Fatal Dose (15 page)

Six months after she started her new job, Miles Everett began showing up at her office and apartment. Now that she had a chance to build a good life, she had no intention of returning to the life of crime he was offering, but he persisted, even threatened to expose her to her boss if she didn’t cooperate. Sarah sought help from Melbourne, who arranged for Everett to be visited by two thugs. Miles subsequently hospitalized with a concussion, six broken ribs, a broken leg and several severed fingers. He left town immediately upon his release from the hospital and she never heard from him again.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Clifford Melbourne sat in his penthouse above Essex Courts of Shaker Heights. It cost one million dollars when it was built; it was now worth over four million. The seven rooms were decorated almost exclusively in Swedish modern, with stainless steel appliances in the kitchen. He lived alone. On paper, Melbourne was the president and CEO of Heights Financial of Cleveland Heights, Ohio and a member of the Atronen Board of Directors. In shadier circles, he was the second-in-command titular head of a drug cartel covering eight Midwestern states.

The phone interrupted his reverie. He was halfway through the first movement of Ravel’s “Bolero” He hit the pause button on the remote and reached for the handset. He was surprised when he saw the caller’s name.

“Melbourne,” he announced.

“Mister Melbourne, I’m sorry to be calling so late.”

Melbourne glanced at the time. It was a few minutes past midnight.

“That’s all right. What’s so urgent, Sarah?”

“Marco Vennuti contacted me today. He found out about my time in jail and threatened to expose me to Mister Turner if I didn’t cooperate with him.”

“What kind of cooperation was he after?”

It got quiet on the other end. Cliff Melbourne knew instinctively what the answer was going to be.

After a moment, Sarah said, “He wanted sex and for me to spy on Mister Turner. He also said that the FBI knew about me and if I didn’t cooperate with him I would be in big trouble. He claims to have spies at the FBI office that tell him everything that is going on. That’s how he got my FBI file. He says that he will be able to protect me if I do as he says.”

“That’s interesting. How did you handle his demands?”

“What do you think? I can’t have all that stuff coming out. I need my job and I couldn’t tell him about my connection to you. So I told him yes. We went back to his place and did some big time nasty.” She hesitated a minute and added, “Actually, it wasn’t all that bad. He is fantastic in bed. I think that, under the circumstances, I was really lucky that that is all he wanted; except, possibly, for providing information about Mister Turner.”

It got quiet on the phone again, this time on Melbourne’s end. Finally, he said, “Look, Sarah, I understand that he put you on the spot and that you reacted out of necessity, but don’t let your hormones get out of control. He is a dangerous man. You know I will protect you if need be. There is a lot at stake here. Don’t let your emotions get in the way.” He hesitated for a moment, “Of course you can do whatever you want in your spare time, but don’t forget that, at the end of the day, you owe me big time.”

Sarah didn’t like the tone of his voice. “Look, Mister Melbourne, I called you because my loyalty is to you first. I can’t forget that you got rid of Miles Everett when he was harassing me and that it was you who got me the job at Atronen in the first place.”

“I’m glad you remember that, Sarah. You know that I only have your best interests at heart. As for Marco Vennuti, I’ll want you to report any information you can on his activities. It’s in both our interests that I know what he’s up to. I really appreciate your call.”

He hesitated for a minute and added, “Do me a favor. Tell Marco that two men in blue suits showed up to see your boss and that their appointment wasn’t on Mitchell Turner’s calendar. Tell him that you think that they might have been FBI agents, that they met for about an hour and left with a manila folder. Show some concern about it. Will you do that for me?”

“Sure, whatever you need me to do.”

“Thanks, Sarah. Have a good night.”

