by B A Trimmer
“Maybe, but I wouldn’t think one doctor would be blackmailing another one. It doesn’t seem very doctor-like.”
“There’s one way to find out,” Sophie said as she pulled up the website for the hospital. “Let’s take a look.”
I stood next to Sophie as she brought up the page for the executive staff. By now, it looked like a who’s who of my life over the past week.
I quickly scanned down the list and stopped when I saw a smiling picture of the woman who had come into the room to both stop my torture and order my death.
Damn.
“It’s her,” I said, pointing to the screen. “In this picture she looks a lot nicer, but it’s the same woman.”
“Lillian Abbot,” Sophie read. “I don’t think she’s a doctor. The letters after her name are CSCP. She’s the Director of Supply Chain, whatever that means.”
“I think it means she’s in charge of everything the hospital buys.”
“Oh, that sounds reasonable. I can see a hospital buying a lot of stuff. Still, why would she want to blackmail the rest of the executive staff?”
“I don’t know, but I’d love to find out,” I said. “Could you do a deep dive on her with the secret software?”
“I figured. I’ll run the standard checks at the same time. Since she ordered you dead, we should probably find out what her deal is.”
“There was also the jerk who kept jolting me with his pink stun-gun. Lillian called him Benny.”
“I’ll see what I can find out. I don’t suppose you have a last name or a license plate, anything like that?”
“Unfortunately, I was too busy trying to escape with my life.”
“Yeah, I suppose that would keep your mind preoccupied.”
I then got another thought. “Is it possible to run a search on the hospital itself? Maybe it’s not one specific person?”
“I don’t see why not. I’ll run the standard searches on it, then I’ll ask the secret software. I’ll let you know when I get everything back.”
“Most of the top people at the hospital seem to be involved in whatever is going on. They’re either involved in running it or being blackmailed because of it. If we’re going to narrow this down, it might be easier to find out who’s not involved.”
“Well, the only top person who doesn’t seem to be tangled up with anything yet is the head of the hospital.”
“Who’s that?”
“It’s J. Barrett Knight,” Sophie said as she pointed to the top picture on the web page. “He’s listed as both the President and the CEO.”
“You say his name like I’m supposed to know him.”
“You don’t know who J. Barrett Knight is?”
“No, should I?”
“He’s one of the Knight brothers of the Wolfe-Knight Foundation.”
“Oh, okay, I’ve heard of them. They’re the ones who do the charity events around the Valley.”
“Yup, the same group.”
“But if one of the Knight family is head of the hospital, maybe whoever’s blackmailing the executive staff is only doing it to get to the Wolfe-Knight Foundation.”
“That would make sense,” Sophie said. “They have tons of money. I bet they’d rather pay someone off than have a nasty sex scandal go public.”
“The other possibility is that they’re blackmailing him as well and we don’t know about it yet. I mean, who knows who the blonde has at the townhouse on Mondays and on the weekends? It could be anybody, even J. Barrett Knight.”
My phone buzzed again. This time it was Suzi Lu.
“Hi, Suzi,” I said when I answered. “It’s been a while since we’ve talked.”
“Laura,” she said, sounding happy. “It’s great to hear from you. I’m doing really well. I was thinking about you the other day when John and I were talking about his retreat up by Strawberry.”
“There are times I wish I had a bunker up in the mountains,” I said with a laugh. “It would be great to have somewhere to go where no one had a clue where I was.”
“As you know, I never want to know the details of my clients’ personal lives. But John mentioned his responsibilities at work are going to be increasing. I can tell he feels pride and a sense of accomplishment at his new position.”
“Yes, I also heard about that. I know he’ll do great.”
“So, what’s going on with you?” Suzi asked. “Did you come across another computer file that needs to be cracked?”
“Hold on a second,” I said as I looked over at Lenny's door, then motioned Sophie into the main conference room. She grabbed her tablet and walked with me into the room. I closed the door, put the phone on the table, and turned on the speaker.
“You’re on speakerphone with Sophie and me,” I said. “No, I wanted to ask you about the dominatrix side of things.”
“Really?” she asked with her great laugh. “Are you planning on turning to the dark side? I’d be glad to give you some pointers. I might even have some old equipment and books I could let you have.”
“No, it’s about my boss. Do you remember him from when you were over here?”
“Of course, Lenny. I remember him. He seemed very eager to please. I was actually a little surprised when I didn’t hear from him again. I figured he’d want to audition to become one of my boys.”
“Well, he’s currently going through a break-up and he’s taking it pretty hard. I figured if he had someone who could get him through it, maybe it would help.”
“Of course. Helping a client go through a tough situation is one of the things I’m best at. Unfortunately, I’m not taking anyone new at the moment. I haven’t for several months.”
“You aren’t getting out of the business, are you?”
“No, not at all. But I already make more money than I can spend, and I’m finding it satisfying to spend more time with each of the clients I already have. I’ve started to find a good balance. I think my clients appreciate it as well.”
