Chapter 48

"Hi guys," said Mary Ann, "Harry will be with us in a minute. Come on the conference room."

Alex and Jessica followed her. A young woman sat at the table, some folders in front of her.

Not that young. Older than Jessica by some. Late thirties, maybe even forty. Pretty though. But not looking real happy.

"Jessica, Alex, this is Karen. There's fresh coffee and donuts. Let me go check on Harry."

"Hi Karen," Jessica said. "Something tells me you're here for the same reason we are."

"Apparently." Karen replied. "The hospital?

"Yeah, Harry said he was working on some other cases."

Jessica went over to a small table.

"Karen, want some more coffee?"

"Yes, thanks. I'll help you."

Karen got up and joined Jessica in bring coffee and some donuts. Jessica set Alex's cup in front of him and returned to her seat.

The door opened and Harry and Mary Ann entered.

Harry had a cigar butt between his teeth. It looked as if it had been out for a while. He looked grim. Dropping the cigars butt in an ashtray, he went to get a cup of coffee.

"I guess Mary Ann introduced you." he said after he sat down.

"The short story is, Karen's brother died. Not at ACCH, but two days after they discharged him, with blood clots in his lungs. Karen took him home - he lived here in Jonesboro - and the next day had to call an ambulance. They took him to NEA, and he died the next day. I'll let Karen give you the details."

"I'm sorry, Karen." Jessica said. "Take your time."

"I'm okay now," Karen said, "or as okay as I'm ever likely to be. Roger died almost a year ago. The only thing that will help now is some one being held accountable for it.

"Roger was not quite three years older than me. Forty-two. He was taken to St. Bernards for what they said was pneumonia. As some point they decided he needed therapy for damage to his lungs, and sent him to Arkansas Continued Care. I live in Cave City, and work for a doctor there. Roger's girlfriend and I were talking by email and text, and she started to worry. She said the people in the hospital didn't seem to know what they were doing, and she had already caught them in contradictions several times. The last time we had talked was on a Friday, and I told her I was driving over to Jonesboro and would go with her to visit on Saturday.

"When we went to see him they told us he would be ready for discharge in a couple of days. He was awake and talking, but groggy. They said it was from medication and should wear off within twenty-four hours. The next day he seemed all right, and was more coherent. We decided to get him out while we could, and if he had any more problems we would make sure he didn't go back in there. So we took him to Tracy's house and he spent the night there. They didn't live together but we didn't want him alone. "The next morning, when he didn't wake up for a while, we went in to check on him.

"There was blood on the pillow, and around his mouth and nose. We called for an ambulance. Fortunately Continued Care doesn't have an emergency room, so they took him to NEA.

"He had blood clots in his lungs. He died later that night in spite of everything they could do. They said he was just too far gone.

"Are you a nurse?" Jessica asked.

"No, I'm the office manager. You learn a lot doing that, but I don't know enough to... I don't know."

"I am," Jessica said, "or at least I trained and worked for a few years. Did you get his records?"

"Yes, I got them first thing. Actually they weren't ready for a couple of days, but I don't think they knew yet what had happened. So they wouldn't have known to change anything, or leave anything out."

"Not that they would need to." Jessica said. "They just don't put it in if it would incriminate them, or don't record it accurately. We already know there's stuff in Alex's records that's false. The problem is proving it."

"That will be difficult," Harry said, "but it's doable. We're searching now for former employees, and we've located a couple who seem to have things to say. If we can get them to talk. The longer I look at it, the dirtier it gets. I'm working on getting someone inside. It won't be easy, it has to be the right person. Someone who knows what's going on, doesn't like it, and rather than just leaving is willing to stay and help us get what we need. And that's risky. Not many people are willing to take even a little risk, like losing their job. And the bigger risk..."

How much bigger?

"Let me show you what I've got on the operation. It's about what I expected. But you need to see, before we get too deep into this, what it may involve."

"Just a quick question," Jessica said, "not that it would let anyone off the hook. Was Roger vaxxed?"

"He was. I didn't know until he'd already done it, but he had to take it or lose his job. And at that time we didn't know what we know now."

"It wouldn't have mattered." Jessica said. "The whole world went nuts. They killed a lot of people. And most of the medical people, if they weren't already indoctrinated, were afraid to resist."

"Either way," Harry said, "it's a bad situation. As I said, this is about as dirty as it gets in this business, and that's saying something."