Shoot Not to Kill

by Daniel L Stephenson

  Chapter 41

  Two Years Later

  Michelle found her way to a meeting that consisted of several attorneys and investigators from the Los Angeles Department of Commercial Fraud. She sat listening to yet another presentation. This one was creatively different as the agency was an Internet marriage service purporting to line prospective brides up for a fee. She idly thought of Geech, gone now these several years to the FBI, having taken a permanent transfer. He had been offered the job after he tracked Clinker to a little town in Alaska and nearly got himself killed.

  The attorneys finished their prospectus of the case and turned it over to the department. Their investigators slugged through their process of investigation, and finally Michelle was able to discuss what she had learned from interviewing several of the victims. In this case, they were hapless and loveless males that were efficiently cleansed of several thousand dollars each.

  When she finished, she saw someone had brought her a note. It was addressed to Michelle Lumen.

  Michelle opened the note and was surprised to see it was from Geech. She did not think of Geech often, but there he was. Colin and she had sent him a wedding invitation, but it might have missed him. The number was unfamiliar to her, but she tucked it into her PDA case and again thought of the coincidence that she had just thought of Geech.

  Back at her office, she got busy clearing her desk and recalled Geech’s call. She dialed.

  “Geech, this is Michelle. How are you?” she asked as she sat at her chair.

  “I’m doing great. Hey, how are Colin and the kids?” Geech asked socially.

  “I think they are fine. They went up to Oregon for the week. Colin took the time off. Kids are busy in school most of the year, but they had this week off. What are you doing? Did you ever get together with that gal from town here?” Michelle asked as she put Geech’s phone number into her PDA.

  “Yup, we’re getting real good vibes, and she’s living out here now. Been doing most everything together for a year or so, and maybe it is time to get hitched. You and Colin get that over with?”

  “Oh, yeah, we did it a year and a half ago. Made an honest man out of him. What else is up? Not that I mind talking with you.”

  “Well, that last social security number’s just come up active on the Miner here. We put a trip wire in the IRS computer identification program to query for that number every time we’re in the IRS side of the house, and we get in there every day. That program hit on one of the two remaining social security numbers that Dr. Winchell had on his orders. It could be Clinker, and if it is, he is in Spokane, Washington. You interested?” Geech asked.

  “Sure, but I’ll have to work the boss for the time. Will the bureau take up the bill if I come out there? You still in St. Louis?”

  “Yes and yes. We’ll pick it up, and we’re still out of St. Louis. I can have the orders and the account there in the morning, if you say it’s a go. There have been three weeks of deposits to this account that were different enough to trip the Miner. I called the dude that holds the Social Security account number we are monitoring. He said he was a taxidermist in Tennessee and hadn’t been to Spokane in twenty years. He does not recall anyone named Bishell, but did serve in Germany, same outfit. So it may be Clinker. I’m supposed to get more data, but the damn computers just get bogged up anymore to the point that it is almost impossible to get information out of them. We’re having interconnectivity problems, but I’ll bet you’ve been reading about those. I’m planning to go out and check it out. Spokane has two hospitals. All I need is a warrant to search the employee bank for one of them, and we’re on our way,” Geech said. “We have enough on him for prior fraud, but if he’s billing Medicare now, we’re really in good shape because the laws are different now than just two years ago.”

  “Sounds good, Geech. Will you be at this number for a few minutes? I’d like to call Doreveck now, and I’ll call you back.”

  “Sure, gal. I’m here for two more hours. If not here, Trudy can always find me. Is The Door still a midlevel boss there?”

  “He’s vice commander for the whole shooting match. Been a rock, and been in some pretty tight places. Went to inspector general for the department for three years, and I thought he would never get out of that one. For some reason, he will e-mail me about every six months just to say hi, and he’s always asking about Clinker, too. I’ll be right back with you.”

  “Waiting,” Geech said.

  Michelle paged The Door.

  “Commander Doreveck here. Michelle? You there?” came the call back.

  “Yes, sir. I’m here. Geech just called me. There’s activity in the Clinker case, and he has orders and an account for me. Says it is Spokane. Do you think I can get some admin for the case?” Michelle asked.

