Finding Sheila

by Anne Hagan

  “No need for EMS, It was just me. I just want away from this area, period, before they come back.”

  “Who’s they?”

  Dana felt a real sense of Deja Vu and clammed up.

  ###

  Dana spent a couple of hours spilling her guts to Yvonne and going back and forth with her over the details. She told her everything else she’d figured out about the Fords. “I think the fraud ring extends far beyond Tennessee into, at minimum, North Carolina and Virginia. I believe it involves the truck driver and his wife, the Willards, like I told you on the phone. I also believe it involves multiple other Ford family members and extended family members and lots of their friends, neighbors and associates. I found no evidence of any of them living high off the hog but, for a large extended family that doesn’t come from wealth and doesn’t seem to work, they all live nice middle class lifestyles; not the hillbilly, hick lifestyles Mel…my wife, was led to believe.”

  “What’s the story here? How did this get started?” Yvonne shuffled Dana’s papers around, sifting through the medical records and all of the notes Dana had, looking at everything with fresh eyes. After a time, she put them down. “They’ve got half or more of the Ford clan involved. Are they linked to a judge or to one of my insurance clients? Maybe someone that works in claims?”

  “I think several people are involved. On the phone earlier, I asked you not to call Gatlinburg County, even if they were close. I met that Sheriff when we were down here last year. There’s no love lost there, trust me. He knew Terry Ford; seemed to really like him. He wouldn’t even listen to me and Mel.”

  “There’s one more thing; something I haven’t told you because I hadn’t really thought of it until just now. When Terry Ford first disappeared, before he was found drowned, his brother came to Ohio to help look for him. Steven is his name. Steven lives here in Tennessee. Prior to showing up for the hunt, no one had heard from him in years. He seems awfully quiet now, too. I’m thinking he may be the ringleader or one of the principals in the structure of whatever kind of organization they’ve got cobbled together.”

  “Where does Sheila fit? She didn’t murder Terry, so why kidnap her? Some misguided sense of revenge or something less nefarious, like she’s in cahoots with the whole group and this was all an elaborate hoax to effect her jail break?”

  “Hey, one question at a time.”

  “I’m just trying to piece it all together with what I know, with the parts that I have - the judges, the auto body shops, just everything. If Steven Ford is ultimately behind Sheila Ford disappearing, then he had to coordinate with the daughter in Ohio to set it all in motion unless she’s been down here visiting her mother, wouldn’t you think?”

  “Yes, you’ve got something there. He could have visited Sheila or Avery Nix or anyone else involved in the fraud ring currently incarcerated there and passed messages along through intermediaries so there wasn’t a paper trail to the prison either.”

  Dana sat there, thinking about the prison and remembered the doctor. She decided to stay in Nashville for the time being and find her outside the walls of the Women’s prison. She thinks Caroline Rutledge might have information that could help them, whether she’s part of the who fraud scam or not. She wouldn’t talk in the jail house but maybe she’d open up privately.

  Late Evening, Friday, November 27th

  “I think Sheila really did get in that truck with the Willards, Mel, and then they transferred her to some other vehicle before anyone caught up to them.” The were talking after Dana fought to negotiate another rental car and replaced her cell phone and most of her belongings.

  “So, it’s all related to the fraud case?”

  “I think so. Yvonne thinks so.”

  “Can I get Yvonne’s number from you? I’ve been working with Andrea back here today. She’s got a couple of contacts she was able to reach in Virginia. Once I fill her in on all of this, we might be able to link some other things that could help out Yvonne.”

  Dana read the investigator’s number off. “What about Sheila? Any leads there?”

  “Not so far. If they brought her back to Virginia, no one knows anything or is talking, if they do.”

  “I have a hunch she’s down here Mel. Besides, you said that cousin of hers, Tyrell, said the family pretty much wrote Sheila off after she went back with Terry, especially her own son.”

  “That’s what he said. We’re still trying to prove whether any of that is true or not. Meanwhile, it’s definitely not safe for you to be down there. I think you should pack up and come on back here.”

  “As far as these guys know, I’m dead Mel. A patrol officer brought me to their post here in Nashville. It was nearly dark by then. Yvonne and I met and talked there, then she took me to Enterprise. I hit a store well outside of town in a suburb for this phone and some clothes and this hotel is out here. I’m keeping a low profile.”

  “And anything else you do, is going to attract their attention right back to you.”

  “I’m staying. I have one more person to talk to whom I know, knows something, the prison doctor. I’m going to track her down at home tomorrow and pick her brain.”

  Chapter 28 - Rutledge Revisited

  Saturday Morning, November 28th

  Nashville, Tennessee

  When Dana reached the lobby, she found Yvonne there, waiting for her. “Let me guess; my wife called you?”

  The other woman nodded. “She’s worried. They tried to kill you yesterday,” she whispered.

  “What about your safety? They could come after you too, same as me. How’s come they aren’t on to you?”

  Yvonne looked around the lobby. People were milling about, wandering to and from the front desk and the free breakfast buffet across the lobby from it. “Not here. Let’s go to my car.”

  “We can go, but we’re taking mine.”

