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“None taken.”
He left after that, knowing he’d overstayed his visit, but he learned some from that conversation. Not sure what it all meant though.
“You were gone longer than I thought you’d be,” Janine said when he opened the door.
“The meeting went fine. On time. I was talking with Roni. I ran into her when I was leaving.”
“She’s a sweet girl,” Janine said.
“You’ve said that before,” he said. “And I’m pretty sure she’s a woman, not a girl.”
“She is,” Janine said. “I just think of her as a young girl for some reason. Maybe it’s the height and the fresh face.”
Guess he wasn’t alone with his thoughts and he wondered if that was what made his mind go toward innocence when she obviously had more going on in her life.
She had to, to have that kind of opinion about lawyers and knowing players in the game.
Yeah, something happened in her life.
“She is on the small side,” he said. He knew Janine talked with Roni. Maybe he could find out some more without being too intrusive. “You’ve talked to her a few times, right?”
“I have,” Janine said. “Not that she says all that much about her life. Why?”
“Just curious. She said a few things today. About her last job at least.”
“Oh, she was an office manager at a real estate firm. She didn’t like being the boss of some staff.”
“So she has said personal things,” he said, laughing.
Janine waved her hand. “That’s not that personal. That is just small work talk.”
He supposed Janine was right. “That’s all I got out of her,” he said.
“Which has to kill you,” Janine said. “You like to know what you can about people. It’s that nosy lawyer in you.”
He laughed. Maybe that was what Roni meant when she made her comment about not wanting to sound like a lawyer.
“I just like to know more about people,” he said. “Nothing wrong with that.”
“No,” Janine said. “There isn’t. Because you’re a nice guy with it and don’t use it against people like others might. What I’ve gathered is Roni is nice and professional. Not sure you can get much out of her or maybe it takes time. She’s great at her job and wants to do well on top of it.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I saw that too. She’s not someone who is going to sit in her office alone and watch TV on her computer in her downtime. She’ll find work to do.”
“Downtime?” Janine asked. “Who has that? Not even me.”
“That’s what we like to hear,” he said.
“No word yet on the Wilcox malpractice suit?” Janine asked. “It’s been about ten days since you sent the letter out.”
“Nothing yet,” he said. “They’ve got another week to respond. They’ve already offered a settlement.”
“Two hundred and fifty thousand isn’t a settlement,” Janine said. “That’s a buyout for silence. That kid is going to have medical bills higher than that by the end of this month if he doesn’t already.”
“Insurance will cover most, but that’s not the point. The hospital is waiving all medical expenses not covered by insurance. We are keeping that in the settlement too. I don’t expect to get the five million I’m asking for, but I want them to know their first offer was insulting. If they want to go to court, they know damn well we could get more. They admitted negligence.”
“You don’t want to go to court and you know it,” Janine said. “You don’t even want this doctor to pay the price and you know as well as I do that his insurance will go through the roof.”
“It will and it’s a sad byproduct of this. If they want to go to court, I’ll be sure to bring up the fact that not just this doctor but others are overworked and the potential for more errors. I don’t think they want that in the press. The hospital has to get their shit together to protect not just their staff but their patients as well.”
