The Donaldson Case Read Online Free PDF Page B

asked.   “Who were they?”
    “Investigators
from Derby,” Michael said.   “They’ve
been sent over to help Robert with the case, as it’s rather serious.   They were the ones who searched the
house.”
    “They searched
your house?” Joan asked in a shocked voice.
    “With my
permission, yes,” he replied.   “I
have nothing to hide, after all.”
    “It still feels,
well, rather invasive,” Joan said.   “But at least they didn’t find anything.   That should let you out, shouldn’t it?”
    “I wish it was
that easy.   If I really was
supplying controlled substances to people without prescriptions, I suppose I
wouldn’t keep any of the evidence at my own home, would I?”
    “I certainly
wouldn’t,” Janet said.  
    “It seems
likely that all of the sales were simply handled through the shop,” Michael
said.   “That’s how I would do it, if
I decided to turn criminal.”
    “So how can
they investigate?   Fingerprints on
the bottles of missing tablets?” Janet asked.
    “Since all of
us who work there have probably, at some point, handled just about all of the
bottles in the entire shop, there’s no way to check such things. We’re talking
about large dispensing bottles, after all, and fairly common medications.   I’m sure I’ve filled prescriptions for
most of them most of the days I’ve worked down there.”
    “What makes
you think it’s deliberate, exactly?” Janet asked.
    “Robert
probably wasn’t supposed to show me the lists, but he let me have a quick look
at the inventory that Matthew Rogers took and the report from the main office
of what the shop was meant to have in stock.”
    “And Matthew
Rogers is who exactly?” Janet interrupted.
    “Sorry, he’s
the young man from head office who is here to cover for Owen for the next six
weeks.   The corporate bosses decided
that was preferable to having various different people filling in for him on a
day-to-day basis.”
    “I suppose
that makes sense,” Janet replied.
    “It’s somewhat
unusual, though.   When I first heard
that they were sending someone, I thought they were sending him to take a good
look at the shop and maybe think about closing it.   It can’t be making them much money.   Now I’m wondering if they had some
reason to be suspicious and sent Matthew to investigate.”
    “Would someone coming in for a short time like that usually start
work with an inventory?” Janet asked.
    “It isn’t
unusual, and again, if they were thinking of closing the shop, it would be
something they’d want done.”
    “What did you
learn from the two different lists, then?” Joan asked.
    “I didn’t get
to study them at length,” Michael told them with a frown, “but from what I
could see, there were discrepancies all over the place.   For a few items we had more stock than
we should have, but not by much.   More often, we were short, in some cases by a considerable amount.”
    “So if someone
was making mistakes, they were making a lot of them,” Janet mused.
    “And most of
the missing drugs were ones with street value,” Michael added.   “All drugs have street value, I suppose,
but some are more in demand than others.   Nearly all of the missing drugs were what I would consider highly in
demand.”
    “And there’s
no way to tell from the store’s records when the drugs went missing?” Joan
asked.
    “That what the
investigator from Derby is going to be doing next,” Michael replied.   “He’s going to go through the store
sales reports and prescription records with a fine-tooth comb to see if he can
spot anything.”
    “So we have to
hope that the person who made the pretend mistakes also made some real
mistakes?” Janet asked.
    Michael gave
her a wry grin.   “Something like
that,” he agreed.   “The more I think
about it, the more worried I get, though.   In a small store with only one chemist working at any given time, it
wouldn’t be all that hard to steal a few drugs now and