The kids finished up their food and Debbie gave the eldest a ten dollar bill and told her to order everyone an ice cream and sit tight. She and Grandpa Jerry headed out to the parking lot to have a conversation with the guy from earlier.
It turns out he was one of Grandpa's best clients, and Grandpa had asked him for some news on what was going on. He might not have been willing to share intel with Grandpa Jerry inside the store, but Debbie was sure he would talk to them in private. When they got outside, Debbie invited them to get in her car and talk in private. The guy, a local man who Grandpa had known from the mines, was named Dave. Dave apologized for pushing Grandpa Jerry and told him that there was some new, really cheap dope dealers that operated at the soda fountain in the Good Buddy Pharmacy. He didn't know who the guys were but they were dressed real clean, unlike some of the drug dealing scum that had closed in on Kermit, they always had good quality heroin in supply, and they were discrete. "I'm sorry Jerry, but they are a lot closer to my house than your place and they charge about ten percent less. It's an easy choice." Grandpa Jerry sighed and nodded his head. He understood. Times were tight and every man had to stand for himself and do what he needed to get by. When they got out of the car, the two men engaged in a manly embrace before walking away. The emotion in the air was palpable. Everyone knew Kermit had fallen on hard times, and nobody liked it. Hard times could turn even good friends, old work buddies, into strangers.
Debbie told Grandpa Joe to gather the kids. She had a plan in mind. She dropped them all off at the house and then she borrowed more of Loretta's clothes and headed over to the Good Buddy undercover. She found a guy hanging out at the soda fountain, a well-dressed man in a pair of expensive denims and a plaid button down shirt. His hair was slicked back, and he was nursing a cola. Debbie waited about ten minutes before she decided to approach him. She slid next to him at the counter. She ordered a lemon Italian soda and when the clerk's back was turned she slid a gun out of her pocket and pressed it against the man's side. "If you don't want to get hurt, you better start talking." The man seemed, at the most, relieved that Debbie wasn't trying to rob him for his dope. But he seemed pissed off to be caught in such a position.
"Shit, you must be one of those FBI bimbos that my boss told me to look out for. He's going to have my hide for getting messed up with you," the guy muttered. But he talked. He had no choice. When the clerk came back with Debbie's soda, she thanked him and slid her gun away. Then she listened to the dealer's story as she sipped on her old timey soda. He told her that he had been hired by Dr. Lumby to sell high quality heroin to the people of the town who had been laid off and lost their insurance. His name was Jarret Latham, and he had been a pharmaceutical lobbyist for Best Health in West Virginia, but he had been pulled from his job once the market got oversaturated and one too many men ended up dead or unemployed. A man Joe Gleason had promised him good money if he would relocate to a small town called Kermit and sell drugs for Dr. Lumby. It sounded like a safe bet. Jarret was starting to get worried that the Good Health Pharmaceutical company was going to go down hard, and some of the lobbyists along with it. He didn't want to be implicated in a national disaster. He had a reputation to maintain after all. Joe had promised him good money to lay low for a few months in Kermit until the whole thing either blew over or went down in flames. And that was that. He hung out at Good Buddy sipping soda all day, eating the occasional tuna melt with fries, and he made quick, easy money supplying all the people in town with heroin. It was a cinch job and to be perfectly honest, a lot easier than working as a lobbyist. He had met a lot nicer folks here in Kermit than he ever had in politicians' offices. He didn't seem to connect the dots and realize that all these nice folks he met were dying from the drugs he sold, but hey, no one ever said lobbyists were the brightest bulbs in the box.
Debbie thanked him for this information and got up to leave. She drove back to her grandpa's house and shared with him the unfortunate news. Grandpa Jerry was irate. He couldn't believe Dr. Lumby, the richest man in town after the Kretan family, was now cutting in on his business. "Man this guy really wants to have his cake and eat it too, huh?" Grandpa Jerry growled. "Lemme borrow your car," he didn't ask, more like commanded Debbie. She handed her keys over to her grandpa and told him to be safe. He was off to Dr. Lumby's office to confront him about what was going on.
