'Yup.'
'Then we deny the life claim and the fire claim,' Jack says, 'void the policies and sue to get the advance back.'
'Write the denial letter,' Goddamn Billy says. 'Inform the insured of our decision.'
Oh, yeah, Jack thinks.
I'll inform him.
76
Sandra Hansen knocks on the door of Room 813 at the Ritz-Carlton. Waits while the FBI agent inside checks her out. The door slides open, she steps in, and the door closes quickly behind her.
The agent's name is Young and she's known him for three years. They've been on the same anti-fraud-ring task force with the two others sitting in the room: Danny Banner, an investigator with the California Attorney General's office Anti-ROC (Russian organized crime) Task Force, and Sergeant Richard Jimenez, from LAPD. Banner and Jimenez are sitting on a sofa by the coffee table, setting up a tape recorder and going over notes.
'Guys,' Hansen says.
'Sandy.'
'Dr. Howard,' Hansen says.
Howard looks up from his easy chair. He's very unhappy.
'I'm Sandra Hansen,' she says. 'From California Fire and Life. You've taken us for a lot of money, Howard.'
'On the phone you said no police,' Howard says.
'Gee, I guess I committed fraud on you, huh, Doctor?'
'I should just get up and leave.'
'Go.'
Howard's not going anywhere. Hansen knows Howard's not going anywhere. She sits down in a chair across from him and lays a file on the table. Opens it and says, 'Dr. Howard, yesterday you treated a woman named Lourdes Hidalgo for muscle trauma. Here's the treatment report. That's your signature, isn't it?'
'Yes.'
'But, Doctor,' Hansen says, 'the problem with this is that Lourdes Hidalgo died in a car crash the day before you treated her.'
'As I said on the phone,' Howard says, 'I must have mixed her up with someone else. A mistake in paperwork.'
'Well, when did you treat Mrs. Hidalgo?' Hansen asks. 'And who did you confuse her with?'
'I don't know.'
'You don't know because you screwed up,' Hansen says. 'You never saw Lourdes Hidalgo, you were just signing paperwork. You were signing phony bills for treatment you never performed. Isn't that right, Doctor? Or did you administer ultrasound therapy to a jar of ashes? Even you'd notice that, wouldn't you, Doctor Howard? That your patient is a loose collection of charred bones?'
'There is no need for-'
'I think there's need,' Hansen says. 'They identified Lourdes through her dental work. Now I'm going to press charges against you for insurance fraud against California Fire and Life. Sergeant Jimenez here is about to read you your rights and arrest you.'
'A misdemeanor,' Howard says.
'Where did you get your medical degree?' Banner asks. 'Because you're very stupid, Doctor. This treatment report connects you to eight murders. Eight people were incinerated in that van.'
'I had nothing to do-'
'You had everything to do with it,' Hansen says. 'Your billing factory is the whole motive for drive-downs like that one that went wrong. That connects you. That makes you a conspirator.'
'My lawyers will-'
'Execute your will,' Jimenez says. 'Because you'll be dead. I know the names of three corrections officers in the downtown jail who are on the Russian payroll. They'll put you in a cell and you'll never make it out. You'll never make it to the arraignment.'
Banner says, 'We can get you capital punishment just by charging you. We don't have to win a trial.'
'If I press these charges,' Hansen says, 'your partners will kill you. They'll be afraid that you'll talk. Maybe if it were a misdemeanor they'd hang in with you, but a seven-count homicide charge?'
Howard is not a tough guy. He starts crying. Asks, 'What do you want from me?'
'Only everything,' Hansen says. 'You're going to start meeting with us. You're going to go over all your records and tell us which ones are phonies. You're going to give us names of who you're working with.'
'Starting now,' Banner says. 'Who brings you the forms to sign?'
'It's changed,' Howard says. 'Two new guys.'
'Names,' Banner says.
Howard shrugs.
'You don't know?' Banner asks.
'Sorry.'
Banner looks at Jimenez and says, 'What are we doing here? Read him his rights.'
'I don't know.'
'Come on,' Hansen says. 'When they'd call you, they'd say, 'This is…''
'Ivan,' Howard says.
'You're shitting me,' Banner says.
'Ivan and Boris,' Howard says. 'It was like, you know, a joke.'
'No kidding,' Hansen says.
Young says, 'Describe them.'
Howard describes them. When he's done, Banner takes some pictures out of a file and tosses them on the table.
'Those two,' Howard says.
'Who'd they work for?'
'I dunno. I thought they worked for themselves.'
'Don't be jerking us, Howard,' Banner says. 'You're not a moron. You know you're hooked up with the Russian Mafia, not Two Guys from Kiev.'
'But they don't tell you,' Howard says. 'These two, they just came in and said 'Now you report to us.''
'Did you ever hear anyone mention the name Tratchev?' Hansen asks.
'No.'
'Rubinsky?'
'No.'
'Schaller?'
'No.'
Jimenez turns to Hansen. 'You want to press charges?'
'Absolutely.'
'No,' Howard whines.
Hansen leans forward so her face is real close to his. Says, 'Here's the deal, you drunken quack. Listen to me very carefully — I don't care if they kill you. I think that you're bottom-feeding scum and you deserve everything you have coming to you. Now I will keep my finger in the shit dike for just as long as you're useful to me. The second you stop, the second you balk, the second you don't do exactly what we tell you, I'll pull my finger out. I'll have you arrested, and just to make sure, I'll call up Mr. Tratchev and tell him that you met with us and gave up two of his boys. I'll send him an edited version of the videotape. By the way, smile for the camera, Dr. Howard.'
'You are a terrible person.'
