Vault holds what looks like different meds in green bottles. Also vials. All unknown substances. Color coded and numbered. Saw one patient today. Leaving for a car show in Vegas for the next two days. O&O (over and out).

Avery was pleased with what he had discovered. Looked like a pill mill, but where were they coming from? That would probably be a riddle for Charles and the sisters to unravel. Meanwhile, he would scope out the house and the garage. Car show. Now it was starting to come together. Just how many and how expensive? would be the next questions.

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Pinewood

Returning to the war room, all the women saluted Lady Justice, Charlotte included.

Charles checked to see if any additional information had come in. “Splendid. More intel.” Charles beamed. “Avery got a look inside the vault. Hundreds of boxes, all of which contained green bottles.” He turned the monitor so everyone could see.

“That’s just what mine look like!” Charlotte flinched in horror as Myra took her hand.

“And from the lab results, we have a pretty good idea what’s in all those bottles,” Nikki added. “Now the question that needs to be answered is, Where are the drugs coming from? Since these doctors are not licensed to practice where they have set up shop, these drugs could not have been obtained from pharmaceutical companies. That means they must be bootlegged.”

“Indeed,” Charles noted. “Avery also reported that he got a glimpse of what’s in Steinwood’s garage. He took a quick photo as Steinwood was leaving in his Jaguar. In the photo, you can see the partial hood of a Porsche nine-eleven and the Lamborghini insignia on another car. And Steinwood is heading to Las Vegas for a car show.”

Nikki checked her laptop to see if any more information had come in about the doctors’ holdings or the company itself. “Woo-hoo! Got some background info,” Nikki interjected. “The company is a limited partnership.”

“Please excuse my naïveté, but can you explain what that means? I’m just a children’s book author.” Charlotte giggled nervously.

“There are two classes of partnerships—general and limited. In a limited partnership, the partners’ assets are protected, in that their liability cannot exceed what they initially invested. The business itself does not pay income tax. Each partner has to file an individual tax return. However, the partnership itself must be registered with the state in which it conducts business. That brings me to this next bit of information. The Live-Life-Long paperwork states that it is a consulting business. There is no mention of alternative medicine. That keeps them off the FDA’s radar,” Nikki explained.

“Very clever men,” Myra said thoughtfully. “Do we know what each of the men invested?”

“Not yet. We’re working on banking records now.”

“Banking records? You can do that?” Charlotte was astonished.

“Let’s just say we have ways to get the information we need,” Nikki said.