Page 45 of Raymond's Forever

“Not all the details, and I didn’t want to. However, Yvonne said that Patterson uncovered information along the lines of something about how she was sentenced there after going crazy.”

“Why did she go crazy?”

“Again, I don’t know all the details, but it was said that she killed her boyfriend.”

“Damn, that’s bad.” She shook her head as she looked at him then frowned. “What else? I feel like there is more.”

“There is, when we learned that, Jason then admitted that he was a federal prosecutor, and that he’s working on a case that involves Naomi. He told them what Naomi said about Ervin not being who he said he was.”

“Jesus,” Amelia said. “If all these charges go to court at one time, these two assholes are going to be fried.”

“Yeah, it’s going to be a mess.”

They again sat there lost in their own thoughts until she reached out and took his hand in hers. “Hypothetically, if you were the lawyer going after them, how would you do it?”

“Hypothetically, I would try them separately. As it stands right now, we don’t know if Ervin, or whatever his name is, was involved in the deaths of Perkins’ patients before he came here. However, we do know that he lied about his name, somalpractice might be filed in the case of lying to Naomi, and taking a bribe. Then there would be charges of having an affair with Zoe Comfrey, kidnapping, and defamation of character. That’s just off the top of my head, and I’m sure there would be more pending charges once a full investigation was conducted. Oh, and I would add a charge of physical assault from where he hit Betty. I’d also throw something like intimidation in the mix. It might not stick, but it would be on record. Maybe even coercion.”

“Yeah, I agree with all of that, what about Perkins?”

“Again, he would be charged and tried separately from Ervin, but I would charge him for defamation of character, medical malpractice, intimidation, assault with bodily harm, and murder. I would recommend life without parole, and the revocation of his medical license.”

“Why assault with bodily harm?”

“I didn’t tell you this earlier, but those egregious injuries involved the loss of a limb. Something, I don’t know what, but I was told by the administrator that during a few of Perkins’ operations, he botched it up so badly that they had to amputate.”

“Damn.”

“Oh, and both Shay and I pointed out to the lawyers that Perkins tried to tell Shay that he needed to have his left leg operated on.”

“But the injury was on the right.” She cocked her head to the side, and covered her lips with her fingertips as her eyes widened. “Oh.”

“Yeah. All I know is that I’ve provided all the information you forwarded to me on your last day of work there. The Colorado Springs detectives, the hospital lawyers, and the guy that never spoke, nor introduced had a drive I had made. This next part is just my opinion, but I believe it’s going to take a good six months, maybe longer to dig through all the information. I’msure both the police and lawyers have other people they can call on to help with digging up the information they need.”

“Damn, yeah, and it might be a good year before they go to trial.”

“Or more.”

“I just have one question for now, then I’ll drop it.”

“What’s that?”

“Has the hospital revoked operating room privileges from Perkins?”

“I don’t know, but I read between the lines, because Tallman said something along the lines that he can’t pick up a knife until the deaths and amputations are fully investigated.”

“Let’s just hope he’s not going to do some backroom operations in the clinic after hours.”

Raymond looked at her in shock, and immediately pulled his phone to make a call. He held onto her hand tightly as he talked to Willis and repeated what she said, and when he hung up, he looked at her grimly. “You heard?” Because once Raymond said what he did, he had to hold the phone away from his ear when Detective Willis had shouted his outrage at the possibility of Perkins doing what Amelia said.

“Yeah.” She shivered, then looked at him steadily. Her voice was low when she asked, “Can I have a hug?”

CHAPTER 18

“Absolutely,”Raymond said with feeling as he pushed his chair back, rose to his feet, and stood beside her. He helped her to her feet, and gathered her in his arms. They both sighed in relief when his arms came around her, holding her tight to him.

“Thank you,” she mumbled against his chest, and when he bent down to ask her what she had said, she had picked her head up and their lips touched gently. It was their first kiss, and Raymond laid one hand on the back of her neck to hold her in place as he continued to kiss her gently. It didn’t take long for it to go deeper, by both of them.

“Do you have condoms?”