Chương 8
Priya’s expression remained neutral. “That is also possible.”
Daniel rubbed his palms against his trousers. “Whose side are you on?”
“Your mother’s.”
The answer embarrassed him.
Over the next month, Evelyn underwent two evaluations. On good mornings, she understood her finances, described the investigation, and explained why she wanted help with bills but not control over personal spending. On tired afternoons, she confused dates and forgot recent conversations. The clinicians concluded that she could make many decisions with support but was vulnerable to pressure, especially when sedated or afraid.
Priya helped her execute a limited financial authorization naming Daniel and Rachel jointly. Transactions above a set amount required confirmation from Evelyn and one of them. Alerts went to all three phones. Evelyn insisted on retaining a separate checking account for ordinary purchases.
“Five hundred a month,” Daniel proposed.
“One thousand,” she said.
“Seven hundred.”
“Nine.”
“Eight.”
“Fine.”
Priya watched them bargain and said nothing.
The house remained empty while the investigation continued. Daniel visited every Saturday to collect mail and check pipes, windows, and the temperamental furnace. Without Evelyn, ordinary objects became accusations. Her reading glasses lay beside an unfinished crossword. A sweater hung over the kitchen chair. On the refrigerator, Nora had taped a medication chart written in neat block letters. Every box was checked.
Daniel removed the chart, then put it back because Kline had told him not to discard anything relevant.
In Nora’s former room, police had left drawers partly open after searching them. Daniel saw no luxury, no hidden cash, no collection of stolen jewelry. There were discount-store clothes, nursing textbooks with highlighted passages, a cracked framed photograph of Nora beside an older woman in a hospital bed, and a stack of overdue notices from a dental clinic. In the closet, three pairs of shoes stood in a straight line.
He felt sympathy for less than a second and hated himself for both the feeling and its brevity.
A neighbor named Joan Voss approached him in the driveway. She wore a green raincoat though the sky was clear.
“How is Evelyn?”
“Improving.”
“I’ve been praying.”
“Thank you.”
Joan looked at the house. “Nora did a lot for her.”
Daniel put the mail into his car.
“I’m sure you know that,” Joan added.
“What are you trying to say?”
“Nothing. I just saw her. Every day. Carrying groceries, taking your mother outside, sitting with her on the porch.”
“I know what her job was.”
“She was kind.”
“She was found with my mother’s medicine and legal documents packed in a suitcase.”
Joan’s face tightened. “People say different things.”
“What people?”
“I don’t want to gossip.”
“You walked across the street to do exactly that.”
Joan looked offended, then ashamed. “Nora told me Evelyn wanted to visit the lake.”
“Nora told you?”
“Last week. She asked me to take care of Louie.”
Daniel stared at her. “For how long?”
“She said perhaps two weeks.”
“Did she say where they were staying?”
“A friend’s cottage.”
“What friend?”
“She didn’t say.”
“Why didn’t you tell the police?”
“No one asked me.”
“There have been police cars here for weeks.”
“I didn’t know it mattered.”
Daniel took Kline’s card from his wallet and handed it to her. Joan accepted it reluctantly.
Before walking away, she said, “You weren’t here much.”
He looked at her.
“I’m not saying that to hurt you,” she added.
“Then you should practice.”
The remark reached the neighborhood before he got home. Two church acquaintances called Evelyn that evening, ostensibly to ask about her health. Both mentioned Nora’s devotion. One said, “There are always two sides,” in a tone people use when they have already selected one.
Evelyn defended Daniel after the calls, which made him feel worse.
“They like excitement,” she said. “Nothing happens on this street except garbage pickup.”
“Joan thinks I abandoned you.”
“You did not abandon me.”
He waited.
“You delegated,” Evelyn added.
Rachel, folding towels on the sofa, made a small sound that might have been a cough.
Daniel looked at his mother. “Is that what you think?”
“I think you found someone to do what you didn’t want to do.”
“I worked.”
“So did Nora.”
“I paid her.”
“You think money erases the rest.”
“I think money means it was a job.”
Evelyn looked toward the television, where contestants on a baking program were pretending not to panic over melted chocolate. “That was your mistake.”
Daniel went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator without needing anything. He stood there until the cold air hurt his face.
The investigation moved at a speed that felt insulting. Pharmacy records had to be obtained. Former clients or their families had to be located. Handwriting and document evidence required review. One of the seven bottles bearing other names belonged to a woman who had died two years earlier. Her daughter remembered Nora but could not say why a bottle might have remained in her possession. Another family admitted they had asked Nora to dispose of unused medication and never checked whether she had done it.
No one could establish that Nora had sold pills. The bottles were suspicious, but suspicion multiplied more easily than proof.
The legal documents were more useful. The power-of-attorney form had never been completed because a traveling notary refused to proceed. Kline found the notary through an appointment confirmation on Evelyn’s tablet.
The notary, Pamela Ruiz, remembered the visit.
“Mrs. Hart appeared drowsy,” she told investigators. “Ms. Blake answered questions for her. I asked Ms. Blake to leave the room, and Mrs. Hart could not explain what authority she was granting. She believed the document concerned caregiver hours.”
Pamela had written REFUSED—CAPACITY CONCERN in her log.
Nora later contacted her twice, asking whether she could return “when Evelyn was having a better morning.” Pamela declined.
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The trust amendment had no valid notarization. The deed had not been recorded. The private-care contract, however, carried Evelyn’s genuine signature and required payments far above what Daniel knew about.
Priya placed the contract on the dining table.
