All licenses in order, no viable complaints other than the usual Yelp grumbling about high prices and office wait times.
Yet, he took late night deliveries from the back of his building. Damn, but Lucky wanted to raid that warehouse, try to find more of a connection.
As soon as he could get together with Johnson.
At some point during the day, his Internet searches wandered from warehouses and apartment buildings to drugs popular with high school kids.
CHAPTER TEN
Ty shot through the front door. His backpack caught on the doorknob and dropped from his shoulder, spilling books onto the floor. “Fuck!”
Lucky glanced up from his laptop. His nephew crouched on the floor, shoving pens and papers back into his bag. He spun this way and that, peering under the couch.
An amber pill bottle sat on the rug, blending with the colors. Lucky placed his socked foot on the plastic cylinder.
Charlotte followed Ty inside, clutching a Food World bag in one hand and closed the door. Ty snatched up his backpack and ran toward his room like he’d been shot from a cannon.
“What’s his problem?” Lucky asked, rolling the bottle underneath the couch and out of sight. No need to worry his sister until he found out what the bottle contained.
Charlotte shrugged. “No idea. He’s been acting strange all afternoon. He even turned down a trip to the mall to come home and study.”
Check one off the list of “symptoms of teenage drug abuse.”
Calling on experience dealing with drug dealers, Lucky kept his voice casual. “You know, I never asked before, but does Ty take any meds?”
Charlotte paused on her way to the kitchen. “Huh? No. Why?”
Think, Lucky, think. “Just saw an article today about how many kids were on allergy meds and such.”
Charlotte’s stiff posture relaxed. “Nope. My boys are healthy as horses. Eat like them too. Let me go fill the trough.” She disappeared into the kitchen.
Lucky waited until the clang of pans and thump of cabinet doors promised she’d be busy for a while, and picked up the bottle off the floor. Normal pharmacy bottle with child-proof cap, but without a label. The kind readily available on the Internet. He took out a small white pill. No markings that he could make out, not even by squinting. Not good.
He peered into the bottle. Thirteen pills in all. He slipped two into his pocket, shoved the bottle under the couch, and stepped out of the sliding glass doors. Moose followed him into the warm evening. Standing off to the side, out of sight, Lucky waited.
Moose butted his hand, gazing up with hopeful brown eyes, and let out a whine.
Despite his nephew fears, Lucky couldn’t fight a smile. “Hey there, boy. Got some ears you need rubbing and Charlotte ain’t around?” He scratched behind Moose’s ear. Moose moaned and leaned in to Lucky’s hand, hind foot tapping on the floor.
Spoilt critter.
Sure enough, Ty emerged from his room, glanced right and left, then dove straight for the couch. Relief lit his face when he retrieved the bottle.
Oh fuck. Ty had drugs. No amount of wishful thinking would make the bottle magically disappear.
What should Lucky do? Tell Charlotte? Hell, he was the narcotics agent. What if the bottle contained something harmless?
Not with Ty’s actions.
All through dinner Lucky kept a close watch on his nephew, once again scrolling through a list of drug use symptoms. No dilated pupils, shaking hands, hyperactivity, lethargy. Nope. Lucky stood from the table first. “I’ll get the dishes.” Charlotte and Bo both raised their brows at him.
“What?” came from two directions.
“It’s just that you don’t usually volunteer for cleanup duty,” Charlotte said, cutting off whatever smartass comment Bo might make.
“Hey, I can do my part around here.” He’d promised to be a better partner for Bo. Maybe tonight he’d kill two birds with one stone. “Bo, Charlotte, why don’t you take Moose for a walk?”
“Actually,” a flush rose to Charlotte’s cheeks. “I’ve made some new friends on an online craft site, and they’re having a get-together. I thought I’d go.” Lots of cheek color for a woman bound for a quilting bee.
