Perilous Obsession: A Medical Thriller (Brad Parker and Karen Richmond Medical Thrillers) by Geoffrey M. Cooper

Author:Geoffrey M. Cooper [Cooper, Geoffrey M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Maine Authors Publishing
Published: 2022-09-13T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 24

Two hours later, we were on the road to Portland. Bishop had called, and Karen agreed to meet with him to review progress and plan next steps. She expected Willingham’s and Northrup’s financials to be waiting by the time we arrived at headquarters, so we’d have that info on hand to review with her partner.

The ride up to Portland didn’t feel nearly as long a trip as it had a while back when I’d first joined the Bateman review committee. Now it felt routine, after so many repetitions in the last couple of weeks. I could finally see why the trip had become a normal part of Karen’s commute.

One of the agents handed Karen a folder as soon as we arrived at the office. “I think you’ll find this pretty interesting,” she said with a wink.

She was right. Northrup’s information was routine, but Willingham had what might be called an unusual pattern of cash flow—at least for the last year and a half, since he’d moved to Maine and joined the Bateman. Prior to that, it was nothing special. He’d had a scholarship for his undergraduate studies at Harvard and then taken out a substantial loan for medical school. His bank account was slim pickings during that period. It fleshed out a bit when he was a resident, as expected for a salary of around sixty-five thousand.

But his move to Maine precipitated a dramatic change. He paid off his student loan and the balance in his account started bouncing around in the neighborhood of a hundred thousand. My first thought was that he’d come into a substantial inheritance, but there was a note in the file saying that the agent had checked and there was no record of such.

Maybe the Bateman had offered him a big signing bonus to join their staff? Sometimes private institutions did that, particularly if there was someone they were especially eager to recruit. But a signing bonus of a hundred thousand or more was unheard-of. And there was only a single large deposit of fifteen thousand from the Bateman, which coincided with his initial employment and was a reasonable bonus for signing/relocation expenses. Beyond that, the only funds coming from the Bateman were monthly direct deposits of about five thousand, consistent with a clinical fellow’s salary.

On the other hand, there were multiple large cash deposits of unknown origin. Willingham seemed to deposit sums in the neighborhood of ten thousand dollars every couple of weeks. The timing was irregular, nothing like on the first and fifteenth of every month. But they were consistent, representing additional income in excess of a quarter million dollars a year.

“No way cash deposits like this are legitimate,” Karen said. “Son of a bitch is selling drugs or something.”

I nodded my agreement. But I’d also noticed something else in his credit card records. “Look at these entries.” I pointed to several that had caught my eye. “He was a frequent visitor to the Oxford casino. There are charges there every week or two.

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