The morning ritual of breakfast with the boys was a little daunting this go-round. Embarrassed, Kathryn stared at the tabletop, now scarred with several scratches. The evidence of her rapturous fingernails solidified her guilt. The little marks practically winked at her.
Don’t blush.
DON’T blush.
Don’t.
Blush.
When Jake speared a plump breakfast sausage and laid it on her empty plate, her smile widened to the point of a giggle. Fighting her laughter, she said, “I need to get a few things taken care of. I’ll skip breakfast for now.”
The excuse was good enough to tear her away from the men. Without her, she heard them continue their breakfast and chatter over the game plan for the day.
In her bedroom, she was booting up her laptop when a light knock lifted her head. Jake strolled in with a plate of a little bit of everything and a fresh coffee. Scolding him with her eyes, she sipped the steaming-hot java. He set the plate on the nightstand, and their lips lingered in a kiss before breaking off in laughter.
“Sorry, kitten,” he whispered against her mouth. “I live for that gorgeous blush of yours.” A few pecks later, he let her get back to work.
* * *
Within a few hours, everyone had circled back. The money trail and motive traced back to one name—or half a name, really. That name kept popping up in connection to several offshore accounts with upward of a few million dollars, safely divided and stashed across a few Caribbean islands.
Having money isn’t a crime, Kathryn reminded herself.
Linking large wire transfers from the bank accounts of insurance beneficiaries to those accounts? Some would call it probable cause. The team considered it a hop, skip, and a jump to a slam-dunk case—if they could figure out the name connection. Sometimes it was a first name. Sometimes, a last name. But the same name popping up was more than a coincidence. All Kathryn knew to the depth of her being was they were making a mistake.
Aside from her hunch, she had nothing. And from the looks Jake gave her throughout the rest of the day, he wouldn’t be convinced without cold, hard evidence. Maybe all she needed was one crazy-ass idea.
* * *
“Bait?” Jake barked the word at her. “Any scheme that involves you as bait is obviously the worst idea in the world.”
His words boomed, echoing off the walls and windows of his home office. At least the door was closed. One thing Kathryn had learned about her escapade in the shower was that all the house’s rooms were blissfully soundproof.
Kathryn held her ground. “I could just start bragging in small circles that I’ve cracked this major case. Then I make those circles bigger until we lure out the culprit.”
Jake tightened his arms across his chest, teasing her with the sight of his solid biceps. “You might be tough as nails and independent as hell, but there’s zero chance we’re setting a trap like that around you.” He relaxed into a sexy half smile. “Perhaps I need you to assume the position?”
The warmth blooming in her cheeks caught her off guard. Defiant, she planted her hands on her hips. “It won’t stop me.”
Grabbing her hand, he yanked her to his lap. His low grumble feathered across her neck. “Don’t be so sure. I need you to stop thinking like this.”
Luring her with a seductive distraction wouldn’t work this time. “I’ve got to do something. I can’t just twiddle my thumbs.”
“You’re not,” he said, pressing a kiss to her lips. “And there is something nobody else can help with. Something I don’t want to discuss with the others. At least, not yet.”
“Carter.” She said his name quietly, sinking into the feeling that a premier surgeon—and her ex-husband—could be connected with these heinous crimes.
Jake nodded. “The team coming up with it wasn’t the first time I’d heard it with this case, but I didn’t want to mention it until I had more to go on. I talked with Chels. The life insurance policy showed up in the mail. She doesn’t remember much, but she assumed I’d initiated the policy with the tempo of my deployments. She called the phone number on the paperwork, but wasn’t interested because . . . well, she’d made a decision. She knew it might be the beginning of the end for us. Anyway, she ended up throwing it away. But there were so many meetings before my deployment, the only thing she remembered about the guy she spoke to was his name. Carter.”
Skeptical, Kathryn immediately challenged the recollection. “How could she possibly remember that?”
Rolling his eyes, Jake said, “She thought the name was sexy, so she called. And it stuck with her.” With a pause, he pushed out, “Carter R.”
She bolted from his lap. “There’s no way that’s possible, Jake. I was married to Carter Reeves for years. Sure, he’s an arrogant asshole who thinks he’s God’s gift to medicine. One hundred percent. But if he were in it for the money, trust me, he wouldn’t live in shitholes in the Middle East for months on end. And Do No Harm isn’t just an oath to him. It’s his life. I’m telling you . . . it’s not him.”
“I’m not saying it is,” Jake said in a calm voice. “We need to figure this out, and we will. But in order to do that, I need your help, and not by letting you walk out the door as bait. Okay?” Staring her down, he waited for her response.
Resigned, she nodded. “Fine. I won’t be bait if you don’t hide things from me. Otherwise, you’ve earned a day of no boxers.”
The arch of his brow made it clear that her terms weren’t exactly a punishment. “Agreed,” he said slowly, his voice low.
Needing to avoid his ridiculously alluring magnetism, she stepped away to get her mind back on track. “What else do you have?”
“Not much. Chels didn’t sign anything. Someone was pre-populating forms, assuming the spouse would sign up the service member. But what’s bugging me is how someone could do that without consent. I kept everything I signed, and there was nothing like this.”
Kathryn stared out the window, not really seeing the mountains in the distance. “There’s a reason people like me have a career. It’s because there’s a dirty little secret in life insurance.” As her mental wheels turned, she started her habitual pacing. “Insurance fraud is easy to commit, and that’s why it’s such an attractive crime. Pretend I’m . . .”
Hell, what do I call her?
Chels? Chelsea? Ms. Anders?
Finally, Kathryn settled on, “Your ex.”
His expression soured. “Oh, let’s say you’re not.”
Not sure if I should be flattered or insulted.
Playing it cool, she continued. “Okay, then let’s cut to the chase and say I want to bump you off for a big life insurance payment.”
