P Is for Peril

also argued about the cut; Penelope clinging to the shoulder-length page boy she'd probably been wearing for years. Her bangs were too short and I wondered if she chopped them off herself between appointments. She removed her glasses and set them aside. "Yes?"
    "You're Ms. Delacorte?"
    "Yes." Her attitude was cautious, as though I might be on the verge of serving her with papers.
    "Kinsey Millhone," I said. "I'm a private investigator here in town and I've been hired to look into Dr. Purcell's disappearance. May I have a few minutes?"
    Without much in the way of encouragement, I'd entered her office, slipped off my rain garb, and eased myself into the chair near her desk. My shoulder bag and the slicker I left in a pile at my feet.
    Penelope Delacorte got up and closed her office door. She didn't seem happy with my presence. She was close to six feet tall, slim, conservatively dressed-a navy blue coat dress with small brass buttons up the front. Her low-heeled navy blue pumps were plain and looked vaguely orthotic, as though prescribed for fallen arches or excessive pronation.
    She sat down and put her hands in her lap. "I'm not sure what I can tell you. I was gone by the time he… went missing."
    "How long did you work for Pacific Meadows?"
    "I was the administrator there for the past eight years, until August 23. I worked with Dr. Purcell for the last forty-seven months of that." Her voice, like her manner, was carefully modulated, as though she'd set her internal dial to "Pleasant."
    "I thought he was the administrator."
    "His title was Medical Director slash Administrator. I was the Associate Administrator, so I suppose you're correct."
    "Can you tell me why you left?"
    "Genesis, the management company that oversees the operation of Pacific Meadows, received notification that Medicare was conducting a rigorous audit of our records."
    I raised my hand. "What prompted them to do that? Do you have any idea?"
    "Probably a complaint."
    "From?"
    "One of the patients, a guardian, a disgruntled employee. I'm not sure what it was, but they seemed to know what they were doing. Apparently, the clinic was suspected of any number of violations, from overpaying our suppliers to submitting false or inflated claims for services. Dr. Purcell was in a panic and blamed the bookkeeper, Tina Bart, which was absurd and unfair. Ms. Bart was working for Pacific Meadows before I arrived and she was faultless in her performance. I went to bat for her. I wasn't going to let them push it all off on her. She didn't make the decisions. She didn't even pay the bills; Genesis did that. She processed purchase orders and prepared the room-and-board bills for each resident, including central supply, therapy, anything other than medication. This was Medicare, Medicaid, HMOs, private insurance, and private pay. The same information crossed my desk as well. She didn't generate the paperwork. She forwarded what she was given."
    "Why isn't Genesis considered responsible for the problem if they pay the bills?"
    "We supply them the information. As a rule, they don't stop to verify the data, nor did Ms. Bart."
    "But she was fired, anyway."
    "Yes, she was, and I turned in my notice the very same day. I was determined to file a complaint with the Labor Relations Board."
    "What was their response?"
    "I never got that far. I had second thoughts and decided not to go through with it. Tina Bart didn't want to make a fuss. She was as reluctant as I was to call attention to Dr. Purcell's situation."
    "His situation?"
    "Well, yes. We're all fond of him. He's a darling human being and a wonderful doctor. If he didn't have a head for business, that wasn't an actionable offense as far as we were concerned. I'm being candid in this. He just had no clue when it came to the Medicare rules and regulations-which items were billable and which would automatically be disallowed, co-payments, deductibles, claims for fee-based services. I grant you, it's enormously complicated. Make one mistake- god forbid you put a code in the wrong place or leave even one window blank-and the form comes right back at you, usually without a hint about where you've erred."
    "But Dr. Purcell didn't do the billing."
    "Of course not, but it was his job to review the TARs-"
    "The TARs?"
    "The Treatment Authorization Requests. He was also responsible for reviewing CPT codes and approving the cost of any ancillary services or DME's. I have to emphasize, he was always genuinely concerned and very