Chapter Eighteen

It was the first Friday in December, just over a week after a Thanksgiving. Normally, by this time of year Jamie and Eileen would have been well underway in their preparations for Christmas. While Jamie enjoyed Christmas, especially seeing the girls with their presents, for Eileen the holiday was more like what Jamie often referred to as, “high holy days.” It began with her insistence upon receiving detailed Christmas lists from everyone for whom she bought gifts. The girls had learned at an early age to give detailed, but realistic, lists to their mother as soon as possible in order to get the gifts they wanted.

For his part, Jamie’s role in these rituals was consistent—he was charged with sending the Christmas cards and decorating the house for the holidays. Although the latter duty did not extend to decoration of the tree, Jamie was required to obtain a fresh tree every year until they switched to an artificial tree. From that point on, his duty had been assembly. Eileen and the girls always handled decorating duty.

After the first couple of years, Jamie started making a Christmas “newsletter.” Jamie had fun creating his Christmas newsletters. He included an update of the family’s activities during the previous year, but he did so in a humorous and/or inventive fashion. Many years, Jamie satisfied himself with including a variety of bad puns, jokes, and humorous asides. Other years saw the newsletter presented as a newspaper, games, and even one “written” by Finn MacCool.

This year, however, Jamie and Eileen both felt out-of-sorts. By mutual assent, they had decided to cut back on the gifts. Aware of the financial crunch, each of the girls had submitted a very slim list to their mother. Eileen had laid out a budget, which applied mostly to her since she did the bulk of the shopping. However, she told Jamie how much he could spend on her. It was going to be a lean Christmas.

It was lunchtime. Eileen was in the kitchen, humming and singing snatches of Christmas songs as she immersed herself in holiday baking. They had talked about skipping the baking tradition this year due to their circumstances, but Jamie had told Eileen just to do it—they had to have some enjoyment at Christmas. Jamie was printing the newsletter and getting it ready mail when the telephone rang. “I’ve got it,” he called to Eileen. “Hello?”

“Jamie?”

“Hi, Maggie. Is this the obligatory client Christmas call?”

Maggie Walsh laughed. “No, I’m afraid not, Jamie.” Her voice turned serious. “Jamie, I know this is a bad time of year to be telling you this, but I prefer to be open and upfront with my clients.”

“Uh-oh. I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Well, it’s a ‘good news-bad news’ situation, and about what I expected, as I told you at the end of our lengthy conversation back in October.”

Jamie groaned. “The insurance company denied the claim.”

“Yes. Like I said, they reject clients’ initial claims in about 95% of the cases I’ve seen.”

“Wow. Even those with obvious disabilities?”

Maggie grumbled. “Absolutely. I had one poor man who was stricken with MS—and it hit him hard and fast. He was in a wheelchair by the time we filed the initial claim. The insurance company still rejected his claim on the first review. We won easily on appeal, however.”

“Geez. Why do they do that?”

“The money, Jamie. It’s always about the money. By rejecting virtually every claim when it is initially submitted, the insurance companies know that a certain percentage of clients will simply give up at that point. The clients don’t know about attorneys like us, or they just don’t have the resources to continue fighting.”

“If you win on appeal so often, don’t they have to pay back benefits?” Jamie asked. “I thought you told me that last time.”

“I did and they do,” Maggie affirmed. “Think about it—the appeal process usually takes about six months, but it can be extended to almost a year. So by delaying as many claims as possible, the insurance companies keep the money they would otherwise be paying to the claimants. They have the use of that money during the entire appeal process, so they come out way ahead even when they do wind up paying back benefits.”

“Wow. Unbelievable.”

“Yeah,” Maggie said heavily. “Unfortunately, that’s where we are right now.”

“So now we appeal,” Jamie said glumly. “You told me that was likely before. We may have to wait up to a year before we get a favorable decision?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” replied Maggie, “but I’m very confident about your case. This is where I earn all that money you agreed to pay me. When you see the scope, depth, and length of our appeal, you’ll start to understand why.”

“I know,” Jamie conceded. “I accept the fact that I could not begin to do this on my own. So if we win, you’ll be worth every penny. What do you need from me?”

“Nothing. This phase falls onto me. I’ve already drafted our appeal, which attacks the grounds for their denial based not only on the medical and anecdotal evidence we previously supplied, but by citing as many legal cases and opinions as I can find that support our claim.”

“Okay. So how soon before you will be ready to file the appeal?” Jamie asked.

“I plan to work over the weekend and get this submitted by Monday.”

“Then how long does the insurance company have to decide on the appeal?”

Maggie paused a moment before answering. “They can take up to a hundred and eighty days. I know that’s depressing, but in most cases, they take every single day they are allowed to take due to the money reasons we just discussed.”

