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“Maybe. Or maybe he had help back then. Maybe he still does.”
“You’re thinking about Miss Evans being uncomfortable when we said we’d have to examine the contents of her in-house server. She wasn’t there ten years ago, but we can find out who was. I still don’t know how he could find a hundred thousand to steal. From where?”
Connor shrugged. “I mean, it’s a ritzy place. They’re on fifteen acres of prime real estate out here.”
“True. I meant to find out how much it costs to live here.”
“Depends on the plan and the kind of living quarters you get,” he said. “I asked my mom about it, because she’s been looking into arrangements for my grandparents. They’re in their late seventies. You can get a plan that covers everything you need until you die, one that covers only the basics and everything else is à la carte, or a plan in the middle. There are entrance fees and then additional monthly fees. The entrance fee for the everything-you-need plan at Shady Oaks starts at a hundred grand and goes up to a million.”
Kit gasped. “Dollars?”
Connor chuckled. “Yep. The monthly fees are anywhere from fifteen hundred to seventy-five hundred.”
“A month,” Kit said, stunned.
“Yep.”
“Wow. I think we’ll be taking care of Mom and Pop on the farm.”
“They’re lucky to have so many of you. Some seniors only have each other or maybe one or two adult children. Some are all alone.”
“We’re lucky to have Mom and Pop,” Kit said quietly. “I don’t think there’s a foster among us that doesn’t owe their life to Harlan and Betsy McKittrick. I know I do.”
Kit returned her focus to the retirement facility. She’d known the location was expensive, but she’d had no idea how much money was actually involved. “There are three hundred residents at Shady Oaks. Even at the lowest prices, that is a hell of a lot of cash coming in.”
“Skimming could be very lucrative.”
Kit lifted a brow. “I wonder where Miss Evans keeps the books.”
Connor grinned. “I hope it’s on the server. Evans said they outsourced their payroll, but she never mentioned who did the bookkeeping.”
Kit nodded once. “Good point. Let’s find out. But let’s be sneaky. We don’t want Evans to know that we’re looking at the books, just in case she’s in on it. If the books aren’t on the server we seized, she could conveniently lose or change them.”
Connor got out of the car and stretched, groaning. “I never used to mind long drives, but my bones are really yelling at me right now.”
“Mine too. Let’s stop in Evans’s office, then visit Benny and Georgia. My bet is that they’ll be together.”
Connor held open the door and Kit walked through.
Then stopped short, because piano music was filtering through the closed doors of the common room, just as it had been yesterday.
Sam was here.
“He said he’d be back,” Kit murmured, almost to herself.
Connor sighed. “It’s sad music again. I thought he’d be playing something peppier to cheer the residents up.”
“ ‘Amazing Grace.’ ” Again. Dammit. Why did she always have to walk in on that song?
Connor tilted his head. “What bothers you about that hymn? You looked like this yesterday when I was trying to warn you that Sam was here.”
“They played it at Wren’s funeral.”
Connor’s face fell. “Oh, Kit. I’m sorry.”
She waved his sympathy away because her eyes were burning. “It was a long time ago, but music takes you back.”
“It does. I can question Benny if you need to go.”
