Chapter Five
Five
Fort Bragg, California
Ronan frowned at the pharmacy manager. “He just…disappeared?”
He’d driven straight to the pharmacy from Santa Rosa, searching for Steve Garfield, the pharmacy technician who’d been on duty both times Reece Miller’s credit card had been used.
It seemed that Ronan was too late, though.
Eunice Greene scowled. She was in her late sixties but quite spry. “Yeah. I think he knew we were on to him.”
“For what?” Ronan asked cautiously. Did she know about Reece Miller?
“About a month ago, I thought I noticed that some of the controlled substances were going missing, but the inventories were always right. I figured I was imagining things or misremembering. So I did an audit. Came in on a Sunday when we were closed, so none of them would know what I was doing. I found a lot of inconsistencies.”
“I’m sorry, Eunice.” Because she looked so damn sad.
“Thank you. I should have been more vigilant, but I trusted my employees. They’ve all worked for me for years. I’ve paid for their educations—pharmacy college for the licensed pharmacist and certification programs for the techs.”
“Wow. I didn’t know that.”
She shrugged. “It’s hard to get medical professionals to stay local.
I figured I’d home-grow mine so that I could start my retirement.
They had to sign a contract promising to work here for five years or pay back a percentage of the tuition.
My licensed pharmacist has been here four years, but she’s got a husband and family here, so she’s staying.
My other tech has been here seven years.
Steve’s only two years into his five, even though he’s worked here as a clerk since he was eighteen. ”
“So it was Steve doing the stealing?”
“Turned out to be, but I didn’t know that until a few days ago.
After the audit, I hired a forensic computer guy to figure out how it happened.
He discovered that someone was signing in to the computer remotely as either me or the other pharmacist, so they got our passwords somehow.
We found a number of fake prescriptions, so there was paperwork to satisfy all outgoing medications. ”
“Which was why it took so long to discover it was going on.”
“Yes. I wasn’t sure if only one person was involved, so I set up cameras that only I knew about. I couldn’t believe anyone had been stealing from us, especially Steve. He’s worked here for nine years. I trusted him like he was my own son.”
Ronan could hear the pain in the older woman’s voice. The betrayal. “You confirmed he had been stealing?”
“Yes. It was Steve and only Steve. Which is, I suppose, a relief.” She sighed.
“He took Ritalin, Adderall, oxycodone, and several other controlled drugs with street value. He was very careful. I was going to confront him today, actually. I needed one more day to prove to myself that it was only him.”
“Are the cameras you planted still there?”
“Yes. He had to have found them. Otherwise I don’t know how he could have known I suspected him. I didn’t tell anyone except the computer guy.”
“Eunice, call the police next time. Steve could have hurt you to keep you quiet if you’d confronted him.”
“Steve Garfield?” She shook her head. “No. I can’t believe that.” Ronan lifted a brow and Eunice heaved a sigh. “Fine, Ronan. He stole narcotics from my pharmacy. He’s clearly not behaving like himself—or the man I thought I knew, anyway. Perhaps he would have been capable of harming me.”
“I’ll fill out a report as soon as we’re done here and put out a BOLO on him. Can I see your camera footage?”
“Of course.” She led him to her office, sat at her desk, and then looked up at him, tilting her head. “Why are you looking for Steve? You didn’t know about my issues here.”
He’d been waiting for her to ask. She normally would have already done so, but she was too preoccupied with Steve’s theft. “He’s a person of interest in one of my investigations.”
Eunice blinked. “Dianne Foster’s murder? You think he killed her?”
Damn small towns. “You know I can’t say, Eunice.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know. But…mercy. That’s not what I expected.”
Because it was a small town, he figured he should at least quell the gossip before it got started. “The real target of our investigation used their credit card here once two evenings ago and once last week. I want to find out if it was actually our suspect or if his card’s been stolen.”
“Ah, okay. Well, you’re in luck. The other thing that tipped me off about the thefts was that several of the cameras in the store—the ones we’ve always had—would go…
odd. The shadows would be wrong or the shelves back in the pharmacy would look different for a few minutes then go back to the way they were.
I honestly thought I was losing my mind until the computer guy I hired discovered that the feed had been tampered with. ”
“Someone spliced footage from other times?”
“Exactly. That was the other reason I put cameras in. You’ll get unadulterated footage from those. I can make you a copy if you want. Do you have the times that the credit card was used?”
“This past Monday at six p.m. and last Wednesday at ten in the morning.”
