The Right Thing to Do

By Ray Corbitt

Sandra Davis, an employee with the federal governments Affordable Health Care Program, is in a deadly catch 22 situation: Keep quiet and continue to do her job or tell the truth, save thousands of lives and be killed for going public. Her death would be ruled a tragic case of overwork, exhaustion and despairif not for the letters she sent out to 13 people. Sandra has a terrible secret, and now, her secret is shared by several carefully selected letter holders.

Since the passage of the Healthcare Act, the United States has changed. The powers-that-be have too much power, but nobody knows ituntil now. Sandras letters reach their intended recipients, and so begins a series of mysterious murders that stump authorities. Someone with great influence is killing off everyone who received a letter from Sandra, one by one.

Spin-doctors in Washington are quick to cover up anything that might cast their operation in an unfavorable light, and they are good at their jobs, even when their job involves murder. Still, there are those willing to fight back: survivors who know what theyre up against. They will reveal Sandras truth at any cost in order to protect the American people, despite the threat of death and dishonor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491753811

Ray Corbitt

RAY CORBITT LIVES in LaBelle, Florida. She is the winner of the prestigious 2015 CBJ Playwright Award for Let’s Dance, and author of The Right Thing to Do and two children’s books. Ray Corbitt grew up as an Air Force brat traveling the world with her father. She has worked in the medical field as well as in law enforcement.

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Copyright © 2015 Ray Corbitt.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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ISBN: 978-1-4917-5382-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4917-5381-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014921951

iUniverse rev. date: 12/23/2014

CONTENTS

Prologue

Chapter 1 The first letter

Chapter 2 The second letter

Chapter 3 The third letter

Chapter 4 The fourth letter

Chapter 5 The fifth letter

Chapter 6 The sixth letter

Chapter 7 The seventh letter

Chapter 8 The eighth letter

Chapter 9 The ninth letter

Chapter 10 The tenth letter

Chapter 11 The eleventh letter

Chapter 12 The twelfth letter

Chapter 13 The thirteenth letter

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

This book is dedicated to my wonderful family and a lot of good friends and especially to my handsome, supportive husband, Tom.

Whistle blowers are most often always crucified and normally they have their lives ruined for doing the right thing. The rule of the world now is ‘go along to get along’. She knew without a doubt the spin doctors would do their best to make her a villain or a monster and they would succeed. She knew she had done some monstrous things, but she no longer wanted to be a participant in this deadly conspiracy. She could no longer be a monster. She would tell the world the truth or die trying. It was the right thing to do.

PROLOGUE

Sandra Davis was a twenty-nine year old single, professional woman who never really considered marriage. She was a sharp dresser and physically fit at 125 pounds. Being five foot eight with long shapely legs had always been a plus for her. She enjoyed a healthy sex life, but had never found a man she wanted to give up her freedom for or give control of her money to. She’d often been told she was a very attractive lady with her thick over the shoulder dark auburn hair, smoky gray eyes and ready smile. That is until recently. She no longer had a reason to smile. She now realized she was a monster.

She had no close ties to family and no close friends to talk to. Sandra knew it didn’t matter because talking wouldn’t help her anyway. She had known for over a year what was coming, since she had planned it in detail. She did extensive background work to set her plan in motion. Details were her specialty in her job with the government and she was one of the best. Her plan was about to unfold. Hopefully, it wouldn’t destroy too many more people. She felt she had killed enough.

She knew she could no longer do her job as she had these past few years. She was no longer proud to be an American. She was no longer proud to be a Democrat, but couldn’t see the difference between them and the Republicans at this point. Both told you what they thought you wanted to hear in so you would pick their side, and vote for them and of course send them money. Neither did what they said they would after they got elected. The tea party confused her even more. At first they were part of the Republican Party except more conservative. Recently they were taking over some of the Republican positions in the government, splitting the party and stabbing the Republicans as well as the Democrats in the back. She felt she would never understand political parties, but it didn’t matter to her now that she had set her plan in motion. Liars and spin doctors were all she could see in Washington, D.C now. The moral compass in Washington wasn’t broken. It was missing entirely, and the lack of morals was spreading across the country. She had been infected herself.

