P is for Peril (41 page)

“Last Monday, I went over to St. Terry's and talked with Penelope Delacorte. Your name came up so I thought maybe you could fill in some blanks. May I call you Tina?” I asked, interrupting myself.

She lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug, which I took as assent. “I know you and Ms. Delacorte left Pacific Meadows at about the same time. She said the choices here were pretty limited in the health care field. Have you found another job?” I hoped to give the impression of a long, friendly chat between Ms. Delacorte and me instead of the one we'd actually had.

“I'm still looking. I'm collecting unemployment checks until my benefits run out.” Her eyes were a pale gray, her manner flat.

“How long did you work for them?”

“Fifteen years.”

“Doing what?”

“Front office. I was hired as a file clerk and worked my way up. Nights, I put myself through school and finally got my degree.”

“In what?”

“Hospital Administration and Finance, which sounds more impressive than it is. I've always been more attracted to the accounting end of the business than to management, so I was happy where I was . . . more or less.”

“Could I ask you some questions about Pacific Meadows?”

“Sure. I don't work there anymore and I have nothing to hide.”

“Who owned the building before Glazer and Broadus?”

“A company called Silver Age Enterprises. I never knew the owner's name. There might have been more than one. Before that, there was another company called the Endeavor Group.”

I reached into my handbag and took out a little spiral-bound notebook with a pencil tucked in the coil. I made a note of the two names. “With Silver Age, was the place owned and operated by the same people or were those two functions kept separate?”

“They were separate. The Medicare and Medicaid programs were enacted in the '60s and neither had much provision for fraud prevention.The regulations about arm's-length ownership and operations probably didn't come until the late '70s, when Congress passed legislation establishing fraud control units . . . for all the good that did. You have no idea how many different agencies go after these guys: the Office of Inspector General, the civil and criminal divisions of the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, HHS, HCFA, and MFCU—the Medicare Fraud Control Units. Doesn't deter the fraudsters. Cheaters love rules and regulations. Every time you put up a barrier, they figure out a way around it. One of the many challenges of the entrepreneurial spirit,” she added drily. “I saw Pacific Meadows change hands three times and the price came close to doubling with each of those transactions.”

I made another note, thinking about ways to check out the dollar figures on those deals. “Did you work for Endeavor or Silver Age?”

“Actually, I think Silver Age was a subsidiary of Endeavor. The head of Endeavor was a woman named Peabody. She used to run all her personal expenses through our accounts payable. She'd renovate her house and write it off to Pacific Meadows as ‘maintenance and repairs. ' Or she'd put in new draperies at home and claim she'd had them installed in all the patients' rooms. Groceries, utility bills, travel and entertainment—she never missed a trick.”

“Isn't that illegal?”

“Mostly. Some of it was probably legitimate, but a lot was fraudulent. I called a few items to the administrator's attention, but he told me, in effect, I'd better mind my own business. He said the company accountant routinely reviewed the books and everything was okay. I knew if I pressed the point, I'd have been out the door right then. It seemed easier to shut my mouth. When Silver Age came in, someone else handled the books for a while. Then he got fired and I took over again. There was probably some tinkering going on at that point, but I never figured out what it was.”

“Why didn't you quit and find another job?”

“I loved the work.”

“You could have loved the same work somewhere else, couldn't you?”

“True, but I got stubborn. I figured one day they'd crash and burn and I'd be there to watch, maybe throw additional fuel on the fire.”

“Did anything change when Dr. Purcell arrived on the scene?”

“Not the first couple of months. Then I noticed an increase in the number of charge slips for things like ambulance service and physical therapy, portable X-ray equipment, wheelchairs. I started keeping notes and then I wrote a memo to Mr. Harrington, the head of the billing department at Genesis. That was a mistake as it turned out, but I didn't care. He never said as much, but I'm sure he didn't appreciate the effort because it put him on the spot.”

“You were a regular troublemaker.”

“I sincerely hope so.”

“So even before the audit, they were unhappy with you.”

She nodded and said, “Very. They let some time pass and then they fired me. Dr. Purcell tried to intervene, but he had no power and he was overruled. Penelope got upset and she quit in a huff, which really worked in their favor. It made it look like we were guilty of wrongdoing and Genesis was cleaning house. That still gave them Dr. Purcell as a fire wall if the MFCU investigation proceeded . . .”

“Which it did.”

“Oh, yes. They're not going to give up until they nail this one down.”

“As I remember it, Joel told me Genesis was part of a group called Millennium Health Care.”

“It is, but my guess is that some, if not all, of those companies are shell corporations, set up to conceal the real ownership.”

“As in what?”

“Company A, owned by Mr. Smith, buys a residential nursing home. Smith sets up a phony company with a slate of officers who appearto be unconnected to him. His company, A, sells the facility to this second company—also his—at a greatly inflated price, effectively converting the profits into capital gains . . .”

“Which are taxed at a lower rate,” I said.

“Right. The second company can use the trumped-up value of the newly purchased facility as collateral for new loans. Meanwhile, bogus company C comes along and leases the building and grounds from the ‘new' owner with a substantial boost in rents.”

I held a hand up. “Hang on a minute.” I ran the chronology back through my mind, trying to figure out what had caught my attention while she was laying it out to me. It wasn't anything she said; it was something I'd been wondering since I'd arrived at her door. “The night he disappeared, Dr. Purcell left Pacific Meadows at nine o'clock. Did he, by any chance, stop by to talk to you?”

She paused so long I didn't think she'd answer me. “Yes.”

“About what?”

“He told me he had a meeting scheduled with the FBI. He thought he knew what was going on and who was behind it, namely Harvey and Joel.”

