“Here is what we didn’t know, nor did the coalition of doctors, pharmacists, and distributors, or the police. Everyone thought Al was the mastermind and head of the whole shebang. He wasn’t. She was. She simply told all of them her husband hated business details, so she was handling all of that part for him.”
Matt shouted, “What? She was the Kingpin?”
“You better believe it. Or, Queenpin if we want to be politically correct. I wonder who will finally wind up getting her. LA? San Francisco? Seattle? or maybe some city we don’t even know about. The woman managed to hide millions and would have lived a very lavish life in Casablanca if she hadn’t been caught thanks to us. Before you ask, Morocco does not have an extradition treaty with us. Instead she’ll be wearing prison duds and most likely spend the rest of her life in a prison cell unless one of her spouses was murdered in a death penalty state and they get her.” Then Garrett launched into everything Barrington shared. Not a word was spoken. They listened in morbid fascination.
He recapped a little of what they already knew relative to previous information they uncovered. That brought him to the point where she was married to Shady.
“When she married Shady, he was semi-retired and involved in a small-time illegal drug prescription operation along with a couple of other doctors around his age. They were still practicing in a limited way but were at the point where they were ready to retire quite comfortably full time. It wasn’t anything slick. In fact, it was pretty amateurish.
“Enter Barbara, a nurse practitioner with a keen knowledge of finance, unlimited greed and no morals. She was very clever, I’ll give her that. Forget about her string of murders for the moment. When she cracked, the whole story of the illegal prescription drug ring came out. She had big ambitions and that required a very big pocketbook. Shady may have been wealthy, and originally slated to meet the same fate as her other ex-husbands which would allow her to fatten her bank accounts, but she saw something else.”
Matt leaned forward, elbows on his knees, listening intently to Garrett’s narrative. He looked as though he might be running the idea for a movie through his mind.
Garrett continued. “When she realized what her husband was doing, she viewed it as something smalltime that could be huge. What she didn’t count on was retaliation from the Rojas Cartel. She was operating in their territory. The first thing she did was convince Shady to authorize her to write prescriptions. She knew he would be too scared to carry out her plans himself, so she literally left him in the dark. Nurse practitioners can prescribe with a doctor’s approval. She began by putting together a coalition of private pharmacies that would not question filling prescriptions for Oxy and other opioids that were way above normal limits. For that to work, she also needed to pay off a distributor or distributors who supplied the drugs to look the other way when a pharmacy ordered excessive amounts. Their part was not to report it to the government. She wrote thousands of prescriptions herself not to mention all the prescriptions the other doctors wrote.”
The Colonel let out a low whistle, which caused Clarence to awaken from his nap by the fireplace. He tilted his head and gave his master what appeared to be a questioning look. When the Colonel said, “Okay, Boy, go back to sleep,” the big hound rested his head on his paws and within seconds was emitting doggie snores.
The Colonel shook his head, then said, “This sounds like a well thought out plan. I guess you can’t judge someone by what you see. I knew there was something about her I didn’t like, but never pictured anything like this. Please go on.”
For the next several minutes Garrett related how after she set up a network, she brought in eighteen more retired doctors, one at a time, and schooled them in what to do. For her organizational management and knowledge, she took twenty percent of whatever they earned, and as Barrington told Garrett, overall revenue was in the seven or eight figure range. Even a billion would not be out of the question.
“The business plan, if you wanted to call it that, was created on several levels. And, Garrett added, believe it or not, she claimed Shady had no idea what his wife was up to. That probably kept him alive longer than her average victim. She needed him as a front.
“The first part of her plan involved what the doctors, including Shady, had been doing—writing illegal prescriptions for huge quantities of opioids for a substantial fee, often in the thousands per prescription. The patients were directed to fill them at the pharmacies in her network, who in turn purchased from the distributors in the network. The patients filed insurance claims and were reimbursed for a good portion of what they spent at the pharmacies, so at that point the main cost to them was the fee they paid for the prescriptions. However, they were directed as to how much they could claim reimbursement for before a red flag went up.”
He paused for breath. “Is all of that clear, so far?”
Margaret said, “Very clear. What did those people do if they needed more?”
“If they reached that limit and needed more to get to the end of the month, as most of them did, they could buy the drugs from their doctor enabler at a price in the high range between prescription and street drugs prices. That’s why Shady kept a supply on hand. They may have charged less than the going street price, but still a hefty price to pay.”
“That’s probably why he offered pills to me,” the Colonel said. “The bastard wanted to get me hooked under the guise of being a concerned doctor.”
Kate’s voice came over the speaker. “I believe you’re right. People get hooked because they’re either in pain or want a high. Danny, according to what you just said, Barbara was mainly making her money by taking her twenty percent from the doctors? Was she the one paying off the pharmacists and the distributors? If so, it seems that would have cut into her income quite a bit.”
