Chapter 17
“Christ, what else could there possibly be?” Willis and Tallman both asked at the same time.
“This is about Ervin, not Perkins.” He turned to look at Raymond. “Where’s the video about them talking and Ervin talking about taking a bribe from a patient’s family.”
“Shit, I forgot all about that.” Raymond fired up the laptop again and brought the video in question up. He played it, and Willis looked at Jason with a shake of his head, and a confused look on his face.
“I don’t understand. What’s the significance of this statement?”
“That patient he is discussing owns this ranch. She was told she would never walk again, and ended up in a wheelchair for six years. She is now walking, and her father is the one that paid the doctor off. That man is sitting in jail, and I’m handling the case against him.
I should get a date within the next week to go to trial.
However, the most important thing is that this owner identified Dr. Alexander Ervin and Dr. Earl Alexander. ”
“He changed his name?”
“Apparently. Some DNA evidence was collected, and we sent it to the local police lab. Neither Raymond nor I have gotten any information back yet. We know it takes a good six or more weeks for the results to come in, and it’s only been a little over five.”
“What type of evidence?” Tallman asked.
“Nurse Betty Laurel was bullied into cleaning Dr. Ervin’s office every Thursday before she went home for the night.
She said he was a slob and she tossed all the coffee cups, and used medical gloves into a bag.
Yvonne, the women you met earlier, met her and gathered the things she collected.
On her way home, Yvonne met with one of the men that works for Brotherhood Protectors who is married to a local cop.
Yvonne handed the used cups and gloves directly to this cop, who took it to the lab the locals use. ”
“Do you know this cop’s name?”
“I believe it was Sparrow, but you’ll be better off contacting Jake Cogburn, he’s the man in charge of Brotherhood over in Fool’s Gold.”
“Where is that?”
“Roughly forty-five minutes in the opposite direction from where you came from.”
“I’ll go see him,” Willis said as he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily. He shook his head and when he looked up, he spoke to no one in particular. “This case is going to be a fucking nightmare.”
“Yeah,” both Jason and Raymond said. Shortly after that, everyone left, and the three men that lived there stayed and looked at each other.
“Do you think we’ll be read into anything?” Raymond asked.
“I don’t know. I kind of want to be a fly on the wall, but then again, I want to be in the thick of things.”
“Yeah, me too. At least I can relax a little now that I know the police are involved. Shit.”
“What?”
“I didn’t ask if I can talk to Amelia about this case.”
“I would tell her what you learned that the authorities and hospital lawyers are involved. She does know that you couldn’t talk about the case anyway, right?”
“Yes. We’ve been getting to know each other before we started a relationship.”
“Do you think that’s wise?” Jason asked then immediately held up his hand. “That was uncalled for, I’m sorry.”
“I hadn’t talked to Amelia about it yet, but I was going to talk to the two of you, and if we had started a sexual relationship, which we haven’t yet, I was going to talk to you to see if you would be first chair, Ilsa second, and I would have been happy taking third.”
“Why?” Shay asked.
“Because if I was the lead lawyer, if they realized Amelia and I were having a sexual relationship, then they could have used it against us and had the case thrown out of court. I couldn’t, wouldn’t do that to her. That’s why I’ve been putting off starting anything deeper with her.”
“What if these guys take over, the hospital lawyers?”
“Then I’m off the hook, but you can bet your ass I’ll be in that courtroom every single day.”
“Me too,” Jason said with a grin. The men helped clean up the coffee cups from everyone else, and after Jason went back to his office, Shay and Raymond went back to the track to finish out their work for the day.
Raymond went home and when he showered after work, he allowed the hot water to wash over him, hoping the tension of the day would lesson.
As he let the water pound down on his bent neck, he thought what he would tell Amelia when she came over for supper that night.
They had been seeing each other every night since they’d both gone to the doctor, and gotten to know each other, however, they hadn’t started anything sexual, because they were waiting for the results of the blood test. As he walked down the hall to the kitchen, his computer dinged that he was receiving messages from his e-mail, so he went to see who had sent him something.
He opened it and smiled when the results they were waiting for were there.
