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“But we have no idea who that is until we speak with someone at the hospital.” I wanted to try and figure out a path to help Marie, first and foremost. We were assuming she was still alive.
“Unless we show proof that she has a family member to take control of her guardianship, which we have. What started all of this is her granddaughter from New Orleans looking for her long-lost birth mother, Justine Chaffin, if you’ll remember?” Tanner clarified.
“Do you have the court documents?” Alan asked Tanner.
Tanner pulled them from his briefcase and handed them over.
“This should do it. We’ll need the granddaughter to file for guardianship immediately and quietly. Hopefully, we can expedite the process through Judge Watkins, since he was the one who got the warrant for Marie’s information. Rapides Parish will do whatever we ask. They have no skin in this and would prefer it went away without a public stink.”
Judges Keller and Watkins were both district judges, which meant their jurisdiction covered several parishes, Rapides included. That’s how Keller was able to sign off on Marie’s guardianship. “Is Judge Watkins in the building?” I asked Alan Litrell.
“Yes. We can get him down here as soon as the paperwork is completed by the family member.”
“We’ll take care of that piece.” Tanner spoke then.
“How do we stay safe while we pull all of this off? And how do we keep Marie safe? What’s to stop someone from moving her someplace else?”
“I’m going to make some calls to the Rapides Parish DA’s office. The hospital doesn’t have the best reputation. There’s corruption at every level, which is likely how the poor woman got shoved there in the first place. It might take a rescue by somebody higher up. Does she have a place to go if we spring her?”
“We’ll get her taken care of if you can get her out of there before her mystery guardian figures out what we’re up to.” Tanner sounded determined and very angry.
“Okay. Get the paperwork done for the guardianship. I’ll get Judge Watkins to sign off on it. We’ll get a tail on Judge Keller. This must be done privately and very quietly, you understand. To get a judge investigated officially takes weeks and it’s not a quiet affair.”
We left the office as stealthily as possible, with the assistant showing us out a side door. Neither of us said a word until we were back in Tanner’s truck. And it took a minute then. Tanner finally spoke. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“And why would one name be redacted but not the judge’s?” I wondered this aloud. “Maybe whomever is being protected doesn’t care about the judge.”
“I’m guessing there’s a third party involved in the cover-up.” Tanner started the truck and we drove toward the office.
“How much of this do you think we should tell Lisa? I mean, we obviously can trust her, right?” But something was eating at me.
“I think we should say nothing about what’s happening except that we need her to fill out the paperwork to become Marie’s guardian as her only living relative to get the information from the courthouse.”
“But she’s the client. I’m not sure keeping this from her is fair.” I couldn’t quite reconcile it all.
“It’s for her safety. And the less anyone knows about any of this, the better we can control what gets out.”
“Imogene too?” I asked. Because Imogene worked so closely with us, I couldn’t imagine that she wouldn’t at least overhear something.
“Yes. For sure. I trust her but I can’t be sure she won’t share the info with her husband. And if there’s going to be an internal investigation of Judge Keller, this will all be privileged information soon. The less risk the better.”
“Okay. So, we only talk outside the office?”
“Might be the best plan.”
The rain started so suddenly—as if the crack of thunder caused it. I hadn’t even noticed the clouds gather, we’d been so focused on what was happening. Tanner and I ran the few feet between the truck and the back door of the office, but still got soaked.
“My goodness, can you believe this weather lately? Came outta nowhere.” Imogene met us as soon as we got inside. “Is everything all right, you two? Here, let me grab a couple hand towels from the bathroom.” She disappeared for less than a minute but came back with the promised towels.
“Everything’s fine. We’ve got some paperwork for Lisa to fill out requesting guardianship for Marie.”
“I hope that won’t make all this more dangerous.” I touched Imogene on the shoulder. “This has rattled us all, Imogene. No one will judge you if you decide to sit this one out.”
“No. No way. If y’all are in, so am I.” But she still didn’t appear too convinced. “Plus, won’t you need a notary to witness the paperwork for the guardianship?” Imogene smiled then, as if she’d made her peace with the idea.
“Yes, indeed we will.” I nodded.
It was getting late in the afternoon, so I fired up my computer and loaded the PDF files for Lisa to complete digitally. This was our next step toward legally wrestling Marie from whomever held her captive. Not knowing what her medical condition was, we couldn’t say if she was placed in Pine Hill because she had legitimate dementia or because she was being held for a more nefarious reason.
