Debauchery on Faculty Row

"In the meantime, don't mention a word of this to anyone please, Abby. I don't want anyone tipped off. If it's nothing, no one's the wiser. But if there is something going on, and they get wind that I'm looking into it, they'll start covering their tracks."

"You know I won't say anything."

"I know that," he smiled, leaning down for a kiss. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. She melted into his embrace like she was made to be there.

"You must have the forgiveness of a saint. I'm so sorry for passing out on you last night."

"Please, Chase. Don't even give it a second thought. I understand completely. But... if you feel some deep, festering, need to atone, there's a new medical oddities exhibit at the museum that I'm dying to see. It opens today," she giggled.

"That sounds awesome! Consider it a date. Tonight?"

"If that works for you? It's here for two weeks."

"I'll make it work. Tonight it is." he smiled, kissing her again. "And I'm really feeling a deep need to atone. Would dinner before we see the exhibit square me in your books?"

"Chase, Sweetheart, you have no need to feel bad: or to atone. Guido's at five-thirty?" There was that mischievous giggle that just made his heart soar every time her heard it.

"Guido's it is."

"Chase. Before you go?"

"What is it, Abby?"

"I have to ask this." She paused for a minute, biting that lower lip. He was falling for her hard. She was just the perfect combination of cute, beautiful and fun.

"Ok. Here goes... Ok. I find I'm growing very fond of you. Am I out in left field?"

"Not at all, Abby," he smiled, wrapping her in his arms. You're definitely rounding third and headed for home."

"Good. See you at work." She reached up, grabbed his face in both of her soft little hands and kissed him again; this one a smoldering kiss hot enough to melt steel. When it broke, they were both smiling from ear to ear.

*********************

Chase's second meeting with the doctors went over better than he'd hoped. Both of them; Cynthia a dermatologist and Walt, a semi-retired general surgeon, shared almost verbatim the same complaints the rest of the staff had; as well as kudos for the way things in the clinic were turning around so quickly.

Both of them had campus apartments in a building out in the garden area behind the clinic. They were on alternating night call if the NP's got in over their heads and both of them were on the teaching staff at the nursing school.

Neither of them had a problem with their schedules and were on friendly terms with each other. They had no problem switching on call nights or working out a week to week schedule among themselves if the other had something to do. Chase assured them that as long as they had things covered, he saw no need to get involved in their current schedule arrangement.

Both, sadly, admitted that there wasn't a lot of need for their nocturnal services given the poor utilization of the clinic. Chase told them both that if he had to go door to door on campus and campaign for the clinic, he'd win the student's trust. He knew, deep down, that things would change.

In between the doctor's meeting and his meeting in the admin building he made a call to Guido's to make a five-thirty reservation for his date with Abby, then delved back into the books. With every column he dissected, the more the anomalies popped up. He got up and went into the pharmacy.

"Gwen. Got a minute?"

"Sure, Chase. What's up?"

"Off the top of your head, how often do you dispense..." he looked at the short list. "metformin, atenolol, nifedipine, verapamil, rituximab or, and I can't believe I'm even asking this: Viagra?"

"Have you been getting enough sleep lately, Chase? This is a college clinic, not a nursing home? Diabetic, hypertensive and arthritis meds are all but non-existent on our shelves. And I doubt any of these walking hormone students need Viagra."

"We have an arrangement with Village Drug in town if we need anything like that. They're open twenty-four-seven and they deliver. We can't afford to keep those kinds of meds on hand to just have them go beyond their viability dates on the shelf. Most of what we dispense are antibiotics, asthma meds, things like that. And, of course, vaccinations and the emergency meds for the crash carts and the procedure room."

"Ah! Speaking of vaccinations, do you remember how many flu shots you ordered back in August?"

"Not exact numbers, but I can check. I can say that it wasn't many. There weren't a lot of requests for them."

"So you didn't order five hundred doses in September?"

"God no! If I'm not mistaken, we ordered sixty. And if memory serves, we ended up giving half of those to the free clinic down on Halston Street. I had to call all the local drug stores to get enough vaccinations for the influx of student that requested them the other day"

"That's what I thought. Just checking. Thanks, Gwen."

