He maneuvered his chair like a car executing a three-point turn. He turned the door lock, and then moved his chair out of the way.
I hurried inside and stomped my feet. There wasn’t snow outside yet, but it seemed to warm up my toes as well.
“What’s wrong?” Saul pointed toward the door behind me. “Lock up, please, so we don’t get any extra guests.”
The mental debate in my head went back and forth between checking in on him to see how he was doing after his brother-in-law’s death and jumping straight to the point so that I didn’t use up any more of his time than was necessary. Sensitivity versus practicality.
My concern for him won out. “I need a favor, but first, how are you doing?”
He waved a hand in the air. “It’s a chapter of my life that’s finally closed, and I’m glad to have it behind me.” He turned his chair around and rolled over to the counter. “Did you have something urgent like antibiotics to pick up? I didn’t see anything come in with your name or Russ’ name on it. If your doctor wrote out a script instead of faxing it, I can still fill it now.”
The speed with which he switched topics made it clear his brother-in-law was a zone where we weren’t close enough for him to share. He’d shared what he had about his sister because I’d asked for his advice concerning Russ. That didn’t make us close enough for him to want to go into the complex emotions that surely surrounded his brother-in-law’s death. Some people wouldn’t even want to share that with those they were the closest to.
No problem. I could respect that.
“No script.” I pulled Clement’s pill bottle out of my purse. “I need to know what the pills are in this bottle.”
Saul rolled around the edge of the counter to where the computer sat. “Did the label peel off? I don’t even have to look at the pills if that’s the case. I can pull up your name in the system. In fact, if you’re due for a refill anyway, I’ll just fill what you have on file. Or is this for Russ?”
That’s right. Because Saul wasn’t here when I came in, he didn’t realize I was working Clement’s case and had his permission to access his records. He’d naturally assume it was some problem with a prescription for me or for Russ.
I’d need to start from the beginning. “I’ve been retained by Clement Dodd as his defense counsel—thanks in part to your encouragement to fight for what I want to do.”
Buttering up a resource never hurt. I dug around in my purse and pulled out the folded copies of Clement’s permissions. I’d almost taken them out, but I’d been so busy that I’d left them there. Thankfully, since I didn’t want Saul to feel like I was asking him to do anything unethical.
I handed them over. He glanced at them, but it seemed almost perfunctory.
I set the pill bottle on the counter next to them. “I can’t go into detail about the case, but I need to know what the pills in this bottle are.” I held up both hands to stop any objections. “I won’t ask you to testify or anything like that. All I need is confirmation of my suspicions so that I can secure a subpoena for other information I need.”
Saul’s chair rolled backward a fraction, almost like his hands tightened on the wheels unintentionally.
“I’ll take a look,” Saul said.
His voice held a strange note—unnaturally normal like an actor in a low-budget soap opera.
Saul took the pill bottle and held it up slightly. “I’ll be right back.”
He placed the bottle in his lap and rolled backward around the island counter that sat in the middle of the restricted area. It was where he usually prepared prescriptions. Like the front counter, it was almost too high. The counter rested at mid-chest level.
He uncapped the bottle and poured the contents out into a plastic tray. He held the tray up and moved one of the pills around with a pair of tweezers, turning it upside down.
He placed the tray back down, wheeled back to the computer, and typed something into the keypad.
He shook his head. “I thought so, but I checked the code on the pills to be sure. Those are high cholesterol medication.”
I braced a hand against the counter. That couldn’t be right. They didn’t match Russ’ medications, and the labels said they were identical. “Can we compare them physically? From a supply bottle. Just to be certain.”
“They are what the label says they are.” His smile congealed on his face, like it’d been made in a mold and couldn’t quite hold its shape once it came out. “I assure you.”
A quiver started in my chest and fluttered down into my stomach. Something was very wrong here. I knew those weren’t high cholesterol meds. Maybe Saul was trying to cover it up because he thought he’d somehow made a mistake. A mistake in medications could get a pharmacist fired.
I leaned slightly to the side to get a better look at where Clement’s pill bottle and two pills sat. Something deep inside whispered that I shouldn’t have handed them over. He might throw them out to cover up a mistake he hadn’t actually made.
“I’m not saying you accidentally gave him the wrong medications. I know you had nothing to do with…” My voice caught slightly. “With this.”
My throat felt like I was trying to breathe through an opening no larger than a needle. Darlene wasn’t the only person who had access to Clement’s medications after they were prescribed. Saul could have swapped the medications out more easily than Darlene. He had access to whatever medication he would have wanted to swap it with, and he worked alone.
Clement’s fatal insomnia showed up in late spring. That would have been shortly after Saul returned from his failed surgery. If my suspicion was right, the surgery was the trigger.
No, not the surgery. The fact that it had failed. The fact that the back problems Saul had been fighting for years were never going to be fixed.
All the pieces fell into place and threatened the crush me like a rock slide. The picture in Clement’s house showing his high school football team—a team he’d played on with Saul. His story about his jealousy over some other man from the team he’d seen Darlene laughing with. The action he’d taken out of jealousy—multiple futures he’d said. His actions hurt people. Not just hurt his future with Darlene.
It was possible Clement had done something to Saul that caused his back injury, ending his dreams of a football career. Saul was willing to let it go until that same injury finally stole his ability to walk as well.
If I were right, I needed to get those pills back and get out of here.
I edged toward the end of the counter. “I’m sorry I bothered you and kept you late. I’ll grab the pills and be out of your way since they’re exactly what the bottle says.”
Saul wheeled in front of me so quickly he nearly took off my toes. I instinctively jumped back.
“I’ll dispose of them for you,” he said. “Medication shouldn’t be thrown in the garbage or flushed.”
My brain scrambled for something reasonable to say that wouldn’t make him any more suspicious. “That’d be wasteful. Clement can still take them.”
Saul didn’t move. “I can’t let you take them since they don’t belong to you.”
It was a lie. We both knew it. They’d been given to me by Clement—in a manner of speaking, anyway—and so I had every right to bring them back to Clement. Saul must be betting that I’d let it go, even if I did suspect something.