“You wouldn’t happen to know anyone who’s taking on new people, would you?”
“As a matter of fact, one of my protégés, Countess Carla, the Cruel, is currently looking for another man to join her circle.”
“That would be great. I know it would do Lenny a world of good. How do we go about this?”
“The process is simple. There first has to be an interview where both sides can get a feel for one another. If there isn’t some level of personal chemistry, it would never work out.”
“Isn’t that what you were doing the day I met you downstairs at the apartment house? You were using that man as a footstool to see if he had the ability to obey you.”
“That’s right. He passed the audition and is one of my regulars now.”
“When can we do the interview?” I asked. “The sooner, the better.”
“Well, we had a cancellation for tomorrow afternoon. Would Lenny have any free time?”
Sophie pulled up Lenny’s schedule on her tablet and pointed. “Um,” she said, “he’s free from one until three, if that works for you.”
“Perfect,” Suzi said. “We’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.”
“Okay,” I said. “We’ll see you then.”
I disconnected and looked up at Sophie. “Crap, we’ve pulled the trigger. I only hope this doesn’t backfire too badly on us.”
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “Really, how much worse can this make it?”
“Setting a dominatrix loose on Lenny? Sure, what could possibly go wrong?”
“Well, maybe. But it’ll be interesting to watch.”
“I need to tell Gina what we’ve done,” I said.
I went to the back offices where Gina was at her desk, typing in a report.
“What’s wrong,” she asked when I sat at my desk and looked at her.
“Um, Mistress McNasty and her protégé, Countess Carla, the Cruel, will be over here tomorrow afternoon at one o’clock. They’ll hold an audition to see if Lenny is worthy of Carla taking hi
m on as a client.”
“Well,” Gina said. “I don’t see how that can make it any worse.”
“That’s what Sophie said. But somehow, I get the feeling this may not work out quite as we envision.”
~~~~
Gina and I were still chatting about the assignments when Lenny walked back. It was apparent he was looking for me.
“Hey,” he said as he got to my cube. “I just got a call from Jessica Palmer. With the death of that doctor over the weekend, Elmaghrabi, they’re promoting Michael Palmer to the position of Chief Medical Operations Officer.”
“That was quick,” I said. “They haven’t even buried the man yet.”
“According to our client, they only informed her husband a few minutes ago. You should probably head over to the hospital and keep an eye out for Doctor Palmer. If he’s still seeing the blonde, he might want to go out and celebrate with her.”
Lenny went back up to reception. I looked at Gina.
“Well?” I asked.
“If what you’ve been saying about the blackmail ring is true, it sounds like they’re using the carrot and stick approach with the men over there.”
“What do you mean?”
“If the guys cooperate, they get promoted and have access to a beautiful woman. If not, they get bashed over the head and tossed off a bridge.”
“Lenny thinks I should drop anything having to do with the blackmail and concentrate on getting the sex video.”
“He’s not wrong. That’s all we’re getting paid for.”
“But the husband of our client is caught up in something big. I know she wants to divorce him, but what if he ends up going to prison? Divorced or not, I don’t think she’d like to see the father of her kids in the penitentiary.”
“That’s true, but be careful. It sounds like you’re dealing with some nasty people on this.”
Gina took off to work on her assignments. I sat back in my chair and tried to think.
From my conversation with Max, he thought Scottsdale General had a shaky reputation. Still, he didn’t know any of the specifics about what was going on over there.
If I was going to get to the bottom of it, I needed to get a fresh perspective on the place. I pulled out my phone and called Danielle.
I’ve always had a complicated relationship with Danielle Ortega. She started out as my friend, then was an enemy, then became my friend again.
Further complicating things, she had recently assumed leadership of the Arizona branch of the Black Death, the deadly drug cartel out of Mexico.
“Hey, Danielle,” I said when she answered.
“Laura,” she said, sounding happy to hear from me. “I’m glad you called. I was thinking about you. From what I understand, everything is good with you, Tony, and Max.”
“Yes, everything seems to have settled down over there. Thank you for your advice on that.”
“What’s up today? Are you calling to remind me about the wedding?”
“Well, yes. That was one of the things. Grandma’s starting to get excited about it.”
“I really like her,” Danielle said. “I’m looking forward to going. Are Sophie and Gina still planning on being there?”
“Yes, and don’t forget, you’re my cousin from Albuquerque. You’ll have to sit at our table.”
“It sounds like fun. Is everyone bringing a date?”
“I think so. Gina has a new boyfriend and Sophie is down to one.”
“Really? I never thought she’d have only one. It sounds like there’s a story behind that.”
“There is, but I’ll let her tell it. Are you still seeing Roberto?”
“Yes, it’s been almost two months already. We still get along, so I’m hopeful.”
“Wow, time flies.”
“I know. What are you getting Grandma for a wedding present? I have no clue what she needs.”
“That one was tough,” I said. “I ended up getting them a gift certificate for dinner at Different Pointe of View. It’s one of my favorite places in town, and I think they’ll like it as well.”
