“It’s just that,” she continued in a high pitched voice, “the board has found no fault on your part, but you running your mouth in front of witnesses, compiled with the deaths, and your friendship with Doctor Mallory…”
“You’ve got to let me go,” Dante finished for her.
“You have to understand,” the administrator said, “we were able to keep you away from prosecution and a serious medical inquiry because, as you said, video evidence was pretty convincing… but we don’t feel we can continue to employ you at this time.”
Dante clapped his hands together, startling everyone and started rubbing them together as if to make friction heat. “I have a contract. Are you putting me on extended, administrative leave?”
“In certain cases, the hospital can break the contract and, in your case, we’re willing to offer you a severance.”
“A golden parachute. Let me guess, you get to say I no longer work here, and you give me a big pile of money?”
“Something like that,” he said, sliding a sheet of paper over to him.
Dante scanned it quickly, then pushed it back to them. “Double it.”
“Double it?” the woman all but shrieked. “That’s two years’ worth of your salary!”
“Let me ask you a question, since some here on the review board and the administrator are on the board of directors as well. Do you know who the majority shareholder is here at this hospital?”
“Doctor Collins?” the shrill woman asked, looking at Dante’s mentor.
“Not me,” Collins said, and pointed to Dante.
“What?” the administrator demanded.
“You know I’m pretty savvy on investing, right? Well, I have been here twenty years and I’ve taken advantage of every stock purchase plan, stock option, and I’ve been buying stock on the open market. Do you know that Leah and I own 14%? I think that’s a bigger majority than anyone here.”
The administrator gulped.
“So even if you get rid of me,” Dante continued, “I’m sure I can get my way onto the Board of Directors, and then you really haven’t made me go away, have you?”
“With that amount—”
“Shhhhh!”
“He could sink us all.”
“I don’t believe it…”
Dante let his implied threat roll around the room and watched everyone’s reactions. Doctor Collins just sat back, a hand over his ample stomach.
“Dante, what exactly are you proposing?” he asked.
The room fell silent.
“Double the severance pay and make arrangements to buy my stock out. I am sure nobody here would have a problem paying me for the majority stake at 30% over market value for control of the board. Especially with how horribly the market has been crashing. That’s still below what you all paid retail last year.”
Dante could not make the shouts out, but he was about to leave before chairs were thrown. Instead, he retreated to the far side, where a drink cart had been placed. He pulled a bottle of water out as the chaos subsided and they all huddled. He drank it as he watched Doctor Collins make his way to him, waddling one step at a time.
“Making friends and influencing people again I see,” he said with a grin.
“Don’t these guys ever pay attention to who owns and buys stock?” Dante returned the smile.
“You know, if they take your deal, you’ll never have to work again.”
“You’re pretty well off yourself,” Dante said to his old friend. “Why do you still do it?”
Doc Collins thought about it. “Better than sitting in my house alone, screaming at the TV, I guess. What are you going to do, after this?”
“Private practice,” Dante said, finishing the bottle off and taking another from the cart.
“I hope it’s nowhere near here. There’s a shit storm that’s about to hit the city. I heard the DA’s about to indict your friend, but now the gossip is the cops initially refused to arrest her once they saw some video.”
“Yup, but the mob outside the hospital won’t care for facts. Their friends died doing bad things to good people. Listen, I know I shot my mouth off, but he would have died anyway.”
“I know that, but who are you trying to convince; me?”
“No…”
“Doctor Collins, a moment please,” the administrator requested.
“I vote yes to his terms,” he called across the room.
Leah was bored. She heard the shouts erupt from the room behind her and wondered if Dante had just played his trump card. She was counting on that. When it got quiet again, she was about to pick up a magazine when the hospital’s in-house lawyer rushed by with a sheaf of papers. He knocked once and then let himself into the conference room. More shouting erupted for a second time, then things fell quiet. Two minutes later, Dante walked out the door with a smile on his face.
“Were they nice or was it as bad as you thought?” she asked.
“Worse, but the hospital got the DA off my ass. They’re buying the stock and gave me a four-year severance.”
Leah hissed in surprise. “So, you’re done? Like, not coming back?”
“I’m all done, baby. Retired unless I open a general practice somewhere.” His smile was infectious on his tanned face.
“Hold on a sec, I have something to do,” she said, grabbing his key fob from his open hand, getting up and knocking on the conference room door. Then she let herself in.
“Doctor Weaver. Leah,” Doctor Collins said, surprise on his face as she came in and sat at the seat her husband had sat at formerly. “We’re not expecting you. The board will be in contact soon though.”
“So will my actions lead you to do something similar to what you tried to railroad my husband for?”
“Leah,” the administrator said, “Your actions may require discipline, but not termination. We all understand what happens in the ER can be hectic, but…”
“Sirs and madams, effective immediately, I resign my position with the hospital. I’m sure you can understand.”
“I’m sorry, but what?” the administrator asked her.