Melbourne picked up the remote to restart “Bolero” but his mind was now in a different place than before. He was more certain than ever that Vennuti would have to be dealt with, maybe sooner rather than later. Marco moved from being an asset to a liability. Melbourne thought,
Enjoy your sex while you can, Sarah, it’s not going to last much longer.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Under scrutiny, Paul Snyder’s marriage number one turned out to be a brief union when Paul was in his early twenties. Her name was Lucille. The marriage was annulled after six months. For some reason the public records of this union/disunion were never updated. There was nothing there that Mark could use.

Family number two lived in Fairview, Pennsylvania, just over the northeast border of Ohio. Public records showed that the house on Pendleton Lane was jointly owned by Marge and Paul Snyder. It was purchased in 1980. The couple had one son, Paul Jr. who attends a community college two towns over. At fifty-three, Paul been separated from Marge for the past eight years. She, being a strict Roman Catholic, refused to give Paul a divorce.

Mark’s case appeared to be collapsing before his eyes, but then he hit pay dirt. Family three, it turned out, was a valid marriage between Paul and Daphne Snyder, with three teenage children thrown in. That meant that Mark needed to downgrade his trigamist to a bigamist. There was plenty to work on with two simultaneous marriages. Paul Snyder would not welcome any notoriety about being married to two women at the same time since only one was a viable union; especially with his second family’s position in the community.

Paul and Daphne Snyder lived openly in Hudson, Ohio, an area very familiar to Mark. In fact they resided only three blocks from the condominium where Susan had lived. Both were very active in the community. This was a life that Paul would want to protect at all costs.

Mark’s first step was to do a double check on the legal status of both the marriages, and for good measure, he rechecked that number one actually ended with an annulment. He obtained copies of marriage certificates, birth certificates, mortgage and property tax records. The documents went into a folder. An hour later he picked up the file and went looking for Dennis.

He found him in the hall on his way to his office. Mark took five minutes to show Dennis everything he had so far. Dennis was pleased with Mark’s findings, even if the trigamist had been downgraded to bigamist. “It looks like you got enough to make Paul Snyder squirm. Even if his other wife knows about his current family, he’s still in violation of the law and has a lot to lose if any of this becomes public. There could even be possible tax implications too. I think there is a good chance that he will cooperate based on what you have here. He has more to gain than to lose by cooperating. You’ve got my blessing to go forward with an initial meeting with Mister Paul Snyder.”

Mark couldn’t wait until the meeting with Snyder on Wednesday.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

The pharmacist in the pharmacy section of the Lucky Food Mart had a routine visit from two men posing as salesmen from a local wholesale drug supplier.

“I can’t take any more pills from you guys. A lady died last week and it could have been from pills you supplied me. The bottle of pills the cops found had no labels, but the woman who bought them for her is scared that they might link the pills to her. She says if they do, she’ll give me up. This stuff you’re supplying is clearly inferior. You told me that the quality would be the same as the original formulas. That’s the only reason I agreed to buy from you. Ethically I can’t do this anymore; it’s just too risky.”

One of the men stepped behind the counter and got into the pharmacist’s face.

“I’m not offering you options, George. You’ll buy the pills we agreed on. If you don’t, you’ll be walking around your little platform here on a pair of crutches; that’s if you’re lucky. Catch my drift?”

Fear quickly replaced George’s bravado. “All right, give me the usual two boxes.”

“Hold on! You’re not getting off that easy. I don’t much like the way you just talked to me. The man looked around the store to see if anyone was looking his way. Satisfied that he was not being observed, he turned and punched the pharmacist in the stomach. As George doubled up the man delivered a knee to his head. George crumbled to the ground, gasping for air and holding the side of his head.

“Stop! Please don’t hit me again. I’ll do whatever you want.”

“You bet you will shithead. I’m leaving three boxes today, prime stuff. You won’t have any problems with this batch, I guarantee it. They’re all original pills, they’ve just been repackaged. That’ll be three hundred dollars.”

George raised himself up and moved over to the cash drawer. He removed the money and handed it to the man.

“I’m sorry for before. I didn’t mean what I said.”

