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"Yes"

"You want to step back here, please? We’re swa, but John says he’ll talk to you while he works, if that’s all right"

"That’s fine Thanks"

She lifted a hinged portion of the counter, holding it for me while I ducked underneath and came up in a narrow alleyway The counter on this side was lined with machinery: two computer monitors, a typewriter, a label e bins below the counter were filled with empty translucent plastic pill vials Ancillary labels on paper rolls were hung in a row, stickers cautioning the recipient: SHAKE WELL; THIS RX CANNOT BE REFILLED; WILL CAUSE DISCOLORATION OF URINE OR FECES; EXTERNAL USE ONLY; and DO NOT FREEZE On the right were the drug bays, floor-to-ceiling shelves stocked with antibiotics, liquids, topical ointed alphabetically I had, within easy reach, the cure for most of life’s ills: depression, pain, tenderness, apathy, insomnia, heartburn, fever, infection, obsession, and dizziness, excitability, seizures, histrionics, reht’s sleep, what I needed were uppers, but it see

I’d expected John Clemson to look like his father, but he couldn’t have been more different He was tall and lean, with a thatch of dark hair His face, in profile, was thin and lined, his cheeks sunken, cheekbones proe, but he had a worn air about him, an aura of weariness, ill health, or despair He made no eye contact, his attention fixed on the task in front of hi pills, by fives, across the surface of a counting tray With a rattle, he tu them into an empty plastic vial, which he sealed with a child-proof cap He affixed a label, set the vial aside, and started again, working with the sa, slender fingers I wondered if his hands would smell of PhisoDer," he said ht ht or ht not reveal

"I take it your father called Howthe murder of Jean Timberlake at his request I know, of course, that he was hired to represent Bailey Fowler I don’t knohat you ith me"

"You re a littleto press "Can you tell me about your relationship with her?"

His htly "My relationship?"

"So out at the Baptist church As I understand it, you were a classht maybe the two of you developed a friendship"

"Jean didn’t have friends She had conquests"

"Were you one?"

A bemused smile "No"