Free Hand of Evil by J. A. Jance Page B

try to take things one step at a time and let me and others do what we can to help.
My thoughts and prayers are with you.
    A LI
     

{ CHAPTER 5 }
     
    H oping Velma would find the note reassuring and comforting, Ali spent the next hour or so looking through her database and thinking about who she should call on Velma’s behalf. In the process, something struck her. It seemed to her that Velma Trimble and Arabella Ashcroft were being plagued by similar scourges—young, overly officious males who appeared to be attempting to micromanage the lives of older female relatives.
    In Velma’s case her son appeared to be conspiring with her doctor to direct her medical care without bothering to take Velma’s own wishes into consideration. And Arabella’s nephew, Billy—a blood relation Arabella claimed to have never met prior to his unannounced visit the previous Sunday—was now threatening to expose Arabella’s unfortunate history as a mental patient in hopes of having her locked away.
    Ali couldn’t help wondering about motive. Was it possible both these overreaching people were after the same thing—their elderly relative’s moolah? She didn’t know Velma’s son’s name, but she did know Arabella’s nephew’s—William Ashcroft. For Ali, turning to the Internet for more information was as natural as breathing. Her very first attempt at Googling the name came up winners. The article, dated three weeks earlier, came from the San Diego Ledger.
     
    1.5 MILLION JUDGMENT IN REVERSE MORTGAGE SCHEME
     
     
    Reverse mortgage guru and long-time real estate developer William Cowan Ashcroft, III, was found liable for $1.5 million in damages on behalf of the relatives of three elderly clients whose families claim were defrauded out of valuable real estate holdings in exchange for promises of payments that were never forthcoming.
A jury of five women and one man assessed Ashcroft $500,000 in real damages and an additional $1,000,000 in punitive damages with the proceeds to be divided evenly among the three plaintiff families. He was also held liable for the plaintiffs’ legal expenses, which are thought to be considerable.
Helen Sampson, one of the plaintiffs in the case, was jubilant with the outcome. “William Ashcroft is a worm who specialized in cheating the frail and infirm. He had zero compunction about stealing my Aunt Claire’s home right out from under her and putting her out on the street. I’m grateful that the jury has given us this moral victory, but it’s still only a fraction of what Claire’s property was worth and what she and Ashcroft’s other victims should have had coming to them.”
Thomas Rago, Mr. Ashcroft’s attorney, expressed dismay at the finding and declared that he would be appealing the jury’s decision.
     
    Billy, you low-down son of a bitch, Ali thought. No doubt the reverse mortgage offer to Arabella had been little more than a ruse. He may have taken possession of the property, but if his previous track record was any indication, his promised payments wouldn’t have been forthcoming. The longer Ali thought about it, the more she understood that, faced with rising legal costs and the need to pay off the judgment, Billy Ashcroft had come to Sedona planning on talking his well-to-do old aunty into giving him the cash he needed. When Arabella had proved to be anything but a soft touch, he had resorted to extortion instead.
    After printing that article, Ali returned to her search page. There were twenty-nine other entries for William Cowan Ashcroft III, and she fully intended to read every one.
     
     
     
    As the steamy windows turned the interior of the Explorer into a cozy cocoon, Curt Uttley reclined the driver’s seat, lay back, and enjoyed it. How he enjoyed it. He had known she’d be good just from watching the downloaded film clip from the BJV section of his now favorite Web site, www.afterschoolspecial.com, and this was special all right. It was very special indeed.
    He didn’t