Part 13 (2/2)
”What about the b.u.t.te hospital's computer?” the young clerk asked. ”Can't they run the number on the pill?”
Slade hadn't heard her approach. She was young, college-age, blond and with a look of intelligence. Her name tag said she was Penny.
”I was just getting ready to suggest that,” Jerry said, obviously not happy about the interruption. ”Want me to call for you?” he said to Slade.
”I can do it,” Penny said. ”I've been going to pharmaceutical school and I need the practice,” she told Slade. ”Isn't that what you always tell me when it comes to your grunt work, Jerry?” She grinned as she picked up the phone, reaching over to take the tray and pills from Jerry.
”See this,” she said to Slade as she waited for the hospital to answer. She pointed to a small indentation that appeared to be a letter and a number. ”The hospital computer data base can tell you what generic it is.”
”How long does it take?” he asked.
”Not long.”
”Anything else you need?” Jerry asked, sounding a little testy.
”Yeah, something for a headache.”
”I know what you mean,” Jerry said, coming out from behind the counter to help him. While they moved through the drugstore, Slade kept an eye on Holly. Jerry asked about Sh.e.l.ley and made polite conversation. He and Jerry never had had much in common, Slade realized.
Armed with a bottle of painkillers for Holly's headache and a pop out of the cooler, he and Jerry returned to the pharmacy counter. The clerk was just getting off the phone.
”Wow,” she said, eyeing one of the pills as she hung up the phone. ”I don't think I've ever seen one of these. They're the same color, size and shape as Xanax, but they're Halcion.”
”Are you sure?” Jerry said in surprise.
”What's Halcion?” Slade asked.
Jerry let out a low whistle. ”Halcion is an oldie, been around literally for years. It's a sedative hypnotic,” he said, obviously stealing the young clerk's thunder.
Slade felt his breath rush from his lungs. ”A hypnotic?”
”There was this big case in Utah,” the clerk said enthusiastically. ”A woman was taking Halcion and killed her mother. Got off too.”
”Side effects?” Slade managed to ask.
”Oh yeah,” she said before Jerry could. ”Disorientation, light-headedness, mental confusion, loss of memory, paranoia.”
He felt a little light-headed himself. ”Addictive?”
”Highly,” Penny said. ”This stuff is dangerous. I can't imagine a pharmacist making a mistake like this.” She eyed the prescription. ”The bottle's so old it's hard to read where the prescription was first filled. Halcion isn't easy to come by. It's so dangerous that you can only get ten pills at a time.”
Unless you knew someone who could get you the stuff without raising suspicion. The question was, who had put the Halcion in the Xanax bottle? Inez was the obvious choice.
Jerry picked up the bottle, frowning at the prescription. ”Dr. Allan Wellington?”
”It's an old prescription.”
”I guess. He's been a dead a while, hasn't he?”
Not long enough, it seemed.
”Holly Barrows?” Jerry said, still reading the prescription.
”A client of mine. Don't worry, I won't let her take any more of them.”
”Good thinking. You want me to throw out the pills for you?”
”No,” Slade said quickly. ”I'd like to hang on to them for a while.”
Jerry put the pills back in the container. ”I'd throw them out if I were you.”
Not likely. They were evidence.
Jerry glanced toward Slade's pickup and the woman sitting inside it, openly curious.
Slade wasn't interested in satisfying his curiosity. He thanked Jerry and his a.s.sistant for their help and paid for the headache pills and the soda. Behind Jerry on the wall was a family photograph of Jerry and his wife Patty and a couple of towheaded little boys about six and four.
Slade felt a tug at the sight of the kids and the happy family. He tried to imagine a photo of him and Holly and their little girl-and couldn't.
”You should see the latest photos of the kids,” the clerk said, noting what he'd been staring at. ”They are the the cutest things.” cutest things.”
He thanked Jerry and Penny again and left, the Halcion safe in his pocket.
GRATEFULLY, Holly took the bottle of tablets and the drink Slade handed her as he climbed into the pickup.
”Thanks.”
He was right. She had a blinding headache. After she tried unsuccessfully to unscrew the cap on the pill bottle, he took it from her, opened it and shook two tablets into her outstretched palm.
She fumbled to pop the top on the soda can, downing both pills in a swallow of throat-tingling cold liquid. She closed her eyes for a moment, knowing why he'd gone into the pharmacy, afraid of what he'd found out.
”The pills?” she said after a moment.
”They're probably responsible not only for your headache, but also your memory loss,” he said as he started the truck and pulled back out onto the highway.
”What are they?” she asked, shocked.
”They aren't what they say on the prescription.”
That shouldn't have come as a surprise to her since Slade had already suspected as much. She listened while he told her about the hypnotic drug and its side effects.
She was too stunned to speak. ”Then it was just the drug. Someone must have mixed up the prescription-”
”Not likely,” Slade said. ”I think there is more to this than just the drug. Did anyone besides Inez have access to the prescription?”
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