At Dr. Lumby's it was a loud confrontation. Grandpa Jerry moaned that Lumby was taking him for everything he had. "First you get me addicted to opiates, then you pay me to get the whole town addicted, then you cut off my supply and leave me so sick I almost died. The only way I can make do now is peddling heroin, and now you want to take that from me too?! My God, man, do you have no heart?" Grandpa Jerry screamed.
Dr. Lumby was not moved by this show of emotion or by Grandpa Jerry's plight. He told Grandpa Jerry that unless he backed down and stopped selling heroin he was going to end up dead.
"Everyone in town is my customer now, Jerry. The sooner you accept that, the better." Grandpa Jerry left with bitter tears in his eyes. It looked like this was the end.
Meanwhile, while Grandpa Jerry had been gone Debbie had been on the phone with Harriet apprising her of the horrible situation. Harriet was appalled. She promised to help, but at the moment she did not know quite how. She told Debbie to sit still and buy time and she would figure out how to take Best Health down and get the town of Kermit back on it's feet.
Chapter 10, The Smell of Smoke
Despite the threats on his life, Grandpa Jerry had no choice but to continue to try to sell heroin. He would walk around Main Street just asking for handouts basically, in exchange for a small baggy of brownish powder. He also took to borrowing Debbie's car and driving to other towns in the county for customers. It was real slim pickings, that was for sure, but it was the best he could do. He had himself plus four extra mouths to feed. Debbie was doing her best to help out, but she wouldn't be here forever and besides it hurt his pride to have his own granddaughter supporting his family like this. It wasn't right, and it was not how life was supposed to be. So he lived dangerously, stayed out late nights in areas where the Good Buddy closed at 10 PM, and did what he could to keep on providing for the one's he loved. He thought Dr. Lumby was a chump, and he didn't take his threats seriously anyway.
That's why he was real surprised when he came home one day to find police outside of the house, their lights on. When he pulled up, he found Loretta screaming. She was in handcuffs and the police were treating her quite roughly. "What's going on here?" Grandpa Jerry yelled in alarm. Debbie had been out for the day working with Beth, and the kids were left alone with Loretta. He saw their sweet faces, worried and tear stained looking out from the living room window. The police told Grandpa Jerry that Loretta was being arrested for dealing drugs and was being taken to jail. "Dealing drugs?!" Grandpa Jerry said, "Says who? What proof do you have?" The cops just ignored him and pushed Loretta in the back of their patrol car and sped off, kicking up dirt and debris on their way out.
Bail was set way too high for Grandpa Jerry to afford. Debbie couldn't let things stand, so she bailed out Loretta despite Grandpa's protests. Taking care of three kids was too much for him at his age and with the pain he had in his back. And Debbie didn't have that maternal, care taking instinct. She couldn't deal with three sticky, messy, crying kids for more than a day before she knew she had to get Loretta out. She waited until Grandpa Jerry was out doing his thing on the streets and then she took the kids in the back of Loretta's truck to retrieve the poor woman who had been framed for crimes she didn't commit.
Loretta was overjoyed to be sprung out of jail and she was happy to see the three children she cared about so much. And she was glad to be spared from any roughhousing or bullying in the overcrowded jail cells of Mingo County. They stopped for ice cream and a beer for Loretta on the way home. Everyone was chattering happily and feeling good, willing to put the past behind them and happy to be together again. Those happy feelings would soon fade, how
ever. When they got closer to home they smelled smoke in the air and saw a big billowing cloud of it. They were worried there was a forest fire or something, maybe someone had decided to burn a whole bunch of garbage or tires in the desolate backroads. But as they got closer to the house they found out it was not trash or trees that were burning, it was Grandpa Jerry's house. And it was almost down to the ground. The entire building was on fire, ashes were floating up into the air. Debbie got on her phone and called 911.
