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"A million dollars? In gold? That should take a while for them to decide." They were in Harry's office. Mary Ann had transcribed the recordings of their conversations with Creasey and Harry was reading them. "That buys some time," Harry said. "It'll have to go to the top and I doubt Carlisle is the top. We're probably looking at Texas. Carlisle has a lot of money, probably quite a few millions but not many of them are in cash. And letting go of a million... that's the big dogs. And whether they do... if they do they must have some serious money but..." "But what?" Jessica asked. "If they're that big they're raking in some serious money. A million might not be that much to them but...." "But what?" "The way they think. You might take it and come back for more. They'll figure you need to disappear." Gonna kill us. "What should we do?" asked Jessica. "Nothing for now," Harry replied. "It's their move. See if they make a counteroffer. They probably will even if they've already decided to whack you. They need time to make a decision." "If they make a counteroffer?" "So far they seem to be comfortable using me as an intermediary," Harry said. "so let's see what happens. I'll see if I can get anything out of my contact at the AG. Meanwhile stay sharp and be armed at all times."
"I've got a bad feeling about this," Jessica said. Alex pressed a button on the Keurig. "What kind of bad feeling?" Alex asked. "Or how bad?" Not likin' it much myself. "I don't know much about Carlisle," Jessica replied. "I would normally be inclined to assume that he'll want to make this go away the easy way - with money - but he may have taken our asking for a million as telling them to pound sand. What if he decides to make us go away with no more talk?" "If he was pretty sure he do it without being connected," Alex said, "he might. It may depend on what the big boys in Texas are telling him." "That's what I was thinking. Harry said they most likely know were we live - this place anyway - I wonder if we should go somewhere else." "They probably don't know about the new place," said Alex. "The deed was just recorded a few weeks ago - unless they check recently. The farm they might know about." "Your new place isn't exactly livable," Jessica said. "We could get it set up, camp out for a while. I'm now sure I feel safe here." "If they're watching us they'll see us taking stuff up there," said Alex. "They'll know then." "Yeah. Let's see what Harry thinks."
"Come to the office in the morning," Harry said when Jessica called. "I'm in Little Rock, I'll be heading back that way in the next hour or so." "He didn't mention going to Little Rock yesterday," said Jessica. "If it was a planned trip I would think he would have told us." "Think so. Maybe something came up."
"I know a few people down in Little Rock," Harry said. "I talked to several of them. Didn't get anything about talk in the AG office but it's early, and if they're doing anything it'll be a while before anything would leak out - particularly if they take it seriously. Anyway one of them knows some of Jack Spencer's bunch. He's got a couple of their favorite meeting places discreetly bugged - they're near undetectable and he's never used anything he got from them. "Spencer met a guy from Texas a couple of days ago - same day you met with Creasey so it wasn't because of that. If it was the hospital guys they were already making contingency plans." "Any way to know of it was them," Alex asked. "He's working on it - should have something soon. Unless the guy was being extra careful to cover his tracks." "We were talking about getting out of the house," Jessica said. "Maybe to Alex's place in the country." "Might not be a bad idea. I'm going to have Jim Boling put a couple of guys on you. We'll worry about money later - seems that's not much of a problem for you." "None," Alex said. "Who's Jim Boling?" "Boling Security Services. He keeps a low profile - two of his brothers are lawyers and one's a judge so he has connections - but it's mostly private work like this will be. He has arrangements with a couple of private eyes that come in handy. I'll have him put a team on you - you won't know they're there unless they see a possible threat. He'll also keep tabs on out-of-town types that look suspicious. "Mary Ann is getting you a couple of radios. They use the cell network and work like a walkie-talkie - just push a button and talk. The team will have a pair of the same group and I'll have one. If you need help or if they need to alert you they can do it instantly." "Should we stay here in town?" Jessica asked. "As soon as you can," Harry replied, "you might want to look at moving. As seen as you figure out let me know - That doesn't mean relax, just that they're less likely to know where you are there. Unless they follow you and that's a possibility."
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