Buck stared at him. “Like I said, it’ll be a couple of days.”
“Not sure we have that kind of time. I’d say you’d better try a little harder.”
“Here’s the thing, Dalton. You can’t bargain with Mother Nature. She has a way of biting your ass if you do.”
CHAPTER 26
Cain bought Marla two more ham and cheese croissants before he and Harper walked her out. Marla thanked them and ambled up the street. Cain was sure she’d be looking for Jason Epps. The monkey was biting hard.
Harper apparently had the same thought. “Think we should follow her? See if she tracks down this Jason dude?”
“I do.”
They crossed the street, shadowed Marla for the next block until Cain’s cell chimed. Cassie. He hoped she had some good news. It wasn’t and it moved finding Jason Epps to the back burner.
From the front, Shaffer’s Pharmacy appeared normal. Calm and quiet. Not so in back where Cain parked near Cassie’s Jeep, two patrol units, and a pair of white vans: the coroner and the crime scene techs. Brought in from Knoxville according to the lettering on the side of each.
Cassie stood just outside the rear door talking with Hack. Cain and Harper walked that way.
“What’s the story?” Cain asked.
“Someone murdered Wilbert Shaffer, stole a bunch of stuff,” Cassie said.
“Drugs?” Harper asked.
“Mostly. But some other things, too.” She glanced back inside. “Penny Larkin works here. She’s the one that found Wilbert. She’s trying to make a list of the missing items.”
“Is this where they broke in?” Cain asked.
“No sign of forced entry. Preliminary time of death is between seven and ten last night, so I suspect whoever did it caught Wilbert as he was closing up.” She hooked a thumb in her service belt. “That’d explain the door being intact and Wilbert being here alone.” She jerked her head toward the door. “Penny said she left about seven-thirty. Wilbert was going to finish some inventory stuff and then lock up.”
A stretcher carrying a tented body bag nosed through the door. The late Wilbert Shaffer. The two coroner’s techs maneuvered it over the gravel to their van and loaded it in the back. One of them walked back toward them.
“You need anything else?” He asked Cassie.
“Just the autopsy report.”
He nodded. “Headed that way.”
As the van pulled away, Harper asked, “Where do you get your autopsies done?”
“Knoxville. They have a good crew over there. Do all our crime lab stuff, too.” She looked at Harper. “Of course we need them like…never.”
“Until the past twenty-four hours,” Cain said.
“Yeah.” She turned, waved them to follow. “Let me show you why I called.”
Inside, Cain saw the blood stain where Shaffer had fallen, and the open drug cage, shelves mostly empty. He pointed that way. “Looks like someone filled their prescriptions.”
Cassie tossed him a weak smile. “Took everything. According to Penny they had Oxy, codeine, morphine, Versed, and fentanyl. Also Xanax, Valium, Adderall, and Sudafed. The whole enchilada.”
“Bet it has some connection to what we saw over at the Finleys,” Hack said.
Cain nodded. “Good bet.”
“But here’s the kicker,” Cassie said. She picked up an evidence bag from the counter, handed it to Cain.
Cain saw a wallet. It was opened flat and revealed the driver’s license inside. “Where’d this come from?”
“Found it right on the counter.” She pointed. “Next to the cash register. Which of course they emptied.”
Why would Buck’s wallet be here? The answer came immediately. A message. A cry for help. He started to say something but a woman walked up to the counter. She held several pages in one hand, a ballpoint in the other.
“Chief, I think I’ve got a handle on this. Not sure it’s everything but this is what I have so far.”
Cassie introduced Cain and Harper to Penny. She then thanked Penny and told her she could head home if she wanted. That if Cassie needed anything else, she’d let her know. She ended with, “Thanks. I know this wasn’t easy for you.”
Cain thumbed through the pages. The first page listed the drugs. The ones Cassie had mentioned, plus antibiotics, chloral hydrate, and two bottles of betadine solution. The next two pages listed items, such as surgical drapes, gauze, tape, IV fluid bags, surgical instruments like scalpels, scissors, hemostats. An Ambu bag and mask.
Hack, who had been reading over Cain’s shoulder, said, “So what do we have? A drug addict who likes to dissect frogs or something?”
“No,” Cain said. “What we have is a massacre, an abduction, and a lethal burglary.”
“I agree,” Harper said.
“Want to explain?” Cassie said.
“Look at the scenes,” Cain said. “We have the family of a drug dealer killed. Execution-style. Probably to settle a score, or send a message, or eliminate competition. At the scene we have blood that’s not likely from the victims. A discharged weapon, one bullet missing. That suggests one of the killers was hit. Now what to do? Can’t go to the ER, so they bring the ER to the injured party by kidnapping a doctor. But a doctor without instruments can’t do anything. Like dig out a bullet. Maybe more. So,” he waved a hand, “we have this.”
Cassie stared at him, then turned and scanned the shelves behind her, shaking her head. “Son-of-a-bitch.” She turned back to Cain. “I don’t like it but it makes sense.”
“Dr. Buckner was smart enough to drop his wallet here and connect the dots for us,” Harper said.
Hack nodded. “He sure did. Which means that Tommy Finley pissed someone off. Probably stepped on their territory. Maybe tried to shortchange a supplier or cut them out of the loop somehow.”
Cain shrugged. “Happens all the time. Greed being greed.”
“Which means we have a killer, or killers, running around,” Cassie said.
“Killers,” Harper said. “The duo that grabbed Buck. Bet the injured party was in the back.”
“It also means they’re probably holed up somewhere,” Cain said. “A remote place where surgery
