“He made up an insurance policy,” I said.

“Submitting an unverified policy puts an automatic thirty-day hold on the account,” Brenda said.

“We can’t send out a balance notice or book a follow-up until the hold lifts or the policy gets rejected.”

He’d bought himself a month of quiet.

He’d kept the hospital from mailing a bill while he worked out how to hide the missing four thousand dollars.

“Did he fill in an intake card by hand?” I asked.