Snow Blind - Lori G. Armstrong [107]
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