nothing in the safes in the house…all seven of them.

And there was paperwork and permits for every weapon in the house.

And there were a lot of weapons…eldest literally kept an armory with modern weapons to some very antique looking things.

All clean, all with permits and papers.

It was quarter past noon when they pulled away and headed for Second’s legal offices.

It was a bit of a fight with the staff there but not one that was winnable by them or the family lawyer who had come with his client.

The drug dog found both safes as well as residue on top of Second’s desk and coffee table.

The wall safe had papers and what looked pretty normal things for someone like Second to have and own.

But the floor safe…there was an envelope of cash that set off the dog intensely and there was more drugs…lots more drugs, more than just a possession charge…pictures…motel keys…and a tape with K & D and insur written on it in sharpie marker.

They booked Second there on the drug charges and by three fifteen they were headed to the RCMP larger structure over at Sudbury.