  “Gotta talk to your boss. Who is that now days, Michelle?”

  “Guy is Ken Greene, working Bank Fraud Division.”

  “OK, I’ll call you back.”

  “Thanks.”

  Michelle did not get the call that day, but the morning found an e-mail and a fax. The fax had accounting data for tickets and orders for extended duty, FBI, St. Louis Medicare Fraud. Tickets were for that evening. There was much to do.

  Geech was at the office the following morning as Michelle walked up to Trudy and said hi.

  “Michelle, nice to see you. Your old partner has been bugging me all morning for when you are arriving. I trust your trip was OK?” Trudy asked.

  “Trip was fine, had a tough time getting the pets into kennels. Needed shots and papers, but they are in. Hey, Geech!” Michelle said as she hugged Geech’s neck and kissed his cheek. “You sure look good. And your hair, it looks normal, I mean. Hey.”

  Geech scratched his head and laughed, “Yeah, I cut it off some time ago. Got too hard to do the hair and get on the road around here at a good hour. Getting gray, too. Yours looks great gray, I mean, better than I do. Heck, now I’m just another suit. Hey, it sure is nice to see you. Colin cool with you coming out here?” he asked as he tried to hide his embarrassment.

  “Yeah, and he’s going to meet us in Spokane. His folks are in Oregon now, and so are my mother and sister. They said they would take the kids for a few weeks as long as we promise to pick them up on time. So we’re going to have a free gumshoe assistant. LA said he was cleared to come up as long as he’s on his own time, and you guys don’t mind. They’d cut him authority to work with you.”

  “That’s great. I’ll check with the boss here, get him on the payroll, too. Tony got pulled to work with some new department, so our new boss is a fellow that is pretty cool, too. Come on back to my office. Trudy, how do we do access and passes?”

  “Geech, you could answer that one. Same routine, I’ll see you at three Michelle. Then I will issue you the temporary password, you go to the isolated computer in that room and practice access, and I get you your pictures.”

  “That will be fine, Trudy,” Michelle called. “Geech, I need to get a phone line out when your boss lets you know if it is OK for Colin to join us. I need to connect with Colin and tell him what your decision is. When do we head for Spokane?”

  “We’re on for day after tomorrow. There are some loose ends that are nagging me. I’ve been real confused on how this guy lives for the years between our picking up the trail. I went up to Alaska and got a pretty good idea he can peg down a bundle of money pretty quickly, then it appears he goes deep again, as you recall. He had worked at The Matsu Valley Hospital as a temporary doctor for a few tours, and it looks like we missed him by one month. Then it was my turn to almost get killed by him when I followed him up to Kotzebue. That’s how long the billing was behind there, and another hospital where he used the old socials was still billing three years out, if you can believe that, and we had to tell them they could not bill their accounts on a fraudulent billing.”

  “I recall how you looked when you got out of the hospital. I see that kind of billing confusion all the time in the section I’m working in no
w, Geech,” Michelle answered.

  “Can you believe it, they argued, saying the patient survived, so they should be able to bill Clinker’s fees. We let them bill hospital and ancillary and consultant staff, but held off letting them bill for Clinker’s services,” Geech said as they rounded the door to his office.

  “That’s a hoot, billing even though he was a fake doctor. So we’ve both brushed death. Now we three are going after him, the three of us that are known to him. Does that make a lot of sense, Geech?” Michelle asked.

  “We are not staking him out. I will be going in with the intent of arresting him when and where we see him. So, there really is not much worry that he’ll make an association with us. First we’ll get some data from the community, then we’re going right to him for an arrest.”

  Michelle looked around, “Geech, you’re a changed man. Maybe I should check your ID. Gone are the days you were stealing power supplies out of my gas chromatographs. This place is nice.” The window revealed the courtyard behind the building. Three computers lined one wall. There were no identifying plaques or awards, but there was something Michelle noted in the bookshelf that prompted her to ask, “You’re the Diamond Miner now?”

