“Michelle, I think these orders are the sheet of music he’s been playing off of. If you list the audit dates for these guys, they go from the bottom up. Winchell was the first to get hit, then Stephens, then Kelly. Ingram’s dead but next, followed by Folsom. We need to put a tag on those two socials. Ingram’s record is quiet, he’s deceased, and there should be no problem there seeing any activity. Folsom’s going to be tougher; he’s working, and we’ll need to figure out how to see money coming in from new sources.”
“I’ll ask Trudy if she knows how to put a bug on an account number. When it hits, we need to go for him at the location of billing, following the payment trail. So far the department has tracked those old payments to a bank account in Arkansas. I heard them discussing that last meeting and guess there has been no activity in that account for some time now. And there’s twenty thousand dollars sitting in it undisturbed. Do you think Clinker’s on to us following him again?” Michelle mused.
“I’ve been wondering about that. I also wonder if he’s got some secret deal with some hospital to work for cash. That wouldn’t be too uncommon, but it worries me some.”
“Hadn’t thought of that, Geech. What’s this I hear you being called Paul all the time?” Michelle asked with a smile.
“That’s my first name. Paul Anderson Geech. Been running on Geech since high school, though.”
“I like Paul better, but Geech it is. I think we’re almost done here. What’s your next move? I’m going back to LA next week, you heard that I’m sure. I’m going for a few weeks vacation with Colin and the kids. Then I guess it is back in the local fraud section. Are you sticking around here? It seems like we’re going to be pretty quiet while we look for other activity on these socials. Might get another assignment around here, but I’m not sure what Doreveck worked out with the bureau for protracted stay here.”
“Door told me I’m a federal employee until they turn me over, so they can do with me as they see fit. Tony approached me and asked if I would start an office here for investigation of criminal credentialing activity. He said he wanted you to run it and pitched you last week. Are you sure going back to LA is a good idea?”
“I’m going to ask Doreveck to pull me back in until the trail heats up here. Geech, Tony told you that he approached me for that job, and I told him I needed to be with my husband in LA. He said he’d approach you, but not to say anything because he didn’t want you to feel like you were the second pick. How about your girlfriend? She still interested after you have been gone so long?” Michelle asked as she cleaned up her workstation.
“No worries, I don’t feel I am the second pick. I look forward to the assignment. Tony has a pretty aggressive course for me to pull next two weeks, some credentialing seminar I’m supposed to go as a geek from LA that’s been hired as a credentials manager. Then I’m off to Alaska. My gal’s been out twice for weekends. We went up in the arch, that’s a hoot. We went to a few tourist spots over in Illinois. Mostly we’re just holding on until this settles down, but I may decide to try a transfer here. They’ve offered me permanent status here. I’m not sure how that would work.”
“I’d miss you if you take the job, Geech. Anyway, I’ll be back out here for two weeks next month to wrap up the work, we’ll talk then.”
Geech stood and held the copies of orders, then said, “If it’s OK with you, I’ll ask Trudy how to tag these numbers.”
“Sure, that would be a helpful step. Will you be back down soon? Michelle asked. “I get the sense that you rather like this FBI scene.”
“Yeah, I do but I’m sure I’ll be back while you are cleaning up the shop. Guess I’ll see you in three weeks.
“OK, kiddo, hi to Colin and the kids. See you then.”
Chapter 35
Matsu Valley Hospital
Geech got connections on the midnight flight for Anchorage out of Minneapolis. He slept for portions of the flight, but also stared out the window and wondered what was below him for much of the flight. He saw isolated light outposts with hundreds of miles of darkness, and it was finally getting into the dawn as he approached Anchorage. Mountains and valleys beyond imagination ran for hundreds of miles before they began their descent into Anchorage.
The Anchorage airport was a museum of aviation history, only the airplanes were not only operational, but also working for their keep. Airplanes from every era of aviation seemed to be parked somewhere on the tarmac.
