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"I should give you a discount since you've already done most of the work." Thomas Bailey was an older man, about Alex's age. He was casually dressed in jeans and a plaid flannel shirt and put a half-smoked cigar back in his mouth after he spoke. "We did our best," Jessica replied. "We're good with whatever your fee is - we'd like to get this moving quickly." "Harry said there were other factors," Bailey said. "Apparently the hospital is about to have a lot of legal problems. I'll take it on contingency, the way most lawyers do. Either they figure they've got a good case and can some out ahead or they don't take it. This one looks good. I'll probably have it filed within two weeks. At this point I don't need any more info and I'll call you if I do." "Sounds good," Jessica said. "We're available pretty much all the time." "OK, for now I'll send you email updates. It's fairly routine from here on. Harry advises me there's some action going on - or soon will be - with the state Attorney General. He gave me the basics - at the rate civil cases move the AG may well have something going before we get it to court. If so it will make our job easier."
"We should probably see Harry," Jessica said after they left the lawyer's office. "Since we're in town. Let me give him a call." Harry was in his office. When they arrived he and Mary Ann were in her office. "Your Dr. Copeland is a busy guy," Harry said. "So far Mary Ann has tracked down four LLCs of which he is the principal. From the names they all seem to be in the health care business. Getting any more info that that is going to be difficult but it's suspicious. I'll put it in the package going to the AG, with whatever else we come up with in the next twenty-four hours." "Twenty-four hours?" Yeah, what's up with that? "I know a couple of people," Harry replied. "I can get this in front of the AG. Not his assistant, not a deputy. He'll at least read it for himself and make a decision. I want it there before Friday." "You think he'll do anything?" asked Jessica. "There's a good chance," Harry replied. "My contact said that it's on the radar. He couldn't tell me more but that's enough. If we've got something to add to whatever they already have it can only help. And my visitor came by yesterday." "Which one?" "The guy that wanted to know who was behind your website. Only he seemed to know. He suggested it would be a good idea for it to disappear. Immediately." "Could he know?" Jessica asked Alex. "Possibly," Alex replied. "If you have enough money you can find out about anything. Or he may have been bluffing. What if we don't do anything?" "For now I'd leave it up," Harry replied. "He has no way of being sure I told you. But be careful - if he does know who you are..." "Got it. We'll be careful." "Tomorrow's Tuesday," Harry said. "I'll get this stuff to Little Rock by Thursday, hand-delivered. We'll see what happens after that." "Do you know who it is that wants to shut us down?" Jessica asked." "Not yet," Harry replied. "Whether it's someone local or elsewhere, Texas maybe, they probably have contacts here. I know this guy, he gets around into various things. He's been involved in some things with Brewster - if the head of the snake is in Texas or somewhere else they'd have local connections for things like this. I've got Mike keeping an eye on him - if Carlisle is involved we should know soon enough. Only problem he's a dead end unless we can get to him, see who he's taking orders from." "Do we care?" asked Jessica. "If we can get the state to investigate and it leads to somewhere else?" "Not in terms of whether anything gets done," Harry replied. "The AG seems like a decent sort and will follow it where it leads. But if they decide to send local muscle after us I'd like to have some warning." That would be nice. "I'll keep you posted," Harry said. "If anything serious develops I'll let you know."
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