Snow Blind-J Collins 4 (36 page)

Then Big Mike’s ass would be in a sling, not mine.

An option I wouldn’t discount. I called Tony back from my phone and left a rambling message, complete with
I miss you, baby
on both his numbers. If that didn’t get his attention nothing would.

I washed my hands and returned to the living room.

Luella’s appearance shocked me as much as mine shocked her. She glared at me. “What is she doing here?”

“I want to talk to you.”

“I have nothing to say.”

“Too bad.”

Luella gave Reva a hurt look. “I can’t believe you tricked me.”

“Don’t blame Reva. She didn’t trick you. I threatened her. Now I’m threatening you.”

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“Don’t try to run,” Reva mock-whispered. “She has a gun in her purse.”

I managed to keep a straight face. “Reva? Can you give us a few minutes?”

“Sure. I’ll check out the action in the common room. Help yourself to tea and cookies, Lu.”

When Reva was out of earshot, Luella snapped,

“What’s so important you had to threaten a wheelchair-bound woman?”

“Vernon Sloane.”

Luella deflected her gaze to the door.

“Did you have anything to do with that poor old man getting left out in the cold and freezing to death like an unwanted dog?”

No response.

“I found him, remember? Stiff as a board. His eyes were open, like he knew what was going on, not like he’d laid down to take a short ice nap.” I paused for effect. “But know the worst thing, Luella?”

“Stop.”

“That final, permanent look of sadness and horror on his face.”

“Please don’t.”

“Freezing to death is not peaceful like drowning.

It’s incredibly painful. The brain is aware of everything since it’s the last organ to cease functioning.

Have you ever seen anyone who’s frozen to death?”

“Stop it. Please.”

“Only if you talk.”

377

She nodded.

I pointed to the dining table. “Make yourself comfortable. We aren’t leaving until I’m satisfied with your answers.”

Luella poured herself tea. Drained the cup—as if in fortification—and poured more.

“Was your relationship with Sloane strictly professional?”

“What are you insinuating?”

“Nothing.” I jabbed my finger in the air at her.

“And
you
don’t get to be snappy and indignant with me. I just don’t get why you spent so much time with him. From what I saw of Vernon, he was old. And cranky. And confused. Surely there had to be easier seniors to blow your monthly quota on?”

“No one else wanted him as a client.”

“He was just so glad to have a companion that he wrote you checks for thousands of dollars?”

She flushed. “It’s not what you think.”

“Then explain it to me.”

“I switched jobs after the property changed hands and Bradley Boner started the Friends program. I hired the workers. We divided up the residents. From the get-go I knew Vernon teetered on the edge of needing full-time care. We’re supposed to report those cases to management.”

“Why?”

“Because there’s a significant increase in the monthly payment to the facility.”

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“So it’d be financially beneficial for Prairie Gardens to change his status?”

“Yes. In his moments of lucidity Vernon was adamant he didn’t want to move from his apartment because he’d lose even more control.”

“Of what?”

“Of everything. His freedom, his environment, his choices. He’d already lost his daughter and his car.”

“So instead of reporting him . . .”

Luella’s neck turned as bright red as her lipstick.

“Instead of reporting him to Admin, I agreed to keep his condition a secret if he offered me a financial incentive to do so.”

Jesus. “Do you have agreements like this with other residents?”

“No. And I
was
helping him. Within a month, I had Vernon seeing a new doctor and he was in much better shape, mentally and physically. I believed he’d be okay living on his own.”

“Then why didn’t you stop spending so much time with him? Because of the money?”

“I didn’t only do it for the money.”

What a load of shit. “If you were trying to hide the fact Vernon needed full-time care, then you should’ve tried harder to cover your tracks.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I got a hold of the ‘volunteer’ schedule, it showed you devoting more hours per week to Vernon Sloane than to any other resident. Wouldn’t that tip 379

off the front office he needed extra care?”

“It might have if the general manager didn’t just sign off on the schedule on a biweekly basis.” She sniffed. “The office staff is so overworked they don’t care. The senior program is under the direct supervi-sion of the GM. He pays us from a different account than the other employees.”

Which rang true with what Bud Linderman had told me. “How well do you know Amery Grayson?

Because I distinctly remember, during our first conversation at the doctor’s office, you said Vernon didn’t have any family.”

“She isn’t family. She’s a vulture. And I tried my best to keep her talons out of him.”

“That wasn’t your choice to make. Because, like it or not, Amery is Vernon’s granddaughter.”

Luella glared at me. “I was the one who’d taken care of him. She moves here and decides she cares about poor old Granddad? Baloney.”

“Were you jealous of her?”

“No, infuriated by her. Whenever she visited Vernon, always when I wasn’t around, he became confused, thinking Amery was her dead mother, Susie.

And she let him. She played into his delusion. Then he’d tell me he didn’t need me around because his daughter was back. Amery managed to trick him out of twenty thousand dollars, making him think she was Susie. But what could I do about it? Amery snooped through his things, which is why he gave me some of 380

his papers for safekeeping.”

Amery was responsible for stealing from her own grandfather?

“Again, she had a right to know, especially if she thought you were taking advantage of him financially.”

Something didn’t fit and I backtracked. “What kind of papers?”

Her eyes glittered. “Let me ask you something.

Why did Vernon refuse to give his precious granddaughter, his only living relative, power of attorney?

Knowing he’d been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s?

With a cooperative client it’d take a lawyer less than a day to get that changed.”

My bad feeling intensified.

“Amery didn’t have power of attorney because Vernon refused to give it to her. He didn’t trust her and told her it’d take a court order. He trusted
me
. I earned every penny he paid me.”

