Chapter 4

I kept my answers vague. Joe didn’t push for details. He just nodded, noted them down, and started checking my blood pressure.

Once he finished, he furrowed his brows.

“Mrs. Parker, your systolic is 142 and your diastolic is 96 today. That is getting dangerously high. Do you know what numbers like that mean for a senior living alone?”

He slowed his speech down, delivering every single word like a heavy blow, “You are home by yourself. Say you bend down to tie your shoelaces, and then you stand up too fast. Your blood pressure spikes. Your brain is deprived of oxygen, and boom, you collapse.”

I scoffed inwardly.

I checked my own blood pressure every single day. The readings were always perfectly normal. Why was it that the second these guys put a cuff on me, my health was suddenly in jeopardy?

…

I didn’t say a word. I just locked my eyes onto him.

Joe leaned in, continuing, “Collapsing in the living room is one thing, but what if you pass out in the bathroom? What if you hit the floor right next to a burning stove, or fall into a filled bathtub?

“I am not trying to scare you, Mrs. Parker, but I have seen this happen way too many times. In your condition, you’re a walking time bomb.”

I feigned concern and said, “Oh my goodness, what am I supposed to do?”

Joe’s eyes instantly lit up. He snapped his briefcase open and pulled out a glossy brochure titled Home Emergency Safety Package.

“This is a new package our headquarters just launched, designed specifically for seniors living alone like you.

“The standard retail price is $4,000, but our membership price is $3,000.”

I closed the brochure. “Joe, I am a retired old woman living on a fixed pension of just four hundred dollars a month. You are asking me to hand over more than half a year's worth of my livelihood for this?”

Joe said in a serious tone, “Mrs. Parker, this is an investment in your survival. Think about it. If something terrible happens to you, how much is a single night in the ICU going to cost? You pay for this package once, and it protects you for the rest of your life. Broken down, it costs less than two bucks a day.”

I tried to brush it off. “I need to think it over.”

Joe leaned in and lowered his voice, “I am going to be completely honest with you. The membership price is only good until today. Tomorrow, it goes right back to the full retail price of $4,000.”

I said, feigning hesitation, “Three grand is still a massive amount of money. I need to talk this over with my children.”

Joe nodded. “Of course, absolutely, you should consult your children. Young people are always busy, but Mrs. Parker, if something really did happen to you, they would carry that crushing guilt for the rest of their lives.”

These predators understood seniors far too well. They knew exactly how much they feared death, feared sickness, and above all, feared becoming a burden to their children.

I kept my composure as I escorted Joe out the front door.

The second the door clicked shut, I fired off a text to my old partner, Frank Miller.

[Frank, look into the Caring Hearts Center for me. Check if they have any fraud complaints or licensing violations. They have been aggressively working in our neighborhood lately.]

Frank replied almost instantly. [On it. Wait for my signal. I will call you as soon as I dig anything up.]

Right after I finished my lunch, the phone rang. It was my downstairs neighbor, Brenda Hill.

Her voice was choked with tears. “Helen! You need to get down here right now!”

I asked anxiously, “What is wrong? Where are you?”

“I am at the community center! I bought a set of equipment from them for $3,000. Now I want a refund, but they are telling me I have to pay a penalty fee! They won't let me leave!”

Through the receiver, I could hear a man's voice roaring in the background.

“I am on my way. Don’t be afraid.” I hung up and rushed straight out the door.

Brenda lived alone too. She was the kind of woman who would haggle for ten minutes over a dime at the grocery store. That three thousand dollars was her late husband's death benefits.