Scammed

by Morgan St. James

  The members of the group all looked around at each other, anticipating what the wife of the Attorney General of the United States might have to tell them.

  Garrett broke the silence. “Hi Kim. Welcome to our investigation. Danny Garrett, former FBI. The cops have been dragging their feet, so I guess Cami filled you in on just about everything we know so far. I’m anxious to hear what you have to say.”

  Silence hung in the air. Clarence seemed to sense something was going on. He got up from his spot by the fireplace and ambled over to the coffee table, proceeded to sniff the telephone, discovered it wasn’t edible, and returned to his spot.

  Kim cleared her throat. “What I’m about to tell you is highly confidential. If it hadn’t sounded like you are treading on some dangerous ground that could interfere with an investigation, Nathan would not have authorized me to tell you this. You must all acknowledge that it will go no further. Do I have your agreement?”

  Garrett had already clicked into his past FBI persona, Cameron and Kate had been in situations like this before, and the Colonel’s military discipline came into play. They knew the importance of tight lips and agreed instantly. Then, all of them focused on Matt, waiting to hear what he had to say. His eyes sparkled with excitement, and it was easy to see that he was enjoying real life intrigue.

  “Um, yeah, of course. This is Matt Darwin, Kim. Did Cameron tell you about me?”

  “She sure did. By the way, I’m a fan, but this isn’t make believe, Matt. Can I count on you?”

  “Absolutely. This whole thing has really been an eye-opener for me. Until now, every mystery or murder I’ve been involved in has been a scripted one played on the big or little screen. Just tell me what I have to do.”

  “Easy. You have to keep your mouth shut about anything I tell you and be careful.”

  “You’ve got it.”

  “Okay, then. Let me give you a little background first. The flags originally went up in 2015 when an elderly, seemingly respectable Upper East Side New York doctor was busted by federal authorities for dealing in opioids. Since then, several more have been identified across the country. They were doing the same thing that doctor was accused of—acting like a Dr. Feelgood for his painkiller-craving patients, prescribing massive amounts of opioids. Colonel Thompson, that’s why the scenario Cami described about your encounter with Shady, stuck with me. The possible similarity.”

  Margaret grabbed Garrett’s arm and gave it a squeeze. He gave her a return look that said to hold off saying anything until Kim finished what she was saying. Looking a bit disappointed, she fidgeted in her chair, but kept quiet. Cameron asked if this was going to take a long time, to which Kim replied that it probably would. She asked her friend to hold up for a minute while she put out some refreshments. Normally they would have been ordering dinner at this time.

  Kim understood. They all made small talk while Cameron brought out a platter of cut-up fruit and crackers plus a pitcher of iced tea and glasses. Then she sat back on the sofa. “Okay, continue. Sorry about that but I know the Colonel has to eat at certain times and the rest of this pack all looked hungry.”

  “No problem. According to accounts, authorities said this elderly retired doctor, Fred Greenway, prescribed a mixture of over two million Oxycodone and OxyContin pills to patients without a legitimate medical purpose—even including those he knew were addicted to the powerful drugs.”

  Matt let out a low whistle. “Over two million? That’s almost unbelievable!”

  “Yes. You heard right, and that’s only a small part of what’s happening. This one little old guy, Greenway, doled out these millions of pills by writing fourteen thousand illegal prescriptions in exchange for cash between 2012 and 2017. So don’t let the fact that someone is old fool you. Many doctors keep up their license after they retire from practice, and therefore can write prescriptions.”

  Kate listened to her friend, then said, “So you think Shady might have been doing something like that? With all the frauds around these days, it would make sense.”

  “Hold on, Kate. There’s more to tell. Then we can get into specifics. It’s almost eleven here but I’ll keep going as long as necessary. However, it would help to get through these preliminaries if all of you can hold questions and comments. It might even roll over to another call tomorrow night.”

