Chapter 6: The Name She'd Been Afraid to Say
Jess arrived at seven with a bottle of wine she didn't open and a look on her face I hadn't seen since our father's funeral.
Tyler made tea.
The three of us sat at the kitchen table — the same table where he'd set down the lab report three nights ago — and Jess wrapped both hands around her mug and stared into it for a moment before she started talking.
"About six weeks ago," she said, "I got a call from a woman named Carol Briggs."
Tyler looked up.
"I don't know that name," he said.
"She used to work at the clinic.
Administrative staff.
She left about four months ago." Jess looked at him carefully.
"She left because she found out what Voss was doing and reported it internally.
Nothing happened.
So she left."
"And she called you," I said.
"Why you?"
"Because she found me through you.
She'd looked up Tyler's emergency contact on his intake form.
That was you.
And she found me through your social media — she said she didn't want to call you directly in case it panicked you before she knew how serious it was." Jess set down her mug.
"She'd been trying to figure out how many patients Voss had given false or exaggerated results to.
She thought if she could find enough people willing to talk, she could go to the medical board with something real."
The kitchen was very quiet.
"False results," Tyler said slowly.
"She doesn't know for certain yours are false.
That's why she wanted a second opinion first.
She said she'd seen his pattern — he tends to over-diagnose.
Patients who come in with vague symptoms, who are anxious, who don't ask too many questions." She looked at Tyler.
"She said he picks people who trust easily."
Tyler didn't say anything.
He looked at the table.
"She thinks he does it for the follow-up revenue," Jess continued.
"Specialist referrals, treatment plans, monitoring appointments.
The Thursday appointment you had scheduled — that specialist is in the same network.
Carol says she's seen that referral pattern before."
I thought about Tyler going to that appointment alone.
Sitting across from another doctor in the same system.
Receiving another layer of information built on a foundation that might be rotten.
"How many patients?" I asked.
"Carol thinks at least eleven.
Maybe more.
She has documentation on six." Jess reached into her bag and pulled out a folded envelope.
"She asked me to give this to you.
It's her contact information and a summary of what she has.
She said if Tyler's second opinion comes back clean, she'd like to include his case in what she's building."
She set the envelope on the table.
Tyler looked at it for a long moment.
Then he picked it up.
"Six weeks," he said.
"She's been carrying this for six weeks."
"Longer," Jess said.
"She reported it internally before she left.
That was four months ago.
She's been building the external case ever since."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" I asked Jess.
"When she first called you?"
"Because I didn't know if it was real.
I didn't want to tell you your husband might have been lied to by his doctor when I had nothing solid to show you." She met my eyes.
"I wanted to verify it first.
That's why I started researching Voss.
The license suspension was the first thing I found on my own, before Carol sent me anything."
"So you found it independently."
"Yes.
And then when I saw it matched what Carol had described, I knew she was telling the truth."
Tyler set the envelope down and pressed his palm flat against it.
"If the results Wednesday come back clean," he said, "then he told me I was sick when I wasn't."
"Yes," Jess said quietly.
"For money."
"That's what Carol believes."
He didn't raise his voice.
He didn't move.
He just sat there with his hand on the envelope, and something in his expression went very still in a way that was harder to watch than anger would have been.
"Then we give Carol what she needs," he said.
I reached across and put my hand over his.
Jess looked at both of us.
"There's one more thing," she said.
"Carol told me Voss knows someone has been asking questions.
May you like
She doesn't know how.
But she said he's been shredding files."
