not be much longer if the sisters had anything to say or do about it.
After saluting Lady Justice as they entered, the seven women, Charles, and Fergus took their seats.
Myra began with the information she had gotten from Charlotte as Annie nodded at the hard truth. The women gulped at the amount of money. “Yes, over a hundred thousand dollars.” Myra shook her head in dismay. “I wonder how many other people have gone through this.” For the moment, that was a rhetorical question. They would find out soon. Whatever it took.
Charles conveyed the information he had received from Avery Snowden. “To recap, three doctors. Each has a practice in a different city. They’ve been doing this for almost four years. All graduated from Ross University Medical School. Ten years later, they each applied to Lausanne, but there is no record of their actually attending, let alone graduating. Their whereabouts during those missing ten years was something of a mystery, but Snowden was finally able to get a few details. It seems our medical professionals worked for a couple of pharmaceutical companies in Mexico. Interesting fact, twenty of the top twenty-five Big Pharma companies are in Mexico, so with their medical background, it was easy for them to get jobs and blend in. They each worked for Merck, Pfizer, and GSK. What their duties were is still unknown, but I suspect this is when they came up with the idea of Live-Life-Long. They applied to Lausanne when they were in Mexico. They flew to Switzerland for interviews, were accepted, but never attended.”
Fergus jumped in. “Evidently, they found a different way to make a lot of money with little risk. It appears they pinched some stationery from Lausanne and were able to forge diplomas. It was an intricate idea that took them a couple of years to engineer.” He could see the sisters’ faces grimace in disgust.
“Let’s go over the time line again. They graduated from Ross, spent ten years in Mexico, applied to school in Switzerland but didn’t go. They formed this medical group, Live-Life-Long, and spread out. Steinwood went to Aspen, Corbett to New York, and Marcus to London. We’re still looking into where they bank. Their website is very slick. It features a virtual tour of the facilities and montages of older adults frolicking on the beach, riding bicycles, hiking. All very, very robust. And everyone is smiling or laughing. They did a spectacular job with their marketing,” Maggie said.
Annie, who, as the owner of the Post, was Maggie’s employer, gave an instruction to Maggie. “Maggie, I think you need to investigate that alleged suicide. I say ‘alleged’ because something stinks. The scribbled note said, ‘I can’t do it anymore.’ Maybe she wasn’t referring to her life. Maybe she was referring to the program. See if you can meet with the family. Tell them you’re doing a story about depression in people over fifty. Let’s use the word silvers. I don’t like elderly or seniors.”
“Actually, there is an alarming suicide trend among seniors. Er, I mean silvers,” Maggie indicated. “Especially white men over eighty-five. What is even more fascinating is that they have the highest rate of suicide of any other demographic.” “Wows” and gasps filled the room. “I will use that as a part of my angle for the story, adding that we are looking to see if there is a similar trend developing in women.”
Annie continued, “We’ll have to figure out a ruse to get information from the Brewster family about the one who went into a coma after having convulsions.”
“When was that?” Alexis asked.
“A couple of months ago.”
“Do we have the name of the hospital where she was admitted?” Alexis asked.
“We’re working on that,” Charles said as he made a few notes.
“Ideas?” Myra addressed her inquiry to the entire group.
Alexis spoke up. “What if Isabelle and I go there and tell them that Countess Anna Ryland de Silva is considering donating a wing? We ask for a tour of the facility, and Isabelle can hack into the system and pull up Brewster’s files.”
Annie jumped in immediately. “I do not think it’s a good idea to use my name. I wouldn’t want to go in there with a possible promise and not deliver. It is a hospital, after all. I don’t think the hospital can bear any of the blame, unless, of course, they were negligent in some way. We’ll have to find out where she was when she started having convulsions. Was she home or