Chapter 13

“Stoney, my two detectives and I, have just uncovered the evidence we need to blow this case wide open.”

“Tell me what you have. You know I won’t blab, and before you tell me, I would bet you a hundred dollars of my settlement money that snotty-ass OSHA inspector is involved someway, somehow. I remember that bastard smirking as if he knew a secret no one else knew.”

“Stoney, you just nailed his ass to the damn wall - along with Dorman’s owners, the foreman, the construction boss, and those two crooked attorneys.

“That snotty-ass OSHA inspector you remembered, actually declared that scaffold unsafe ... Wait! Wait! Here’s the real sticker on that deal. When he turned his report in to the foreman and construction manager, they put the papers on the secretary’s desk and told your crew to go to work, knowing that scaffold rig had just been declared unsafe for use.”

“How in the hell did you ever find all that out? I suppose it was that OSHA agent who found out later and reported them?”

“Actually it was the jobsite secretary. When she heard the crash, she rushed to the door of her portable office and saw the whole thing on the ground with you and the other two men there. She’s a smart cookie, and the police now have her under protective custody, since she showed them the pics she made with her phone...

“But, hang on, it gets even worse. The foreman, and the job supervisor had no idea she’d already made copies of the OSHA report, then took those pictures. Listen to this, neither did the OSHA Inspector.”

“What did all that have to do with anything?”

“The foreman and job manager caught up with the OSHA Inspector and arranged to pay him a half million dollars to rewrite his report. He took the bribe and made out a new report. When they asked the secretary for her copy of the original report, she gave them a copy she’d made, but she kept the original in her purse.”

“Did she give it to the police?”

“No ... she gave it to me!”

“NO SHIT?”

“No Shit, Stoney. I didn’t have to ask for it. As a matter of fact, I knew nothing about any of that crap going on, until I went to see her and get a statement directly from her in person. You’re going to love this part. Once she had figured out what her bosses were trying to do, she recorded a personal statement on her phone, describing everything.

“She even has copies of the three bank drafts, made out to miscellaneous job expenses, dated that day, which they used to pay off the OSHA Inspector.

“I’ll let you hear her recording later, but you - are the reason she did this. Get this Stoney - you smiled and winked at her earlier that morning when you clocked in.”

“DAMN! I remember that. She’s cute as she can be, though she’s about a hundred pounds overweight.”

“She told me that she was sixty pounds overweight when she transferred here to take this job, and she had been trying to lose weight. After you smiled and winked at her, she went on a crash diet and now she’s lost nineteen pounds in twenty-five days, just because you winked at her.”

“I want to meet that young woman after all this is over!”

“She wanted to come meet with you now, but I told her we need to wait until I hang this shit around those attorneys’ necks and tie the knot around the construction company owner’s balls. We’re going to get you - John Henry, and Buck Walters’ widow, a monumental settlement.”

“Did you take their cases too?”

“I sure did, and I’ve asked Linda Martin to let me represent her also, because of all the stress she’s going through.”

“Linda Martin? She’s the secretary, isn’t she? I couldn’t remember her name until you said that.”

“Yes, and now you see what a little flirting will do for a young woman who’s trying to lose weight. Because of you flirting and winking at a secretary, we have that whole corporation by the nuts, plus the young OSHA inspector too.”

“I doubt the corporation will take responsibility for the foreman and manager’s fuck up.”

“Oh Hell Yes They Will! Listen to this, the young foreman is the grandson of the man who started the company. He wanted his grandson to start at the bottom, and one day run the company. The project manager, is the old man’s son-in-law.”

“HOLEEE CRAPPPP!”

“Yes! Not only do we have them by the balls, they have already approached me with an offer to settle out of court.”

“Will everyone get a better settlement this way? What about Buck’s widow and John Henry?”

“I told the attorneys to write down a figure for each of the three employees concerned, and they better be sure the company can live up to it, if we accept their offer. I made it clear that I wanted my fees listed separate from any settlement toward you, Buck’s wife, John Henry, and Lucinda.”

“And? Hurry and tell me, already. I want you to strip and sit on my face naked so I can eat your pussy. I’m sure you have heard by now, this cast comes off my upper arm tomorrow, to be replaced with a smaller cast from my elbow to my wrist. I’ll be able to get to your sexy ass and hold you better.”

“Buck’s widow, Laura Walters will get one hundred and fifty-five million. That was Dorman’s offer, mine was five less, for her.

“John Henry’s live-in girlfriend, Lucinda Collins will get fifty million simply because John had just given her a ring the night before and asked her to marry him - after you were able to get Buck and John signed on for that job coming up in Utah.”

“John Henry will get a hundred and fifty million, plus medical care for the rest of his life.”

“Damn, I’d forgotten all about getting them signed up for that job. I bet both of those women will be glad to get that settlement. I’m sure all of this will be above what they’ll get from the company’s accidental death life insurance policy on Buck, right?”

“Yes, the company carries a blanket, half-million dollar accidental death, life policy on all their employees who suffer accidental death, while working off the ground on their jobs...

