Murder Mountain by Stacy Dittrich

business, that could earn Matt anywhere from two to three thousand dollars a month if he worked hard, and, most important to Bob, if he was someone who Bob could trust. Trust was the biggest issue for Bob, and no one worked for him if there was even a hint of disloyalty.
    “And here I am, rattin’ out to the cops. I might as well go dig my grave now because you don’t fuck Bob; if you do, you’re dead. Not just from Bob, but from the people Bob works for, y’know?” he sighed, his pained look returning, “Now, those are the scary ones, but I’ll get to that.”
    Matt went on to tell me how he’d told Bob that he could trust him and whatever he had to do to prove it, just say the word. He then said that he’d started to ask Bob about the
business
more specifically, but Bob had immediately cut him off. Bob had told him that all he needed to know was what he was asked and getting paid to do, and that he was not, ever, to ask any questions.
    Bob had then told him that he employed about twenty people, called “runners and grabbers,” for the business. If new people in proved themselves as grabbers, they moved up into the runners’ positions, where the big money was. Then Bob had given him his first job, at a payment of $500 if all went well. Matt was to go to any county co-op store and steal anhydrous ammonia and deliver it to Bob by the end of the week.
    There it was, and before Matt tried to explain, I waved my hand at him. This was all about methamphetamine labs, which were the most dangerous and becoming the most lucrative drug labs to hit the country. Meth labs started out west years ago with the bikers, but slowly crept east until Ohio has had an explosion of them over the last couple of years. Meth labs in the Midwest and the East have doubled and tripled within two years.
    Anhydrous ammonia was a key ingredient for making meth, and was the easiest to obtain. Meth is made from nothing more than household products, with the exception of the anhydrous ammonia.
    Called the Nazi method of making methamphetamine, cookers used anhydrous ammonia, which is fertilizer used by farmers. A lot of states, including West Virginia, are starting to limit their supply of the chemical. The waterless version of the ammonia is 82 percent nitrogen, and sells for around a dollar a gallon. Meth thieves, however, steal it because it runs for around a hundred bucks on the black market. The thieves get a high return. A gallon of anhydrous ammonia can be used to make three to five thousand dollars worth of meth.
    Usually, when any police agency has a rash of thefts of anhydrous ammonia, operating labs are located within a few miles of where the thefts occurred. I immediately made a mental note to get with our drug task force, METRICH, to see if we’d had any thefts of the chemical recently.
    “Yes, Matt,” I said sincerely, “this is clearly useful information, but I have to ask you what this has to do with Lizzie Johnston.”
    “Man, I’m gettin’ to that! You said you wanted to know, and it’s a long story. You want to hear it or what?”
    I looked at my watch and saw it was getting late. Selina had a softball game that evening and I’d told her I would be there, but I knew I needed this information from Matt. The more he talked, the worse the feeling I had about the fate of Lizzie Johnston.
    “Go ahead,” I told him.
    ”Okay,” he looked at the ground again, and then at the sky. “I did steal some ammonia from the co-op store in Olivesburg. You know where that is? It’s way out in the northern part of the county, way the fuck out there. This was back in April.” He paused, took a deep breath, looked at me, and said in careful voice, “I want my cooperation to count if you’re gonna have me charged with the theft.”
    “I’ll think about it. Keep going.”
    He said that Bob had paid him the five hundred dollars as promised, and had then told him that he could now start running. This was when he had met Lizzie.
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