Trill tapped on the edge of her laptop. “Live body brokering can also be called ‘patient brokering’ and is a growing piece of healthcare fraud. Bottom line: it’s a predatory practice that sends people addicted to drugs and/or alcohol to treatmentfacilities in exchange for profit. The patients who are targeted very often have ready cash or lucrative insurance plans.
“A corrupt treatment center will pay kickbacks to body brokers who refer individuals with high-paying insurance plans or who have wealthy families who can afford to pay cash to them. Additionally, the treatment center will also fraudulently charge the patient’s insurance for services rendered, even when the patient or the family have already paid cash in full, in order to make even more money off them. In the meantime, people who are sick and vulnerable are kept in an endless cycle of addiction and relapse, with little to no opportunity for recovery.”
“That’s fuckingoutrageous,” growled Blake, squeezing an equally upset Brooke’s hand.
“The goal is not to get a patient better but instead keep them in treatment as long as possible,” continued Trill. “Frequent relapses provide opportunity for the never-ending cycle of billing to continue as patients are shuffled around a corrupt system.”
“Looks like that dart you threw hit the bullseye, sis,” murmured Shaelyn, looking at Indi. “This bastard just might be selling bodies to unethical treatment facilities.Withoutthe knowledge of the other three partners of Reflex.” Rumbles filled the conference room.
“Let’s start at the beginning,” Bryn proposed. “Setting that aside for a moment, let’s begin with everything that happened the minute Infinity opened the front doors of The Hideout, then pull it apart, looking at the angles. At the very least, we know one thing for certain. Rob Kilgore is playing a goddamn dangerous game with his partners, who more than evidently had their eyes opened to his deceit last night. And it’s anyone’s guess how he’s going to extract himself from their crosshairs.
“He may not be the brightest bulb in the light socket, but Neeta was right: Jack Norris is a fuckingdemon. If I wereKilgore, I’d be more worried about my survival chances at this point than selling bodies. Becausehisdead carcass may end up for sale before he even knows what hit him.”
Chapter 21
“Indi,” asked Trill curiously, “what tipped you off to the addict angle?”
“When we learned ‘Rob Vonn’ had trafficked the remains of Marion’s mother, I looked further into it. For all the reasons we’ve already talked about, it didn’t appear ‘Vonn’ was a player in the body brokering game, nor would he be for quite some time, not until he made some connections and established his network. Marion’s mom was apparently a one-shot deal, at least for now. I was still itchy, though.
“It got me to wondering: was there any other way a con artist could use body brokering to make money, outside of stealing and selling dead bodies? Was there a way to body-broker that would bring a faster return but not require as much time, effort, resources, or contacts to accomplish? Bri did her Bri thing for me, andbingo. There it was. Addict exploitation. On a hunch, I threw darts at it last night with Reflex, just to see if anything would land. Surprise, surprise.”
Drew was drumming her fingers on the table. “Which fits in with whatCyb3rmoontoldme. Kilgore is potentially brokering addicts. Christ knows how long he’s been doing it without his partners’ knowledge or participation. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if it’s been an ongoing scam of his for a while.”
“But now,” said Blake slowly, “he’s not flying under the radar anymore. Indi dumped him into a huge pile of shit, exposing his stealth brokering grift in front of his partners. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy,” she added wrathfully, “since he and his fellow scam artists had every intentionof harming my femme’s business reputation. As far as I’m concerned, the motherfucker can bleed out.”
Riley was busy making notes on her phone. “And the project slowdown, the reason they met with Brooke and lobbed a grenade at the project timeline? Kilgore is jacking the resources Reflex thought they had lined up to move product from the four microbreweries on their hit list. Instead, he’s using them for his own body brokering scam, so there’s no muscle available for the embezzlement piece.”
“That’s one thing I don’t get,” frowned Kennedy, thinking. “Why not do both? There would be nothing to prevent these hired minions from moving product on top of finding bodies who can be brokered into dishonest treatment facilities. Neither grift takes a whole lot of brainpower. Even those idiots could manage that, you would think.”
Bryn snorted. “Because these guys couldn’t keep their mouths shut if you stapled their lips together. No way was Kilgore taking a chance on his Reflex partners finding out he was hiding in plain sight with a grift of his own by hiring underlings involved in both scams. It’s no secret they talk amongst themselves. If it got back to Berber, Langston, or Norris that Kilgore had a lucrative deal going that he had cut them out of, they’d chop his balls off.
“Therefore, his rule became: you either participate in brokering addict referrals for me and make bank,oryou haul stolen goods for Reflex for much less money. But you can’t do both. And you can’t tell anyone what you’re involved in if you want to play with addict bodies, or else you’reout. Are they going to jeopardize a well-paid, guaranteed payday by blabbing? Fuck no, they aren’t.”
