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"Can y'all stay over tonight?" Scott asked after they had returned to his house. "I packed for two days," Jessica said, "in case you asked." "Hey, if you're not in a hurry, might as well. We can drink some if you don't have to drive home." "Sounds good to me," Alex said. "You guys go have a smoke or something." Michelle said. "We'll get some dinner ready." Scott and Alex went to the bar. "You girls want anything?" Scott called towards the kitchen. "No, we'll come get some wine once the pizza's in the oven." Michelle said. "Cool." Scott held up a bottle. "Mist?" "Sounds good to me." They took their drinks out to the patio and lit up cigars. "What did you think of the place?" asked Scott. "I like it." "I wish it'd been available when I bought this place. Jessica seems to like it." "Yeah, she does. But Jessica's happy wherever I am. It's a funny feeling, if you know what I mean." "You're a lucky man. More than you know, I think." "More than I deserve for sure. Maybe someday I'll understand all of this. Without her, I.. don't want to think about it." "You probably wouldn't be here to think." "Yeah. I know." "Things happen for reasons," Scott said. "Or at least some things do." "Yeah. Guess they do." After dinner they had a few more drinks and chatted for a while. Alex noticed that Jessica and Michelle seemed to get on well. Wonder how serious she and Scott are. Jessica seemed to think he didn't stick with just one. At our age, a man should. I guess. Dunno though.
They left early the next morning. Jessica was eager to see what Harry had to share. "What I've got," he told them, "is about what I was expecting. At least the local situation. I don't have the official report yet, but the guy I'm having run down the ownership says Carlisle is involved. If that's the case he's almost certainly the big dog. He doesn't take minor stakes, especially in something this big. Getting the records we need will take a while, but he always comes through. "But he's going to be pretty much hands-off. Just tell whoever's in charge to make it work. And that's James Cox. He can't find anything about a board of directors, which a real hospital would have. So it's Cox. And the people at CHC. And since they hired Cox, someone had to deal with them. Make the management contract. That would be Carlisle or someone in the group that owns it. We'll have to see who else is involved - they may have a lawyer, or someone business-savvy, to handle that. Or not, they may have just taken whatever CHC offered. Come to think of it, that could be what happened. "In any case, he should have something in a few days. He's good, worked with me back in my CID days. Knows where a lot of bodies are buried. Meanwhile..." Harry grinned. "I may have a way to get an inside line, at least in terms of a pair of eyes and ears. A pharmacist hired on a few months ago. She's got close to twenty years experience, most of it in hospitals. She moved to Jonesboro to be near her elderly parents, she took the job at ACCH because they weren't requring Covid shots like the other hospitals. There's another young nurse left St. Bernards for the same reason, went to work there. "They got to talking. The nurse was pretty upset, said she left St. Bernards as a matter of principle, because of the vaccine, and felt like she jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire as they say. She says there's some bad things going on, and was thinking about leaving, even with nowhere to go. So the pharmacist, who'd already gotten an uneasy feeling, just a few weeks on the job, told her to hang tight. "Seems she'd already had enough bad vibes to want to do something. So I'm down at the 501 club with one of my contacts. We troll the patrons in places like that. Say something loud enough to be overheard, see if anyone reacts. "She did. Josh - he does some snooping for me locally - was sitting across from me, looking right at her when I said the name. Arkansas Continued Care is a mouthful, unlikely to be mistaken for something else if you heard it all. Saw her reaction, gave me the high sign. "She was with someone, I didn't know who it was but I told Josh to give her his card, and mine. I got a call the next day." "What did she have to say?" Alex asked. "Plenty. Enough to think we may have some leverage. Don't know yet what kind, but these guys are a dirty as... think of whatever disgusts you most. My dad used to say, like a three day old roadkilled skunk on an Alabama blacktop in July. And I've got a feeling that's what this amounts to. "How are you proceeding?" asked Jessica. "For now, gathering information. Discreetly. No notes, no photos. They get caught doing that, it's over. Strictly observation, and recording details afterward. Nothing to arouse suspicion. Elizabeth - the pharmacist - I'm not worried about. Kaylee, the nurse, is young and we have to be careful with her. I believe Elizabeth can handle it though. I'll have a better picture in a few days. "Now, how're you doing? How's the website coming along? "Take a look." Alex said. "Here's the address." He handed Harry a business card. Harry typed the address in, clicked the mouse button. "That's it." Alex said. "Not finished but the essential parts are there." "Who's Caroline Dawson, Communications Coordinator? "Someone who doesn't exist. We don't want our identies exposed until there's no choice." Alex said. "We set up an email account, Facebook page. They have their uses." "Good idea. But be careful. These people don't seem to be very bright, but we can't afford any slip-ups. Have you had any responses yet? "No, it's just been up a few days. It'll take a while for it to start showing up in searches. And even then we may have to find ways to get the word out." "I can help with that." Harry said. "I talk to people who talk to other people. Can you bring me some of those cards? Couple hundred." "Can do." |
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