“Now, are you ready for the big one?”

“You saved it for last. Whatever it is, I’ll forever be indebted to you for getting those two men a good settlement.”

“Buck’s widow and John Henry’s fiance have both me asked if you would let them come visit you and thank you personally for being friends with their men.”

“I’m going to need more than one shot of whiskey to get through this. I hope both of them come at the same time, I don’t think I can go through meeting them one at a time. Already, I have tears in my eyes, just thinking about them coming to see me...

“I see you smiling. Hit me with the numbers. I just hope I get as much as either of them get.”

“Since you’re the one who busted this case when you questioned the young foreman about the safety of the scaffold, before you left the ground. Yours is even more...

“They know I have the goods on them, and that I’m representing you - John, and Buck - PLUS the fact your virility is still questionable.

“Your settlement is two-hundred and seventy-five million, providing you sign a nondisclosure agreement. By the way, they are also willing to negotiate the wording of that agreement.”

“That means I have to promise I won’t talk about my settlement, right?”

“For ten years, you cannot discuss any of the details we just talked about.”

“Hell, I’ll be glad to do that.”

“I have one more personal request to make of you. I saved this until last because it has nothing to do with our settlement with Dorman.”

“Let me guess. You and I are going to fuck until we have a baby, now that we’re about to get this shit behind us, right?”

“Yes to all of that, but that’s not all.”

“We’re having more than one baby?”

“Only if you’ll agree to this. But before I tell you, I want you to know, I hope you don’t refuse this offer.”

“You should know by now, I’d never refuse any request you make. Let me have it, I see you smiling already.”

“Lucinda and Laura have both told me they want to have your baby, so they can name it Stoney, boy or girl, in honor of their men - and you.”

“What are we going to do if the insurance companies ever find out that all these women around me, are having babies?”

“Coincidental, is what I’ll tell them if they are fools enough to question why all these women are having babies. We’ll just say they were pregnant before the accident. Besides, they don’t want to fuck with us, because Linda has given me the original page off the inspector’s Official Inspection pad...

“I don’t know what you think about that, but we need to do something special for her. She’s the one who smelled a rat first, when they asked her to give them her original copy of the inspector’s report, then she called me as soon as she learned I was your attorney.”

“I agree. You name it, or ask her what we can do for her.”

“I’ve asked Nancy Jo, Celene, and Joy what they think about Linda living here, since we have plenty of room.”

“There’s got to be more. I see you smiling. You will never be able to keep anything from me. Your smile gives you away. Come on Baby, let’er rip.”

“She wants to lose down to one-twenty-five, then come see you.”

“I hope she comes to see me before then, if she’s going to live with us.”

“Oh she will, but she wants to come in here naked to see you when she loses down to one-twenty-five.”

“DAMN! I could end up a Helpless Millionaire for sure if we keep getting women to come in here naked to see me.”

“I suppose you want me to tell her you that refused her offer?”

“Hell No! I would have fucked her the first day I met her, if I could’ve.”

“Here’s another thing we need to consider. They have not asked her to sign a nondisclosure agreement, though she’s turned in her resignation. I believe it’s because they have no way of knowing she kept the original copy of the OSHA Inspector’s report.”

“Damn! Where does that leave us? Sooner or later, one of those attorneys will discover they don’t have that original, just a copy.”

“We could handle it many ways and still be in the clear. I could mail the OSHA inspector’s report to the District Attorney, anonymously, and let him bust it wide open. But that would eventually expose the bribes of the young inspector, you, Lucinda and Laura.”

“I’m trying to think ahead of you, and the only way I see a clear path out of this, is have them pay Linda for the return of the original copy of the report.”

“I could handle that for her. I’ll even tell them about her being under protective custody, since she was there that day. I have yet to tell them she took those pics immediately after the accident.”

“You need to get her to come out here and stay with us, then let your detectives guard this place. I can pay them now that I have the fifty thousand they advanced me. We need to know that everyone involved in this mess is safe, and here with us.”

“I knew you would agree to that. Linda is here now, and my guys have been watching this place since they delivered it and you moved in a week ago.”

“Now, all we need to do, is find out who owns this five acre lot our triple-wide sits on. I know they paid for the two lots my home sits on, but we need to put our names on the rest of this block and build us a big home right in the middle of it.”

“See Baby, that’s why you have no reason to worry about shit like that, now that you have me. This entire block and the empty block next to it, are both in your name - The Stoney Burke Foundation and Rehab Facility For Disabled Construction Workers.”

“I have a little over an hour before I meet with the two legal secretaries of Latterian and Harrison. I have yet to figure out why those lawyers wanted both women to meet with me at once. Maybe they realized they pissed me off the first time we met.”

“I’ve met them before, and when you see them, you’ll know why they wanted send those two here to negotiate with you.”

“I’d love for you to be here with me. Maybe we could tempt them into taking their clothes off and fucking around with us the rest of the day, and even spend the night.”