“You just made my family financially independent. We could even start our own medical center or small hospital with your money. The same reasons you can’t keep Dante are the same reasons I can’t stay. It would be a dangerous and hostile working environment. I once again submit my verbal resignation, and hope that, with the hospital’s in-house lawyer here, he can show you how to let me out of my contract. I mean...” Leah held up a key fob, and the recording of the board’s voices came through loud and clear as they had first started berating Dante earlier. “It’s your own wording that’ll sink you. Especially to the press.”
The administrator started sweating, hard. “You know you won’t get a glowing record from us after leaving us in a lurch like this,” he said simply.
“Dante and I… well, he’s the financial brains. He’s been investing every penny he could after we paid off med school. With a doctor and a surgeon pooling funds, buying stocks, bonds, mutual funds and all the 401k crap we’re required to, we could have retired last year and lived on a beach in Hawaii. After today, we can buy a small country. Do you really think I’m worried about going to work for somebody else? You’ve all proved that you’re spineless cowards who cave to the pressure of public opinion. Sorry, maybe not all of you, but you essentially just gutted the hallowed institution that I’ve spent most of my adult life serving.”
“We will make this a clean break Leah,” Doctor Collins said. “Having the media furor will actually help make this easier. And I hear you; I retired for a reason, and even though I’m one of twelve voices here, I completely understand. This hospital is run by bureaucrats and businessmen, not folks who know medicine. When you land on your feet, give me a call, maybe we can all do some fishing sometime.”
Leah smiled, “I’d like that, Doctor Collins. Bye y’all!”
Seventeen
Andrea ended up having to spend a few more days in the hos
pital than they had hoped. She wanted nothing more than to head to the farm, getting as far away from West Memphis as she could. The protests had not slowed one bit. After the DA made their announcement one way or another, she was sure life here would become hell. At least going to the farm would give her a chance to heal in a secured, private place.
Two officers still sat outside her door, but now she was there without handcuffs. A woman that was almost in a full body cast was not at high risk for making a fast and daring escape. She was hobbling back from the bathroom when there was a knock at her door. Lucian Carmichael, their attorney, poked his head in.
“Is now a good time?” he asked. “The DA was pretty insistent we take your statement today.”
“Sure, just let me get my butt covered,” she said with a grin. Her exposed skin was bruised and scabbed from the blows, the block, and the safety glass.
She prayed nightly that they would not indict her, but the way the audible crowd outside was behaving, she worried they would, just to shut them up.
“No problem, do you want me to call a nurse?”
Andrea got back in the bed and Curt pulled the covers up to her waist.
“We’re good now,” Curt called to him.
Their lawyer and two detectives came in, their badges on their belts. A strange woman followed them in as well, though she wore no identification.
“Thank you for seeing us Doctor Mallory,” the detective started, then introduced the crowd. The last woman who came in was an assistant district attorney, sent there by the DA himself to witness the statement.
The detectives asked her straight forward questions and Andrea answered. The police had recovered the SD cards. The police had no idea that the cameras had been set to sync with her phone and upload it all to the cloud, but it had. So, she answered their further questions. They were kind and polite. Every time Andrea mentioned the SD cards and how there would be video footage, the ADA smirked. When they were done, they thanked her.
“Would you like to make a statement I can take to the DA?” ADA Winters asked sweetly.
“Depends on his announcement and when you want it.”
Winters grabbed the remote and turned the channel to the local news. The DA was just walking up to the podium.
“Today, I’d like to announce that we’ve decided to charge one Andrea Mallory with three counts of capital murder and one count of attempted murder. It’s always a sad and tragic day when…”
Andrea let out a gasp, but they had been prepared for this. She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and typed out a three-letter text, then turned off the TV.
NOW
“The police have video proof that I acted in self-defense. These two detectives have seen it, right?” Andrea asked them.
“The video on the SD cards was unrecoverable. We have been told the protestors were tearing the car apart when the tow trucks arrived.”
Curt looked at Lucian, who had a wolf’s worth of teeth grinning, nodding. Curt pulled his laptop up and hit play. The gruesomeness of the brick coming through the windshield and the audible snapping of bones made them wince almost as bad as when Andrea involuntarily hit the freeway support.
The camera captured it all, the protestors yanking her door open, trying to pull her out, breaking her wrist, dislocating her shoulder... and they saw that, in fact, Andrea did NOT shoot indiscriminately into the crowd as the news had been reporting. The ADA watched in silence, her mouth open, as the video was fast forwarded and captured the towing, and later on when two officers came to search the car. The protestors had never had a chance to tear her car apart, as the detectives had said.
“I see the GoPro cameras,” one officer said.
“You work on those, I’ll work on the trunk, we have to search it anyways.”
“Go ahead,” the one officer said as the split screen view of both camera feeds showed one crawling into the car. “Popped the trunk for ya.”
“Hey, they have a cell phone hooked up to a battery and some wires back here,” the one not on screen now said, his voice muffled but perfectly audible.