The first thing he did was print them off, staple them together, then went out and laid them on the kitchen table.
They were just numbers to him, he didn’t know what they meant, and would ask Amelia when she arrived later to make sense of them.
He opened his refrigerator to see what he would be cooking, and nodded as he pulled out the package of pork chops, and vegetables. He started cooking, and when there was a knock on the door twenty minutes later, he called for them to enter. He looked up with a smile when he saw Amelia enter.
“What’s this?” He rushed to her and took the large item in her hands and took it over to the counter.
“Chocolate cake, I’ve been craving it lately. Sorry, there’s a piece missing, that was my lunch,” she said with a grin when he took the lid off and laughed at the wedge missing from the double layer cake. “What smells so good?”
“Pork chops, baked potatoes, and cauliflower.”
“Good, I’m starving.”
“Busy day?”
“Yes, three new patients today.”
“Did you see your e-mail?”
“No, why?”
He walked over to get the papers he’d printed and handed them to her. “I have absolutely no clue what these numbers mean.” He grinned as he let go of them when she looked down, then back at him. “The blood test results.”
“Oh.” She looked back down and began to read, and he went back to the stove to finish cooking. When she looked up, she wore a grin. “Are you sure you’re almost fifty?”
“Yes, why?”
“Because according to these numbers, you’re healthier than some twenty-year-olds I’ve had as patients.”
“Really?”
“Yes, both cholesterol levels are great, so is you A1C.”
“What’s that?”
“Diabetes.”
“Ah. So, what about the other stuff?”
“What other stuff?’ She looked up at the pages and frowned at him.
“The sexually transmitted diseases or infections?”
“Oh,” she said, and started flipping the pages.
She looked at him with a grin. “All clear, nothing detected.” They both paused when her phone started making noise, and as he finished getting the meal together, she looked to see what all the fuss was about.
By the time he had put the meal on the table, she looked at him with a grin as she settled in her spot at the table.
“That was my test results, all clear on the sex stuff, and all my levels are within the normal range.”
“Good.” They settled in to eat, and Raymond allowed Amelia to discuss her day, while he remained quiet. After they finished eating, the food was put away, and the dishes were in the dishwasher, Amelia looked at him in concern.
“Talk to me, Raymond, you’ve been unusually quiet today, letting me prattle on about my day.” She studied him, then widened her eyes in shock. “Did something happen with the case?”
“Yes, Kevin came to get me to go to the security shack today. I went there and there were eight people there. Three police officers from Colorado Springs PD, the hospital administrator, and four of the hospital lawyers.”
“Holy shit, wait, that’s only seven people, who was the eighth?”
“No clue, they never introduced him.”
“Okay, what did they want?”
Raymond scrubbed his face and leaned back heavily in his chair.
“Since you left the hospital five weeks ago, Perkins has been busy, and not in a good way. There have been at least four deaths, two egregious injuries, and it’s not been proven yet, they’re working on it, but he’s sending henchmen after people not paying their hospital bill within thirty days.
” He shook his head and sighed heavily. “Shay showed him his bill, and it’s for roughly seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
It wasn’t said, but I’m wondering if he’s going through the insurance company in his billing, or if he’s doing it separately, and that’s why he’s sending out the henchmen. ”
“Are you fucking kidding me? Three quarters of a million dollars?”
“Yes,” he said, and frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
“Shay said that he didn’t use this address on his paperwork when he, Clark, and Naomi went to see Perkins. He said it was a bogus address. I wonder how they found him to give him the bill.”
“Call him and ask,” she encouraged, and he did just that. Three minutes later, he hung up and looked at her with a gigantic grin. “What?”
“He used his previous address back in Pennsylvania. The post office there forwarded it to him here. However, his bill was in an envelope with a note inside. The note said that the apartment building he had lived in had burnt down months ago. It turned out the owner of the building did it for insurance money.”
“Damn, did Shay know this?”
“Not about the insurance money, but definitely that the building was gone. The police back there called to get a timeline as to when he had moved out.”
“Ah, so if it’s true and Perkins is sending goons after people, they would never find Shay.”
“Correct, and we have a security team in place.”
“Damn, what else?”