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“Do you think the cord could have been bought here?”
“I thought about it, but I couldn’t see it.”
“Good to know,” I said. “Thanks for finding me the right flashlight.”
“Anytime,” Victor said. “Always a pleasure to have a pretty young lady in the store.”
“He’s charming,” Lula said, buckling herself into the Buick. “It’s a shame he’s all yellow and wrinkled. Now where we going?”
“Gene’s Pharmacy,” I said. “It’s at the corner of Broad and Mayweather.”
SIXTEEN
I PARKED IN the small lot, and Lula and I walked through the drugstore to the counter where prescriptions were filled. There was a time when Gene himself was back there counting out pills, but that time was long gone. Now Gene was living the good life in a retirement community in Scottsdale, and his daughter Sue was running the pharmacy. I’d gone to school with Sue’s little sister, and I’d briefly dated her brother.
“Hey, look who’s here,” Sue said. “Haven’t seen you in a while. How’s it going? How’s Joe doing?”
“Joe’s managing,” I said. “He’s trying to stay away from the pain pills. He said he couldn’t feel his fingertips or his tongue.”
Sue nodded. “He was prescribed some heavy-duty stuff.” She put a label on a little plastic vial and looked back at me. “What can I do for you?”
“I’m doing some legwork for a friend, looking into the Dumpster murders. I’m guessing the women all shopped here.”
“You guess right.”
“Do you have any thoughts on this?”
“Obviously they came here because we were part of the discount program. Even if their meds were paid for by insurance they still used the discount for other stuff. Cosmetics, magazines, over-the-counter drugs.”
“Did you know any of them? Did they come in alone? Were they always here on a certain day?”
“I knew Lois Fratelli. She lived a short distance from my parents’ house. The others were faces in a crowd. When something as horrific as a murder happens you look back and realize the victim was a customer, but beyond that I don’t have anything.” She went to her computer. “Let me check something.”
Lula wandered off to look at magazines, and I waited for Sue.
“Here it is,” Sue said. “Saturday. With the exception of Lois Fratelli, they all came in on a Saturday. I guess they could have come in on other days too, but they always filled their prescriptions on a Saturday.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I appreciate the help.”
Lula came back to the Buick with a copy of People magazine and some new lip gloss. “I’m thinking this investigating and detecting business is better than the bounty hunting business,” she said. “So far no one’s shot at us today. And we’re talking to people that don’t hate us.”
“True, but the day isn’t over.”
“So what else is on the list?”
Cluck-in-a-Bucket was on the discount list, but I knew it would be a waste of time. The staff was transient and there was no room for personal contact beyond the thirty seconds it took to order a Clucky Burger and fries. The multiplex was on the list. Another waste of time. Ironically, the funeral home on Hamilton was also on the list.
“We’re done,” I said to Lula.
“Just as well,” Lula said. “It’s almost lunchtime, and I only work half day on Saturday unless there’s something special going on. I got an appointment with Jolene for a manicure, and then I’m changing my hair color, being that pink was yesterday.”
“What’s tomorrow?”
“I’m feeling sparkly. I gotta talk to Latisha about it. She’s my colorist.”
I looked in the rearview mirror at my hair. It was brown.
“I like to coordinate my hair and my nails,” Lula said. “I think of them as accessories, and you know how I feel about the importance of correctly accessorizing.”