“That’s weird. Bag it, but let me get these SD cards first,” the first one said.
“What do you think happens if the video shows it was self-defense after all?”
“Come on Bill, you were at the scene when we first got there, she was still strapped into her seat, half dead. It was self-defense, but the video isn’t going to make a difference.”
“What do you mean?” the other asked.
“The devices are going to be unrecoverable, even if they aren’t. Sarge told me he hoped I didn’t even find them. The only way to stop the unrest is if we hang the lady out to dry. This came down from the top brass.”
Curt closed the laptop then got his phone out and sent his own text, as did Lucian. Then Lucian turned and got a sheaf of papers out and handed them to ADA Winters, who was trying to type furiously on her phone.
“You’ll want to take these to your boss,” he said lazily. “I expect the charges to be dropped, and if they are within 24 hours, I’ll only sue you all for half of what I’m asking here. Oh, and all folks from the DA’s office and any police officer involved in this cover-up are to be investigated, charged, and terminated. That includes these two fine detectives, I assume?”
Winters’ hands were shaking as she read the lawsuit.
“You anticipated this,” she said, her voice shaking.
“I hate to say it,” Lucian said with a slow Louisiana drawl, “but yeah. Most cops are good, but there’s a lot of ‘just go along to get along’. The bosses are political, as well as the DA. I expect to see some heads roll, because you assholes are all predictable, and we got you over a barrel. Just pray you don’t see jail time because of this cute little stunt you just tried to pull.”
“It’s done,” Andrea said suddenly.
“What’s done?” Winters asked, her voice even shakier than before.
“Well, see, Andrea and I both have extra cell phones on our plans. You guys could figure that out on your own, though. But what we did was wire an extra car battery in the trunk with a safety cutoff switch. The GoPros run and record almost constantly, even if the SD cards are full, which we know they were not, and they were fine when you recovered them. Now the cell phone? You know that those cameras can sync with the phone and you can have the phone save all that fun stuff in this hilarious thing called a cloud? We have had this video since day one. You lied and cheated to try to put down a mess of your own creating. Now we’re going to be waiting for you to drop the charges and hopefully see you in court in about… three weeks?” Curt asked Lucian.
“That sounds about right to me,” Lucian said.
“Honey, show Miss Winters your phone,” Curt said sweetly.
Andrea handed it over and saw what she had texted.
NOW
“What does this mean?” Winters asked. “And we’ll need to confiscate your laptop, it’s got evidence—”
“You don’t need the laptop,” Andrea said with a grin. “I had everybody I know get a copy of that video. Everyone who just watched your DA condemn me for a crime I did not commit? That is local news. I just had about three dozen people each upload the raw footage to Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Tik-Tok… not to mention email it to every news station we could in the country.”
The cops looked like they wanted to puke, and Winters started typing furiously on her phone again.
“You can have the boys stay outside guarding her, but as you can see, your detectives’ services are no longer needed. Unless you are going to forcibly kidnap her after being shown irrefutable evidence of her innocence, I’d suggest you leave.”
“We’re just following orders,” one of them started to say, but Curt stood up, his face furious. “If you were part of the cover up, if you are part of the corruption that led up to this, I guarantee you something. I will personally sue you, your department, your wife, your sisters, brothers, your kids, everybody you ever kne
w, or ever have known. I will make so much damned noise to the media that your entire background will be questioned and sifted through. I will show the mob outside just how corrupt the police really are and give them new targets to come after. So, leave, you aren’t arresting her today.”
The ADA’s phone rang, and shouting could be heard from the moment she answered the phone. She ran out of the room like her ass was on fire and her hair was catching.
“I’d take him seriously boys, any further contact with my client will be viewed as harassment. I hope you boys are friendly with the Sheriff’s department, right?”
“Yeah, why?” the detective asked.
“Because he got footage of this two days ago and has already started an independent investigation of the cover-up and corruption linked to a sham capital murder case perpetuated by your department, framing my client. He has already talked to the two patrol officers who picked up the SD cards, and their sergeant, an hour ago. I am sure you’re next on his list, especially with what we have now that the DA made his statement, and what with Winters’ stupid smirk about the SD cards. Guess what boys? It is all on candid camera! We recorded all of this. You’re fucked.”
Despite orders to formally arrest Andrea after questioning her, the detectives left the room, making sure to tell their protection detail to stick around and wait for a call from the bosses. Nothing had gone as planned, and if that video had in fact gone out the way the Mallory’s had claimed, they would be extremely lucky not to get charged with corruption, conspiracy and even more. Their actions would strip them of their qualified immunity. The detectives knew this.
Their first calls were not to their bosses; they called their families and told them to get ready for a shit storm and be ready to leave town. They knew, right or wrong, by not arresting Doctor Mallory, the shit was about to hit the fan.
As it turned out, they were not wrong. The chaos was only a precursor to what was to come.
Eighteen
Behind The Curve-The Farm | Book 1 | The Farm Page 11