“Oh, yeah,” Garrett replied. “She was the one, but there is so much more. For one thing, once she was authorized to write prescriptions under Shady’s okay, she had quite a client list of her own and hid her money without her husband knowing or suspecting a thing. That was just the beginning. She had to spread it out, and the real money was in the pills they all sold after excessive but still reasonable prescription amounts were reached.”
“How did they get those?” Cami asked.
“Barrington said other opioid rings have been known to do this, so it wasn’t her original idea, but she got very good at it, and she did it before new regulations designed to limit fraud or illegal prescriptions were put in force by Medicare or Medi-Cal. You see, the new regs didn’t affect people currently on the drugs.
“She had a whole network of low income and even indigent people who might have wanted drugs but wanted money more. She made sure that each of her doctors in the group and the pharmacies were approved as prescribers and providers under Federal or State requirements. As long as they more or less walked the line, prescriptions were written, filled by the pharmacies and not reported as excess by the distributor. She figured she did everything to protect her business.”
Matt straightened up, his eyes reflecting an understanding of what Garrett just laid out. “So, these people would fill their prescriptions, have all or most of the cost covered by the government, then sell them to the prescribing doctor for a fraction of what the doctor charged his patient.” He rubbed his thumb against his fingers—a typical sign that said money. “No wonder my friend gave me a strange look when I asked about Shady being his doctor.”
Kate joined the conversation. “Exactly right, Matt. There have been instances like this all around the country, but many not on the scale she managed to launch. She also concealed things very well from anyone who didn’t need to know about this profitable operation, but apparently those guys from Rojas were very well aware and thought Shady was the main guy. FraudBusters got involved in bringing down a group using low income people to resell the pills to them in New Jersey. Wow. If everything hadn’t blown up, she would still be at it. I wonder how long she would have waited to kill her golden
goose and then split. Very clever to make it appear that he was the one behind everything, he didn’t have a clue. And, if his buddies suspected anything, they weren’t telling him. They were just raking in the cash and smiling all the way.”
45
Garrett’s final input was that the DEA was going to be rounding up all the white coat drug dealers and the rest of the organization. Like a rat trapped in a cage, she had given up every one of them, hoping for some sort of deal. Before fleeing from the house on Grand Canal, Barbara Shady had grabbed any hard copy file that had to do with her business. The rest was on her password-controlled laptop.
He said Barrington didn’t think her attorney would be able to negotiate much. He figured she might have been able to cut some sort of a deal for giving up the doctors, pharmacists and distributors, but the fact that she was a serial killer wanted in several cities was another story.
They spent another hour discussing the challenges and successes of the past few weeks, frequently congratulating themselves on a job well done. Then Maggie said, “I really feel proud of what we were able to accomplish together. If you find more dead bodies or crazy frauds or scams, let me know. I’m always up for trying to put the pieces together. And, I loved meeting all of you. I’ve gotta wrap it up. I have an early showing tomorrow. Great property in the Beverly Hills flats.”
Matt wanted to know if she and Danny were going to write a book based on everything that happened.
Garrett winked and said, “You never know, Matt. Could be. Maggie and I were discussing the possibility.” As Matt opened his mouth to say something, Garrett said jokingly, “Yep, I know, Buddy. If we do, you can play yourself if it goes to film.”
“Touché,” the actor said. He stood up and stretched. His form-fitting tee showed off his toned body. “Well, I’ve gotta hit the road, too. Great work, guys. Can’t wait to hear what happens to her. Whatever it is, it won’t be good, and she certainly won’t be living in the lap of luxury in Casablanca. I’ve always believed what goes around comes around. Looks like that held true this time.”
THE NEXT MORNING WHILE Cameron was deeply immersed in her Sexy Seniors campaign, her cell rang. She didn’t want to break her momentum, but when she saw Kim’s name on the screen, she hit Talk.
“Hi, Cami. I wanted to call and congratulate you on the great job you guys did and please pass it on to your team. Nathan is delighted and so am I, but I’m jealous, too. Did you miss the third FraudBuster at all? You know I would have gotten away if I could, but it looks like Danny Garrett’s friend Maggie filled my slot.”
Cameron flashed on past escapades with Kate and Kim, then said, “Maggie was great, but no one can fill your shoes. You will really like her and if you ever get out here, I’ll make sure you meet her and Danny. Truthfully, it was her friend in Beverly Hills—well her friend’s daughter—who gave us the real break. Otherwise Barbara, or Briana, or any one of who knows how many other names, would have boarded that ship and we never would have known she left the country. She would have pulled it off.”
They chatted for a while longer, then Kim said, do you think Kate might make another trip to LA in say, two weeks?
“Why do you ask?”
Kim said with unbridled enthusiasm, “Because Nathan and I are taking our vacation then, and we’re coming to LA first. We’ll be there for a whole week, then plan to head up to Seattle, spend a few days there and catch the ferry to Victoria in time for the Canada Day celebration. I hear it’s fantastic. Nathan gave me the job of setting up a dinner at a restaurant of your choice so he can meet the Colonel, Danny, Maggie and Matt, and of course, see Kate again. He wants to thank them personally. Um, Matt can bring his wife so she doesn’t feel left out, and you can bring Milt. Can you do it?”