  “How did you know?” Geech asked with a laugh. “I’m even a member of the Diamond Miner’s Society.”

  “You have all the manuals where you can pull them down easily. Looks to me that there’s a reason, and that could only be that you have to use them.”

  “Yup, got certified at the Mine Central two years ago. Once you have spent a goodly bit of time in it, you start thinking of the associations and parallel investigative lines that it affords, and you never think of a case as simple again. I’ve tried to pattern Clinker, and searched marriage certificates, drivers’ licenses, airline tickets, bus tickets, refund checks, lotto payouts. You can just about name it, and I’ve had the Diamond Miner digging around. I even ran cell phone numbers from providers in Alaska against the call log that Clinker used in The Matsu Valley Hospital. He was real careful, no pattern or information there.”

  “That’s a lot of digging. What do you think our chances are of getting him this time?” Michelle asked.

  “We’re working with data that is three weeks old, and I now have every stone turning in Spokane and outlying communities for surgery billings. We’re hot, and I’ve got the agency employer identity, so as soon as we’re on for warrants, we move in. I do not have to establish any violation of federal statutes. We gave those against him in spades. When I identify him, we push the button and go for him.”

  “Colin and I are known to him, Geech. So are you. Why did you pull me in on this one?”

  “Michelle, he tried to kill you, for one, and I thought you would enjoy seeing the collar. Second, you knew him, and I need you to help identify him, though I suppose I could do that. Third, I can’t pass as a scrappy floor cleaner anymore. My wingtips give me away, and we’re going to have to get this guy in one swing, so the fact that you have been made by him should not cause us a problem. There’s one more reason, and this one goes back to Tony, the boss we had when you were out here.”

  Michelle wrinkled her brow and asked, “What did Tony have in mind?”

  Geech smiled and said, “He wanted you to join this agency. There is a category of agent like we were those years ago. I’m a full line agent. My code line is investigator designated, which means special assignment to this office, or one that I may cross into. I will not be sent to Pennsylvania to look for Jimmy Hoffa. Tony wanted you in this office, and frankly, Michelle, I need help. The credential fraud is a bigger problem that we anticipated. Started out looking for the big fraud, and now we’re tracking the doctors next door. I have been closing in on physicians that have been in practice for years.”

  “So I would be an investigator line here or somewhere like that?” Michelle asked.

  “Yes, that‘s what Tony had offered when you were out here last, and he wanted me to keep knocking at your door. Tony evidently had a group of agents through here before and after us, and I met some of them. He liked to interview them and talk with them. I’m the only one he offered work to besides you, and he made me promise to keep working you. What’s your pay rate at LAPD? Are you still in the 10S3p set?”

  “Yes, I’m maxed. Why?” Michelle asked.

  “You would start here at the equivalent of 13S5p, and that’s guaranteed to go to 13S6p in a year. You would see 30 percent pay increase first year, and then another 5 percent yearly for three years. I have to be on the road a lot, and so would you. That may be a problem.”

  “Big problem is Colin, Geech. He’s still with the LAPD, and if I take this job, he’s either going to have to retire or stay in LA.”

  “Yeah, Tony figured that was a big part of all this. Well, keep it in mind. I’d like you to get on the case. There’s a file to dig through, then there’s briefing just like before, you’ll get some of it tomorrow. We’re backtracking the billing record for the hospital we identified as the employer ID, and as soon as we get a billing for Medicare under the identification of the guy with the bogus social security number, we’re out of here and after him. We can’t push the hospital, but with electronic billing there are bills that are complete in a few days. This won’t take long. Do you want to go out with me day after tomorrow to do a quick scope on the scene?” Geech asked as he keyed up his computers.

  “Sure, I’m game.”

  “We’re not seeing the name Clinker on things, anymore, and his licenses in Illinois, Missouri, North Dakota, and Alaska all went inactive, so he’s likely changed out off that method of licensing. Reciprocity has turned out to be a goldmine of mischief, by the way. No other cases as nefarious as our good Dr. Bishell, though. Also, your work with the post office may pay off again; we’re likely going to have to search how he licensed in Washington. You can get on that for me. Contact the state licensing agency and see who’s been granted licenses in the last two years. Then narrow it to surgeons. You’ll need to expand your search a bit on surgeons, though, as we may have to look at general, thoracic, vascular, etc. Basically we’re wide open again.”

