The elevator opened and she pushed on the –3 level button. She silently prayed that no one joined her in the elevator during her descent. Although she had a valid reason to go down below the lobby level, scouting out a potential skills lab room, she would have preferred no one knowing she was down there.
Luckily her silent prayer was answered, and no one entered the elevator on her way down.
Nervously and cautiously, she stepped out of the elevator and looked up and down the corridor making sure she was alone. She jumped slightly as the elevator doors closed behind her, and then relaxed a bit. She took out her phone and looked at the picture of the floorplan, trying to see which way she should go. She turned her phone to the side so that it corresponded to where she was standing, and then followed the corridor to the left.
When she reached an intersection, she turned right and then again left, making her reach the desired corridor. She turned around thinking she had heard a sound but brushed it aside as she saw she was still alone, and no other sound was heard.
She walked down and stopped 4 doors later. Next to the door on her left was a metal sign. It indicated '184'.
She inhaled deeply and placed her hand on the doorknob. Holding her breath, she turned it and the door opened. The room was dark, and she felt around both sides of the wall, on either side of the door opening, in search for a switch. When she found it, she flipped it, and the room came to life.
She quietly closed the door behind her and inventoried the room. Archive boxes were piled up around the room where a desk stood amid all of them. Two metal floor-to-ceiling poles were in the room, one toward the front, the other all the way in the back, most probably some sort of support beam.
She walked over and looked at the boxes and what was written on them. They all were labelled with an individual date. She took one that was dated two months back and placed it on the desk. She opened the box and took out a bunch of files from out of it. She placed them flat down on the desk next to the box and started to run through them. They all were labelled with the name of patients. When she came upon one of the names she knew, she opened the file folder and had a look at the documents inside.
Her eyes grew bigger the more she went through them. She knew the patient well as she had assisted Al in the surgery and post-op. Aside from personal information about the patient as well as medical background, there was the surgery and post-op reports and the billing. She thought that there was nothing important but then as she flipped over Al's surgery report something caught her eye.
She flipped the page back and started reading it. "What the…?!"
She then took the billing document and she stared at it agog. She took out her phone and took pictures of the documents before putting them away.
She thought back to the date that she had operated on a patient and found the corresponding date rather quickly. Whoever was taking care of this was structured as everything was organized down to the files inside the boxes that were in alphabetical order, and the patient files were always in the same order as well. She quickly found the file she was looking for and took out her surgery report and found the same abnormality as in the previous on. She quickly turned the page to the billing report.
She once again took pictures and then went to get another box, this time of a pediatric patient that Conrad had treated three months ago. What she could have imagined to be a simple mistake ended up being a normality in that file as well.
She lifted her phone from the desk and called the number again. This time, he answered the call.
"Julia, I got your message."
"I found what we were looking for and it's way worse than you and I could have ever imagined."
"Are you alone?"
"Yes, no one knows I'm here. We're looking at financial fraud. They go and change the names of the surgical procedures in our surgical reports and then bill a wrong code to the patient and their insurances."
There was a silence on the other end.
"What you are telling me is that they get paid more money than necessary, basically taking a big tip on the side?"
"Exactly and seeing the number of boxes and files in this room, we are talking about millions of dollars that Red Rock Medical puts in their pockets."
"We need evidence, something I can go to the authorities with."
"I've taken some pictures and I've got the original surgical reports to prove it. I'll send them to you right away."
She removed the phone from her ear and quickly placed the pictures in an email and sent it. She placed the phone back in place. "I've just sent them."
"I've got them."
"OK. I need to go before someone sees me."
"I'm afraid it's a bit too late," she heard from behind her.
She froze.
"Julia?!" She heard Marshall's voice say in her ear.
"Turn around, put your hands where I can see them, and give me the phone."
She didn't have to turn around to know who it was, the voice was known to her.
"I said turn around!"
She heard the clicking sound. She swallowed. He had a gun!
She closed her eyes.
"This is for Jeremy, Conrad, and anyone who got hurt by Red Rock Medical. Tell him I love him."
She didn't have to say who she was referring to; he knew.
"Julia, we're coming for you!"
Those were the last words she heard before the phone was ripped off her ear, out of her hand, and sent smashing against the wall.
Marshall walked hastily out of his office, located on the opposite side of the city, and dialed a number.