“Maybe I’ll stop by sometime before the wedding and ask her what she wants. What else did you want to talk about?”
“This may seem like a weird question. But do you know anything about Scottsdale General Hospital?”
“Like what?”
“I’m not entirely sure. I’m in the middle of an assignment for work, and I seem to have stumbled across a serious sex and blackmail ring. Everyone seems to be connected with the executive staff of Scottsdale General.”
“You have the most interesting job,” she said with a laugh.
“Interesting isn’t the word I would use. Have you heard anything about the hospital?”
“About sex and blackmail? No, nothing like that.”
“Have you heard about anything else?”
“Nothing directly, but Carlos used to grumble about them. He said they were making it harder for us to get into narcotics.”
“Max said they keep hiring employees who eventually get caught stealing drugs.”
“I’ve heard the same thing. You’d have to question why the hospital would employ people like that.”
“But even if there were three or four people sneaking drugs out, you wouldn’t think the amount making it to the street would be very high.”
“I don’t know,” Danielle said. “But we’ve never had a lot of luck with selling pills. The street value is too low to make a profit on it.”
“That also confirms what I’ve been hearing,” I said.
“I’ll see if I can find out anything on them and let you know. In either case, we’ll see you Saturday night at the Scottsdale Barrington.”
“We’ll save a place in the pew for you.”
~~~~
I had packed up and was about to head up to the hospital to see if Michael Palmer would meet up with the blonde, when my phone buzzed. It was Sophie.
“Are you still here?”
“Yes, I was about to leave.”
“Well, come up here first.”
I walked to the front, where Sophie was pulling some paper from her printer.
“Hey,” she said. “I’ve got the first results back on the hospital. I did several web searches and checked out their credit rating, stuff like that.”
“What did you come up with?”
“Not a thing. They’re clean as a whistle.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Didn’t they have anything on all of the people they caught stealing drugs?”
“Well, yeah. There are actually several articles about that.”
“And?”
“And the police say Scottsdale General is a model for other hospitals in how they control their drug inventories.”
“Really?”
“The police say the hospital has put in so many safety measures, they recommend other hospitals adopt the same policies.”
“Max said the hospital has a shaky reputation and Danielle said they were having a harder time getting into narcotics because of them. What do you think?”
“I think we’ll need to decide how we’re going to handle the wedding,” Sophie said.
“What’s there to handle?”
“We’re going to have Max and Danielle sitting at the same table. They might each bring along a bodyguard or two. Gina still doesn’t know about Danielle being head of the Black Death. The whole situation could become awkward.”
“I don’t think anyone will want to talk business,” I said. “It’s a wedding.”
“Well, I hope so. I trust Danielle and everything. But I remember what happened the last time the Black Death came to a wedding.” Sophie then made hand gestures to mimic an exploding wedding cake. “Boom.”
“Do you seriously think Danielle would plant a bomb at a wedding she’s going to?”
“Probably not. But if she takes off unusually early, I might step outside for a few minutes while they serve the cake.”
~~~~
&n
bsp; Taking Lenny’s advice, I drove up to the hospital campus on Haden Road and found Michael Palmer’s car. It was parked in the doctor’s lot, as it had been the first time I’d looked for it.
I sat there for the rest of the afternoon. A little before six, Doctor Palmer walked to his car and took off.
I followed two cars back until it was apparent he was simply heading home. By this point, I was getting hungry, and I peeled off.
I went to a Filiberto’s for a drive-through beef taco and a carne asada burrito. I then drove home to Marlowe.
~~~~
The following day, I arrived at the office a few minutes after eight. Marlowe had been in a fidgety mood the night before and had spent much of the night playing with his tail.
Unfortunately, he’d been on the bed with me while he’d been doing this. Needless to say, I hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep.
“I got the secret software reports back on the hospital,” Sophie said as I meandered up to her desk.
“Great,” I said with a touch of sarcasm. “What do they say? Does the government also think the hospital is clean as a whistle?”
“Not exactly. According to the secret software, Scottsdale General is currently being investigated by both the FBI and DEA for running a major narcotics ring.”
“Wow. Really?”
“There’s page after page of it. They suspect it’s been going on for years.”
“Well, Max and Danielle both said the place seems a little shaky, and I understand a big hospital would have a lot of drugs flowing through it. But you’d think a hospital would be about the worst place to run a drug ring.”
“Why’s that?”
“It’s like you found in the newspaper articles,” I said. “They’d have all sorts of accounting and reporting requirements, stuff like that. You’d think they’d need to be pretty strict about keeping everything straight.”
“From what I read in the report, the records from the pharmacy at the hospital have never been right.”
“How could something like that be messed up?”
“Well, they had an office fire a little over five years ago that destroyed a lot of their records. Then, they had a warehouse fire three years ago that supposedly ruined a lot of the pharmacy’s drugs.”
“Seriously?”
