The Donaldson Case (4 page)

“That’s a
shame,” Janet said.
 
“I didn’t mind
him being a bit peculiar.
 
He gave
me excellent advice about a cream for my dry skin.”

“He’s very good
at his job,” Michael said.
 
“But
these days that isn’t enough for the big chain stores.
 
They want you to interact with your
customers, and persuade them to buy lots of extra things they don’t need.
 
It’s a very different job to what I did
when I had my little shop.”

“Is there
anyone else who’s been filling in besides you and George?” Joan asked.

“Ethan Bailey
did a week or two last month,” Michael replied.
 
“I don’t know if you were in the shop
while he was there or not.
 
If you
were, you might not have noticed him.”

“But surely he
was the only one in there,” Janet said.
 
The tiny local shop didn’t get enough business to have a shop assistant
in addition to the chemist.
 
The
chemist was expected to handle all transactions, from filling prescriptions to
ringing up nappies and baby food.

“Well, yes,
but I’ve always thought of Ethan as an almost invisible person,” Michael
said.
 
“He’s just the sort of man who
blends into the background wherever he is.
 
I’ve never heard him raise his voice or seen him get flustered or upset
about anything.
 
Every time I see
him I spend several minutes thinking he looks familiar before I finally work
out who he is, and that includes days where I know we’re going to be working
together.
 
He just has the most
unmemorable face and personality of anyone I’ve ever met.”

Janet
laughed.
 
“Now I hope I get to meet
him at some point.
 
You must let me
know the next time he’s going to be working locally.”

“I don’t know
that anyone will be working there for a while,” Michael said gloomily.
 
“The police have shut the whole place
while they do a more thorough inventory.”

“That sounds a
lot more serious than I was thinking this was,” Joan said thoughtfully.

“It could be
very serious,” Michael replied.

“So could
George or Ethan have been the making all of the mistakes?” Janet asked.

“The mistakes
don’t look genuine to me,” Michael told her.
 
“That’s why I’m so upset.”

“What do you
mean?” Janet demanded.

“From what the
police told me, it seems like the mistakes aren’t really mistakes,” Michael
explained.
 
“It looks more like
someone has worked very deliberately to make it appear like random mistakes
have been made.

Chapter
Four

“Who would do
that?
 
And why?” Janet asked.

“For the
moment, the police have to question everyone who might have done it,” Michael
told her.
 
“That means I’m as much
of a suspect as Ethan, Owen and George.
 
As for why, there is a huge market on the street for controlled
substances.”

“Someone in
Doveby
Dale has been stealing drugs from the local shop and
selling them on the street?”
 
Janet
took a deep breath when she
realised
she was almost shouting.
 
Joan glared at her.

“Of course,
whatever is going on is nothing to do with you,” Joan said to Michael in a
soothing voice.

“Unfortunately,
that isn’t true,” Michael said sadly.
 
“I’ve worked in that shop quite regularly lately.
 
It was my shop, after all, before I sold
it to the big chain.
 
Luckily, when
I sold it they did a very thorough inventory and everything came back exactly
right.”

“Of course it
did,” Joan said stoutly.

“The police
can’t seriously suspect you,” Janet said.

“They have to
suspect everyone.
 
That’s their
job,” Michael replied.
 
“Oh, young
Robert Parsons has been very nice about the whole thing, but really, he has to
do his job.”

“Robert is
very nice and he seems very good at what he does,” Janet said.

“From what
I’ve seen, I’d agree,” Michael replied.
 
“He’s just awfully young, that’s all.”

Joan
nodded.
 
“What about the other
people who were with Robert?” she 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 again.
 
If Owen hadn’t fallen ill, it might have
been some time before anyone did a thorough inventory.
 
Someone could have made themselves a tidy
fortune.”

“So the police
will be looking at everyone’s bank balance?” Janet asked.

“The last
place I’d put any illegally acquired funds is in my bank account, but I suppose
the police will look at that anyway.”

“And find out
if you’ve suddenly started having exotic holidays or you recently bought a
luxury home in the Canary Islands, or maybe a fancy sports car,” Janet said.

“I think
that’s quite enough,” Joan said sharply.
 
“Michael hasn’t done any of those things.”

“I did go on a
long weekend to Edinburgh in May,” Michael replied.
 
“I don’t think that’s especially exotic,
though.”

“Scotland is
such a beautiful place, the police can’t be suspicious of anyone going there,”
Janet said.

“Why
Edinburgh?” Joan asked.

Michael
flushed.
 
“My wife and I honeymooned
there, many years ago.
 
I try to go
back once in a while to, well, reminisce.”

Joan looked
down at the table.
 
Michael squeezed
her hand, but didn’t seem to know what to say.
 
Janet jumped in before the silence could
be more awkward.

“So,
who
do you suspect?” she demanded.

Michael shook
his head, looking at her in surprise.
 