"Any time."

According to the lead pharmacist, who actually ordered and dispensed the meds, there were none of those meds on the shelf, but there were payments made for them that ranged in the tens of thousands of dollars. Chase was truly becoming concerned. It was time to call in a second set of eyes.

"Hi, Kay. It's Chase. Do you have any lunch plans today?"

"Free as a bird. Why? Wanna slip over to your hotel room for some naughty stuff," she laughed. "I'm extremely flexible and the words no or stop aren't even in my vocabulary."

"Not that that's a horrible thought, but I have something I'd like to bounce off of you."

"Well, I was hoping it was going to be you bouncing off of me, but lunch is good, too." Her laugh was genuine as well as contagious. "I'd love to. Faculty dining room?"

"No. Not on campus. Gaslight Grill ok with you?"

"Is everything ok, Chase?"

"Honestly? I don't know. That's what I'm trying to find out."

"Sure. Twelve-thirty work for you?"

"Great. I'll see you there."

His meeting with scheduling truly blew him away. It was in the admin budget, not the clinic budget, for the education fund to pay an instructor overtime to come to the clinic to teach the BLS and ACLS classes he wanted his staff to have. It was always an option, just never taken advantage of. It was determined years before that they could offer the course with the staff there in the clinic so they didn't upset the clinic's operations. And books and supplies were included.

Chase walked back to his office more confused than he'd been when he got up that morning.

"Hi, Handsome. You look stressed. Come in here a minute." Abby led him onto one of the exam rooms and closed the door.

"Are you ok, Chase? You look really concerned about something." She took his hands in hers, rubbing her smooth thumbs over his, soothing him.

"A whole lot isn't adding up, Abby. I'm having lunch with someone from HR today. Hopefully she'll be able to make some sense of it."

"That bad, huh?"

"Oh yeah. But on a very high note, I'm really, really, really looking forward to our date tonight," he smiled, leaning down for a kiss.

"Play your cards right and stay awake and dessert may just be on me," she winked, smiling.

"Dessert was always my favorite part of the meal," he winked in return, smiling cheerily as he opened the door and led her out.

Chase went back to his office and gathered all the paperwork he had: copies of all the unorthodox expenditures on the budget and accounting sheets he'd gone through so far. All the questionable areas were highlighted with notes to make seeing his concerns that much more visible.

Maybe he was delirious. Maybe this was how things were done at the school. Write one thing off as something that already gained approval from the powers that be to use the money someplace not as well funded. It was an old trick that most managers in any business used. Robbing Peter to pay Paul: but even a rank amateur would have hidden it better than what he was seeing. This was so blatant it was embarrassing.

He expected to see a thousand dollars here, or five thousand there: but an almost two hundred thousand dollar Xray machine and tens of thousands of dollars for medications that had no place in a college clinic was way beyond SOP. Under normal circumstances what he saw would be like trying to hide an albino elephant in a field of clover. He couldn't make any sense out of it. Was there no accounting to the school's budget committee? No regular audits from campus accounting? He'd just assumed that the reason their budgets were kept on the server was so they could be audited regularly by the accounting department.

As he was shoving the papers into his backpack he got angry. Given the condition the clinic was in, their sole purpose for existing-the medical care of the students-had been dismissed entirely. It was as if they could care less about the health and welfare of the students. He was convinced they'd turned the clinic into a money laundering scheme. And it was a concentrated effort obviously done in collusion with different departments. But who? And for what? Where did all that money go?

Chase got to the restaurant before Kay. It was extremely crowded with what looked to be numerous business lunches. Different conversations echoed from every corner of the vast, gaily decorated room. He was instantly struck with some fond memories of his evening there with Abby. She was certainly something else. A breath of fresh air and sunshine in a tiny little package of just plain wow.

He told the greeter that he was expecting someone as she led him to a small table in the very back of the restaurant. He ordered a beer and arranged the papers on the table. He didn't know how much time Kay had for lunch. He imagined that, working for that dickhead Zeigler, her time was monitored closely.

He was half way through his beer when Kay strolled in; a huge smile on her lovely face.

"Did I mention that I can fold a cherry stem with my tongue?" she laughed. He stood and pushed her chair in for her.

