Free Found Money by James Grippando Page A

concocted anything.”
    “How long have you represented her? Eight months, I’ll bet, ever since she started sending the invoices. Only with the encouragement of a shark like you would she re-bill patients who couldn’t pay and then accuse me of accepting cash payments under the table.”
    “I won’t sit here and trade insults with you, Doctor. This meeting will proceed on a professional level, or it won’t proceed at all.”
    He rose and pushed away from the table. “Fine with me. This meeting’s over.” He glared at Liz. “It’s definitely over.” He turned and left the room.
    Liz jumped up to follow. Her lawyer grabbed her wrist, but she shook free. “Ryan, wait!”
    He heard her voice, but he didn’t break stride. It shocked him the way Liz had changed since their pleasant talk on the porch three nights ago. The three-hour prep session with Mr. Congeniality had obviously tapped her negative energy. Or maybe Tuesday was just a ruse .
    “Ryan!”
    He continued through the lobby, never looking back. The elevator doors opened, and he hurried inside. Liz lunged forward as the doors were closing. She barely made it. The elevator began its descent with just the two of them aboard. Liz was red-faced and breathless from the chase. “Ryan, listen to me.”
    He watched the lights above the elevator doors, avoiding eye contact.
    “This wasn’t my idea,” she said, pleading.
    Finally, he looked at her. “What were you trying to do to me in there?”
    “It’s for your own good.”
    “My own good? This I gotta hear.”
    “It was my lawyer’s idea to accuse you of hiding your income, just to put you on the defensive. I wouldn’t let him use that ploy at a real deposition or in the courtroom, anyplace where it could embarrass you. But today was just a settlement conference. It’s just posturing.”
    “ Posturing? It’s an outright lie. How could you let him pull a stunt like that?”
    “Because it’s time you woke up,” she said sharply. “For eight years I begged you to get your career in order and earn the kind of money we deserved. You could have been a top-flight surgeon at any hospital you wanted, right here in Denver. You just gave it all up.”
    “I didn’t give it all up. I’m still a doctor.”
    “You’re a waste of talent, that’s what you are. It’s time you stopped playing Mother Teresa for all the poor sick folks in Piedmont Springs and started making some real money—for both of us.”
    “You and your lawyer are going to make sure of that. Is that the plan?”
    “If forcing you to write a hefty alimony check every month is the only way to blast you out of Piedmont Springs, then by God, I’m going to do it. You brought this on yourself. I didn’t work twojobs putting you through med school so that I could wake up every morning to the smell of cow manure blowing in from the fields. Piedmont Springs was not the future we talked about before we got married. I’ve waited long enough to get out of that hellhole.”
    The elevator doors opened. Liz started out to the main lobby. Ryan stopped her.
    “Is that what’s driving you, Liz? You just can’t wait to get out of Piedmont Springs?”
    Her eyes turned cold. “No, Ryan. What’s driving me is that I’m sick and tired of waiting for you.”
    He swallowed hard, tasting the bitterness as she quickly walked away.

12
    Friday afternoon traffic was heavy as Amy reached Denver. She parked near the Civic Center about a mile from the coffee shop, then walked a block to the 16th Street Mall and caught the free shuttle. The bus ride was part of her plan to conceal her identity, to the extent possible. It was conceivable that Ryan’s father had sent the money to her without telling anyone, taking the name and address of Amy Parkens with him to the grave. She didn’t want Ryan to find out who she was simply by checking her license plate.
    She was getting nervous about meeting Ryan face to face. She wished she had a friend in law enforcement