The government or the press could take a perfectly innocent statement and turn it into something ugly and perverted. They took pleasure in destroying lives to advance their agenda or to make news juicier. Law makers made decisions for the country based on how it would help them personally and to help those who gave them large amounts of money for their support. It was not for the good of the country. It was about power, money and greed.

If she didn’t tow the party line and keep her mouth shut, she knew without doubt she would surely be killed by those she worked for. Two of her coworkers had tried to either ask hard questions or offer their resignations and both met with accidents that very day. She was in a real ‘can’t win for losing’ position, but she could not let things continue as they were. She knew she was going to be used as a scapegoat and ripped apart in the press when what she had done became public knowledge, but she had planned well and was not concerned about the consequences.

To have the power to decide who lived or died had become more weight than she could bear. Knowing that whatever she did today, would probably be covered up by the government made no difference to her now. The spin doctors would make her out to be a twisted, sadistic killer to protect themselves and the law makers they represented. She knew in her heart she was trying to make a difference for the country, regardless of the outcome.

Sandra felt sorry for the law enforcement officers and journalists she was reaching out to that may or may not believe her or try to help. She would be gone by the time they got their letters. Hopefully, some would try to do something. She’d found them and done meticulous research on them all for well over a year, but she was still unsure whether there was any person strong enough not to bend to this powerful pressure. They were honest, smart and had a strong moral compass but after all they were just normal human beings.

The immoral lawyers and the government workers involved would be trying to cover up a scandal and they had unlimited resources. They would be working under the threat of losing their jobs … or worse. She worried that maybe the thirteen she was sending the letters to for help weren’t strong enough to do anything and they would be killed. She felt she was doing everything she could and would go to her grave knowing she had done the right thing. Thirteen people would soon be taking on her burden.

Whistle blowers are most often always crucified and normally have their lives ruined for doing the right thing. The rule of the world now is ‘go along, to get along’. She knew without a doubt the press would do their best to make her a villain or a monster and they would succeed. She knew she had done some monstrous things, but she no longer wanted to be an active participant in this deadly conspiracy. She could no longer be a monster. She was going to tell the world the truth or die trying. It was the right thing to do.

She had the thirteen padded envelopes in front of her addressed and ready to go. There were six journalists in the mix; one in California, New York, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Florida and Illinois. There were also six law enforcement officers she had written the letter to. They were in Texas, Oregon, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota and Missouri. She had also sent one copy to a senior senator she had always admired as a wild card. The bakers’ dozen would soon have the fate of the country in their hands. She tried to be open minded and not be biased to any political party. She had never met any of the thirteen people which turned out to be a mixed bag of five Democrats, five Republicans, one Independent and two ‘I don’t give a Damns’ receiving the letters. She had picked them each carefully for reasons other than their political affiliations. She held the envelopes in her hand. They were addressed and ready to be stamped overnight mail with a return receipt requested, even though she knew she would never see the return receipt. She would just have to trust the post office to do their job.

It was 9 am on a Monday morning and she had taken the day off work as a ‘sick day’. Her condo was very clean and she was proud of her things she had acquired over the last few years. All personal papers and pictures had been shredded and taken to the landfill several days ago. Her wardrobe had been given to the local women’s shelter. She was leaving no sign she had ever lived there. She stood up from the couch where she had been sitting. She smiled a sad smile as she looked around at her beautiful condo and started for the end table by the door to pick up her car keys. She would drop off the letters that would take the weight of the world off her shoulders and would now shift it to the letter recipients’ shoulders.

Before she left she picked up her cell phone and called her coworker Alice but got her voice mail instead, which she felt was better anyway. She left her a voice message. Hi Alice, just calling to make sure you remember to pick me up tomorrow morning. If you come a couple of minutes early, I have something for you in my apartment I would like you to have. See you then and have a good evening. There’s no need to call me back as I am taking something for my sinuses and hope to sleep all day, so bye now, see you tomorrow. She hung up the phone and smiled. It had been easy so far.

She knew no plan would go exactly as mapped out but she’d done extensive, very detail oriented research over the last year to set this in motion without any major glitches. She’d planned it all very carefully. It was now time. She opened the front door holding the thirteen envelopes and headed for her car.

