Page 24 of Raymond's Forever

“No, I’m sorry if I scared you. Coffee?” he asked, and laughed heartily at her look. He immediately got her a cup, filled it, and handed it to her. He liked that she didn’t fuss with sugar orcream. They settled back at the island, and he passed her a plate that had a breakfast sandwich on it. “I slept hard when I first went to bed, but I’ve been up for over an hour. I made this for you.” He shook his head and held up his hand. “I’ve already had one. Eat, I have questions for you.” He reached for a pad of paper and whipped his head around when she giggled. “What?”

“You’re one ofthosepeople?”

“Those?”

“List makers? Not that it’s bad. I do the same thing.”

“Oh, yeah,” he said with a smirk as he looked between his list and her. “Actually, Ciara started me doing this back when we were dating. We’d be at the study group, and I would be all over the place. She told me to make a list to prioritize what I wanted to study first. Once that list was done, then I could look at the first order of business, and buckle down. I don’t know if it was the list or just me, but I was a solid B-minus student until I organized my thinking, and then I became a solid A- one. This started in the middle of that first semester, I’ve been making lists ever since.”

“I’m not knocking it, I make lists too, but not as organized as that.” She pointed to the pages as she bit into her sandwich, moaned, closed her eyes, and chewed slowly. “This is good.”

“Thank you. Anyway, I wanted to go over a couple of things before you left for work. First and foremost, if, and this is a gigantic if, but if you decided to unpack Perkins’ boxes, and if you see something, I want you to do a couple of things.”

“What’s that?”

“One, don’t get caught. Two, snap a photo of it, send that to your personal e-mail, hopefully it’s not connected to the clinic, then I want you to send it to me. Once you do all that, then delete it from your phone.”

“Oh, wow, I never thought of going through all those steps. I figured I could download them once I got home.”

“You could, but what if someone saw you, questioned you, and Perkins overheard? What if he demanded to see your phone, or even ripped it out of your hands?”

“Yeah, I can see him doing that. Okay, I’ll do what you said, send it to my personal e-mail, and you. What else?”

“This next thing I don’t know if it can be done.”

“Why not? Or rather, what is it?”

“I want copies of those x-rays he’s going to use. You can’t physically take them, or he will know something is up, so I don’t know how we can get them.”

“I think I know.”

“What’s that?”

“Whatever x-rays I find, I can put up on the light box we doctors use to show the patients. I have one in my office. I can put them up there, snap the picture, and send them to the places you just mentioned. When I send them to you, if you can’t read them, then message me. If you can see them, and read the name on the x-ray, then don’t contact me.”

“Got it, be careful.”

“I will. I’m going to be leaving here in the next five minutes, it’s a twenty-minute drive, and I’ll immediately go to those x-rays in the boxes. There are about fifteen sets. Should take an hour. Then I’ll finish packing my things, take them to my vehicle, call you to see if you got everything, then go back inside and start putting his things on the shelves and desks. It’s Friday, in the last six weeks, he doesn’t roll in until after ten thirty, but before noon. It’s hit and miss, he’s never there at the same time every day. He’s even sent out a clinic wide memo not to schedule any of his patients before noon.”

“Damn. What about Ervin?”

“Friday he’s at a nine o’clock meeting with the hospital, since we’re associated with them. That lasts about two hours, so he’ll be there between eleven and twelve. That is his administrationday, so when he comes in, if he doesn’t go to lunch first, he’ll be in his office all day doing paperwork.” She shook her head as she giggled. “That’s why he demands his office be cleaned of the coffee cups on Thursday. He’ll just fill it up on Friday when he does his paperwork all day.”

“What time are you off?”

“Noon. I should be here by twelve thirty, no later than one. Do you want me to call you before I leave?”

“Please, but only after you’re in your car and ready to leave. Now, since you’re practically out the door, walk me through the piles in the living room.”

“You don’t have to.” She started to say, but shut up when he gave her a look. She sighed, tossed the paper plate, refilled her travel mug, and went into that room. It took seven minutes for her to explain what she wanted done with the piles, and at one point, she looked up and grinned when he was writing furiously. She shook her head, pulled her phone, verified she had his number, and she didn’t know why, but she stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek.

“Thanks for doing all this. I’ll call you when I’m heading home. I’ll also be sending you messages along the way.”

“Sounds perfect, be careful.”

“I will.” She did it again with the kiss on the cheek, it felt so natural, and quickly left him.

Raymond stood in the middle of the chaotic living room with his fingertips on his cheek, and a shit-eating grin on his face. It took a good two to three minutes before he gave himself a good shake and went to the room he used the night before to change into jeans, a shirt, and shoes. In ten minutes, with a fresh pot of coffee brewing, he got to work.