By the time the fire department got there all that was left was the cinderblocks and twisted metal and ash. It was horrible. Things had gotten way out of hand here in Kermit. Now they had no place to live and they would have to get a hotel. Debbie called Beth to tell her the news and to inform her they would be booking three rooms at the hotel she was staying at. When Beth picked up the phone, however, Debbie could tell that something was very wrong. Beth could barely speak, her voice was quivering and breaking.
"What is it, Beth?" Debbie asked, all the tragedy in her own life momentarily forgotten as she was flooded for concern for her friend. "Susan's dead!" Beth howled, breaking into sobs that lasted for several minutes. In the short time they had spent together Beth had grown in her love for Susan, and she was even considering proposing. Susan had left the hotel room they were sharing much earlier in the day, headed off to the pharmacy to fill a prescription for her exercise induced asthma and to pick up some toiletries. Susan had never returned. Alarmed, Beth called her cell phone over and over again. No one picked up. She decided to leave the hotel room and go to investigate, still calling Susan's phone desperately. As she headed toward the parking lot, she heard the ring of Susan's phone with her own ears. She followed it to a large dumpster in the back of the hotel. She found Susan's body, pale and lifeless, crumpled up inside of a big black trash bag. She had been shot in the back of the head. Her mouth was frozen in a tangled snarl of surprise and pain. Terrified, Beth had abandoned the body and returned to her hotel room and locked herself inside. She had been in there crying and panicking until Debbie's call awoke her from her terror.
"This must be Joe Gleason's work," Debbie said, and she told Beth about what had been going on here at Grandpa Jerry's house. In light of what had happened to Susan, none of it really seemed like a big deal now, of course. Debbie could afford to buy Grandpa Jerry a new house, a nicer house with room for the kids. But no one could buy back Susan's life. Beth's lover had been snuffed out for good. It was too tragic, too evil.
They decided that the safest thing to do for now would be to get a hotel room in another state. After Grandpa Jerry went back, everyone divided into cars. Loretta took the three kids and Grandpa Jerry drove with Debbie. They met up with Beth in Apple Grove, Ohio. Apple Grove was another small American town, but Loretta had a good friend who lived there and had a home large enough to house the small gang of six. They got there in the very wee hours of the night and settled into sleeping bags. The kids, despite all of the events that day, were fast asleep. Loretta soon followed. It was harder for Grandpa Joe and Beth. They had both lost things very near and dear to their heart that day, and for them it didn't feel like things would ever be okay ever again.
Chapter 11, The Barge
The next morning, Debbie got a call from Harriet. Harriet had been working hard and digging dip with some of her friends in the State Department. She discovered some important information about the situation in Kermit, and she was ready to help. What she had found out is that the CIA had been investigating Best Health for some time. With all the millions of pills Best Health was selling, it was unclear their actual source. The FDA had attempted several times to gather information on this and to test the purity of the products, but they had been foiled every step of the way. The latest intelligence was that Best Health was buying raw product overseas and manufacturing their oxycodone pills in child labor camps in Afghanistan. This had been going on for years, but the CIA was powerless to stop them because they had so many other operations going on in the Middle East and they couldn't risk blowing their cover over some pain pills.
So, all that got them nowhere. Just like the FBI was stuck because of powerful lobbying, the CIA was also tied up and couldn't approach the situation. However, one of Harriet's best intelligence officers had been able to uncover something important. There was going to be a major, multimillion dollar delivery of oxycodone this week. Best Health was shipping the delivery down the Ohio River in an unmarked barge that Thursday. The barge was supposed to stop in Gallipolis, Ohio to unload the goods. According to the intelligence Harriet had gathered, the security was rather light. This would be the perfect opportunity for some serious spy work.
Debbie and Beth were up for the project. Beth seemed to have new life breathed into her when she heard the news. It was a good chance for her to avenge Susan's death. They got prepared and outfitted for the operation, and then passed their time peacefully in Apple Grove until Thursday night.