Geech noted a sign in the airport as he was walking to claim his baggage. The sign said he had a right to ask his bush pilot to see his license and the airworthiness entry on the airplane logbooks, a copy of the pilot’s recent physical as well as his flight log. Geech thought he further understood those warnings after having looked at some of the smaller airplanes in the parking area as they drove away from the terminal.
Anchorage was disappointing. Geech had thought it was going to be bustling and modern, but found it dirty and old. The homeless and itinerant population seemed substantial, the sun up forever, it seemed, and there were more intoxicated people along the streets than he had ever imagined.
The hospital he was interested in was outside the city of Anchorage some distance. It was located in the Matsu Valley, in Palmer, Alaska. The hospital was called The Matsu Valley Hospital, and to get to it, Geech rented a car and headed out to the hospital the following morning.
Palmer was a nice town. There was a frontier feeling to the place. Bars stood next to guide services and garages. There were several small malls, and generally a nice feeling about the town.
The Matus Valley Hospital was new and well maintained. Oil money had recently flowed through the state and it showed in the community. Everything was either pre-oil boom and run down, or post oil money and modern., His appointment was not for another hour, so he had coffee in one of the many coffee shops in the area. The number of young people was immediately impressive, as was any number of small airplanes operating about the area.
Dr. Tim Reynolds was the chief of the medical staff, and Geech had an appointment at 1:00 pm. The hospital administrator was also invited, and when Geech arrived, he was escorted to the office that indicated it belonged to the hospital administrator. Inside were seated three middle-aged men. One had a suit on, and the other two wore blue jeans and well-cut cotton shirts. Geech extended his hand to the man in the suit and said, “Paul Geech, FBI.”
“Hello, Paul. I am Sam Tennison, and this is Dr. Steve Slobeck, our current chief of the medical staff,” Sam said as he pointed to one of the blue-jean-clad individuals. “This is Dr. Reynolds, the chief as of two weeks ago, finishing his year-long tour just before you called.”
Geech shook both physicians’ hands and noted they both had stethoscopes wrapped around their neck, and decided that the uniform of the day seemed to be casual. Both physicians seemed tense and tired. Their shirt pockets were festooned with pens and paper, each had a cell phone and pager affixed to a hip.
“Good to meet you,” Geech began. “I do appreciate you meeting me here. I will ask a few preliminaries, and I will also need to have you three sign a statement that indicates your knowledge that this is as yet to be discoverable, which means we can speak freely here, but that I must ask that until you hear from us directly, the topic of our discussion must remain strictly confidential.”
Dr. Reynolds sat on the window shelf while Steve Slobeck took a comfortable chair.
“Mr. Geech, your communication stated simply to be here, and I need to know what it is about, because we are in Alaska, and if there is anything we have plenty of here, it is lawyers, and if I smell like it will be necessary, I will have my lawyer here to assist me in our inquiry. Please tell me what it is you have for us,” Dr. Slobeck stated.
“I am sorry. You must sign the statements before I begin. The next step would be to depose you for your statements, if this does not work. I can tell you that none of you are the subject of my being here, and if due process has been accomplished in your actions as chief of the me
dical staff, there are no aspects of this that will affect you personally,” Geech said as he passed out the statements. Dr. Reynolds signed, Dr. Slobeck handed his back.
“If I am not directly involved, I’m not signing,” Dr. Slobeck said as he stood to leave.
“Were you the medical director that oversaw credentialing for the last year?” Geech asked.
“Like Mr. Tennison said, I took over two weeks ago. Does this involve me?”
“Not likely, presently. Were you on the Credentials Committee of this hospital in the last two years?” Geech asked.
Dr. Slobeck looked at Dr. Reynolds and nodded affirmatively.
“Then I suggest you get a lawyer, if you like. I am fine with that option as well. Do you have a hospital-retained attorney, Mr. Tennison?” Geech asked.
“He’s fishing, as is most of the peninsula. I can get one in here from his firm, though.”
Small talk ensued until a lawyer arrived and was introduced.
“Mr. Geech, this is Mazillo Surge, our alternate attorney. He would like to ask some questions,” Tennison said.
“Mr. Surge, may we have a few minutes alone?” Geech asked, having had too much to do with lawyers recently.
