Page 28 of Penny For Your Thoughts
“Knock yourself out.”
“Is there a password?”
Elwood shook his head. The poor man looked defeated. He twisted his gnarled and knobby hands together where they dangled between his thighs.
“Can you tell us about the visits, Elwood?” I asked. “How many times was this man, who called himself Kael, here?”
“Three. It was early December. He told me he was done with school until after Christmas and flew home for a couple of weeks. Said he planned to surprise Ben and his mother on Christmas Eve, so he made me promise not to spill his secret. In the meantime, he told me he was staying with Marissa’s family.
“We chatted about his classes, his book, and his plans for when he graduated. He mentioned more than once how he struggled to keep up with schoolwork because his laptop was old and clunky.”
Elwood glanced at the jalopy of a machine on Diem’s lap. “Worked fine for me. I asked why he didn’t buy himself a new one. He said he couldn’t afford it. He was too proud to ask his father for a loan, so he made do. I told him I’d buy it for him. He could sign me out, and we could go to the bank. I’d have loved the field trip. Don’t get out much anymore.”
At this, he glared at his son.
“Let me guess,” Benaiah said when his father paused. “He showed you how to set up online banking instead.”
“Yup. Had a lunch date with his girl, he said. Didn’t have time for a field trip. Online banking was what people did. He said you could transfer money at the push of a button. Didn’t even have to leave the building. He said he could set me up in under ten minutes if I wanted him to.”
Elwood sucked his teeth. His troubled expression amplified the wrinkles beside his eyes. “Seemed magical thinking to me, but he swore it was what people did now. He asked if I had a laptop so he could show me how, and I laughed. ‘In this place,’ I said. ‘No one here would have the first clue how to use a laptop.’ He said it was no problem. He could do it from his phone just as easy.”
Elwood sighed. “So, I gave him the numbers he required. Had to pull out my bank papers, but that wasn’t hard. I’m organized. I knew where they were. When he finished the basics, he told me to call the bank and confirm everything wassolid. That’s what he said.Solid.I didn’t know what it meant. Kid lingo. He said I should tell them that I was going to give my grandson a couple of thousand dollars for school stuff and wanted to be sure it wasn’t going to getflagged.That means not approved, he said. So I called. Then, he showed me how to do the transfer right there on his phone. Snap of a finger.” The wonder of such technology colored Elwood’s tone. “He said he would bring me his old laptop as a thank-you gift and show me how to use it.”
And from there, the man calling himself Kael had not only procured access to Elwood’s bank account, but he’d given the bank the green light to allow large transfers of money to the bogus account supposedly belonging to Elwood’s grandson.
***
In the hallway sometime later, Diem asked Benaiah if the police or anyone had checked the login details for the dates the impostor had visited. Benaiah confirmed that the police had both viewed and dismissed them. Kael Scarrow was on the approved visitor list, and before leaving the country, the real Kael had visited his grandfather semi-regularly. The home never questioned his appearance or asked for ID.
“I saw the records myself,” Benaiah said. “The signature matches, but I’m no expert in handwriting. I suppose it was easy enough to forge. To be honest, security is lax around here. If you look like you know where you’re going and have a right to be in the building, no one blinks.”
And wasn’t that the truth. We’d had the same problem six months ago when we got tangled with a syndicate that threatened Nana’s life. Diem had kicked up a fuss, but clearly nothing had changed.
Diem requested that Benaiah give us the exact times and dates the man visited, and Benaiah headed to the main level to check the records again to be sure his notes were accurate.
The moment he disappeared into the elevator, a nurse breezed up to Diem. A rosy flush highlighted her cheekbones. A distinct mole above her upper lip stood out against her smooth, ivory skin. She wore a silver loop in her left nostril, a dainty piece of jewelry on her button nose. She was pretty and made googly eyes at my boyfriend.
Huh.
“Hi, D. I heard you were looking for me.” Her name badge readDonna Polaski.
I didn’t visit the nursing home as frequently as Diem, so I didn’t know the staff by name or who worked what shift. When he mentioned people, I couldn’t draw up their image inside my head, but I knew for a fact that my boyfriend had never revealed that he’d become the object of desire for a recently hired nurse fresh out of college named Donna.
Donna, who called himD.
Donna, who seductively gnawed the corner of her lip like she was embarrassed or ashamed… or flirting.
Donna, who had yet to acknowledge I was present.
“Hey.” The gravel in Diem’s tone, something I ordinarily enjoyed, rubbed me the wrong way. That tone belonged to me. It was mine. NotDonna’s.
“I know what this is about.” Donna touched his forearm. “I’m so sorry. I know I shouldn’t have given out your number like that,but I couldn’t remember the name of your business, and I was afraid Mr. Scarrow would find someone else. I was trying to help.”
“It’s fine,” Diem mumbled. “I need a favor.”
“Anything.”
I wanted to roll my eyes because I suspected this woman would have stripped naked and done a dance right there in the hallway if Diem asked. And since when was itfineto share Diem’s personal cell phone number? He’d spent the past two days bitching about it.
