Page 87 of The Dollmaker

“The name doesn’t ring a bell, but let me check with my office manager.” The doctor moved to his desk and pressed a button. “Dana, can you come in here? Great.” As he set down the receiver, he faced Sharp. “She’s the brains of the outfit. In fact, sometimes I feel like I work for her.”

“You don’t know the names of all your employees?”

“I’m a surgeon. I arrive at five a.m. and I work nonstop most of the day. I hired Dana because she’s efficient and knows how to run a tight ship.”

“What kind of surgeries do you do?”

“Dental work. Pull teeth. Root canals. Gum surgery.”

“So you’ve a full surgical setup here?”

“We have three suites that I move between in the mornings. Our patients are transferred to a recovery suite where we can keep an eye on them until they’re ready to leave.”

“You keep all your meds on-site?”

The doctor’s eyes narrowed. “Is this about drugs? Did this Frances take drugs from me?”

“We don’t know.”

A soft knock on the door and an average-height woman with full brown hair, glasses, and bright-red lips entered. “You wanted to see me?”

“Dana Coggin, this is Agent Sharp with the Virginia State Police. Do you know a woman named Frances who works here?”

She adjusted her glasses. “No. Should I?”

“A confidential informant identified Frances as a source for illegally traded prescription drugs,” Sharp said. He watched her closely for any body language cue that would tip her hand.

Dana adjusted her glasses again. “Why should I know this woman?”

“I believe Frances is an alias. Anyone in this office give you cause for concern when it came to the administration of narcotics?”

“No. Never.” She shifted her stance.

“According to one of my sources, Terrance Dillon, age eighteen, was given a bag containing these narcotics and told to deliver them to a specific address. He was killed in a city alley.”

“Were the narcotics found?” Dana asked.

“No.”

Dana’s gaze grew steady, as if she were doing her best not to look too upset. “That’s terrible, but how would I know about the kid’s death?”

Sharp noted how she tightly gripped a pen in her right hand. “We think someone in one of the offices in this building sold those drugs to Terrance’s father, Jimmy Dillon. There are only two other businesses in this building other than this one that fit the profile.”

Dana’s smile was quick, forced. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

He smelled the lie. “Who is Frances?”

She stood straighter. “I don’t know.”

The hair on his neck rose, just as it did when he had been deployed. “So if I ordered an audit of your controlled drug supplies, there’d be no issue?”

She glanced at the doctor. “There would be no problem.”

“Good,” Sharp said, reaching for his phone. “I’ll have agents here within the hour along with the Virginia Board of Pharmacy.”

The doctor shook his head. “I cannot have state agents coming into my office like this. It’s not good for business.”

“I suspect someone is using the drugs taken from this office to administer to and then kill women. So if I can track the supplier, then I’ll find the buyer, who I believe is the killer.”

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