Page 96 of The Murder Club
Value? Bailey shook her head. Most of the residents were there because they didn’t have the money to go to senior housing or the fancier nursing home in Grange. Nellie had been one of the few who had decided to stay local despite her wealth.
“What would they have to steal?”
“Most of them had wedding bands,” Eric confessed. “And a few had necklaces and earrings.”
“What about an emerald ring?” Dom demanded.
The truth hit Bailey like a slap to the face and she gasped in disbelief. She was so blind. She should have guessed the truth the second Eric revealed he’d been stealing from the residents.
“It was you,” she breathed. It was a statement, not a question.
A pained blush of embarrassment stained Eric’s face. “Logan was the one who wanted it. He said it would be worth a fortune.” He held a pleading hand toward Bailey. “I didn’t want to do it. I liked Nellie. I really did.”
Bailey stepped back, revulsion rolling through her in waves. “She treated you like a son.”
“I know,” he muttered. “That made it even worse.”
“But you did it anyway.” She couldn’t stop the accusation from flying out of her mouth. She was just so . . . mad.
Poor Nellie had been such a kind, sweet woman. It wasn’t fair she’d been abused by the people she most trusted.
“I’d taken a couple of rings and necklaces from other residents without them knowing, but I must have made a noise when I went to Nellie’s room,” Eric said.
“She woke up and jumped to the conclusion you were Gage?”
Eric gave a jerky nod. “I didn’t know that until later. At the time I hoped she would dismiss me as a bad dream.”
“But she didn’t dismiss you as a dream,” Bailey replied in flat tones. The two men didn’t look anything alike, but in the dark, without her glasses, Nellie could easily have mistaken Gage for Eric. Especially if she already was worried about Gage’s inability to live within a budget. “And you let her believe her own son had robbed her?”
“Logan told me to keep my mouth shut,” Eric whined, refusing to take any blame. “Besides, Gage was always begging his mother for extra cash. It wasn’t like she didn’t know he was a greedy jerk.”
“What did you do with the ring?” Dom demanded, no doubt sensing Bailey’s temper was frayed to the snapping point.
Logically, she knew they had to pander to Eric’s childish refusal to accept any blame, but her heart wanted to scream at him in outrage. What kind of person abused frail, vulnerable people who had a limited time left in this world?
Eric grudgingly glanced toward Dom. “I gave it to Logan.”
“Do you know what he did with it?” Dom asked.
“I know exactly what he did with it.”
Dom arched a brow. “Seriously?”
“I’m supposed to have a cut of the stuff I was . . .” Eric’s words faltered as he glanced back at Bailey. “Taking.”
Did he think “taking” sounded better than “stealing”? It didn’t.
“Logan forgot to share?” she asked.
Eric’s features hardened with annoyance. “He gave me a few bucks here and there, but I knew he was lying to me about the amount of money he was getting for the jewelry.”
Bailey wasn’t surprised that Logan would manipulate the younger man into a life of crime and then stiff him when it came time to pay him. The only surprise was that Eric had managed to figure out he was being scammed.
“What did you do?”
“After I gave Logan Nellie’s ring I followed him around until he eventually drove out of town.” His lips thinned at the memory. “A couple of hours later we ended up in Green Bay at a pawnshop.”
“Which one?” Dom asked.