Free Killer Moves: The 4th Jolene Jackson Mystery (Jolene Jackson Mysteries) by Paula Boyd Page A

thieving self—and evidence thereof—off the premises as fast as possible. I reached in my pocket and pulled out the vial and wadded up medicine cup. “I took these from the lab.”
    Lucille’s eyes got wide. “Oh, my goodness! That’s good! That’s real good!” she said nodding. “So, now what are you going to do? What’s your plan?”
    Plan? I had no plan. I’d just figured if they wanted to know about Doris’ blood, I did too. And then, with pills just sitting there, well, it only made sense to take them as well. I’d like to blame my mother—and probably would when I figured out how she’d manipulated me—whatever level of crime it was I’d just committed was solely on my shoulders. And, oddly, I was okay with that. The whole thing might be totally legit, but without knowing what was in the medication, I was just guessing either way. Okay, maybe I really did have a plan. “I’m going to call Jerry and see who we can get to analyze this stuff.”
    “Good! Now get my purse out of the closet. There’s a little sack in there where I’ve kept the pills they’ve tried to poke down me. Take it too.” She scowled. “Don’t be looking at me like that, Jolene. I told you what was going on here and it’s your own dumb fault you didn’t believe me.”
    I did as instructed. From a quick glance inside the brown paper bag, none of her pills looked the same as those in the little cup. “Do you know what any of these are?”
    “Of course I do. Pain pills, sleeping pills and a whole bunch of stupid pills they ordered up even when I told them I didn’t want them. I swear, if I told them my big toe itched, they’d put me on a pill for it.”
    “So what are you taking?”
    “I’m not taking anything, not one single thing, not after I figured out what was going on. I even quit my blood pressure pill that I’d been on for years because it didn’t look the same as what I’d been taking. I was a little dizzy at first, but I am just fine now. Probably never needed it in the first place since they’re always telling me how good my blood pressure is. I figure it was just like that arthritis pill that doctor pushed on me. Made me sick as a dog, and I told him if he ever tried something like that again he’d be the one needing pills for inflammation. That’s why I quit going to him, not that the next one was any better.”
    Stopping blood pressure medicine cold turkey might not have been a great plan, but she seemed okay, relatively speaking. “So what else is in here?”
    She glanced at me and scowled again. “I don’t know for sure, but there’s probably something for moods and cholesterol since everybody gets put on those, which is exactly what I told the new doctor when she wrote me up for them. I told her I wasn’t going to get the prescriptions filled and I didn’t, but that’s all beside the point because she wrote it on my record and there’s no getting it off.”
    Anger boiled up and I started to shake. If my mother were like most people, she’d have just taken whatever the doctor told her to no matter what. For once, I appreciated her being hardheaded and opinionated. It made my life a living hell, but in this case it had certainly saved hers. I folded the sack and stuffed it in my pocket. “I’ve got to get out of here,” I said, and it wasn’t because I was afraid of getting caught with the contraband. No, what scared the hell out of me was my burning desire to take on health care corruption, starting at the front desk. “I have to get out of here,” I repeated. “And I’m not leaving you.”
    “Yes, Jolene you are,” she said calmly. “I’ve already outsmarted them so they don’t bother me. Now, go on.”
    “Okay, I admit your plan to act like you weren’t doing well was probably a good one. Ditto for saving the pills, but we’re only minutes away from Doris being discovered missing, not to mention that there’s a little irregularity in the lab. They could come after