“Holy crap,” Jamie said in disgust. “So we’re looking at May before we’re likely to see any money, if we see any money.”

“I’m sorry, but that’s my best guess. I’ve seen them turn these around quickly, but—” When Jamie did not reply, Maggie continued. “I know this probably puts your family in a bad place financially, Jamie.”

“Boy, you can say that again.” Jamie looked at Eileen, who had come out of the kitchen, wearing an apron and the detritus of her baking dotting her clothes like modern abstract painting. He could see tell from the worried expression on her face that Eileen had overheard most of his side of the conversation.

“Well, you’re not alone,” Maggie replied. “When people are hit suddenly with a debilitating illness like this, there’s only so long you can go before you run into financial trouble.”

“I know. My ‘financial advisor’ is taking a break from baking Christmas goodies, and she’s definitely concerned about the amount of time we just discussed.”

Maggie exhaled heavily. “Jamie, you and Eileen may need to consider declaring a medical bankruptcy.”

“Bankruptcy?” Jamie replied indignantly. “Absolutely not.”

“Well, I can’t tell you how to manage your finances, Jamie, but I’ve run into stiff-necked people like you before, and I’m here to tell you that it’s something you need to seriously consider.”

“No, no way,” Jamie said. “We’ve worked too hard to make a good life for ourselves. I’m not going to throw that all away by declaring bankruptcy.”

“Jamie, bankruptcy may be the only way you can keep most of what you’ve worked so hard for all these years.”

Jamie did not reply for several seconds, and then sighed. “Okay. Well, thanks for the advice, Maggie. Is there anything else you need right now?”

“No,” Maggie said. “I’m sorry I’ve upset you. I just want you to know what you’re in for with this.”

“Alright then. Thank you for calling and for being so honest, Maggie. I’d rather hear the truth.”

“I knew you would. You try to have a happy Holiday season with your family. They’re what’s really important right now.”

“Agreed. Talk to you later.” Jamie hung up the phone slowly and carefully. Then he looked at Eileen, who had starting rubbing his shoulders. “You’re getting flour on my shirt,” he remarked in mock indignation.

Eileen chuckled. “Well, I shouldn’t be the only one walking around looking like this.” She hugged Jamie, long and hard, then took him by both shoulders as she drew back and held his gaze. “Maggie was giving us good advice, Jamie. If this appeal process takes six months, we’ll have no choice but to declare bankruptcy.”

“Eileen,” Jamie said, a tone of hurt exasperation permeating his voice. “How can you say that? We’re good people. We can’t declare bankruptcy.”

Eileen shook her head and raised her hands in frustration. “So you think only bad people declare bankruptcy? Only layabouts and slackers? People who aren’t good with their money? You don’t think good people like us ever run into problems like this?” Eileen let all of her frustration come through in her voice. “Jamie, you’ve seen the numbers. We’re almost out of money right now. If we’d won our initial claim, we could probably have avoided bankruptcy, but we’ll be lucky to make it to February without running out of money, especially since the girls’ tuition payments are all due in January.”

Jamie turned and walked back to the sectional and sat heavily. Eileen could see that he was fighting back tears. She came to sit beside him. “It doesn’t mean you’re to blame for this, love.”

“Really? I’m supposed to provide for my family, Eileen. Instead, I’m ruining us.”

“It will be okay, my love. It really will. As long as we have each other, and our lovely children, we’ll find a way to get through this.” Jamie did not reply. He sobbed silently and held on to Eileen.

* * * *

The following Thursday, only two weeks before Christmas, Jamie struggled to get out of bed. He had finished his “Christmas duties.” Earlier in the week, Jamie had been exhausted, as usual, but he forced himself to go out and continue his investigation into Sedecla and her connection to Cal’s murder and the Raisin Killer case. Unfortunately, all he had to show for three days of investigation was bone-numbing fatigue, headaches that lanced through his head like ragged bolts of lightning, and several run-ins with his father, his brother, his former captain, and three former co-workers. His father and Sully had been most vocal in their threats. While Len Hamilton had also threatened him, Jamie considered Hamilton an idiot and a fool, but the confrontations with the others had sapped Jamie‘s miniscule energy supply and left him in much worse shape. He even fell, twice, when doing nothing more than walking down the street. Like his headaches and fatigue, Jamie’s dizziness and lack of balance became markedly worse whenever he pushed himself. By the end of each day, Jamie had been so besieged by pain and drained of energy that he could barely focus. He drove the first day, but took the T after that—when he turned the wrong way down a one-way street on his way home. Fortunately, there had been no other cars coming and he’d been able to slip down an alley, where he had stopped for a moment.