“That’s just it, I don’t suspect anyone.
 
There are only four people who could
have done it, Ethan, Owen, George, and myself, and until about an hour ago I
would have sworn none of us would ever do such a thing.”

“What about
this Matthew Rogers?” Joan asked.

“Robert said
he told them that one of the reasons he was sent was because of the large
number of issues the store has been having lately.
 
He came to investigate.”

“What sort of
issues?” Janet asked.

“Bottles of
tablets being reported as damaged and unusable, issues with the till being
opened repeatedly but no sales being registered, missing items being reported
from our shipments, unusually high levels of returns on merchandise, all sorts
of things, really.
 
No one thing
that caused any alarm, but all together it seems to suggest that there is
something out of the ordinary going on at the shop.”

“Have you
noticed anything unusual when you’ve been in the store?”
 
Janet knew she was being pushy, asking
all these questions, but as long as Michael was willing to answer, she wasn’t
going to stop.

“Not really,”
Michael said.
 
“The last time I was
there when a shipment came in from head office, I remember there were a few
items missing that the invoice claimed has been sent.
 
It happens from time to time and the
driver just noted it on the paperwork before I signed for the delivery.
 
Other than that, it’s all been business
as usual, as far as I know.”

“So what do
you think is going on?” Joan asked quietly.

“I wish I
knew,” Michael said with a sigh.
 
“For now we’ll just have to wait and see what the police can find out, I
suppose.
 
Robert wasn’t sure when
the shop will be allowed to reopen.
 
I gather Matthew is arguing that he should be able to offer at least a
limited service immediately, even if they want to shut up the pharmacy itself.”

“The good
people of
Doveby
Dale will be up in arms if they
can’t get their headache tablets and baby food,” Janet remarked.
 
Those were the two items that someone
always seemed to be buying whenever she was in the store, anyway.

Michael
chuckled.
 
“You’re right about
that.
 
We’re convenient for the
locals who don’t want to drive all the way out to the grocery store, even
though it’s only a few minutes further away.
 
We get a lot of mums who need nappies or
baby food and a great many folks who run out of headache tablets and can’t bear
the thought of driving anywhere until they’ve taken some.”

“What can we
do to help?” Joan asked.

“Nothing,”
Michael said, shaking his head.
 
“For the moment, there’s nothing anyone can do.
 
We just have to wait and see what the
police find out.
 
Whether the shop is
open or not isn’t my concern.
 
Matthew will be dealing with that.
 
I just have to get on with my life.”

“With a dark
cloud hanging over you,” Janet said.

“Janet, I
hardly think that’s appropriate,” Joan scolded.

“Janet is
right, though,” Michael said.
 
“I do
feel as if there’s a cloud hanging over me.
 
Let’s hope Robert and his associates are
good and quick.”

“I’m sure
Robert will do his best,” Janet said.
 
“That is, I’m sure he’ll get it all worked out quickly,” she added,
feeling as if the first statement wasn’t encouraging enough.

“Let me see
that key, then,” Michael said.
 
“I
didn’t take a proper look earlier.”

Janet dug the
key out of her pocket and handed it to the man.
 
He turned it over in his hands and then
shrugged.
 
“There’s a number on it,”
he pointed out.
 
“1226; I would think
it must be for a safe deposit box or a locker somewhere or something.”

Janet
nodded.
 
She’d noticed the number
herself
, but that didn’t seem to get her any closer to
solving the mystery.
 
“Thanks for
looking, anyway,” she said as she took the key back.
 

“If I think of
anything, I’ll let you know,” Michael said.

“I don’t
suppose you know where Maggie Appleton did her banking?” Janet asked.

“She had an
account at the bank next to the grocery store,” Michael said, referring to the
local branch of a national chain.
 
“I used to run into her there once in a while when I was doing my own banking.”

“Do they have
deposit boxes?”

“They do.
 
I even have one,” Michael replied.
 
“But the keys don’t look exactly like
that.”

He dug around
in his pocket and pulled out a ring of keys.
 
He flipped through them and then stopped
and held up a key.
 
“See?
 
They’re a little bit smaller and the
numbers are done differently.”

Janet took the
key and studied it for a moment.
 
Michael was right.
 
The key
was just different enough from hers that it seemed unlikely they were keys for
the same bank deposit boxes.
 

“There are lots
of other banks around, though,” Michael said as he returned his keys to his
pocket.
 
“Just because she had an
account at one bank doesn’t mean she didn’t have other accounts elsewhere.”

Janet
nodded.
 
“Maybe I’ll have time to
try a few banks over the next few days,” she said thoughtfully.
 
“We don’t have guests until next week.”

“You’re having
more guests?” Michael asked, giving Joan a surprised look.

“We have a
nice young married couple arriving on Monday,” Joan told him.
 
“I’m sure they won’t be any trouble at
all.”