“But those two wouldn't have been in any jeopardy, would they? I mean, from what I was told, they had nothing to do with the day-to-day running of Pacific Meadows. The real fiddle must have come from Genesis, since the Medicare checks were sent to them.”

“There may be more of a connection than you think. Dr. Purcell must have gotten greedy because he began to sign off on charges he knew were fraudulent: X-ray and ambulance services among them. He probably took kickbacks for those. The FBI put the squeeze on him and that's why he agreed to help.”

“But what would be the point of silencing him? There must be plenty of other people who know about the scam. You, for one.”

“I never had any real authority. Now that he's gone, they can blame it all on him.”

“Did he tell anyone else what he knew?”

“He never said so if he did.”

“But why come to you? I gather you didn't even know him that well.”

“He wanted my help. He figured I had nothing to lose.”

“Do you think he told Joel and Harvey what he was up to?”

“Not if he was smart. I know he had lunch with Joel that day, but he didn't say anything else about it to me.”

“I don't get it. With all these agencies at work, how come they haven't been caught?”

She shrugged. “Most of what they submit is legitimate and where the figures are false, everything else looks good. They use standard diagnoses and standard treatments. They're careful not to cross the line in any obvious way. It's like playing the float. They know how far they can push the system before the flags go up.”

“But the flags did go up. Any idea why?”

“Someone must have phoned in a complaint because I talked to the fraud investigator last week and most of what I told him he already had in his files.”

The phony bills for Klotilde had to be part of the scheme. “I've got some information that should be of help and I'd be happy to do a paper search early in the week if there's time.”

“That'd be great. I'll be talking to him again and I can pass it on.”

“Something else I'm unclear on. Why take the chance on billing items out to someone deceased?”

“Listen, you're dealing with the local, state, and federal governments. You get caught, you say ‘Oops' and give the money back. You think the government would prosecute for a couple hundred dollars' worth of ‘errors'?”

“Yeah, right. What's the story on Harvey Broadus and nurse what's-her-name . . . Pepper Gray?”

“He left his wife, Celine, for her and then I heard he went back.”

I studied her carefully, wondering if she'd answer the question that had just come to mind. “Were you the one who phoned in the complaint to Medicare?”

“Someone else did that.”

“Who?”

“I'm not sure, but I suspect she did.”

“Pepper?”

“Yes.”

“Pepper was the one who dimed them out?”

“Well, think about it. When Harvey broke off their relationship, she was in the perfect position to blow the whistle on them. I noticed her name or initials showed up most frequently on charges for questionable goods or services. She probably dummied up the slips from the floor. Why should she go on protecting him once he dumped her?”

“Well, they're certainly tight now.”

“Really. That surprises me. Imagine the bind that puts her in if he finds out what she's done . . .” She let the thought trail, punctuated by a nearly imperceptible smile.

On my way home, I stopped by the office to pick up some index cards. I had two fresh packs in my desk drawer and I wanted to transfer the notes I'd managed to scribble in my spiral-bound notebook. I drove down Dave Levine as far as Capillo, where I made a left. Passing State Street, I could see that downtown Santa Teresa was deserted in the rain. It was after six P.M. on a Saturday and most retail stores had closed. Their windows were lighted, but the interiors were dim, sporting just enough wattage to foil the roving bands of burglars. I turned into the driveway running under Lonnie's building and parked in the narrow lot beyond.

I got out and locked my car door. Over the back wall, I could see lights coming from the cottage across the alleyway. I was unable to resist looking at the office space I'd leased one short week ago. The parking lot was empty: no sign of Tommy's pickup truck or his little red Porsche. The upper shutters along the right side of the one-story building were open, but the lowers had been closed. I saw a shadow intersect the light. Maybe Richard was showing the office to someone new.

I turned away from the sight, knowing I was well out of it. What was done was done and there was no point entertaining regrets. I counted myself lucky Mariah Talbot had showed up when she did. Otherwise, I'd be renting from a couple of stone-cold killers. I crossed Lonnie's lot and trotted up the stairs to the third floor. I let myself into the law offices, which were lighted but empty. I went down the silent inner corridor and unlocked my office door.

I crossed to my desk, opened the bottom drawer, and picked up the two packs of blank index cards still in their cellophane wrap. I opened one and began to make notes. For the next hour, I felt safe, absorbed in my work. At 7:15 I put a rubber band around my note cards and tucked them in my handbag along with the extra pack of blank cards.

I locked the office and let myself out again, trotting down the outside stairs. At the first turn, I glanced out through the opening in the stairwell. It's not a window in any true sense of the word, just a slot, one foot wide and maybe two feet high, intended to help with ventilation. From the second floor, I had a clear view across the alleyway to the rear of the Heveners' cottage. The back door now stood wide open. In the office to the right (which I still thought of as mine) the shutters stood open. The light was on, but the window now had the blank look of unoccupied space. Something seemed off, but I wasn't quite sure what it was. Maybe someone had gone out for a moment, leaving the backdoor open for convenience. Whatever it was, I had no intention of going over there to snoop around.

I continued down the stairs and crossed the small parking lot to my car. I drove home by way of the supermarket, stopping long enough to pick up toilet paper, wine, milk, bread, eggs, Kleenex, and a tall stack of frozen entrées. Once in my neighborhood, I was forced to park a block and a half away, which annoyed me no end. With my bag and two loads of groceries, I had to struggle to let myself in the gate. Halfway across the patio, I caught a flash of movement to my right and someone stepped out of the dark. I jumped half a foot, barely managing to suppress a scream as I dropped one grocery bag and clutched at the other one. Tommy Hevener stood there, hands in his raincoat pockets. “Hey.”

“Goddamn it! Don't do that! What are you doing here?”

“Let's talk.”