Chapter 5 - Digital Footprints
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"Monica? Can you hear me?"
Nurse Sarah's soft voice pulled me out of the agonizing memory and back into the harsh fluorescent light of the emergency trauma room.
My knee was immobilized in a massive leg brace, heavy narcotics dripping through my IV to dull the lingering throbbing.
"Yes," I rasped, my throat raw. "I can hear you."
Sarah wheeled the computer cart closer to my bed, lowering her voice so the officers outside the curtain wouldn't hear.
"As an emergency room nurse, I have administrative clearance to access the city network's billing audit portal to verify insurance coverage," Sarah explained rapidly. "When I entered your emergency intake file under your employer's portal, an automated red flag popped up."
She pointed her slender finger at the screen.
"Look at this transaction log. Austin Wellman. He is listed as an authorized Third-Party Medical Billing Approver for San Diego Health Network."
I stared at the digitized text line.
User ID: A_WELLMAN_FIN99.
Access Tier: Level 4 Executive Override.
"Level Four?" I whispered, my mind fighting through the narcotic fog. "That's impossible. Level Four is reserved for Chief Financial Officers and Senior Forensic Auditors like me. He doesn't even work in healthcare!"
"Look at the authorization history," Sarah urged, scrolling down.
A long list of patient account numbers filled the monitor.
Every single account had a high-value financial override attached to it—ranging from fifty thousand to two hundred thousand dollars per claim.
And every single patient had two distinct traits in common:
First, they were all admitted under the network's specialized hospice and long-term palliative care units.
Second, every single override had been signed off within forty-eight hours of the patient's recorded death.
My heart beat frantically against my ribs.
This wasn't just a minor administrative glitch or a case of identity theft.
My brother wasn't just a liar and a bigamist.
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Austin was using high-level network access to drain deceased patients' insurance payouts before their estates could settle their affairs.
And someone inside my hospital network had given him the keys to the vault.