  The Colonel said, “Sorry, I need a bathroom break. That’s what making it almost to ninety is like young lady. I’ll make it as quick as I can.” He got up and headed for the powder room followed by the ever-loyal Clarence, who stationed himself outside the closed bathroom door.

  The group carried on casual conversation while waiting for the Colonel to return. He limped back and settled into his chair, extending his bad leg and rubbing it.

  Kim said, “Are we good to continue?”

  Garrett replied, “Go for it.”

  “Okay, so using Greenway as an example of what’s going on around the country, this eighty-one-year-old was allegedly aware that some of his patients were hooked on either of the Oxy’s or were using other drugs like heroin or cocaine. It didn’t matter. He continued writing the prescriptions anyway, authorities said.

  “In one case, on a patient’s first visit, he prescribed fifteen Oxycodone pills a day. Looking at the thirty-day supply, that’s four hundred fifty pills a month without the slightest verification that the patient even had an injury or chronic pain.”

  “Amazing,” Matt mumbled.

  “Now try this on for size. He was hauled into Brooklyn federal court on the charges and they made him sign a waiver barring him from prescribing opioids like Oxycodone and OxyContin. He still can write scripts for antibiotics, which means they let him keep his license.”

  “My God,” the Colonel said. “Why would they do that? He was breaking the law and should have lost his license, I would think.”

  “That would seem logical, but Greenway told the judge he’s a hundred and fifty thousand in debt. Claimed he has to pay for a private nurse that cares for his sick wife. The judge fell for it and he was released on a Two Hundred Thousand Dollar bond secured by, get this, one of his patients.

  “In a statement, the DEA Special Agent-in-Charge of the New York division was not happy with that judge’s decision. He said, ‘Doctor Greenway is nothing more than a drug dealer in a white coat. He acted like a multi-million-dollar heroin ring. The price tag on the opioids he distributed was more than Twenty Million Dollars.’”

  Kim paused to let that sink in

  31

  Kim continued with more and more facts and examples. Everyone listened in rapt silence, occasionally shaking their head or murmuring sounds of disbelief.

  She finally finished by saying, “The reason Nathan agreed that I should tell you all of this is that Cami said you discovered this Shady character was under surveillance. Well, it wasn’t only the cops who were surveilling him. The DEA had men on him, too. You see, he was not only suspected of being a “Doctor Feelgood,” but the head of a whole ring of doctors in the Los Angeles area doing the same thing. It has run into multi-millions and doesn’t stop with writing prescriptions. I don’t have the time to go into everything now, but if you want to resume tomorrow night, I’ll be able to tell you just how expansive this Feelgood operation was and still is. DEA is working in tandem with the local police and were just waiting to have enough to arrest Shady and his cohorts, so please don’t mess with their drug investigation.”

  That shocking bit of information registered, resulting in complete silence. But what Kim said next had even more impact. “You see, their scheme was so organized and spread out, it began cutting into the drug trade of the Rojas Cartel in a big way.”

  Cami and Kate both let out gasps. Kate said in a shaky voice, “Rojas?” She continued, “Listen everyone, Kim and Cami and I, the original FraudBusters, if you will, could have lost our lives to the Rojas Cartel a while back. It’s an experience I hoped I’d never have to revisit. They are very dangerous. Maybe, we should back out
of this while we still can. We don’t want any of those gangsters coming after us.”

  “That’s my point,” Kim said. “If you continue, it could not only compromise everything that has been uncovered already in this investigation, but you could find yourselves in extreme danger. Let the police and the DEA do their job.”

  Matt seemed indignant. “Okay, so the drug dealing is one thing that bastard was involved in, but what about Barbara and our missing HOA money—are we supposed to just forget about that?” “Easy for you to say maybe we should back out while we can, Kate because it doesn’t affect you directly. But for us, it’s millions of dollars of our money. Besides, I still think she had something to do with Shady’s death. Unless those Rojas characters are holding her, why else would she have disappeared? Maybe she knew what was in the wind, and she just skipped out before it hit the fan. What if we don’t dig into anything that has to do with that bastard doctor and drugs, but try to find out what happened to his crooked wife and our money?”