“But now, as of last night, all the partners of Reflex know what Kilgore’s been up to.Hermana,” Jaime said to Brooke, “Langston sounds like he’s the other one of the four with someintelligence. Yeah, a fuckton of shit will be coming down within Reflex from Kilgore’s deception. However, the very first thing Clay will want to know when he gets his thoughts in order will be, who was ‘Cherry’? This woman who showed up out of the blue and busted Kilgore’s grift wide open, who Mr. Brainiac went after in the bar with a vengeance after she blew his scam to pieces?”
Blake nodded, squeezing Brooke’s hand, her face grim. “But ‘Cherry’doesn’t really exist, so Reflex will never find her, no matter how hard they look. Since Langston is not a fool, he’ll figure that out pretty damn quick. Therefore, he’ll do the next best thing.It all comes back to you, baby. Outside of Reflex, who has been the one constant in this entire clusterfuck, other than Gene Wheeler?You. The naive graphic artist, the woman whoseemsto be nothing more than a naive graphic artist…but who’s brought two different ‘apprentices’ to her last meetings with them.
“Gene has never been a threat because he was wrapped up with his wife’s health for a long time and was inattentive. Butyou? I promise you, their brains are spinning and coming up with all sorts of conclusions. At least Clay and Rob are.”
“Yes, but I don’t ever have to see them again,” Brooke reminded her and the team. “I’m calling Thom on Friday like I told him I would and telling him thanks, but no thanks. I’m out. Since I work from home, there’s plenty to keep me busy with all my other clients, safely within the walls of Blake’s apartment. If I do need to go anywhere, either you or one of your crew will go with me. Besides,” her gray eyes darkened, “Piper says my shooting skills are getting awesome, and Sabine told me I am rapidly becoming a Krav Maga threat. Let those fuckers come at me. I dare them.”
Smirking, Dani folded her arms on the table in front of her and said, “You know we’re stealing her when we go back to Tallahassee, right?”
“Yeah, no.” Blake arched a brow, only partially playing around. “My crew might have something to say about it if you steal their latest Utopia playmate.”
Trill was still busy on her laptop. “The more I’m thinking about it, the more I’m wondering if it would be a good idea for Gene and Sandy Wheeler to shut Cask & Canvas down for a while and go on vacation. What do you think?”
“Honestly, I’m not sure that’s necessary,” Blake told her. “Even with Brooke quitting, Gene still won’t be of much interest because he’s never been a threat to them, nothing more than a microbrewery owner they’re going to embezzle from. Reflex will give him some bullshit song-and-dance about why they need to start over, why Brooke isn’t there anymore, but Gene and his wife will have a little room to breathe. If Reflex can’t find muscle for hire who can haul product and equipment out of Cask & Canvas right away, the microbrewery assets are safe for the moment.”
“True that,” Trill agreed. She tapped the edge of her laptop. “What will be interesting is how Rob Kilgore will handle this. His partners now know he’s been playing fast and loose, making deals without them. My bet is, Jack Norris is a fucking Neanderthal who will go blundering in with absolutely no finesse and start threatening him. Thom Berger will do a duck-and-cover because he’s only the front guy and won’t want to be caught in the crossfire. Clay Langston will demand answers, but I’m betting he’ll do it on a one-on-one basis with Kilgore.”
Teagan looked up from her phone. “Looks like Langston has been digging. Remy was able to monitor some of his phone communications. Clay is attempting to run down who Rob has been talking to. Kilgore isn’t stupid, he’s quite obviously beenusing a burner phone, but Langston has still managed to talk to a few acquaintances who’ve told him Kilgore’s presence on the dark web has increased again in recent days, without Reflex’s knowledge.”
“Which we already knew, thanks toCyb3rmoon,” Drew mused, leaning back and steepling her fingers, “although Kilgore has been disappearing into private chats, so we don’t know the details of those conversations.Weknow he’s into this body brokering scam, but Clay has little by way of detail. This is all brand new to him, even if he has been suspicious that Kilgore has been up tosomethingfor a while now.”
The operatives from Infinity, who had been quiet during the conversation, regarded each other. “Since I don’t think it’s a smart idea for ‘Cherry’to make another appearance, even online,” pondered Shaelyn, thinking out loud, “how do we keep our eye on Langston without arousing his suspicions? If he does have an alter ego roaming around Purgatory, scouting for information—as Blake told us he probably does—how do we confirm?” Her dark eyebrows lifted slightly. “What about your friend, Drew? Would she know?”
“She might. However, keeping little moonchild in the dark as much as possible is preferable. This body brokering scam has her full attention, liveanddead. Frankly, I’m not completely convincedCyb3rmoonisn’t personally involved on some level. Not with Rob Kilgore or anyone else from Reflex directly but, from all appearances, she’s studying the game board and planning her move. I want to know what side of the fence she’s sitting on and who or what her intended target is.”
