Chapter 8 - The Apartment Upstairs
The building manager opened 18B for the police, not for us. From the hall, I could see plastic sheeting, folding chairs, and boxes marked PERSONAL CARE. There was no patient inside. There were printed intake forms bearing my mother's name and a handwritten schedule for a "capacity assessment" that she had never requested.
Officer Chen studied one sheet, then asked where Vanessa was. I couldn't answer. Vanessa had left our apartment that morning with a small suitcase and a promise to call her lawyer.
"Was she trying to put Grandma somewhere?" Sofia asked.
Chen chose her words carefully. "We're investigating what those documents were intended to do. Don't touch anything."
On a side table sat a photograph of Mom asleep in our living room. Someone had written beneath it: EPISODE OF CONFUSION. A second photo showed her reaching for a door. Beneath that one: AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR. Both pictures had been taken after Vanessa gave her evening pills.
I recognized the captions. Adam used the same typeface and clipped style in reports he'd prepared for my hotels.
I found Vanessa on the phone at last. "Why did you take pictures of my mother while she was drugged?"
"Ask Sofia what her precious videos leave out," she replied. "Your mother isn't as helpless as you think."
"Where are you?"
"Fix this, Mateo, or they'll take your hotels next. You signed enough forms to make sure of that."
The line went dead. An hour later, Priya confirmed that my company's emergency credit facility had been tied to a proposed property transaction involving Mom's address. I remembered agreeing to a financing review last winter. Adam had pointed to a stack of signature tabs and said it was routine.
I had signed without asking Mom a single question.
May you like
Priya looked at the copy and said, "This isn't only about stealing her apartment. Someone may be trying to make you responsible for the debt."
Before she could explain, my hotel company's lender emailed a formal notice: FAILURE TO VERIFY COLLATERAL MAY TRIGGER IMMEDIATE REPAYMENT.