Unimpressed, he snorted. “Harsh.”
Huffing through a laugh, she pecked his pouting lips. “I’d need to take out a policy without you knowing. There are a few hurdles, but with a little imagination and the right connections, those obstacles vanish. Okay, we’ll jump over the hurdles one at a time. The first one’s called insurable interest. Effectively, it means we have a connection beyond being mere acquaintances.”
Jake raised his brows. “Is that what the kids are calling it?”
Holding in her giggles, she bit her lip. “Stop.”
“But we’re not married.”
“I did more research. Marriage isn’t required to have insurable interest. Even if we’re not financially connected, we can establish that interest as long as we’re emotionally connected. With spouses, especially in the military, you usually have both. But a fiancée is at the very least emotionally invested.”
“Okay, so we’ve established insurable interest. What next?”
“A few things. Your signature would be required. But a lot of times, in the chaos before a deployment, the insurance paperwork could be slipped in with other paperwork needing your signature. Voila, we have your legitimate John Hancock. Worst-case scenario, let’s say I can’t get your signature. So I forge it, or have someone else forge it. The problem is that some states require a notarized signature on life insurance policies. But where there’s a will, there’s a loophole. In this case, notary publics.”
Jake squinted at her. “Notary publics?”
“They sound official, but almost anyone can get licensed with little to no effort. The standards for becoming a notary public can be fairly loose, depending on the state. Some states don’t bother with requiring training. Others don’t even require an exam. Just an application and a few bucks for a seal and a ledger, and boom, you’re a notary public.”
“Seriously? Anyone can be certified?”
“Not convicted criminals, but pretty much anyone else. And nobody ever checks their records. Not that it would matter, because the journal could be chock full of fake data.” She shrugged. “It is what it is. But, back on track, I forge your signature and get my buddy to notarize it. In an operation like this, one of two things is likely. I’m forging your signature and notarizing it as myself, or I give my buddy a stack of them and a kickback per signature. I don’t know, like fifty or a hundred dollars a signature. If it were me, I’d keep the cash and forge the signatures myself. There’s also less risk of a leak.”
Jake’s uncertain stare stopped her in her pacing.
“What is it?”
He snickered. “I’m really glad you’re on our side. Just sayin’.”
“Hey, I might think like a criminal mastermind, but I’m determined to use my cold, calculating, greedy thoughts for good.”
“Okay, so we’ve crossed the signature roadblock. What’s next?”
“For the next step, a medical exam, we’d definitely need a co-conspirator. I can’t just go up to you and say, ‘Hey, Jake. Let’s get you a checkup. What’s that you say? What for? Oh, no reason.’ But with you deploying and all, that paves the way for justifying a little probing and prodding. Or, let’s say I have a reservist nurse or even a physician in my hip pocket. I can forge everything except the blood tests. For those, I need a reason to physically touch you.”
He let out a playful scoff. “So, now you need a reason?”
Laughing, she clarified her position. “No, Kathryn-the-kitten just needs your say-so, and my little claws will be wherever you want them. But Kathryn-the-corrupt-nurse, who’s looking to line my wallet with blood money, would need it. At the very least, to run blood tests. But . . .”
Her pacing shuffled to a stop. “What if I called you. Say, I was a medical reservist. I’d have full access to the global directory, meaning I have your number. I’d call, from a base number, with some story about how paperwork got lost, and I need you to come in right away to do additional labs before your deployment. Have you visit my office during the times I’m on duty at the base clinic. You wouldn’t think anything of it. Just another waste of time, ticking off another item on an endless checklist before deployment. And I’d look official. You’d be none the wiser.”
“So that’s it?”
Hands on her hips, Kathryn shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe. Someone would have to pay the premiums until the service member died. And we’re talking about a lot of money if all the dots connect. We’ve got one or more UMOs involved, and for each one of those, we probably have a doctor or a nurse, and possibly a notary public.”
Pacing again, she said, “But think about it. If this is going across state lines, who knows just how far-reaching and tangled this web is? And how much money are we talking about? Are underwriters and banking personnel involved? The team already identified over two hundred service members that meet the criteria of being over-insured and on a high-risk deployment. Easily, we’re talking about payouts over two hundred million.”
Kathryn met Jake’s stunned expression, unsure what to say. She grabbed a scrunchie from around her wrist, tempering her growing irritation by collecting herself in a high-and-tight ponytail. It was as close as she’d get at the moment to military bearing.
She had to pull herself together. Stay focused. Get a step ahead of these bastards.
Then it hit her. “I think I know how to narrow it down. They’re fueled by greed. They might have a certain expectation of a payoff each and every time. What if . . . the service member survives? Returns from their deployment?”
“Well,” Jake said as he rubbed his neck, “no payoff, for sure.”
“And a risk that the insured will discover someone’s taken out a policy on them, even if they don’t discover it right away. These policies aren’t free, and they’re certainly not cheap. Someone has to pay the premiums. If it’s the spouse, there’s no way big monthly payments to an insurance company would go unnoticed.” She closed her eyes for a second and thought. “If I were the evil mastermind, I’d—” She choked back her feelings, but couldn’t say the rest.
Jake stood up and pulled her close, saying quietly, “You’d send them back into danger.”
Pressing her face against his chest, she nodded. “We can narrow the list by looking for back-to-back deployments.” This revelation weighed on her, and she turned to wipe her eyes.
“Hey.” He wove his fingers through hers, sealing their handhold. “How about we take a little break after we wrap up today. Dinner tonight, away from here? I’d like to take you someplace special.”
“I’m always up for dinner.” Her shy smile warmed with the press of his lips.
She headed out, ready to dive back into a few hours of detective work, when she heard him shout, “And pack an overnight bag.”