Known Dead by Donald Harstad Page B

this. I felt pretty relaxed, and kind of pleasantly tired.
    ‘‘Wed., June 26, 96,’’ I wrote at the top of my yellow pad. ‘‘1028 hours. Meeting at S.O. w/Fed Narc Grp.’’ Lamar, Hester, Al, myself, and several assorted Feds including George of the Bureau, were assembled in the jail kitchen. Volont was noticeable by his absence. In his place was a man named Nichols, of the DEA, who was the principal speaker.
    ‘‘We have,’’ said Nichols, ‘‘an operative theory, and it goes like this . . .’’ He spoke in a clipped, forceful voice that kept your attention. He didn’t really need vocal technique to do that, but it was nice.
    ‘‘The majority of the sinsemilla marijuana in this country is grown in California. The northern part, to be more precise. It is very highly prized because of its high THC content. It is also very time-consuming to produce.’’
    He looked us over carefully, mainly to reassure himself that a bunch of nonnarcotic cops would be able to comprehend this, I guess. So far, no trouble.
    ‘‘Sinsemilla means no seeds. And no seeds means that you have to be very, very careful not to let the plants pollinate. Marijuana plants are of both the female and male varieties. The pollen pops out of the male plants, is carried on the wind, and fertilizes the female plants. The most valuable plant is an unfertilized female. If she is fertilized, boom, you have seeds. Seeds reduce the THC content. So you have a much less valuable plant.’’ He looked around. ‘‘Okay so far?’’
    We all nodded.
    ‘‘Good. Because of the investment in time and effort, and the considerable reduction in value if anything goes wrong, growers are sensitive about these plants, and will actually live in the patch for a week or so, around fertilization time. When that is depends on when they were planted, when they were moved outside, and the weather conditions since the move. Guesswork, in other words.’’
    He looked at the group again, and must have been satisfied that we were with him.
    ‘‘Right. Now, because it’s worth two to three thousand dollars a plant, it is frequently used to trade for methamphetamine. Almost like a currency. Meth is pretty much controlled by outlaw motorcycle gangs, and they can get violent if they have to. You all know that.’’
    Yup.
    ‘‘If they’ve advanced some meth on speculation, and that speculation involved sinsemilla plants that were either devalued by accident or otherwise nonavailable at the proper time, somebody could get killed.’’
    I didn’t have any problem with that, and I don’t think anybody else did either.
    ‘‘We think that this Johnny Marks had promised sinsemilla to one of the controlling cycle gangs in either Milwaukee, Madison, or Minneapolis. We think Johnny Marks has enough enemies that they were trying to screw with his plants, to get a cycle group to kill him. Thereby doing their dirty work for them.’’
    Oops. They’d lost me on that one. I mean, it was neat, I’ll say that. Cool, almost. But they’d left some stuff out, creating a large gap.
    ‘‘We know, then,’’ I asked, ‘‘that Marks was for sure dealing with one of the cycle gangs?’’
    ‘‘It’s safe to assume,’’ he said.
    ‘‘Which one?’’ asked Hester.
    ‘‘I’m not at liberty to tell you that at this point,’’ said Nichols. He sounded like he really wanted to.
    ‘‘Well, then, do we know who was mad at him?’’ asked Hester.
    ‘‘Not yet,’’ Nichols acknowledged. ‘‘But we feel we’re close.’’
    ‘‘Mmmmm.’’ That came from Lamar.
    ‘‘It’d be slick if that’s what happened,’’ I said. ‘‘How much can you give us when you know? I mean, if we know, and can’t take the right connections into court . . .’’
    ‘‘We’ll be able to give the killers,’’ he said.
    ‘‘Well,’’ asked George, ‘‘are you assuming that the killers were members of the cycle gang, or that they were the ones who were trying to