Margaret Questioned One Hospital Charge She Never Made — Then Emma Found Years of Visits Under Her Grandmother’s Name
Chapter 5 — The Woman Who Wasn’t Carol
Investigators located Carol Mercer.
She was living in an assisted-living community forty miles away.
But when Denise spoke with her, something didn’t fit.
Carol was in a wheelchair.
She had experienced a stroke three years earlier.
According to facility records, she had not left the community unsupervised in more than two years.
Yet Margaret’s false hospital visits continued during that entire period.
Denise showed Carol the driver’s license photograph.
Carol stared at it.
“That’s not me.”
Margaret looked shocked.
“I thought it was.”
Carol gave a weak smile.
“Twenty years ago, maybe from across a room.”
But the woman was someone else.
Then Carol noticed the glasses.
Her expression changed.
“I know those glasses.”
Denise frowned.
“What do you mean?”
Carol pointed toward the photograph.
“They’re not prescription.”
“How would you know?”
Carol looked toward Margaret.
“Because Alice used to keep them in her apartment.”
Alice owned several pairs of inexpensive reading glasses.
One pair had distinctive red markings near the hinges.
The woman in the fake ID was wearing them.
Margaret stared.
“Then whoever took my information may have had access to Alice’s apartment.”
Carol nodded.
“A lot of people did near the end.”
Nurses.
Friends.
Volunteers.
And one person Carol remembered particularly well.
“There was a woman from Riverside.”
“Name?”
Carol thought.
“Janet.”
Margaret went still.
She remembered Janet too.
Janet Collins.
A patient-services coordinator who frequently helped Alice with insurance paperwork.
And according to Carol…
Janet often took paperwork home to “fix billing problems.”