“I don’t doubt that. But you have to admit it was beneficial for
you
to keep him in the private apartment as long as possible. Not only would you lose the money he paid you every month, but you’d lose the hours you charged to the senior program. How long do you think the GM would keep you on if someone told him about your little kickback scheme?”

Another glare. “You don’t have the authority—”

“As a matter of fact, I do. Do you have any idea who I work for?” I lied, “Linderman Properties Limited.” At her continued blank stare I prompted, 381

“LPL? Although they don’t write your checks, they own this facility.”

That got her attention. “Please. I can’t afford to lose this job, especially now that—”

“—your cash cow is dead?”

“No, now that everything is horribly mixed up. It wasn’t supposed to be like this! I thought I was helping him. If I would’ve known he was so far gone that he’d wander outside by himself during a blizzard, I never would’ve tried to keep him in his own apartment.” Luella shifted into total meltdown.

Obviously Luella felt guilty, but she didn’t suspect foul play. Which led me to believe she’d been as oblivious to Amery’s machinations, besides the outright stealing, as everyone else had.

Or we’d been oblivious to hers. Maybe she was just a really good actress.

As she sobbed, I revamped my strategy. “So you knew that Vernon Sloane was worth five million dollars?”

“Yes.”

“You knew about his will?”

She stopped crying mid-hiccup. “What about his will?”

“Just that it doesn’t matter if Amery had power of attorney or not because she’s set to inherit everything.”

“Who told you that?”

I shrugged. “Sorry. I can’t reveal my source.”

382

Come on, come on, fall for it.

“Well, your source is wrong.”

Bingo. “What?”

Luella abruptly pushed back. “Forget I said anything. I have to go.”

I literally threw myself in front of the door.

“Luella, talk to me. You can’t possibly—”

“I can do whatever I want. Leave me alone.”

I had no choice but to tip my hand on our suspicions about Amery. “Please. Listen to me. I don’t know what you’d planned to do with this information about Vernon Sloane having a different will. But my partner and I suspect Amery Grayson purposely led her grandfather outside to freeze to death to collect the inheritance she expects.”

When she clapped her hand over her trembling mouth, I was certain she had nothing to do with helping Amery.

“You were worried something like this was going to happen to him, weren’t you?”

Luella nodded.

“Vernon trusted you?”

“More than anyone else. And I . . . just want to do the right thing by him.”

“Then we cannot let that girl get away with killing him. Not only that, she’s suing this place for negligence, which would mean even more money for her.”

“I don’t care about this place anymore. They’re all a bunch of vultures, too. Why do you think I didn’t 383

tell anyone? I did exactly what they asked me to. It was wrong. I know that now, and I’m sorry. It’s not fair that they should benefit either. No one should.

That poor, poor man.”

I blinked. “Who’s ‘they,’ Luella?”

“Please, let me go,” she whispered. “I’ve said too much. I-I need to clear my head. Let me go.”

“On one condition.” I searched her teary eyes. “Don’t do anything rash. Don’t talk to anyone. Especially not to Amery. She’s a very dangerous woman.” I pulled out a business card. “Think about your options. Anything you tell me is in confidence. I won’t say anything to anyone until I hear from you. But if I don’t hear from you within two days, Luella, I will track you down.” The second I moved she was out the door.

I stared out Reva’s small picture window, waiting for her to return.

Poor Vernon Sloane. No one saw him as a man, only dollar signs. I wasn’t lucky enough to have had grandparents, or aunts and uncles in my life. Even though I had little experience with old people, I realized I was prejudiced. Calling them geezers. Making fun of the way “white-heads” drove their big cars.

Hating to be behind them in line because they were so 384

slow. Bitching about forking a portion of my earnings into Medicare and Social Security.

In other cultures the aged weren’t an embarrassment to be locked away. The elderly were looked to for guidance, lauded for their knowledge, and treated with respect as valuable members of society.

The casual disregard with which we treated our elderly in this country made me sick. And I was as goddamned guilty as everyone else in allowing it to happen.

“Julie? You okay?” Reva said behind me.

I jumped. I hadn’t heard stealthy girl come in.

“Yeah.”

“Was Luella able to help you?”

“Some. Not as much as I’d hoped.”

“Oh. Anything I can do?”

“Maybe.” I continued to gaze out the window because the question I had was wildly inappropriate and completely embarrassing. I didn’t know if I could look into Reva’s sharp turquoise eyes and ask it. “You told me you don’t have any family left. So what happens to your estate when you . . .?”

“Die?” She chuckled. “I had a hard time saying that word at your age, too. I couldn’t imagine it. And here I am. Eighty-eight years old.”

“You don’t look a day over seventy.”

“Bah, flatterer, but I’ll take it. Anyway, to answer your question, I’ve left the little money I have to the Campbell County Library System. I know how much 385

it’ll be appreciated. That’s probably why I’m low on the Prime Time Friends priority list.”

“What?”

“That’s the other function of the organization, if you hadn’t figured it out yet. They try to get residents here to bequeath all or part of their estate to the program.”

I let my forehead rest on the icy pane of glass.

Why hadn’t I asked Reva for this information earlier?

Had I automatically discounted her conversation as the ramblings of a lonely old woman? Bitter about her lot in life and her friend dying?

“You mentioned something like that to me, didn’t you?”

“Yes, my friend Nettie signed over everything to Prime Time Friends a couple of months before she died. And before you ask, Miz PI, no, I don’t think her death was intentional so they could get their hands on the pittance she had. Her death was from neglect, plain and simple.”