“Certainly,” Mazillo said. “Sam, can we use an office around here?”
“I can get one next door,” Tennison said as he opened a door leading to another small suite. “Will this suffice?”
Geech smiled and said, “I’m sure it will. Mr. Surge, after you.”
Mr. Surge walked into the room and held the door for Geech. Geech entered and turned to Mazillo. “Mr. Surge, this is FBI business, and I must ask you to sign a statement of confidentiality, a gag order if you will. Are you willing to do that?”
“Certainly,” Mr. Surge said as he pulled a pen from his pocket.
Twenty minutes later Mazillo and Geech stepped from the small office, and Mr. Surge turned to Dr. Slobeck and said, “Steve, this is important. I suggest you sign. You may be involved. Dr. Reynolds, you may be involved from activities of the last year, and have already signed. I suggest that I stay as well, I’m in this too. Sam, I need the credentialing minutes for the last five years please, after you hear what Mr. Geech has to say.”
All hands signed the gag order, and turned attentively to Geech.
“OK, guys, I am involved in an investigation for the last ten years of a physician. This physician’s name is Bishell. He was a resident of a thoracic surgery residency in Los Angeles when a young woman happened to find something unusual at a homicide. This young lady is now on the FBI team searching for Dr. Bishell. We’re tracking through Medicare billing that led us to believe he has been working in this hospital. His last known name is Ballows, and he was licensed in several states before the trail led up here. We suspect he has assumed someone’s identity for billing purposes and is working for salary here. Do you know the name Ballows, Dr. Reynolds?” Geech asked.
Dr. Reynolds sat back and folded his hands into a double fist, with the two index fingers extending up to his lip. He looked to the others in the room before turning to Geech. “I do recall that we have used a physician here that goes by that name. Dr. Ballows is a thoracic trauma surgeon that we have had on the staff for several brief tours of weeks to a month or so. He will cover for our surgeon and the last time he was here seems like a few months ago. I have known he was working here for at least year, since I came on as chief of the medical staff. The last time I worked with him was several months ago when I assisted a patient that had been shot in an argument at a local bar.”
Geech looked into his small brief case and found Bishell’s picture. “This is the last known picture, and if you folks identify this person as Dr. Ballows, I would appreciate any pictures you might have of him.”
“That’s him, that’s Ballows,” Dr. Reynolds said. “What has he done?”
The picture was passed around and Geech looked at Dr. Slobeck and said, “Dr. Slobeck, you are the chief of the medical staff, and at this point you come in. Dr. Reynolds has identified a fugitive of justice for aggravated assault on at least twenty counts. Dr. Reynolds, was the patient you worked with Dr. Bishell, or Ballows, a gunshot, middle-aged male, one side through and through?” Geech asked.
“That’s it. You’re telling me Ballows, or Bishell, did that himself?” Dr. Reynolds asked incredulously.
“That has been his pattern while he was a resident. Mr. Tennison, can you find out if Dr. Ballows is scheduled to return?” Geech asked.
“I can tell you the answer there. He tenured resignation last month and left on seemingly pretty happy grounds. We paid him well for salaried weekend work, and billing has been slow because of the season, most of the staff likes to run this time of year, and it is hard to get a lot done. I should have some sort of contact numbers for him.”
“If I am correct that contact will be an agency that has only one client for locums work, and that is Dr. Ballows, as he seems to advertise himself, do the hiring and get in and out. Seems that he’s done this in several states, but I still would like the information you have. Dr. Slobeck, do you have any pattern of unusual thoracic injuries over the time Dr. Ballows worked here?” Geech asked.
“I would really have to look into that, I don’t have that information on the top of my head. Seems like we get all sort and manner of injury here, and it would not stand out too much if we had several. We’re a hunting paradise here and you can only imagine what we get here for injuries. I’ll look into it. I know one thing; he was a typical high-power, high-roller surgeon, a royal pain in the ass to work with. I’m not surprised to hear he is in trouble, and not surprised if he is guilty. He worked out of the clinic wing here. I can show you his office, if you would like. I think we’re letting student doctors work out of there, so the place may be a mess.”