  “Geech, I think one of these days we are going to nail Clinker.”

  “I hope so. Trudy is waiting. See you in the morning. My office is open, but we have a workstation that Trudy will open for you. Thanks, Michelle. It is good to be working with you again.”

  Chapter 42

  Spokane, Washington

  Colin and Michelle sat in a dark blue Suburban parked next to an older, red Suburban. Both were unmarked, but from the FBI motor pool in Seattle. Both were somewhat more than a standard vehicle, but not much.

  Geech climbed out of the red Suburban along with a younger agent. They crossed over to the back seat of the blue Suburban and climbed in.

  “Hey, guys, trust your trip was good?” Geech asked as he closed the door. He then turned and saw Michelle in beautiful, short, red hair, and Colin sporting a gray head of hair.

  Michelle smiled back and said, “It was fine. I enjoyed the day off in Seattle. Your trip OK?”

  “Went fine. Like your hair. Looks pretty cool. We had a stop to make on the way for some stamps,” Geech said, referring to the indenture he received on the numerous warrants he held. “What have you two been up to?”

  Colin offered Geech a stack of yellow legal papers. There were bullet notes on the front page, and Colin explained, “Those are the high points. We stopped in at the hospital, arranged visit with the CEO. Did it when we came in. No snooping around. Michelle plans to go to the local talent and look at the statistics for the last six months after she has warrants. Did some digging in the local press, seems the town has had nine attempted homicides in the last six months. Five of them the local folks feel are background for the area, all drug related. Four have been in local taverns, no deaths but shootings. This pushes things up a notch for us. He’s certainly continuing his old pattern.”

  Geech raised his eyebrows and leafed through the documents. “We h
ave suspected that for years, Colin. He has no want for work in these little hospitals, but seems to continue to enjoy creating his own workload. You two have been busy. OK. What do we know about the doctors here? Recent hires, new doctors?”

  “CEO is a dude named Terry Collens, and he says there have been several recent departures, no new hires or doctors starting practice in the last six months. Those that left include a urologist, a couple of family practice docs that were a married couple and decided to go into Doctors without Borders, and a pathologist. Otherwise stable. The hospital we’re looking at has regional trauma level-one status, which would mean that they have 24/7 coverage of certain services, but they do not have any new doctors,” Michelle answered, as she leafed through her notes.

  Geech put his notes aside. “Did you ask him about locums doctors? Seems they don’t consider that a permanent hire, and don’t always count them in. By the way, was Collens receptive?”

  Colin laughed, “Not really. His first comment was asking where our warrants were. I told him we were just getting information about a potential fraudulent claim on Medicare, but he didn’t buy it. Said that in his experience the bureau did not send out agents for that sort of witch hunt. I think he’s been watching too much television, Geech, but he played along after being the tough guy for a few minutes. I didn’t push for data, figured we’d turn up the heat when you showed up with the proper paperwork. And no, I didn’t ask him about locum hires.”

  “OK, we’ll play those cards this afternoon. Michelle, what we need is a copy of all their credential work for the last year. Meeting notes, hand-written notes, etc. I’d like you to go over them when I get them. I need to go to their information manager and sequester their hard drives. I do not think you tipped the scales with your visit, but I don’t want them digging around in their drives. Oh, damn, sorry. Sam Ross, this is Michelle and Colin. I’ve known these two longer than I’ve known how to hack a code. Sam is the Seattle FBI hack, and in the morning he’s going to link the good hospital’s net back to my Diamond Miner, which I have hooked up to my room at the local FBI Inn and doughnut shop. When we’re online, I’ll search out anything we can use. Meanwhile, Michelle, I want you to find out who’s been credentialed in the last year, and we’ll see if they have any data that is bogus. I did not tell you this, but we did the same thing in Alaska three years ago. Clinker got away, but we did collar two doctors on false licenses just by doing the search.