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"For now I'll give Harry a check on the account you use to pay regular bills." Jessica said. "We should probably set up an account for this project, to keep track of expenditures. That sound all right?" "That'll work for now. Just write it and I'll scribble a signature on it. We need to have you put on the account, in case I become incapacitated again." No more than I can write, anyone could scribble anything. Banks don't check signatures anyway. How do I know that? "I'm not going to let anything happen. See that you don't make me a liar." She smiles more easily now, like there's never a reason not to. Only reason is me. "We'll take the records and drop them off, and then get a metal detector before we leave for Paragould." Jessica said. "A couple of places in town have at least one in stock." "Sounds good. Ready when you are." Jessica carrying the boxes. Had to put them in two, they're still probably ten pounds each. Wonder what they'll find. She put the boxes on the back seat and stood close to Alex as he got into the passenger seat. He was strong enough to pull himself up and get in unassisted. Just a month ago he wasn't able to.
"Mary Ann, this is Jessica and Alex." Harry told his assistant. "Mary Ann has several years of paralegal experience, and knows a number of people in the medical industry, locally and elsewhere." "That's a lot of material." Mary Ann said. "Hopefully there's something useful in it. I read the notes you gave Harry -- this looks interesting." "The records from Arkansas Methodist and St. Bernards are on top of that box." Jessica said. "And quite a bit of the ones from Arkansas Continued Care. Alex was only in Methodist for a couple of hours, and the ones from St. Bernards aren't that big. Considering the damage both of them did, before they dumped him." "I'll get started right away. The main thing I'm interested in is how accurate they are. Deliberately inaccurate records happen in cases like this. How long was it before you got them, after leaving the hospital?" "Charlie and Sam asked for them the day Alex left. And they requested them from Methodist and St. Bernards a day or two later." "That's good. They would be less suspicious than if you asked for them months later. And hadn't had time to do any alterations." "Deliberately inaccurate?" "It's not uncommon, unfortunately." Mary Ann said. "I worked on a couple of cases where we were able to prove it, but we had to get the goods on some insiders to really nail them. Those are hard to find. If it's a former employee, they're attacked by the defense as 'disgruntled', or they'll find something, usually provided by the defenfant's lawyers, to discredit them. I'v seen personnel records falsified for just that purpose. "Sorry." Noticing Jesssica's expression. "It's an ugly business, and I hate that you found out the hard way. But I suspect this time we just might be able to get something done." "You're in good hands." Harry said. "Get out there and enjoy the day. We'll keep you updated."
"Here we are." Jessica said. "Remember anything?" Not really. Not anything. Remembering something though. About Mom and Dad's graves in the cemetery. How they looked in a dream I had. Or whatever I was having with those chemicals in me. Knew somehow, sometime.. Where are they buried anyway? "You know where my family, my parents, are buried?" "Your family has a plot in a cemetery down in Cross County. A little place, not really a town, called Vanndale. We went there a couple of times, once for your mother's funeral." "Not my father's?" "No, your dad died just about the time we met. I remember it, but we didn't know each other well at that time. Later, six years later, when your mom died, I went to the funeral. It was actually the first time I met Charlie and Sam." "OK, sorry. Something triggered a memory. Let's go there, soon." "Sure. Tomorrow if you want to." Whatever I did or didn't in my past life, pretty sure it wasn't anything to make me deserve Jessica. No one can deserve her. "Ready?" Oh yeah. My old house. Don't remember that either. What's in here? Memories? Jessica got out and walked around to monitor his exit. He was doing pretty well with the cane. Unsteady though. She hoped it would improve. "Here we go," Jessica said, opening the front door. Inside was a typical midrange dwelling for the local country club environs. Bigger than he would have had use for. "I lived here? For over fifteen years? What did it do with it?" "It was a little big, I suppose. Although your library and computer lab used up a lot of space. You mainly wanted a good neighborhood." "I was in the country club?" "You had a membership, but rarely went. A couple of the guys from the office golfed, and you had small gatherings here occasionally. But mostly it was a place away from work, for us to have some time to ourselves." "Where would I have hidden gold? How much gold anyway? I looked at the invoices, but don't know if I found them all." "I guess all we can do is scan the places where it might be." Jessica said. "Let's have a look." They had found what would seem to be a useful tool at Academy Sports. Jessica opened it up and installed the battery, then opened the instructions. "OK," she announced shortly, "it looks like we're ready." |
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