Now, Jamie lay in bed, even though the mid-morning sun was shining brightly into the bedroom. Eileen had kept her scolding to the minimum daily requirement until last night, when Jamie had stumbled into the house and fallen to his knees in the kitchen, clutching at a chair to keep from falling completely. Eileen had lectured him until he went to bed early, but she came to bed not long after and tenderly checked on him, rubbing his back as she read her book. Obviously, she also let him sleep while she and the girls got ready for the day. Bad thing is, I didn’t even hear them. Time was, I would wake at the smallest sounds-now I sleep like a dead man and still feel like crap when I wake up.

Jamie managed to shower and get dressed and walk slowly downstairs to the living room, where Eileen sat drinking a cup of coffee. “How are you feeling this morning, love?” she asked.

“Like something that Finn went out, killed, dragged through the mud, then brought into the house.” The dog’s ears perked up at the mention of his name—he was curled up on the couch beside Eileen—but when Jamie did not appear likely to produce any food, he thumped his tail for a while, then closed his eyes again.

Eileen gave Jamie a cup of coffee and sat beside him. “Anything new on the case?”

Jamie shook his head, took a long sip of coffee, which he then put on the end table beside him. Then he took both of Eileen’s hands in his. “I’m not sure how much longer I can keep doing this.”

“So stop,” Eileen replied evenly, already knowing the response she’d get.

“I can’t.” Jamie rubbed his forehead, an unconscious gesture he’d developed over the past weeks, as if trying to wipe the pain out of his head.

“Why? No one would blame you. You’d just be doing what your Da and the rest want. Maybe you’d be able to patch things up if you stayed out of their way.”

The grimace on Jamie’s face told Eileen that she missed the mark in her argument. “How can you say that, Eileen? First of all, it’s Cal we’re talking about. Someone murdered my partner, who was also a good friend to this family. Secondly, I’m not getting in their way. I’m following my own leads and keeping Sully and Hamilton informed about anything that pans out.”

“Aye, that’s true, dear, but there’s something else equally true—you can’t keep going like this. You’re barely able to function. I’m scared to death every time you go out that door that I’ll get a call that you’ve collapsed somewhere or gotten into an accident.” Eileen fought back tears of frustration and fear.

Jamie took her hand again. “I know. That’s why I stopped driving—I don’t trust myself. I can’t focus well enough on traffic to drive safely other than short distances. My head just aches so bad and I get so tired that I kind of ‘zone out,’ which I know is not safe.”

“Well thank the Lord for having at least that much sense, man.” Eileen reached out with her other hand and placed it softly against Jamie’s cheek. “So at least take a break. Rest up some, then continue.”

Jamie shook his head. “I can’t. You’ve heard me say it often enough before—the longer a case goes, the more likely it is that it will never be solved.”

Eileen sighed heavily. “So what then? You push yourself and push yourself until you have a complete breakdown? This could put you in the hospital, Jamie. You have huge, dark bags under your eyes, which I’ve never seen before. Your skin is pale, and I can see you swaying slightly when you walk across the room, not to mention the falling. You’re just one man, Séamus Edward Griffin, and a sick one at that. If the resources Sully is throwing at the case can’t find anything to tie the murders to that awful woman, how can you find anything by yourself, especially given your condition?”

Jamie did not respond for several seconds. He just looked out at another cold but sunny day. Finally, he looked back at his wife. “I don’t know, but I also know I can’t just give up.” He placed a hand on Eileen’s leg and patted it gently. “I know you’re right, love. I’ve just got to find some way to keep doing what I can.”

“Fair enough,” Eileen replied. “I’m getting ready to go deliver the last of the cookies and candy. Do you want to come along or do you want to stay here?”

Jamie considered for a moment, and then said, “I’ll stay here. I want to think about where I’m at and what we can do.”

“Okay,” Eileen said. “I’ll be back in about an hour and I’ll have my cell phone on if you need anything.”

“Yes, mother,” Jamie replied teasingly.

Eileen rolled her eyes and left the room. “Vexing. Vexing, vexing man.”

Eileen bustled about in the kitchen for a while, then checked back on Jamie as she got her coat and left. Finn MacCool followed her around, hoping in vain that maybe she would take him for a ride. When that didn’t happen, he wandered back to sit by his master.

Jamie turned on the TV and watched the first show that came onscreen. He sat for a while, scratching behind Finn’s ears and drinking his coffee. His mind raced through his situation, not the TV drama. I’m getting nowhere fast. Eileen’s right—I can’t keep going this way, but I can’t stop either.

Then, the TV show finally caught his attention. Jamie sat up abruptly, causing Finn to jerk his head away from Jamie’s lap. “That’s it,” Jamie exclaimed. The dog now perked his ears and stood, looking around guardedly. Jamie laughed and patted him. “Don’t worry, Finn. I just thought of a way that I can keep things going without running myself completely into the ground.” The dog chuffed indignantly, and then curled back up beside Jamie. Now I just gotta convince everyone.