“That would be fine. I will need to look at the credentialing data for Dr. Ballows, and if necessary, I can produce the necessary paperwork for getting a copy of the material he supplied the hospital.”
Mr. Surge suggested, “That would be good of you if you were to get the warrants for our confidential process. I must ask what liability the hospital faces here.”
“Well, Mr. Surge, first as you know, we’ll have to determine the process for granting Dr. Ballows his license. Then we’ll have to determine if due steps and standards were kept for granting him privileges here in this hospital. If the answer to that question is affirmative, there will be no charges to Valley Hospital. Next question is whether there will be challenges or charges by the patients to which he provided services. Those are local issues. My only issue is determining the steps accomplished in granting him privileges.”
“I can tell you this,” Mr. Tennison suggested. “We granted privileges on his having privileges at Anchorage Memorial Hospital.”
“Mr. Tennison, how did you acquire the information that he was in good standing and privileged,” Geech asked.
“We’ll have to bring in the professional services secretary and get her gagged to find that out,” Tennison said.
“Never mind. I can tell you how it was done. Dr. Bishell could have been able to intercept your query to Anchorage Memorial posing as a postman. Then he was able to insert his reply, again, posing as a postman. You’ll have to talk to your staff and find out how he did that, but I’ll bet that is how he did it. That was how he got licenses in Missouri and Indiana several years ago. May I ask what his salary was for his work?” Geech asked to Mr. Tennison.
Tennison rubbed his head and said, “I believe we paid him twenty thousand dollars for ten days on five occasions. Why?”
“It gives me an idea of how long he’ll go underground, working on his next credentials. OK, Dr. Slobeck, would you please show me his office? Mr. Tennison, I’ll try to have a warrant for the credentialing activity to Mr. Surge in twenty-four hours, and you may forward those data to me in St. Louis. Do any of you recall anything else about Dr. Ballows that you think I ought to know?” Geech asked.
�
�He was always around. You would find him in the halls at two in the morning and at six at night, same smile and same jolly talk. He never left the place when he was here. Got on my nerves, but locums guys do that sort of stuff. Well, I guess I’ll have to say that’s all I recall,” Dr. Reynolds said. “Yeah, there’s one more thing. My clinic nurse works weekend on-call as a circulating nurse for the operating room. She tells me that this Ballows had a very unusual habit of wanting to see the bullet he’d taken out and make a sort of ceremonial drop of it into a stainless steel basin after the case was closed. Made them keep the bullet in a surgical tray until he closed so he could look at it and do that silly drop into the tray. Said he liked the sound, sounded like Doc Holiday on Gunsmoke. My nurse thought that was a bit peculiar.”
Dr. Slobeck and Mr. Tennison both shook their heads and had nothing to add.
“OK. I apologize about taking so much time, and I really appreciate the effort you have made to help me. That dropping the bullet in the basin was something that got him the nickname of ‘Clinker’ in our early investigation. I believe this may stretch out some years now, and I must remind you of the confidentiality rule, the gag orders you have signed. This is a very dangerous man, and he is still at large. At this point, I suspect he still thinks he’s a lot smarter than we are, but I would like him to continue thinking that way as we do get smarter. There are several things I have not been at liberty to discuss concerning the case, and next time he surfaces, we should be on his butt in days if he keeps the same pattern. Dr. Slobeck, his office please.”
Geech walked with Dr. Slobeck as they left the area of the administration section of the hospital.
“How long have you been up here, Dr. Slobeck? Geech asked.
“I am from Unalakleet, up the coast from here a good many miles. I am the son of one of the few Russian Orthodox ministers left on the lands, and he is getting old. I do have a fair command of Russian, thanks to him,” Dr. Slobeck said. “Mr. Geech, I apologize if I was a bit stuffy back there. We do not get many FBI agents here, and quite frankly, we have some degree of intimidation by visits from people outside of our government. Here we are,” Dr. Slobeck said as they came through the back door into a clinic.
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