‘Remember, your work is your character.’ He would, without fail, judge the men under his command by how well the job was done. “His work ethic was unparalleled. His determination was unshakable. He was a living testament to our American armed forces, his core values reflecting those of the United States military.
“Even now, at this very moment, I feel like he’s going to pop up somewhere, laugh wholeheartedly, and say, ‘Hey everyone, I’m still here. This was all just a big practical joke.’” At this point, General Sutherland tried in vain to hide his emotions. His eyes were brimming with tears, and his voice began to break as he uttered, “The love and respect I hold for this man will never end.” He paused, took a deep breath, and tried to clear his throat. But as he continued, his voice quivered with emotion. “Matthew’s story is a testament to the power of dreams, the strength of determination, and the beauty of friendship. As I look out at all of you today, I see the faces of those whose lives he touched. I see the love, the respect, the admiration. “And so, as we say our final goodbyes, let us remember Matthew J. Westerdam the Third not with tears of sorrow, but with smiles of joy. Let us remember him not for his untimely death, but for the richness of his life. Let us remember him not as a friend we’ve lost, but as a friend who will forever live on in our hearts, in our memories, and in our lives. “Matthew, my dear friend, you will be missed. But your spirit, your legacy, your memory will never fade. You may have left this world, but you will never leave our hearts. We will cherish the memories, honor your life, and strive to live by the lessons you taught us. Your journey here may have ended, but your story, your legacy, your presence they will live on. And for that, we are eternally grateful.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the word COVID-19 descended upon our world. It all began rather quietly and without much fanfare on January 3, when the news reported that a mysterious respiratory illness was spreading in Wuhan, China. The rest of January became a blur of government alerts, reports of the first U.S. cases of the virus, and then the WHO declaring a public health emergency of international concern. Despite the mounting alerts, most of us continued on with life as usual. Rudy was thriving at Pensacola State College and enjoying his classes. I wasn’t surprised he was acing every test. With no new clients in the foreseeable future, I asked Melina to fly down from Boston and spend two weeks on the beach with me. Melina. The gorgeous, smart, blue-eyed blonde I’d met on Golden Shores Beach during my work on the Kingsley case last fall. The weather held mild, and time passed too quickly. I didn’t know it then, but it would be the last time I saw her. I keep asking myself if I’d known all that lay ahead, would I have done anything differently? Even now, I still don’t have an answer. Then, at the end of January, the government declared COVID-19 a public health emergency. Travel restrictions were placed on entry by non-citizens who had recently been in China. It triggered immediate chaos and drew heavy criticism. In February, everything changed. Everything stopped. Life became surreal. Rudy’s on-campus classes were abruptly canceled and replaced with virtual learning. Since I had the time and wanted to understand what was happening, I gave him a new assignment to research and monitor everything being published daily about this COVID-19 phenomenon. Being a computer geek, he loved the challenge. His detailed yet concise updates came each evening. We sat over dinner, reviewing and discussing the day’s developments. With each passing day, the news grew more dire. Melina and I continued to talk two or three times a week throughout February. She insisted she was handling all the changes, but her voice told a different story. Thinking about Melina only made me miss her more. I had to stop. Rehashing it all became overwhelming. I shut down my thoughts and kept driving. By 5:30 that evening, I was just south of downtown Birmingham and made an easterly turn onto I-59, which would take me up to Chattanooga, Tennessee. I-59 was just another lonely, deserted road. My mind drifted back to early March, when our governor declared a public health emergency after just two COVID cases were confirmed in central Florida. By mid-March, the WHO had declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Within days, the administration declared a national state of emergency and banned entry to non-U.S. citizens from 26 European countries. Then the restrictions started. Guidelines were issued to avoid gatherings of more than ten people. All discretionary domestic and foreign travel was strongly discouraged. These measures were dubbed: 14 Days to Slow the Spread. I remember one date in particular: March 17. That was the day the government issued a stay-at-home order. Within days, 43 state governors had locked down their citizens. Rudy and I watched the daily briefings given by the administration. There were discussions about potential treatments such as HCQ, Azithromycin, Ivermectin, and steroid inhalation therapies. However, these treatments were quickly and strongly ridiculed, and any further discussion was promptly silenced. In fact, most of what the administration said was either misquoted, taken out of context, or laughed at. Our news broadcasts were no longer fact-based but instead echoed a narrative that I, for one, didn’t believe. In mid-March, our governor ordered all bars and nightclubs to close for 30 days. He also extended school closures to mid-April and canceled state-mandated school testing. Then, to add insult to injury, our Florida beaches including those here in the Panhandle were shut down until further notice. My only source of recreation and exercise was gone. By the end of March, the administration extended the coronavirus guidelines. It now became: 30 Days to Slow the Spread. Rudy reported that the recommended protocols for treating COVID-19 had been finalized after numerous changes and updates. These were the same protocols that the Colonel had expressed deep frustration over. The ones he vehemently opposed and the very reason he had hired me: not only to find his killer, but also to stop what was happening at his hospital. The question haunted me. Were hospitals overinflating the number of COVID-19 patients to receive inflated payments from the government? The compensation was certainly generous, and it was paid solely based on a COVID-19 diagnosis. I certainly wasn’t the only one asking the question. I remember a few days later, Rudy showed me a statement from Washington issuing a stern warning: “You will always have conspiracy theories when you have a very challenging public health crisis, but they are nothing but distractions.” Then Rudy found an article quoting a state senator who was also a family physician. He issued a direct response to the Washington statement, saying that in his opinion, any time healthcare intersected with reimbursement monies, particularly large sums, could negatively influence medical decisions