“I’ll be all right.”
“Like Louise.”
“She’s different.”
Callie had a sudden light-bulb moment.
“In that she really does have asthma.”
Anna nodded.
“So how did you know how to fake asthma to get hold of the inhalers?”
“Callum’s sister is a nurse. She told him that half the people doctors give inhalers to don’t have asthma, it’s just to keep them quiet.”
“Did she also tell him that doctors won’t keep on handing them out?”
“I dunno. Probably.”
“And Callum thought up this way of making money? Tell girls the other inhalers would make them put on weight and then sell them the ones he got from you?”
Anna nodded.
“Only it wasn’t just me. I found out he had a few of us getting them for him.” She looked at Callie and a tear ran slowly down her face. “He told me I was special for getting them for him, but he had Beccy and Dawn doing it for him too, maybe others.” She sobbed.
Callie patted her on the shoulder and handed the distraught girl another tissue. One dead, three more ending up in hospital, and what for? Money in the case of Callum, and feeling special in Anna’s case. The question was, what was Callie to do about it? Besides speaking to the school and killing the myth of weight gain.
Maybe she needed to talk to a policeman. Or a lawyer.
* * *
“The trouble is always going to be proving that he did it knowingly,” Kate explained to Callie over dinner at Porters. “I mean, obviously he can be done for illegally selling prescription drugs but I’d doubt the CPS would go for any charges like deliberate wounding or grievous bodily harm.” She paused to cut herself a hefty mouthful of rare steak. “He could claim that he had no idea there would be consequences like that.” She popped the steak in her mouth.
“Even if he got the idea about doing this from his sister who is a nurse?” Callie asked and realised she would have to wait a moment or two before Kate could answer, so she took the opportunity to tackle her cod fishcake.
“You would have to prove that she told him it could cause this situation, and I doubt she did, or would admit to it.”
“So, what do you think I should do?”
“Exactly what you are doing. Speaking to the pupils. And it sounds as if at least one of his suppliers won’t be helping him anymore.”
“I’ve taken her off the asthma register and told the nurse about the scam; in case she has any other girls on the list who she thinks might be pulling the same trick.”
“There you go then. You could also mention him to the community police, or even the drug squad. They may know who he is and be able to pay him a visit.”
“Warn him off?”
“Exactly. Scare the pants off him. He’s probably already thinking of his next money-making project. He sounds just the sort of shit to progress to major drug dealing if someone doesn’t stop him now.”
Callie wondered if her friend had already represented Callum in her professional role, or if it was just that she knew the sort of manipulative petty criminal he seemed to be.
“Right, it’s a plan. More wine?” And Callie concentrated on enjoying herself for the rest of the evening.
Chapter 28
Getting into work nice and early the next day, Callie had time to make a couple of phone calls. As Kate had predicted, it turned out that both the community policeman and the drug squad were well acquainted with a lad called Callum, recently suspended from the school. They explained that whether or not they were able to arrest him for selling prescription drugs depended on them finding some on him, unless the headmistress was willing to act as a witness.
Reassured that, at the very least, he would get a warning, Callie felt she could safely leave the matter in their hands. She was anxious to finish her surgery on time because she was due to meet the asthma consultant at the school at lunchtime to give a talk to the pupils.
With her conviction that she had at least one of her problems under control, Callie was able to concentrate fully on her patients, and then later on the talk with the pupils. The consultant was clear and direct in his speech, leaving no room for doubt in the minds of the pupils that asthma inhalers did not make you fat and just how important it was to follow the regimen prescribed. There were a few questions at the end, but in general it seemed that the lecture, as well as the experiences of the young girls who had ended up in hospital, might have convinced them. And Callie sincerely hoped she had cut off their supply of illicit medication, well, Callie, the police and the headmistress between them.
Having the rest of the afternoon off, Callie decided on some therapeutic shopping, or rather window shopping, and not at the usual sorts of places she would visit. Miller had called to say that the Chief Super had refused his request to set up a sting operation, so she felt she had little choice but to try and do something herself.
She wandered the back streets of Hastings, looking for small, independent shops that sold cigarettes, and she found that there were an awful lot of them. With the stock all kept in display cabinets that had been screened so that you couldn’t actually see what was in them, customers had to ask for the brand of their choice. Callie had no choice but to go in each of them and ask for the brand which had been targeted by the counterfeiters.