  “No. I’ve had it sent back to Enterprise. It’s too much of a risk.”

  “Hey! That was totally not my fault.”

  “That’s not what I meant,” Yvonne hissed between clenched teeth. She headed for the door and Dana followed.

  Once they were in Yvonne’s car, she asked Dana, “Where to?”

  Dana gave her the address.

  “Is that the prison doctor?”

  “Is there anything my wife didn’t tell you?”

  “Not much…but I already knew most of it from you.” She started the car and headed out of the parking lot.

  “So you know all about my stuff,” Dana said, “but something tells me you’re not sharing something important about yours.”

  “You’re right. Did you talk to your wife this morning?”

  “No. I figured she’d just try to talk me out of going to talk to the Doc. She did last night.”

  “That was before she talked to me. Dana, I haven’t been completely forthcoming with you. I have a couple of informants inside the operation. In fact, one’s a mole I turned over a year ago that’s pretty highly placed. They keep me out of harm’s way.”

  Dana folded her arms across her chest and stared at the other woman. “So you knew about the Fords all along?”

  “No. I never made that connection. My mole is good, but not from that end of it. He’s been trying to work that angle, but he can only get to so much without appearing too eager and prompting questions. He’s turned me onto the dirty judges, cops and docs and helped me break that end of it open.”

  “A lawyer then?”

  Yvonne shrugged. “Can’t tell you that. He keeps me out of trouble but if they find out about him he’s a dead man and it won’t be long before they get to me.”

  “What about the other informant?”

  “She’s lower level; one of their drivers. I knew about the mass accident almost as it happened.”

  “She couldn’t tell you about it beforehand, so you could have worked with law enforcement to prevent it?”

  “No. She’s not privy to the grand scheme plans, only bits and pieces.”

&
nbsp; “People died in that mess, Yvonne.”

  “I know. I know. I don’t have an answer for that. I wish I did. What I do know, that they don’t know is that I know most of the scammers involved in that, and things are going to get really ugly, really fast as they start filing claims and trying to litigate. They’re going to find themselves charged with crimes. With the information you’ve managed to put together in only a week, I’m this close to cracking the whole thing.” She held up her thumb and index finger, a quarter inch apart.

  “This is the place,” Dana said.

  They pulled up in front of a Craftsman style bungalow.

  “Nice place. This is Richland, one of Nashville’s nicer neighborhoods. Pricey, but she’s a doctor, so…”

  “She’s a prison doctor, Yvonne. She’s not making what she’d make in private practice and if she’s got student loans, she’ll be paying for years, unless that’s part of the whole prison deal; the state pays off her loans for her service.”

  “Could be, or could be she’s part of the whole ring too and getting a nice cut.”

  “Naw,” Dana said, shaking her head. “I think she knows more than she told me, but I don’t think she’s part of the whole big scheme.”

  “Let’s find out.”

  They got out of the car and Dana led the way up to the door. She knocked and waited. It was after 9:00 AM, but she didn’t hear a sound coming from inside the home. She knocked again, but needn't have bothered. Caroline Rutledge jogged up the driveway behind them and called out in a breathy voice, “Can I help you?”

  Dana turned toward the woman and saw she recognized her.

  Rutledge started stretching to cool down but asked, “How did you find me?”

  “It wasn’t very hard,” Dana said, “If you know where to look. She came down off the porch but held a hand out toward the house. “You own real estate. Process of elimination.”

  “Oh.”

  “This is Yvonne Gibbons, doctor. She’s an insurance fraud investigator.”

  “There was nothing wrong with inmate Ford.”

  “How long did it take you to figure that out?” Dana asked.

  “I didn’t have to. She was referred down to me as a case that needed to go to Saint Thomas. I never even examined her. I wrote the referral, like I was told.”

  “Who told you to do it?”

  “The Warden.”

  Yvonne looked puzzled. “I don’t understand. What does the Warden have to gain from referring her out to a hospital? How does he profit?”

  “I don’t know that he does,” Caroline said. “Not directly. I think he’s taking orders for future political gain and the hospital…strike that, a rogue actor at the hospital was perpetuating a little bit of Medicare fraud.”

  “And that’s just one case,” Dana said. “How many others were there?”

  Rutledge shook her head. “None that I know of. Most of the patients I saw were legitimate or presented well enough to appear legitimate.”

  “You’re a neurologist,” Dana said. “Why work in a prison?”

  “It was that or the military. Between undergrad and medical school, I have over half a million dollars in student loans. I would be paying the rest of my life, plus paying the high cost of malpractice insurance. Becoming a doctor these days is a rich man’s…person’s game. The only way someone like me can afford it is to work for the government after all the schooling. The prison paid more than the military, so I could afford this house, in my hometown, but now I’m thinking I should have just taken the Army’s offer.”

  Chapter 29 - Appearances

  Monday, November 30th

  FBI Field Office

  Roanoke, Virginia

  Mel and Andrea sat across the table from Randall and Lynette Willard. Agents listened from behind the glass as, between crying jags, Lynette told them what happened on the Thursday Sheila Ford disappeared.