“Can I do it? If I can convince seniors that disposable panties are sexy, I can certainly handle that.”
About the Author
Morgan St. James is on the board of Writers of Southern Nevada and belongs to multiple writers’ groups. St. James has seventeen books in publication including the award-winning INCEST, MURDER AND A MIRACLE plus over 600 published articles about the business and craft of writing. She frequently appears on the radio, TV, author’s panels, presents writers’ workshops and appears on panels at conferences.
In 2016 she co-narrated an episode of “A Crime to Remember” on Investigation Discovery TV Channel. She co-hosted the Writers’ Tricks of the Trade Show on Blog Talk Radio with true crime writer and historian Dennis N. Griffin and Eric James Miller for a year and a half, and also publishes the quarterly Writers Tricks of the Trade online magazine.
WWW.MORGANSTJAMES-AUTHOR.com,
http://morganstjames.blogspot.com.
http://silversistersmysteries.blogspot.com,
http://writerstricksofthetrade.blogspot.com
TO MY READERS
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Acknowledgments And Comments
Many thanks to all of my writer friends and family who have supported me throughout my writing career, the development of this book and other books in this series.
Sometimes, just when you think you have the plot together you get a sudden inspiration for something that will make it better, or maybe you find the pieces of the puzzle don’t completely fit. So it is back to the keyboard and maybe even rethinking the plot. But then that AHA moment happens—there it is—the perfect solution.
That happened in this book when while I was searching for the thing that would tie the characters from Ripoff and Payback to the characters in Bumping Off Fat Vinny. Of course! Both Cameron and Danny live along the Venice Canals but had never met each other.
Then came the plot. My inspiration was something that happened to me many years before when there was a large construction default suit for damages to the main condo building of 16 units and our unique freestanding house which was part of the complex. The tyrant HOA president made sure the big building was fixed when we won a huge settlement but tried not to properly repair our house. Finally, during the extensive repairs to our house he made my life a living Hell and cost us $40,000 in attorney’s fees to defend our rights. I wanted to kill him in print, I really did, but didn’t have the right plot. So the character of Al Shady became part of the plot for Scammed.
And, finally, the increasing opioid crisis in our country. The scenario of the illegal prescription business is real, and it is very big business. Perfect. The plot for Scammed was ready and adding the character of Barbara Shady helped to pull it all together.
Thank you for buying this book and I hope you will explore others in the series.
Praise For Ripoff Book two in the series
5 Stars Definitely a heroine and situation to root for, Kimberly comes back from a vacation or business trip and discovers her company is bankrupt and her boyfriend cleaned her out. Talk about a bad day. Having only about a month or two before her situation is dire, she takes a job with the Federal prison system. She also discovers that she is not the only one her ex-boyfriend conned. Six of them band together and prevent him from suckering the next one. Instead they turn the tables on him. She also discovers an embezzlement scheme at work. Can she and two new friends prove what she thinks she has found? A really funny story where a woman fights back instead of staying a victim. T Breakiron
It keeps you interested in what will h
appen next I enjoyed this novel very much. It kept me wanting to keep reading so I could get to the end and find out if I had figured it out. I had not. Thank you. James Kirkland
5 Stars Funny and Fashionable. The action moves at a nice pace, and the characters are well conceived and interesting. Our heroines have some serious human frailties, which make the women easy to like and to root for. Of the three, Kate is probably the one that could have used just a little more fine-tuning. Cool cougar Kimberly and giggly, plastic surgery aficionado Cameron seriously outshine the somewhat reserved redhead. The novel's villains are nasty and greedy, but the authors also give them plenty of vulnerability. I wanted to see them caught, but I also felt sorry for them.
In the end, though, RIPOFF: A FUNNY CRIME CAPER lives up to its title. It's a quick, enjoyable read where the good triumph over the naughty look good while doing so! C. Lahain
Visit www.morganstjames-author.com for more reviews
The REVENGE IS FUN series started with a short Prologue novelette entitled GETTING EVEN, where we met Kimberly Martin and learned how she wound up working for the Federal prison system where she met Cameron and Kate d. If you thought that the only thing manufactured in Federal prisons was license plates, hang onto your hat!
Prison manufacturing is big business—About
$800,000,000 a year and that is true!
A plan to embezzle millions was going fine until these three savvy women were hired
and the red flags went up.
Here is a sneak peek at Chapter 1 of RIPOFF. Kimberly, Cameron and Kate unravel the twists and turns in this clever crime caper, suspicion turns into surprise, and as Joaquin “Jack” Garcia, a former undercover FBI agent and NYT bestselling author put it, “It’s a good thing the authors weren’t crooks because this scheme could have worked.”
Scammed Page 18