Chapter 59

"How does the website look?" Jessica asked. They were having their second coffee on the back deck as usual. Alex had an unlit Backwoods cigar held loosely between his teeth as he watched the backyard wildlife.

"That's the the first squirrel we've seen, isn't it?" he asked.

"I believe so," Jessica replied. She waited.

Alex grinned.

"All the search engines are hitting it, I'll check in a minute and see if we're getting any contacts. Should be getting spam at least by now."

"That's good. Now we see if anyone's paying attention."

"Way it looks," Alex said, "the number Harry's heard from already, it must be a pretty bad situation there. It'll be interesting."

Jessica's phone rang and she looked down at it.

"Harry," she said and tapped the answer button.

"Yeah, hang on.."

She looked Alex.

"Are we free all day?"

"Pretty much."

"OK, Harry, we're good. What time?"

She looked at Alex.

"Can you remember 230 at the 501?"

501? Oh, the club.

"Got it, but ask me again in ten minutes."

"OK Harry, we're good for two-thirty at the 501. Where is it?"

"OK, Apache Drive, behind the Baymont. OK, we'll be there."

Jessica tapped and swiped a few times, put the phone away.

Alex finished his coffee and lit his cigar.

"What's up?"

"Harry wants to have a quiet lunch in a quiet place. The pharmacist he told us about, and someone else. Someone associated with a victim."

"Sure do seem to be a lot of victims."

"Yeah."

Alex smoked his cigar and they watched the peaceful scene. Jessica always stayed with him, and joined him at midnight for what had become a ritual. He smoked a cigar and drank brandy and Jessica drank brandy.

She wants to be near me all the time. Even when there's nothing to do but watch me smoke a cigar.

"You're not gonna take up smoking, are you?" he asked with a grin.

"Hardly." she smiled. "Not cigars anyway."

"You ever smoke before?"

"When I was young. Real young. In high school, but in college I quit. It was frowned on, and I knew it was bad."

"I don't remember smoking cigarettes. Did I?

"No, just cigars, usually a two or three a day, like now."

"Who was it... Gilbert. Said he only smoked two or three a day. I guess that wouldn't hurt much. I liked what he said about getting them tax-free though. Maybe I should ask him how."

"He does seem to know interesting things," Jessica said. "Apparently he's into prepping. We do meet some interesting types."

"I don't know if I'm ready for everything that looks to be coming down." Alex said. "This whole thing with the world going nuts, the country being run by crazy people. Or more like stupid people. How'd that happen?"

"If I knew I'd consider myself pretty smart. When we used to talk about it, you said the same thing. But I think at the root if it, it's greed."

"What's that," Alex said, "about the root of evil?"

"The love of money is the root of all evil. Saint Paul."

"Yeah, I remember now." Alex said. "Saint Paul. You a Catholic?"

"I was raised one. It didn't work for me. It's been perverted, corrupted, like everything. Like the Constitution. It was a simple concise plan. People starting changing it as soon as it was adopted. Taking out what they didn't like, adding things that weren't meant to be there. Like our government. And for the same reasons I suppose."

"Love of money."

"Right," Jessica said, "and most people don't get that. There's nothing wrong with money. But when people lust for it, so they can't control themselves... I don't know. I... I see people losing their humanity really, when it becomes an obsession."

"Are we all human to start with?" Alex asked. "Or are some people born corrupt?"

"I don't know. I like to think that we all have a chance to be good. Or at least not be evil. But I don't know. Maybe... maybe some things are, actually I know they are, decided at a higher level."

"Like the church teaches."

"Yeah, they all do. The Catholics to, Protestants too. But I wonder how many people.. I don't know, have the introspection that we do.

"Which was I?"

"You were raised a Baptist, your sisters still are. You had some issues with organized religion, as I did."

"What were yours?"

"I was pretty young," Jessica said, "and Mother Teresa was still living, but near the end of her life. Do you remember her?"

"Maybe if you tell me I will."

"She was a nun, founded an organization that ministered to poor people in India. I don't know how much you remember about India, but most of the population is poor, a lot of in a state we can't understand, it's inhuman really. She spent her live in India, living among the people she served.

"About that time, I was watching the news one night, and there was a piece about an archbishop, in some city out east, I've forgotten. What I haven't forgotten was that he was building a new house. Which is to say the church was building him a house. It would cost millions of dollars, and had accommodations for important politicians and other wealthy people to visit and dine. They mentioned the wine cellar, thousands of bottles of wine.

"I thought about Mother Teresa, living in the slums of Calcutta, in the disease and poverty. She had to beg the Vatican for money, they were so tightfisted. That broke the image for me. The image that had been put into my head daily since I was old enough to walk."

Sounds like the church is a big business. Little people working for nothing to pay for the top dogs to live a good life.

"Yeah, it is." Jessica said.

I said that out loud? Guess I did.

"In that hospital, those people don't make a lot of money. Some of the nurses do, RNs get pretty good pay, but still nothing like the management. I'd guarantee you Cox is making seven figures, and the others in the mid to high sixes. For a little 44-bed hospital. I'd be surprised if the big hospitals pay much better.

"Harry said Cox hired the cheapest help he could find at that children's health care facility. And they neglected them, and eventually killed one."

"You'd think he would have learned." said Alex.

"Yeah, but the people who put him in there don't care, even if he does, which I seriously doubt. Something goes wrong, if they have to they'll dump him, say they took care of the problem and hire a new one to do the same thing."

"Whole fuckin' world's rotten," Alex said. "Forgive my French."

Now where'd that come from?

Jessica smiled.

"You're improving."

"I said that a lot?"

"Only in extreme cases. Let's take a look at the site before we have to get ready for our meeting."