She got busy at the keyboard and a few minutes later beckoned him to her side of the desk. “I’ll make copies of the footage for you of the past two weeks, but I’ve pulled up the exact times you’re interested in.”
He moved behind her chair and focused on the screen. The image was clearer than he’d expected.
But the person at the counter was not who he’d expected.
It was not Reece Miller. It was a young woman who looked very nervous.
It was Wendy Miller, his barely legal wife.
At least they were on the right track.
“She killed Dianne?” Eunice asked, disbelieving.
“Eunice,” he said warningly.
She grimaced. “Sorry, but she’s such a little thing.”
“Can you tell me what she bought?”
Her grimace intensified. “Ronan…I can’t. That’s covered by privacy laws. If you get a warrant, I’d be glad to.”
He’d thought she’d say that, but he was disappointed, nonetheless. “Turnabout is fair play, I guess. Is there anything else you can tell me about the customer or her purchase?”
She pointed to the other side of her desk. “Go back over there and I’ll see if there’s anything I’m allowed to tell you.”
He obeyed and waited, hopeful but not expecting much.
“Okay,” she finally said. “I can tell you that she bought some pediatric Tylenol. That’s not prescription. There was also a blanket and a hot water bottle.”
“Her baby’s sick.”
“Looks like.”
“Did you talk to her?”
“No. Steve checked her out.”
“Can you tell me anything about last week’s purchase?”
“Let me see.” She tapped on her keyboard, then nodded. “Same woman as Monday. Again, I can’t tell you what prescribed medication she bought, but she did buy three boxes of hand warmers, the kind you have to activate.”
That wasn’t as helpful, but he thanked her anyway. “If she comes back, can you call me?”
She considered, then nodded. “I can do that. Do you also want the last two weeks of camera footage?”
“I do.” That covered the time since Miller had jumped bail. “How long will it take you to make copies?”
“Not too long. You want the view of the counter and maybe the front of the store?”
“Yes, please. And the parking lot, if you have that.” He wanted to track the vehicle Wendy had been driving. It was probably stolen, but at least he could add that to the BOLO.
“Give me fifteen minutes.”
There was a light knock on the door. “Eunice,” a woman said, her voice muffled. “I need you out at the counter. Mrs. Whittaker has questions about her prescription.”
Eunice stood. “How about I send them to your email, Ronan? I need to consult with a customer.”
“That’d be great. Thank you, Eunice. You’ve been an amazing help.”
“I’m glad. I’ll do everything I can to help you punish whoever killed Dianne. Will you be getting that warrant for my sales records?”
“Oh yes.”
“Then I’ll have the information ready to give you as soon as you get it.”
Fort Bragg, California
Wednesday, January 21, 6:05 p.m.
“Well, I suppose that was inevitable,” Sara said sourly.
Elle slumped into the driver’s seat as she watched Detective Clarke leave the pharmacy and get into his SUV.
She and Sara had been parked in the lot for hours, watching for Wendy Miller. Detective Clarke had been in the store long enough to have had a long chat with the pharmacist. He probably knew as much as they did now.
Which didn’t seem like such a bad thing, even though Sara probably wouldn’t agree. “Telling him about Miller was the right thing to do,” Elle murmured.
Sara exhaled. “Yeah. Maybe. Clarke’s got all the local connections. He seems to know everyone. They’ll tell him everything. I bet he knows exactly what medication Wendy bought and he didn’t even have to threaten anyone.”
“I don’t know. We only got Steve Garfield to talk because we saw him dealing drugs behind his house.” Elle was still surprised their plan had worked. “A pharmacist who’s ethical won’t disclose without a warrant.”
Sara slowly turned her head and stared at Elle. “Are you that—” She cut herself off, but Elle knew what she’d been about to say.
“Naive?” she asked bitterly. “Because I believe in the rule of law?”
This was an argument they’d almost had several times since Elle had started working with Sara’s firm. One of them always changed the subject before their conversation got too heated.
Elle was getting tired of the dance they were doing. She was tired of being seen as naive. She was not naive.
She knew there were bad people out there. Awful people.
Todd had been one of them. Her ex-husband had pretended to be a great man in public, a philanthropist, all while he abused her at home.
But there were good people, too. Law-abiding people.
Elle had been one of those people. She’d never actually broken the law in her job as a fugitive recovery agent, but she’d bent it a lot of times. She’d lied to the faces of their sources, telling them whatever was necessary to get the information. To bag their skipper.