The man smiled and took the money. He thought,
The little shit thinks I’m gonna off him. He better be sorry, or maybe I will.
He signaled his companion to put the three boxes on the counter. “We’ll see you next week, George. We should have some new stuff for you then.”

As they headed out of the store, George Simpson walked into the storage room behind the pharmacy and removed the tape from the security camera. He thought to himself,
There’s going to be a real big surprise for you guys next week. I never should have gotten involved in this. I may be responsible for Adele’s death. What a fool I’ve been.

Around four that afternoon, George Simpson handed his card to the receptionist at the FBI building. “I need to see someone about counterfeit drugs.”

“Just a minute, Mister Simpson, someone will be right with you.”

Within five minutes he was walking with Special Agent Charles Wesson to an interview room.

“Have a seat, Mister Simpson. Tell me what this is all about.”

Over the next thirty minutes, George related how he was approached six months by two men who claimed to represent a division of one of the largest wholesale pharmaceutical companies in the country. They offered him a steady supply of the top name brand drugs at forty percent off the wholesale price on a strictly cash basis. They told him that the medicines were manufacturing overruns that they were told to dispose of with no paperwork and no questions asked. George succumbed to the temptation for two reasons. One was the quick profits he could make, the other was his chance to help the less fortunate people in his neighborhood buy drugs at discount prices, even lower than what the big-box stores were charging. He viewed it as a win-win situation where nobody would get hurt. He now knew that that wasn’t going to be the case.

George had a ready-made customer base with neighborhood families needing medicine, but who were not able to afford them. Some customers purchased meds for friends and relatives. It never occurred to him that his compassionate drug selling to the sick in the neighborhood was illegal and potentially dangerous; not until he heard about Adelle Manning’s death. Her friend June Abbot purchased Adelle’s medicine from him because her Medicare “D” plan reached the “donut hole” Adelle couldn’t afford to pay the full price for her medicine and readily agreed to buy them through June. Now June threatened to go to the police even though she was personally involved.

“After Mrs. Manning died I knew I had to stop distributing those drugs. I told the two men, but they beat me and threatened worse if I didn’t keep buying from them. I have it all on this security tape.”

He handed the tape to Charles. They watched the five minute segment.

Chuck was shocked “I never imagined that anything like this was going on. Those are very clear pictures. We should have no difficulty apprehending and prosecuting those men. I wonder how many more pharmacists they are dealing with.”

Wesson sat down and looked directly into George’s eyes. “I’m going to have to involve the Cleveland Police in this. You realize that your involvement in this operation is illegal at both the city and federal levels. You’re looking at several federal violations, alone. It’s good that you came in on your own. The courts will look favorably on that, but you are in some very big trouble.”

“I know, but I can’t go on like this. Are you going to hold me?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll get someone in here to take down your statement. While you’re doing that, I’ll talk to my SAC. We’ll see what he says. It’s possible that we will want you to go about your business as usual. Next Tuesday we’ll have a sting set up and when these men show up, we will apprehend them.”

Dennis was overjoyed at the news. He turned on the monitor on his desk and watched George as he told his story. “Chuck, this is a real break. Chief Jacobsen will be overjoyed. Did George agree to participate in a sting?”

“Oh, he’s agreeable alright. He knows that he is facing some pretty stiff charges, so he’s willing to cooperate in any way he can. It’s unfortunate that he got tied up in this at all. He seems like a good man. He just didn’t think of possible repercussions from the favors he was doing people. If he could prove that he was threatened with bodily harm or that there were threats against his family for not going along, he might get through this virtually unscathed.”

Dennis scoffed, “Even if he doesn’t do any time, his career as a pharmacist is finished. No drug store will ever hire him. What a waste of all that education. And for what, a few hundred dollars a week? I don’t buy that ‘helping out his neighbors’ stuff. I believe that it was mostly greed that motivated George Simpson. I have no sympathy for him at all.”

“You may be right, sir. It’s a very slippery slope he chose.”