Hella Nation - Evan Wright [69]
After hearing this story, Britt asked Swindle to drive him to the apartment complex where he’d first met with Simberg. Swindle was never told Simberg’s name. But when he led Britt to Simberg’s apartment, his black Camaro with the missing hood and smashed windshield was parked in front. Britt traced the license plates and immediately obtained the name of the registered owner, Konstantin Simberg.
When Britt did a search on Simberg’s criminal record he found nothing. But four months earlier Simberg had filed a police report after he lost his wallet at the Biltmore Fashion Park mall, a popular hangout for teenagers in Phoenix. Britt read the report Simberg filed for his missing wallet and discovered that he had written his cell phone number on it.
Britt obtained a subpoena to examine the call record of Simberg’s cell phone. It revealed that on the morning of September 24, the time of the failed FedEx truck robbery, Simberg had placed eighteen calls to a cell phone belonging to Sean O. Southland. Britt discovered that a day earlier, around the time Swindle described being inspected by the “Big Boss,” Simberg had also made numerous calls to his number.
Britt concluded that Southland was the “Big Boss.” But at this point he was the Big Boss of nothing, since he was head of a gang that had bungled its first crime so badly they hadn’t yet managed to break a single law.
8. THE BIG SCORE
EARLY ON THE MORNING OF OCTOBER 1, a burglar alarm went off in the offices shared by Peak Physique and Cactus Pharmacy. When patrolmen arrived at around one A.M., they found a window facing the street had been smashed and a storeroom appeared to have been emptied.
Peak Physique was already flagged within the Phoenix Police Department as a place of interest because of the attempted robbery of the FedEx truck less than a week earlier. Britt was called at his home, where he was asleep with his wife beside him. He managed to dress and reach the pharmacy in under half an hour.
Within minutes of Britt’s arrival, Troy Langdon rolled into the parking lot driving the Porsche he’d recently purchased from Diamondbacks pitcher Juan Cruz. Langdon emerged wearing shorts, flip-flops and a $35,000 Rolex.
Britt walked over to him and asked, “Who are you?”
“I’m the owner,” Langdon said. Initially, Langdon gave Britt the impression of relaxed confidence. But when Britt asked him to follow him to the burgled storeroom, Langdon appeared to grow nervous. Britt noticed he was chain-smoking Marlboros. He asked Langdon what had been stolen.
Langdon told him it was eighteen boxes of HGH, sold under the name Saizen, which had been delivered on September 24. Britt failed to mention that he was already far into the investigation of the failed robbery of the FedEx truck on the twenty-fourth. Nor did he reveal that someone at Serono had explained to him what Saizen was. He wanted to hear what it was from Langdon, so he asked him, “What’s Saizen?”
“It’s amazing,” Langdon said. “It’s human growth hormone, a glory drug. You can eat sixteen hamburgers and not get fat.”
“Did you place the order for it?” Britt asked.
“I did,” Langdon told him.
Britt shook hands with Langdon, promising to do his best to find the thieves responsible for the break-in, and left at about two-thirty A.M. After he left, Britt ordered undercover cops to tail Langdon.
Langdon lingered in the Peak Physique offices until six in the morning. The cops followed Langdon behind the wheel of his Porsche to a diner, where he met with Sean Southland, who arrived in a Yukon Denali. An undercover cop took a table across the room. He was not near enough to hear the conversation. He noted that Langdon chain-smoked, and the other man—whose name he did not know yet—had powerfully built arms.
Both men departed the diner. One officer tailed Langdon to his home in Carefree. Another officer followed