  “Sheila is my cousin. Our mothers are sisters. I hadn’t talked to her in years. Many years. She…her and her daughter, they’re not all that they appear to be. That’s why Davis, her son washed his hands of her. She got in with that Terry Ford and he treated her real bad, early on. He beat her bad. Her daddy ran him off but, when he died, Terry came back for her, promising he’d changed and she went back to him; moved to Ohio with him.”

  “But Jennifer didn’t move to Ohio with her. She went there to go to school, is what I’ve heard,” Dana said.

  “True, but how do you think school got paid for?” Randy nodded along at his wife’s assertion.

  “I thought a scholarship? Am I wrong?”

  “That’s what they told people. She got a scholarship for the first year. She couldn’t cut it with the band and all the traveling around and whatnot. It messed with her school work and she was in danger of flunking out. She was kicked out of the band for grades and lost her scholarship. She wanted to stay there at Ohio State and try and make a go of it, so Ford made up the difference between what they were already paying and what the scholarship had paid.”

  “By running insurance fraud scams?” Andrea asked.

  “Yes. Him, Sheila and Jennifer…all three of them.”

  “And how long have you two been running scams with them?”

  Randy answered, “We haven’t. We run a legitimate business.”

  Mel fumed. “If that’s true, why are we all here?”

  Lynette sobbed and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “Because they killed my son! That’s why!” Randy put an arm around her and pulled her to his side.

  When she calmed down, she went on, “I was dating Earnest Lighty. I was raped by Stephen Ford one weekend when he showed up in Norfolk with Terry. I got pregnant. Earnest and I…we hadn’t…you know. He married me as soon as we found out about the baby, and he claimed it was his, gave him his name.”

  “Stephen knew though?” Mel asked.

  Lynette nodded as she dabbed at her eyes again. “Yes. Earnest died in a farming accident when Caleb was only two. Stephen was married by then, but he came back to Virginia after the funeral, claiming he knew the boy was his. He wanted me to give him up, sign him over to him and his wife, so they could take him to Tennessee and raise him as a Ford.”

  Both women on the other side of the table bristled. Andrea recovered first. “Why would his wife allow that? Why would she put up with that?”

  “She was barren.”

  “You left your hometown and disappeared rather than give in to him?” Mel guessed.

  Lynette nodded. “I had to. I didn’t have a choice if I wanted to keep my son. I moved in with an aunt in Roanoke. He never found me there…gave up looking, I guess. I never told Caleb who his real father was. Then, fifteen years ago, I met Randy here, when Caleb was about eight. He was a single father. Caleb and his daughter were in the same class in school. He was an independent trucker even back then. We got married and started building a trucking business. When the recession hit in 2008 and the price of fuel shot up, we sold off the other trucks and laid our drivers off. We only kept one; it was all we could afford to run. Things are better now but we like it being just us.”

  Randy nodded along the whole time she talked.

  “How did Caleb end up in Tennessee and, presumably, get mixed up with the Fords?” Andrea asked.

  Randy answered, “The boy is…was, a hell of a musician. Drums, all of the percussion instruments really. Keyboards. Sang a little. Very talented. He was in a band. They all moved to Nashville, thinking they were going to hit it big. They shared an apartment and lasted maybe six months working odd jobs and trying to get gigs. Caleb met a girl who was in EMT training. She sweet talked him into doing it too. Turns out, he loved it. When the band broke up and moved on, he stayed in Nashville, finished his training and got a job.”

  “He was in paramedic school,” Lynette added. He wanted to get his fire credentials too and work for Nashville. I…we were so proud.”

  “And Theodore Lundquist recruited him,” Mel said. “What are the odds?” />
  Lynette and Randy both nodded. “We didn’t know,” Lynette claimed. “We had no idea.”

  “Tell us about Thursday, the 19th,” Andrea requested as she looked from one to the other.

  Lynette drew in a deep breath. “Caleb called us that Wednesday night and said he and his partner were doing a compassionate transport to Ohio the next day, and that I knew the patient. He wouldn’t tell me who it was. He wanted to know if we could meet somewhere for a few minutes. I don’t get to see him much and, I admit, I was curious about the patient. I picked the Pilot, because we always stop there.” She started to cry again. “If only we had left…”

  Andrea asked, “What do you mean?”

  “They were so late. We try and time our run back home, so we get in before dark. It’s easier to maneuver the rig back into its spot when we can see. Anyway, we finally saw the ambulance pull in and he got out. He talked to the deputy that was riding with him and then he headed right for the bathrooms. He didn’t even glance around for us.”

  Randy picked up the thread there, pointing a finger at Lynette. “She was anxious, wanting to see him and wanting to know who he was transporting. I got out and went over by the restroom entrance to let him know we were still there, waiting.”

  “When Randy got out, I climbed down too, so I’d be ready when Caleb came out. The back of that ambulance opened, and Sheila climbed out. I hadn’t seen her in years, but there was no mistaking her. The thing is, I didn’t even think Caleb knew her. She’d been in Ohio all of his life, while he was growing up in Roanoke.”

  Mel asked, “Did someone let her out?”

  “No. It was just her.”

  “And what was she wearing?”