Grace Sees Red Read Online Free PDF Page B

space, more autonomy,” Kyle said.
    â€œMore expensive, too. Our rooms are specially outfitted.” Percy flailed again as he talked. “I’m telling you, Gus didn’t belong there. He was already going downhill by the time he moved in.”
    â€œBut money talks?” I prompted. Bennett caught my eye and nodded approvingly. I knew he’d picked up on that comment, too. “What did you mean by that? I get the impression everyone who comes to live here is wealthy.”
    â€œNot everyone. Not me, for sure. As with anything, there are degrees,” Percy said with a sly grin. “Gus and a buddy made a fortune investing in business together. He’s not a gazillionaire like you”—this directed to Bennett—“but he was rich. And then, as the story goes, he got sick. Like me and Kyle, he couldn’t live on his own. But, unlike us, he has kids.”
    â€œHe didn’t want to live with one of them?”
    â€œThey didn’t like him very much.” Percy barked a laugh. “Nobody did. So the kids decided to bring him here. Thing is, once Gus toured the place and saw how much better the apartments were than the regular rooms, he refused to live anywhere else.”
    â€œIf the apartments are as nice as you describe, I’m surprised more people don’t make that choice.”
    â€œThey can’t.” Kyle shook his head like a toddler refusing to eat green beans. “Percy and I don’t require constant medical care. Gus did. People that sick can’t live in the apartments because it’s too hard on the nursing staff.”
    â€œBut again, unlike us, Gus was ambulatory,” Percy said, pulling the conversation back to his side of the table. “Hedidn’t need a wheelchair. Not even a cane. He moved slowly and he usually carted an oxygen tank behind him, but he could get around on his own. He should have been assigned to
this
end of the building but after Gus pressured them, the administration agreed to make an exception and allow him on our side. For a reasonable fee, of course.” Percy dug his elbows into his seat back to readjust himself. “When Frances and I left Indwell this morning, Gus was alive. When we got back, he was dead.”
    â€œWhere did you go?” I asked.
    â€œChurch. There’s a chapel in one of the other buildings, but we don’t go there. Frances takes me to a parish about ten minutes away and then out to breakfast.”
    â€œHmph,”
Bennett said. “That explains a lot.”
    â€œIt does?” I asked.
    â€œYou know how Frances is,” he said. “She doesn’t have a lot of friends at Marshfield. Years back, when she first started leaving for the weekend, everyone was atwitter that she wasn’t attending church in Emberstowne anymore. Many unkind remarks were whispered behind her back. I did my best to put a stop to it, but there was only so much I could do.”
    â€œThat’s terrible,” I said. “Frances’s choice to worship, or not, is no one’s business but her own.”
    â€œTrue,” Bennett agreed, “but because Frances pokes her nose into everyone else’s affairs, I think they felt turnabout was fair play.”
    â€œShe wasn’t always like that.” Percy frowned. “As far as the church stuff goes, I think it’s a colossal waste of time, but it’s important to her that I atone for all my sins. Of which there are many, as I’m sure you’ll soon learn. But once that woman sets her mind to something, she won’t be convinced otherwise. Every week she packs me up and off we go. I don’t have it in me to walk away.” Using his chin to gesture toward his lifeless legs, he smirked. “Literally.”
    â€œIf you and Frances were gone when Gustave died,” Bennett asked, “why is she considered a witness? What could she possibly have seen?”
    An uneasy glance passed between