CHAPTER 1

THE FIRST LETTER

Labelle, Florida in western Hendry County is a sleepy little town in southwest Florida. It’s an area with wide spread unemployment and many low paying mostly part time jobs for those lucky enough to find a job. Change is not a word in many of the county leaders’ vocabularies—especially if that change is likely to cost money. The Swamp Cabbage Festival is their one claim to fame every year on the last full weekend in February. You can get Swamp cabbage fritters, fried gator tail, or wild Florida pig barbequed pork sandwiches along with some fantastic pumpkin bread made by the Big Cypress Seminole Tribe of Florida. All natural foods are the norm in this area.

The only other town of any size in Hendry County is Clewiston on the eastern side of the county where they have the Walmart FLW Bass Tournament every year and the home of US Sugar. The sugar mill is the largest employer in the county, with sugar cane fields for as far as the eye can see in many places. Clewiston is 40 plus miles from LaBelle on the other side of the very large county.

Hendry County is the second largest producer of watermelons in the country; one of the leading orange producers, as well as producing corn, green beans, sugar cane and tomatoes. They raise more beef cows than most counties in Texas. Hendry County also produces each year a bumper crop of mosquitoes, love bugs, armadillos, coyotes, bob cats, wild hogs and alligators.

Almost half of the county is populated by undocumented Mexicans. A few work hard harvesting the produce but most are dependent on the free food programs and almost all of them are good Catholics who produce lots of children. These children flood the schools for a free education and a better life. Most of these children come into the school system speaking only Spanish so the test scores at the schools, predictably are lower making the hard working school system look bad. The tests are, of course, given in English and about one third of the student population can’t speak or read English well enough to take any test. If they are grown, then being ‘undocumented’ meant it was a challenge to find a job. This of course, leads to well over half of the county being on welfare programs and Medicaid taking county resources and resulting in it being one of the poorest counties in the state.

The sugar mill side of the county has two public pools for kids, a golf course, and lots of parks, ball fields and hotels. They have public and private docks on Lake Okeechobee, a Marina and accommodations for fishermen looking for world record bass in Lake Okeechobee. The Caloosahatchee River, also known as the intercostal waterway, links the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean through Lake Okeechobee which is partly in Clewiston. They even have a Walmart. They believe in growth and jobs and have the businesses and money to make it happen.

Many workers in LaBelle work in agriculture such as in citrus groves, vegetable farming or raising cows. The majority of the work force in the city work for the county as teachers and county employees since LaBelle is the county seat. A chosen few drive to Fort Myers in Lee County, which is less than 25 miles from LaBelle, or work for the federal government. A very few have small family owned businesses and they mostly give their family members jobs.

LaBelle has four thrift stores, three consignment stores, three kinds of Dollar stores but no hotels. LaBelle has no pools for the children, only one real grocery store and no Walmart. LaBelle is considered the poor relation city in the County with the eastern side of the county the major bucks place to work. There seems to be an east side-west side feud going on all the time. There is potential for good things to happen in LaBelle, as it has many natural attributes that people would love and appreciate if they knew about them. LaBelle has the river and some beautiful natural resources that one day will be recognized. Eventually LaBelle will be bigger and more prosperous than the other industrial side, but a few leaders of the community still resist change. They like it just the way it has always been.

Ray White lives in LaBelle and works for the county. He doesn’t care if the county changes or not. He works for the Hendry County Sheriff’s Office and works for the entire county. He is what he considers an average height of six foot and a firm 195 lbs. His slightly wavy brown hair is streaked with blond highlights from the sun. He keeps it cut short but not quite a military cut. His brown eyes are best described as whiskey colored; and when he smiles one corner of his mouth comes up just a little more than the other side, giving him that ‘bad boy cowboy’ look that turns women on. He normally wears good quality cowboy boots and a tan Stetson when he isn’t wearing a USAF baseball cap. The sun has turned his skin a light golden tan like most locals have, regardless of wearing hats.

Ray has lived in Florida all his life except for the six years he served in the Air Force. He was born on the east coast near Miami in a town called Hialeah, but moved to the little town of LaBelle when he was in middle school. The fact that the area was not likely to have a growth spurt in the next few years didn’t faze Ray. The fact that the children in the area that finished high school were moving away, never to move back,