Rather than take Route 2, the women took the Ohio River Scenic Byway and they approached the dock at Gallipolis as the sun went down, well armed and full of piss and vinegar. The dock was almost completely deserted except for a large unmarked truck that was parked nearby. Debbie and Beth were dressed in all black with caps on hiding their hair. They approached the barge undetected, but as they got ready to board they heard someone sneaking up behind them. It was one of the men sent to intercept the boat. Debbie made quick work of him with a shot right through the temple. When they got on the boat they did their best to take out the different crew members quickly and quietly but it was not long before they were detected. A wild gun battle ensued, and Beth was shot in the kneecap and went down hard. Debbie avoided gunfire and managed to take out all the crew members who were willing to fight. But the count only numbered eight dead, so Debbie knew a large minority had been too chicken shit and had hid and locked themselves in their cabin for safety. Debbie didn't mind. It wasn't her job to kill them, she just had to get her hands on the drugs. But first, she needed to deal with Beth.
Debbie ripped off the bottom half of her shirt and tied it around Beth's leg in a tourniquet. She was happy to see that the bullet had not shattered Beth's knee cap. In fact, it had actually missed her knee altogether, grazing the side of her thigh instead. There was a lot of blood, and Beth was in a lot of pain, but once the shirt was tied tight around her leg the bleeding was slowing down and Beth had enough adrenaline and desire for revenge pumping through her blood that with Debbie's help she stood, propping herself up by holding onto Debbie's shoulder.
They went to one of the locked cabins and shot open the door. They found a crew member inside cowering in the corner, trying to hide himself behind his small bunk. He had pissed his pants in fear. He was a foreigner, and he was crying out in broken English, "no please, please no. I not bad man. Spare me, please, Oh help." Debbie aimed her gun at him and told him to show her the drugs. He had a blank look on his face. "The cargo. Show me the cargo." The man looked confused but he wanted to live. He led her to a large container that the men had been unloading before the boat had been boarded by the two lesbian spy chicks. The crate was large and heavy, and at the moment it was suspended just a few inches above the deck of the barge. The person who had been operating the heavy lift had abandoned his post. Debbie shot a hole in the side of the crate, just to make sure they had the right cargo, and white pills began to flow out. "That's it alright," Debbie said, "now why don't you get something for your pain."
Debbie momentarily took her eyes, and her gun, off the crew member she had taken hostage and before she knew it he had fled out of sight. Oh well. She went over to the crate and grabbed a few pills and told Beth to take one. Beth took two. Debbie had her sit down while she took over the controls. She guided the crane holding the crate in its heavy chains and hoisted the cargo high up into the air. But instead of guiding the cart onto the dock, she guided it over the river instead. The crate was hanging over the river, pills spilling out the hole Debbie had blown in the side of
the crate rapidly and falling into the water below. That was when she heard shouts. She looked to the dock, and Joe Gleason and Dr. Lumby were standing there, guns cocked, telling Debbie not to dump the cargo or they would kill her.
"What?" Debbie yelled, taunting them and letting the crate drop a bit towards the water.
"Stop it you dumb bitch or I'll shoot," Joe Gleason screamed. He was taking aim when suddenly he fell backwards to the ground, a stream of blood flying up from his chest. The pills had kicked in and Beth was back on her own two feet and in action. She had taken out Joe—revenge for the death of her lover Susan. Alone and sensing he was in some serious shit, Dr. Lumby tried to run. But he didn't get very far. Beth shot him dead too. Then Debbie pressed the release button and let the giant crate of pills fall into the Ohio River where they quickly disintegrated.
A whole lot of fish may have been killed that night, but a whole lot of lives in small town West Virginia had been saved. Feeling like real heroes, Beth and Debbie disembarked the barge and hopped back in Beth's black Chevelle. Beth opened up the glove compartment and pulled out a bottle of fine whiskey. Then she turned on the music, good old loud rock and roll, and drove back to Apple Grove fast, she and Debbie laughing and taking turns taking swigs off the bottle. Dr. Lumby and Joe Gleason were gone for good. And with them out of the picture, they had saved countless lives.
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