The Video He Kept as Insurance
I found Priya Nandy the next morning through the county's home-care registry, one of three aides who'd been assigned to Odessa's file over the past year. She was the only one still answering her phone, and the only one who agreed to meet me — in a diner parking lot, engine running, like she wasn't fully sure she wouldn't need to leave in a hurry.
"I got let go six weeks ago," she told me, arms crossed against the morning chill. "Garrett said budget cuts. There's no budget cuts. There's a man who didn't like the questions I was asking."
"What kind of questions?"
"Why her meds changed three times in two months without a doctor's note in the file. Why she seemed sharper on the mornings I came and foggier every afternoon, once he started handling her prescriptions himself. Why she kept telling me she'd 'signed something for Garrett' and couldn't remember what."
My stomach turned slow and cold.
"I filed a report," Priya said. "Adult Protective Services, five weeks ago. Elder financial exploitation, possible medication interference. I have the confirmation number if you want it."
"What happened?"
"Nothing happened. That's what happens most of the time. They're backlogged, understaffed, and unless there's a hospitalization or a body, cases like this can sit for months." She looked at me hard, like she was deciding how much more to say. "There's one more thing. I shouldn't even tell you this, but I don't care anymore. Two months ago I walked in on Garrett filming her on his phone while she signed something at the kitchen table. She was slurring. Could barely hold the pen. He was smiling the whole time, saying, 'Good, Aunt Dess, just there, perfect,' like he was coaching her through it for the camera."
"Why film it?"
"Because if anyone ever asks whether she signed willingly, he's got a video where she looks calm and cooperative. It's not proof she understood what she was signing. It's proof he wanted it to look like she did."
I thought about Friday. Three days now. A buyer confirmed, a closing scheduled, and a video sitting on some phone designed to make the theft look like a gift.
"I need that confirmation number," I said. "And I need you to tell all of this to a lawyer. Today."
Priya finally cracked something close to a smile. "Funny. I was about to ask you the same thing."