"I hope you know I'm teasing, Chase. I talk a good game for a laugh, but that's the extent of my flirtatious nature," she laughed.

"Of course," he smiled. "Beer?"

"In as much as I'd love one, I'd better not. I'm liable to get a breathalyzer test when I get back. Make it a vodka tonic," she laughed. "No smell."

Chase got the waitresses attention and ordered Kay's drink.

"Kay, I can count on your discretion, right?"

"Absolutely. As I said in the beginning, Chase; Clay and I are in your corner. We both want what's best for the school. Anything you say to me is between the three of us."

"Good. Ok. Maybe I'm just unfamiliar with the way things are done around here. If that's the case, I don't want to cause anyone any problems. But if what I'm seeing isn't status quo, I'm sitting on top of a fire ant mound and my ass is covered in honey."

"Ou! Kinky! I like that," she laughed, patting his hand. "What are your concerns, Chase."

"For starters, I've supposedly got a brand new, hundred and sixty three thousand dollar Xray machine in the clinic. In as much as we'd love that, the one we have is eight years old. And I checked the records for a second time just before I left to come over here. Delivered and installed in twenty-thirteen.

"Wow!"

"That's just the tip of the iceberg, Kay. I've got ongoing expenses for drugs that have no place in a college clinic. Arthritis meds, hypertensive meds, erectile dysfunction meds...the works. I checked with our lead pharmacist. We don't stock any of those. We have an arrangement with a twenty-four-hour pharmacy in town that delivers whenever one of the rare occasions arises that one of those drugs is needed."

"Have you noticed the number of people who came down with the flu on campus this season, Kay?

"I know it hit the school really hard. There were an exorbitant number of students, staff and faculty who missed a lot of work and classes."

"Well, the lead pharmacist said they ordered sixty injections and gave half of those to a free clinic; yet the expenditure sheet says we paid for five hundred. And this year's vaccine, for once, was a good match for the strain of flu that hit. If we'd administered five hundred vaccines the number of those infected would have been greatly reduced. No notices were ever sent out to even tell the faculty and students that the vaccine was available, free of charge, at the clinic."

"And I've got outrageous expenses for building maintenance, upgrades and improvements..."

"Woah, woah, woah! That's all university building maintenance, Chase. That's my job. The departments don't pay for those things out of their operating budgets. Those expenditures are allocated for in the overall annual maintenance budget."

"That's what I've been told; but look." He slid the papers across to her. When they ordered their meals she barely looked up from the sheets. She, like Chase, was dumbstruck."

"Chase, this is outrageous! This amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars."

"That's just the pharmacy and general clinic. I haven't even gotten into the trauma area, the infirmary, or any of the other department sheets yet. And this is just last year's budget."

"Where do you think all this money is going?"

"That's what I'd like to know? It sure hasn't gone into that shithole clinic."

"Aren't all the departmental budgets and expenditures audited? I mean, I know academia tends to be kind of aloof, but this is so blatant it's laughable."

"Aloof or not, most of those eggheads can squeeze a nickel until the buffalo shits. Alumni donations are way down. We've been pinching pennies and looking for money anywhere we can find it-including shaving budgets and digging around in couch cushions. They're even thinking of raising tuition next year to make up for the shortfall."

"Listen. Let me make a few discrete phone calls. My friend Steph in accounting may be able to shed a little more light on this. She's actually Harry Billing's liaison to the finance department."

"Just be discrete, Kay. I don't want to tip anyone off if what I think is going on, is going on. But someone needs to answer for this. I'm sure not going to start off in this job with this kind of pendulum swinging over my head."

"Well, as you know, Zeigler is the head of the budget committee. It's part of the chancellor's responsibilities."

"And there's another thing. I went over to his office expecting a battle royal, but he was as meek as a lamb. While we were barely tolerating each other, he strongly suggested that, because of the momentous task I had ahead of me, whipping the clinic into shape, I should leave the bookkeeping to this outside service my predecessor used. As you can plainly see, no professional accountant kept those books."

"That's not possible, Chase? What happens on campus, stays on campus. Everything is done here within our ivory towers. I've never heard anything about any outside accounting firm? And nothing regarding outside accounting has ever come across my desk. I'd have flagged it in a heartbeat."

