The undercover operation was in its sixth day, Amy was pleased with their progress, but they still needed more evidence linking the doctors with the cafeteria worker who took the prescription pills out to the pusher in the minivan. The bugs that Terry planted had picked up plenty of evidence against Larry Powell, the cafeteria worker, but the doctors were extremely careful or lucky, Amy couldn't decide which one was actually true.
Jake had gone through his morning routine of physical therapy and was wheeling himself in his wheelchair that he had now been in for five weeks to a doctor's appointment. He waited in a small doctor's office when the door opened and Dr. Taylor, one of their suspects, entered the room.
"Mr. Steiner, nice to meet you, I'm Dr. Taylor."
Jake shook his hand and smiled, "Nice to meet you, you can call me Johnny, I've never been very formal."
"Well, Johnny, this appointment is for pain management."
It took a lot of control to not give away anything with his face, but things started to make sense for Jake, if Taylor was in charge of pain management, it meant he could prescribe drugs, and patients were given their doses daily, not bottles, or monthly amounts like patients who were not in a hospital or program would be given. "I've been fine with pain, I've only had to take some Percocet here and there, but none in the past five days, and that's with Yanick working me to death."
Taylor smiled, "I'm glade your pain is minimal, but what we do here is to prescribe the pain killers and have them ready if you need them. With your physical therapy, the pain could get worse, so we want to be ready, just in case. The pills will be ready if you need them, you will only receive them if you ask for them."
Jake had so many thoughts and questions he wanted to ask, but he had to be Johnny Steiner, entrepreneur, not Jake Peralta, detective, so he just went with it and nodded, "Okay, you're the doctor, that's cool."
"So, Mr. Steiner, what brings you and your wife to our center?"
"A break in, they didn't think we'd be there, I got shoved off the stairs, broke my leg and my wife was shot. It was terrible, but we're working through it." Jake tried to channel the frustration of the actual events that led to his leg and Amy being shot to look sincerely bummed to be talking about it while giving Taylor the lie.
"That's terrible, I heard a little about it. Your assistant is pretty closed mouth, so I hear, the other doctors have tried to chat her up a little."
Jake laughed, if they only knew how closed mouth Rosa actually was compared to her undercover persona, Alicia. "Alicia is the best, she's worked for us for a while and she's more guarded than we are, but she's a professional through and through."
Taylor seemed to buy everything as he nodded and filled out his paper work, "well, Johnny, that's all for today, I think we'll schedule you for next week. All records of your prescriptions will be on your file you can access online, policy here at the center, you will see that we prescribed a large number of pills, that's just in case, if you don't use them, they are destroyed, and your insurance is refunded."
Jake nodded as his brain spun and started to figure things out, "That's fine, thank you Dr. Taylor."
Amy was doing some leg exercises when Jake bumped the door with his wheelchair and clumsily entered the small temporary apartment as he was excited and moving faster than normal. "Dora, Dora, get up and help me. Close the door please, I need to pee."
Amy got up and eyed him suspiciously, "Okay, Johnny."
Jake motioned for her to the bathroom, they entered, and he turned on the water, "Johnny has some news. I had a doctor's appointment today, I had no idea what it was about. It was a pain management appointment with Dr. Taylor."
Amy couldn't hide the shock on her face, finally, some luck with the doctors. "Something good happened, I can tell."
Jake grinned, "Hells yeah, this guy tried to act all caring, I told him I already have pain pills and that I've been fine, he prescribed me three different painkillers, and then told me I wouldn't see them unless I requested them, he prescribed huge amounts, and he said I could see everything online, on our records."
Amy immediately got on the laptop and accessed their account and records, she had been monitoring it to make sure there was nothing on there that seemed out of place to give them away. "Jake, he prescribed sixty of each of these." Before Jake could respond, Amy was on the phone, "Rosa, try and get Holt's approval to have one of our best hackers get into the system here, I think we have the doctors, they prescribe huge amounts, saying it's only there if they need it, the patients probably hardly touch any of it, and then the pills are supposed to be destroyed, and that's where the doctors get their pills to sell. There is room here for up to three hundred patients at a time, this place is huge, so they could potentially be moving a lot of pills."
