At night, when Lucky knew the grandson carried out his illegal pill operation, the cameras that were meant to protect the facility were turned off.
At exactly five o’clock.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Someone at the pharmacy during working hours turned off the cameras. And what was with the missing time chunks?
What happened during those few missing minutes?
Lucky drove back to the pharmacy and parked in a crowded parking lot across the street. In addition to a steady stream of shoppers, the mail carrier came and left, FedEx, UPS, and a few panel trucks.
Those were some big-assed packages too. The records explained the panel vans picking up for nursing homes and hospice facilities, but not the big-assed FedEx shipments.
Back in the store he went. Pretending to browse got old, but no one seemed suspicious of a man with a bandaged hand. With the doors to the back closed, he couldn’t see the compounding operation—which should have taken place in a sterile environment, but he could see the pharmacy staff loading boxes.
He couldn’t be everywhere at once. God, how he hated making this call, but he needed someone with a long reach, since he was still on leave.
Bo picked up on the first ring. “Lucky, is everything okay?”
“Don’t get mad.”
Silence, then, “Every time you tell me not to get mad you say something that would try the patience of a saint. What happened?”
“I need someone to check out packages at the local FedEx hub from Gentry’s Pharmacy.”
“What? Why?”
“Call it a hunch.”
“Lucky, you’re not sitting at home with your feet up, are you?”
“Hey, I had to get a script filled.” Creative use of the truth, but still.
“Ten miles out of the way?”
“You got something against supporting small businesses?”
More silence, then, “Walter trusts your gut feelings, and so do I. I’ll take care of it. Now, get your ass home and stay there. Promise.”
“I promise.” Lucky managed to keep his promise.
This time.
***
The wall was now covered with poster paper bearing both Bo and Lucky’s scrawl. Bo rested his cheek against the top of Lucky’s head where they stood, studying their combined efforts. “You know what this means, right?”
“Grandma’s going to jail?” Lucky wrapped his arm around Bo’s waist and leaned into his warmth.
“And a whole lot of other people. What a fucked-up situation. Everyone using pharmaceuticals for their own gain. Gambling, grade tampering, mail order pill mill. Was everyone in Atlanta involved in this damned case?”
The posters also showed Montgomery, Alabama; Jackson, Mississippi, and towns as far away as Texas.
And totally out of their hands.
Except…
“Lucky?”