"And the plot thickens," Chase sighed, finishing his meal.

"Give me until Monday, Chase. I can do some snooping around and see what I can dig up. But if this gets any bigger, we're going to need to bring Clay into this."

"I'm all for that: once we're certain we have a legitimate issue. You know as well as I do that managers shift money around all the time to keep things running. But given the condition that clinic was in when I first saw it, I'll guarantee you that none of that money was being allocated for the needs of the clinic."

"Amen. Until you brought this up, I never gave it a second thought. I just figured the bean counters up on the top floor figured the clinic was a red headed stepchild and gave it just enough to keep the lights on."

"Given the patients we're tasked with keeping healthy, it should be a top priority."

"I agree. I'll make some calls and let you know what I find out."

"I can't thank you enough, Kay. I really appreciate this."

"Contrary to popular belief, a lot of us love this university, Chase. We want to see it thrive. We just have a few bad apples in high places that seem to have the opposite agenda."

*****************

Friday's in the clinic were a half day for general medicine. Appointments, exams, minor medical walk-ins and other business ended at noon. The weekend shift dealt with any in-house patients, emergencies or late night illnesses; but for the most part the clinic, as well as the majority of the campus, was quiet after twelve.

When Chase got back, Trish, who was rapidly becoming one of his favorite nurses, was at the desk. Abby was covering the clinic until Eileen relieved her at five. Next weekend would be Abby's weekend. They hadn't gone to the new schedule completely yet, but Chase agreed to let them modify the old, squirrelly schedule among themselves with his final approval to make sure they were fully staffed. They amiably came to a quick and sensible schedule that seemed to make everyone happy.

"Hi, Trish. Anything going on?"

"Nope. It was a little busier than usual this morning, but all's quiet now."

"Good. I'll be in my office if anyone needs me."

Chase worked on a few of the more pressing matters he wanted to get rolling, then tried to log into the prior year's accounts. Access Denied flashed across his screen.

"Shit! I've got things to do," he sighed. After three more failed attempts, he called the IT department.

"I don't understand it? All the servers are up, Doctor Brandt. And I'm the only one here this afternoon. I haven't received any orders to deny access to anyone. Are you sure you're using the correct password?"

"I'm positive, Ron. I've tried it four or five times."

"Let's try resetting your password. You should be getting a notification...now. Just follow the link and reset your password."

"I'll try that. Thank you."

He reset his password and tried again. Access Denied.

"Something stinks!" he growled. Thankfully he'd already printed everything out. But why would they lock him out now? Now his suspicions were truly piqued."

He called the accounting department but they were all gone for the weekend. They had a weekend on-call person, but it wasn't enough of an emergency to bother someone on their weekend. He'd get it straightened out Monday. But the original spark of suspicion was growing into a bonfire in the back of his mind. He decided to keep things close to his vest and not to let the printed sheets he had out of his sight.

"Hey! Loosen up, Doctor. You look like a proctologist sitting there all grumpy and deep in thought." Abby was in a very chipper mood.

"And you, Dear Lady, look like a glass of ice water to a man who just walked through the desert."

"I don't know about all that, but I'm glad you approve," she smiled, spinning demurely. She was wearing a very tasteful blue, knee length skirt and a pretty pink blouse under her lab coat."

"I was going to suggest everyone start wearing scrubs, but I just changed my mind," he laughed.

"I don't mean to bother you, Chase, but do you have running water in your bathroom? They're replacing the faucets in the new on call rooms so the water to the other half of the building is off indefinitely?"

"You're hardly bothering me, Beautiful Lady. I haven't checked. Help yourself." She went in and turned the sink tap. Water flowed.

"Do you mind if I use your shower, Chase? I brought my clothes with me today so I'd be ready to go when you are. If I have to run home and shower, we're going to get a late start."

"Of course, Abby. Help yourself."

"Thank you. Be out in a minute.

"Oh, by the way, I made our dinner reservations this morning."

"I know. I called to make them in case you, like most men, forgot," she laughed. "I should have known Mister On The Ball would have matters in hand."