  Kim’s voice came over the phone’s speaker. “Listen, you guys. It’s late here and I have an early day tomorrow. This whole drug and cartel thing aside, you have to figure out among yourselves what you want to do about the wife and your money. Do you want me to fill you in on the rest about this ring of doctors tomorrow night, or wait until the bust is made and read about it in the LA Times? I promise you, it is going to be huge. I think you in particular, Danny, will be intrigued by all the avenues these doctors have set up. What do you say?”

  It didn’t take much discussion. The promise of inside information was too much to resist. They agreed that Kim would call at six o’clock their time the following evening. She said, “I might even ask Nathan to be on the speaker so I don’t reveal anything I shouldn’t.”

  After the call ended, Matt let everyone know how impressed he was that they might be speaking with the Attorney General. Cameron waved him away. “Go ahead and be impressed, Matt. Nathan was my best friend when we were teens. Our mothers hoped we would marry each other.”

  “No way. You were his girlfriend? I can’t believe you let that one go,” Margaret said.

  “Well, what our mothers didn’t understand is that we were always just friends. They kept trying to turn it into a romance, but he had a crush on another girl, and I had my eye on a fellow a year ahead of me. What our Moms thought was a romance was only both of us trying to help each other in the unrequited love department. I got friendly with the girl and tried to steer her to Nate, and he did the same for me with that football hero who didn’t give me a second glance. We lost touch after we went to different colleges, but I contacted him years later to ask for help when we uncovered that prison embezzlement scheme. One look at my friend Kim, and he was hooked. So was she and she snagged the most eligible bachelor in the United States.”

  “Did either of you succeed with your teenage matchmaker efforts?”

  “Sadly, no, but it strengthened our friendship. Our mothers are still best friends. Now, you said you and Danny had information. Time to spill it.”

  Margaret turned her attention to Garrett who was busy scratching behind Clarence’s ears. The big dog had ambled over to him during the phone conversation with Kim and nudged him until Garrett got the message that Clarence wanted attention.

  “Danny, I think you can fill everyone in about what we discovered better than I can. How about it?”

  “Fine. I don’t know about the rest of you, but as good as those snacks were, I’m really hungry now. Let’s take a few minutes and order some takeout, and then you’d better be prepared to be wowed. Margaret’s contacts really came through.”

  Cameron suggested ordering some Bahn Mi sandwiches from The Whaler on Washington and some of their great Key Lime Pie to finish things off.

  “Since I’m the outsider here, what the heck is a Bahn Mi sandwich? You know I watch what I eat.” Kate waited for the answer.

  “You’ll like it. It’s slow-cooked beef, pineapple, sriracha aioli, pickled carrots, Fresno chili, cilantro, cucumber and mint on a French baguette.”

  “Sounds interesting. Fine with me.”

  After the order was placed, Garrett cleared his throat and said, “We may not have been familiar with Shady’s shenanigans, but it turned out he’s well known in select circles. Leave it to Maggie to find out more. Your friend Kim is absolutely right. Shady was not only an old retired doctor writing prescriptions or selling pills to friends and acquaintances. He was the organizer and head of a multimillion-dollar ring of retired doctors and certain pharmacists who were willing to look the other way with suspicious prescriptions as long as they got a cut. They operated on so many levels and I guess they thought they were under the radar. Matt, I wouldn’t doubt at all that the friends you mentioned, the ones who said they knew him. might have also bought Oxy from him.”

  “So you didn’t find out much more than what Kim just told us, is that right?”

  “Nope. Far from it. Maggie is best friends with a neighbor who was a close friend of Barbara’s before they sold the Beverly Hills house. She knew Al Shady before he married Barbara, and said he had been a well-known, successful orthopedist who was ready to retire. Also, that before Barbara he wasn’t the sour old man we knew. She suspects that launching the whole illegal prescription and pill business was Barbara’s idea and he got drunk on the power. In her opinion she thought Barbara was exceptionally clever and was the architect of the business plan, if you want to call it that.”

