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eBook Category: Mystery/Crime
eBook Description: Did pharmacist Ruthie Kantor Morris make a fatal mistake in filling a teenage girl's prescription or did someone else substitute the blood-thinning medication? Convinced she made no error, the Arizona pharmacist must discover what really happened to Amy Brookman in order to restore her professional reputation. As the pharmacist uncovers myriad Brookman family secrets while trying to prove that she didn't fill a deadly prescription, she finds herself in danger of losing her own life. [Book 3 of the Rx Series]

eBook Publisher: Clocktower Books and Far Sector SFFH (magazine), Published: Avon, 1997
Fictionwise Release Date: September 2002

This eBook is part of the following series:

• Renee Horowitz's Rx Series

36 Reader Ratings:

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: eReader (PDB) [221 KB] , ePub (EPUB) [171 KB] , Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [194 KB] , Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [670 KB] , Palm Doc (PDB) [217 KB] , Microsoft Reader (LIT) [181 KB] , Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [232 KB] , hiebook (KML) [497 KB] , Sony Reader (LRF) [242 KB] , iSilo (PDB) [178 KB] , Mobipocket (PRC) [224 KB] , Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [253 KB] , OEBFF Format (IMP) [290 KB]
Words: 66000
Reading time: 188-264 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Portable Document Format (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"Pharmacy details are realistic and hold the reader's attention."--Mystery Time

The last people in line were the teenager I'd noticed before and her dour companion. The younger woman handed me prescriptions for an antibiotic, a blood clotting agent, and a pain pill. I felt a surge of sympathy, knowing she'd probably just had an abortion.

Although the young woman wasn't alone, she was the kind of patient I worried about. She was wearing jeans and a pink T-shirt that advertised a popular amusement park. A typical teen at first glance, but her eyes were bloodshot with dark smudges below, and she seemed to be making an effort to hold herself together. She was thin enough to appear emaciated, and her face was pale. I looked at the first script again. Her name was Amy Brookman. She was sixteen.

"It'll take about ten minutes," I said.

"Okay."

"Can you make it faster?" the older woman demanded. Her voice was deep, but I couldn't tell whether it was an emotional huskiness or her natural tone. She was about sixty, with well-shaped features and short white hair. I thought she looked too old to have a teenage daughter. Neatly dressed in a black and white herringbone suit and crisp white blouse, she seemed to have just stepped out of one of the office buildings across the street from Food Go. I wondered if Amy had been left to face the surgery alone while mother went to work. That was unfair, I reminded myself. Not everyone could afford to lose a day's salary.

Usually, I hate it when people try to rush me. They can't really think I take my time deliberately. Amy, however, looked as if she couldn't stand up much longer, so I buried my annoyance.

"I'll do my best," I answered mildly and moved over to the computer. While the labels for the three scripts were printing, I pulled the bottles from the shelves and counted out the dosages. She was getting the usual--10 Doxycycline, the antibiotic, to be taken one capsule twice a day. Then, her 20 Vicodin pain pills for the cramps. I used the generic here to save her money. And, finally, the 12 Methergine to control the bleeding.

Taking the labels from the printer, I checked each vial before labeling them. Amy and the older woman hadn't moved or spoken to each other. I reached across the pharmacy window and showed each vial, in turn, to Amy before bagging them. "The blue capsules, the Doxycyclines, are the antibiotic. You have to take one capsule twice a day for five days. Be sure to take them all." I paused a moment and added in my most professional tone, "That's very important."

She wasn't meeting my eyes, and I wondered how much patient counseling was getting through. At least her mother seemed to be listening.

"The purple ones are to stop the bleeding," I continued. "Take one tablet four times a day for three days. Be sure to take them until they're all gone, too."

Now she looked at me. I could see the sudden realization that I knew what her medications were for.

"The last ones, the white tablets are for pain," I said, keeping my voice as detached as possible. "Take one every four hours if you need them. That will help with the cramps."

"Did you understand, dear?" The husky voice was solicitous, and I was glad to see the girl's mother was supportive. Sometimes when a teenager is involved, the mothers humiliate their daughters by berating them right in front of me and any other customers who might be listening. And when boyfriends or husbands accompany the young women, their attitudes range from tenderness to abusiveness.

"Yes, Auntie."

Well, I had guessed wrong. As they left the pharmacy area, I wondered momentarily where her mother was. I would never know the girl's story, but she seemed so fragile that my heart went out to her. Both telephones in the pharmacy began to ring just then, and I forgot all about Amy. By the time I took care of the call-ins, more customers were at the window. The next prescription I filled was for Clomid, a fertility pill, but I was too busy to reflect on life's ironies.

...

My memory of Amy Brookman revived with an unexpected jolt two days later when I recognized her picture under the headline, "TEEN DIES FOLLOWING ABORTION." Either stories of local interest were scarce that day or the newspaper was using scare tactics to support its anti-abortion stand and its campaign against teenage pregnancies. In any case, I stared at the photo. Amy looked even younger than she had in person. Perhaps it was an old picture. She wasn't smiling but had the same serious expression I remembered.