"Yes, captain, no problem, also, Charles got the tracker on Tyler, our pusher in the minivan, we know right where he sells. Terry assigned an undercover officer to buy from him there today."
Amy was all smiles, "good, everything is starting to make sense and I think we should have them all soon. I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon and it might be my turn for the pain management crap."
Amy was right, that afternoon, she had her appointment, and in walked Dr. Hales, their other suspect. Dr. Hales made the same small talk that Dr. Taylor had with Jake, gave the same explanation about pain medication, and prescribed the same amounts of three different painkillers. Amy was smiling when she entered their apartment, Jake was on the couch and motioned for her to hurry in.
"Dora, good news, Alicia was able to take a look at the website with our," and Jake looked around like they might be listened to or were being spied on, "hacker," he whispered, "they have basically assigned this amount of pills to everyone here, Holt talked to doctor who works for the department and he told Holt that it was basically insanity to do that, but because the pills and doses are as needed, no one overdoses and the extra pills are forgotten about, and they make money selling them. Charles called, they were able to look at the doctors' bank accounts, they have payments of up to twenty thousand dollars a month for consultant fees, they claim the money on their taxes, but there is no record of who they consult for or when."
Amy nodded and tried to remain calm, they were close, "Okay, it's time to catch Powell red-handed, I'll contact the local precinct and get uniformed officer to await Charles command and then bust Powell and Tyler as Powell hands him the pills. Terry was able to get a camera in the pharmacy, he told them he'd clean some other spots, and they let him, so far, nothing has happened in there, nothing we can use, but if my hunch is right, they will be attempting to either move or destroy thousands of pills if Powell is caught.
Amy and Jake went to their normal appointments that day, they had to maintain the illusion, when they returned to their apartment, Rosa was there, "we got Powell and Tyler, they took the to the nine-nine, Terry said they wouldn't talk at first, and then he showed them all footage he had of them. He also said he didn't need the doctors, he told them they would do all of the time and get all the blame, that was fine with him."
"Noice, good job, Terry." Jake was happy things were working out, but he also wanted to go back to his house and more importantly, see his daughters.
"Did they give them up?" Amy asked.
"Yes, about five minutes ago. Holt is getting the arrest warrants for the doctors, and Charles has been monitoring the pharmacy cam, just as promised, they destroyed a bunch of pills, but some they put in a duffle bag. Terry has a detective waiting to act as soon as they leave the building, we have the warrants, so we can arrest them no matter what, but catching them red handed would make everything easier."
"Yeah, especially since they will probably hire a good defense attorney."
Later that afternoon, Doctors Taylor and Hales left the center at different times, each with large amounts of pills on their person. Jake and Amy were told to stay two more nights and then leave, complaining of the illegal activities, Holt did not want to reveal that they were involved, they were great detectives but if someone wanted to retaliate against them, they were in a knee brace and wheelchair.
"Jake, come eat, Rosa brought over good stuff tonight, perogies and potato pancakes."
Jake smiled, "gee, I wonder where she got that idea, oh yeah, the last time we were Johnny and Dora, Johnny knew right where Dora was going to eat that night."
Amy grinned and hit him, "nice job, I'd forgotten that part. Johnny and Dora ride again. I love you, Johnny."
"I love you, Dora."
Three days later, the bust was announced, and Jake and Amy were mentioned but not shown, the squad would be receiving accommodations for their success. Jake was all smiles at their house, they had decided to have the girls come back with Amy's parents, a little injury was worth not missing the girls so much. Jake wore out himself and the girls wheeling them everywhere and making his wheelchair the Millennium Falcon, with himself as Han Solo, Carmen as Luke, and Reina as Chewbacca. Amy loved to see Jake be so happy, especially at home with their family, he needed this.