and lead to problems. All that did was reinforce my thinking about hospitals possibly overinflating COVID-19 numbers. Colonel Westerdam believed it was already happening at his hospital. And he went a step further he believed the newly recommended protocols were actually killing patients. How many other hospitals might be engaging in the same practices? I thought about my sister Margeaux and my father’s longtime companion, Deloris. They were under lockdown, trying to adapt to the harsh reality of not being able to go anywhere. My sister had resorted to having their groceries delivered. Keeping busy to ward off boredom was their biggest challenge. Margeaux tried to laugh about how much cooking Deloris was doing, but I could still hear the concern in her voice. As for Melina, our calls became less frequent. She had called twice at the beginning of the month, but nothing after that. When I tried calling, it went straight to voicemail every time. I was worried and felt helpless to do anything about it. At 7 PM, I made another quick stop for coffee. Just before 8 PM, I reached the outskirts of Chattanooga and picked up I-75 North toward Knoxville. I-75 was completely deserted, and the pitch-black night made it even more unsettling. I was dead tired but willed myself to drive just a bit farther. By 10:30 that night, I was on the north side of Knoxville and knew I couldn’t go any farther. I finally pulled over and climbed into the back seat to get some sleep. Laying my head down, I don’t remember anything more. Crazy dreams entered my sleeping brain... lonely highways, no human contact, deadly virus. COVID… COVID… COVID…
~~~~
Note: I've been reading Ben Kaya's books since his first one, I believe. It's been years since I read the last in this series. Since then, I have been merging news to support documentation when the government was involved within a book's plot... This is just a note to point out that this book is fiction and what may be included related to Covid may or may not be correct. We do know many died because of Covid. I am not aware that the financial aspect covered in this book happened. I did not take the time to research the issue. Change of presidency during Covid would have affected any funding activities as well.
Jack Ludefance is one of the best series characters I've read. And his actions and involvement in this book is just as dynamic as ever... But I also enjoyed the development of Rudy, his IT assistant. Clearly he has gained confidence in his areas of expertise, but still depends upon Ludefance--just as he would a father. In fact, Jack has accepted that role and is slowly helping him to understand living in the real world--a world of both good and bad people...
I had to admit that as soon as I saw the first move of a new client, I knew the plot--kinda! I'd seen an episode on NCIS where a man had come into their quarters asking for help in solving a murder--his. But I assure you that this book goes well beyond that brief set of circumstances, in case you remember it too. For indeed, that's exactly what happened! But this was a retired Colonel and now ran a hospital where he was positive he had been poisoned because he knew what was happening there--almost!
Did you ever notice that once some type of tragedy comes, that there are those who will immediately take the time to figure out how they could make money from the situation? Indeed, as we have seen in our government, planning had been made long before the latest election when all Hell broke out... So it was not surprising that for me when Covid was chosen to become a part of a thriller, that there would be lots of activities purely to make money!
Kaya stresses in the book that the government regulations had to be followed and how bad it became. But we who went through this disaster, are not prone to believe Ludefance as he tells what he finds out. And that's quite alright because we know this is an exciting story that presents very well the title--Deception! In all of its forms...
Colonel Westerdam was a respected retired commander in the military service and came home to lead the opening of the Westerdam Hospital. When he'd arrived to meet with Ludefance, he explained all that he knew about his pending death and asked him to not only find out who had killed him but what was happening during this pandemic period in the Hospital.
If Jack had know what he faced, would he had agreed to take the job? No, I don't think so. Because what was to happen to Jack was beyond anything that had ever came into his life--and that's saying a lot! When he agreed to take the job, the Colonel left telling him he would never see him again--that he was heading to the hospital... Days later he was dead. As is protocol, Jack attended the funeral to meet some of the people and get to know who might have been behind the murder...
But nothing thereafter can be accepted as Truth...
With the IT professional support Jack had quickly learned that, in following the government's rigid regulations, there was a large amount of money that was paid back to hospitals... So, how do you make more money than could be expected? Well, you merely "ensure" covid is the cause for most of the deaths--even if the patient(s) had entered the hospital for other reasons...In turn, one particular scientist was involved in research on curing any type of mental health. To do that, one type of drug was used to make people have many types of problems. The goal was to heal all through one other type of drug... In the meantime, he was the one that ensured that most deaths were caused by "covid..."
Ludefance had been doing interviews and merging pieces of information together, trying to gain a foothold into what was happening. It was going slow, too slow for him. He decided to go undercover within the hospital itself. As a maintenance man. Days went by and nothing was learned, but then, Jack's true identity was discovered and the scientist decided that Jack, being in great health, would be an ideal candidate on which experiments could be done...
Indeed it was only through Ludefance's good health that he was able to make it through the hallucinations that were purposely being created and finally able to break free, find the drugs, burn all but a sample of each, and escape! But Jack was to learn that long and extensive use of hallucination's created drugs was not easy to escape! Would he ever be back to what he had been formerly? Could he depend upon his mind being strong enough to continue working as a PI? And, he knew, he still didn't know who had murdered the Colonel...
But time passed and the pieces started coming together... Until the local police had to get the federal government involved... Fraud had occurred at many levels. Could the final one actually be true? Kaya has put together surprise after surprise after surprise into the countless ways in which medical fraud can be made... It's timely, somewhat scary, and yet, we can understand that there are always people like Jack Ludefance and those committed to law enforcement that can meet any challenge! Highly recommended!
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