Snow Blind - Lori G. Armstrong [13]
“Where do you live?”
“Gillette. He lives in Denver.”
I could almost hear the gears spinning in Luella’s head.
“Tell you what, why don’t you let me give you a more complete tour?”
“You’d do that? Really?”
“I’d love to. I wouldn’t want you to make such an important decision only knowing half of what makes the Prairie Gardens family a good choice.”
I smiled even when I couldn’t make it reach my eyes. “I-I don’t know what to say.”
“Simple. Just say yes. I’ll have to check my schedule.” Luella rummaged in her purse. I expected she’d pull out a BlackBerry. Wrong. A day planner, the cover plastered with all shapes and sizes of teakettles.
Hard to believe the devil indulged in drinking tea.
“Let’s see . . . I’m free at eight o’clock tomorrow 41
morning. Would that work for you?”
“That’d be perfect.”
Kevin would shit bricks when I told him how far I’d taken this charade. Still, his mattress monkey needed to ante up more bananas before I’d keep the appointment. She’d run her retainer dry.
The back of my neck tingled. I noticed Luella staring at me strangely. Was my gloating premature?
“Something wrong?”
“Yes. I just realized I don’t know your name.”
Whew. “Oh. It’s Kate. Kate Sawyer.”
“I’m Luella Spotted Tail, Kate. It’s so nice to meet you.”
“Same here.”
Luella passed me a business card with the appointment time jotted on the back. “You can reach me at those numbers in case something comes up and you need to cancel. My home number is on there, too.”
“Thanks. Speaking of, where should I meet you?
At the receptionist’s area?”
“Why don’t you come to the east door instead? It leads to the common rooms. That way we won’t have to worry about explaining this to Dee. Wouldn’t want to step on her professional toes. She’s touchy about this sort of thing.”
Yeah, right. Her concern was for Dee. “No problem.” I frowned at the clock. “Wow. I didn’t know it was that late. I think I might head down to the lab. Last time we were here the doctor sent Aunt Rose 42
downstairs for tests and no one told me. With as long as I’ve been waiting it’s probably happened again.”
“Good luck. I’ll see you tomorrow, Kate.”
My giddy sense of relief overtook my common sense; halfway across the parking lot I realized I hadn’t put my coat on.
Kevin picked me up. Shivering, I wrestled with my outerwear as I clambered into his Jeep.
“What the hell happened? I’ve been calling you for an hour. Why didn’t you answer your cell?”
Damn. I forgot I’d turned it off in a fit of pique with Martinez. “I was busy getting this.” I waved the business card in his face.
“What? An appointment with a psychiatrist?”
“Ha fucking ha. No. I have an appointment with Luella tomorrow. She’s giving me a more personal tour of Prairie Gardens than the one you got from Dee.”
“How the hell did you manage that?”
I relished his look of awe. “Trade secret, my jealous friend.”
“Seriously, Jules. How?”
Okay, I might’ve embellished the details in the retelling, but still, Kevin was suitably impressed.
“You think you can get into Vernon’s apartment?”
“Sure as hell gonna try.” I didn’t bother tiptoeing around the elephant in the front seat. “Do you want me to talk to Amery about making another payment on her initial retainer?”
“Julie—”
43
“Don’t even think about arguing this point. She’s a client. We’re professionals. If additional man-hours are justified and she wants us to continue with this case, she will have to pony up the cash, Kevin. Period.”
His jaw tightened but he didn’t dispute a word.
“And don’t bring up Martinez. He paid us a pile to look into the Black Dog case before he and I became involved on a personal level, so it’s not the same.”
A Rapid City Western Meats truck passed us on the left. It caused hunger pangs even as the cold silence sat in my empty stomach like a block of ice. I sighed. “Let me handle this for you, okay? It’ll be easier for me to ask her for money after I’ve filled her