  She paused for a few minutes to let that sink in, then continued. “Once she came to that conclusion, she wanted nothing to do with Barbara and created as much distance as possible. I’m not part of the local gossip chain, but apparently that knowledge spread rapidly in our community. Eventually none of the women wanted to associate with Barbara unless they wanted drugs. Soon after that, the Shadys put their house up for sale.”

  Comments around the room ranged from “I’ll be damned,” to “Never trusted that bitch.” They continued to toss around ideas and more speculation until the food came, then concentrated on devouring the sandwiches and pie, anxious to share Maggie’s discovery with Kim the following evening.

  Possibly Barbara was not only a murderer and embezzler, but potentially far more.

  32

  On the second day of her disappearance Barbara stretched out on the bed in her hotel room and flicked on the morning news while she waited for room service to deliver her breakfast.

  The image of an inappropriately smiling reporter standing in front of the Shady house on Grand Canal flashed on the screen. “The body of Beverly Hills doctor Al Shady was discovered floating in Grand Canal in Venice, California this morning. Previously thought to be the victim of a robbery and kidnapping, I am sad to announce the police have revealed the late Doctor Shady was the victim of a savage beating and apparently died of a gunshot wound. His wife, Barbara Shady, is still missing. More as this story develops.”

  Memories of the evening of the HOA meeting flashed in her head like a kaleidoscope on speed.

  A few weeks before, she had decided the embezzled HOA funds would more than make up for what she would collect from life insurance. She was sick of that old fool and had decided exactly when she would cause his “accidental” death—it was to be that night when they got home from the meeting.

  But then her plan had a problem. Right before they were due to leave for the meeting, he confronted her and shouted that he knew what she was up to.

  She let him rant and played dumb.

  “Go ahead, act like you don’t know what I’m talking about. Well, it won’t work.”

  With that accusation, Shady had signed his immediate death warrant. She assumed he had found out about her past or, worse yet, suspected that she was planning something. She couldn’t risk it. All of her careful preparation meant nothing.

  Thinking quickly, she said she had to change clothes before leaving for the meeting, but instead went up to the cabinet where he kept the Oxy, crushed some table
ts, mixed the power with water and filled a syringe.

  Barbara remembered how she smiled to herself as she went downstairs and pretended she wanted to make up with him. She had wrapped her arms around him and plunged the needle into his arm, then watched Shady fall to the floor.

  When she got home, she would call 911, pretend to be the hysterical wife, tell them he was addicted to OxyContin pills and it looked like he had gone from pills to injections. So perfect. It would only be a short jump to conclude he had overdosed.

  It wouldn’t be hard at all to act like the grieving widow, completely free of suspicion.

  Feeling confident and assuming he was dead, she left him on the floor and went to the HOA Board meeting as though nothing had happened. Then, armed with the cover story that she had to check on him when he didn’t answer his phone, it was easy for Barbara to leave the meeting before everyone else.

  She planned to go through the motions for a day or so before disappearing. That way there would be no suspicion of foul play before she disappeared, and the missing millions were eventually discovered. Simple.

  However, when Barbara had returned home and saw a huge bloodstain on the living room area rug and a smaller trail of blood leading to the garage and alley behind the house, her plans changed in an instant. She could only assume the blood was her husband’s, but where was he? Was he still alive? Then she realized what must have happened. She had dismissed the threats Al Shady received from the Rojas Cartel the past few days as mere scare tactics and that had given her a false sense of security.

  She cursed herself for being in a hurry and apparently not using enough to kill him.

  Staring down at the place where his body should have been, she realized she should have taken the time to check his pulse before rushing out. Maybe he hadn’t been dead, after all. If it wasn’t for the blood, she would have assumed he regained consciousness and he could be anywhere. But the blood left no doubt. Someone had been there after she left.