Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 108362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 542(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108362 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 542(@200wpm)___ 433(@250wpm)___ 361(@300wpm)
I chuckled. “Definitely.”
He started to step towards me when his phone rang. I looked at the screen and saw it was his dad.
“Hey, any updates?” Jace asked, turning around and walking towards the window. I followed him, eager for news of Margie and Dixon, or should I say, Samuel. I tried to get close enough to hear what his dad was saying. When he noticed me sidling up to him, his lips curved, and he lowered the phone from his ear, putting it on speaker.
“He boarded a ferry to the UK a couple of hours ago,” Jay was saying. “From there, he could travel to France and then the rest of Europe. It’s going to be a tough job locating him.”
“What about Margie?” Jace asked. “She told Shannon she could help us identify the catfish victims. She might be able to help us track Dixon, too, if she has any idea of where he plans on going.”
I heard Jay blow out a long breath on the other end of the line before he spoke. “So, Margie’s in hotter water than she probably expected.”
“What do you mean?” I was concerned, even though I shouldn’t be. The woman had lied to me.
For all that Margie had done, I should’ve hated her, but she’d been such a close friend, and it was hard to completely shut off my emotions. It was taking time for my brain to catch up to the fact that she wasn’t who I thought she was.
“The people whose car she stole aren’t pressing charges since there was no actual damage to the vehicle. But when they ran her details, it showed her name change from several years ago, and there’s now an international warrant out for her arrest. She’s been running from this for a while,” Jay explained.
An internation warrant? What on earth?
“What’s the warrant for?” Jace asked, his features hardening.
“When she lived in Canada, she worked for a company but was eventually let go for poor performance. There was some administrative error after she was terminated, which left her with all her usual access to the company’s accounts and email network. Margie stole over $100,000 dollars over a period of several months, slowly siphoning small sums into her own accounts.”
“Oh my God.” My hand went to my mouth. “That must’ve been what she meant when she told me she couldn’t use her old company as a reference to get work in Dublin. I thought maybe it was because they wouldn’t have good things to say about her. I never imagined it could be anything as bad as this.” And it also explained why she had no trouble stealing a car. It seemed she was no stranger to various kinds of theft.
“The Gardaí are working with the Canadian authorities to have her transported back over there so she can face charges. With a sum that big, she could go away for years.”
I suddenly felt queasy. This was … not what I wanted. At all. I mean, she deserved to face the consequences of what she’d done, but this had all started after Cai had passed. Margie had heard about his death, and her life had spiralled out of control. I tried to remind myself that lots of people lost loved ones and didn’t go out and steal a hundred grand from their ex-employer, but it was still upsetting to imagine what was going to happen to her now.
“Are you all right?” Jace asked, noticing how the news was affecting me.
“I’m fine. I just need a minute.”
“Dad, I’ll call you back later, okay?” Jace hung up the phone while I went to sit on the sofa that faced the roof garden.
“I just … I can’t imagine Margie going to prison. I’m still getting my head around the fact that she was Cai’s mother.”
“You can’t control what other people do or the consequences that they might face. Margie did all those things before she ever knew you, Shannon.”
“I know it’s irrational, and on the one hand, I truly never want to see her again, but on the other, I’m just so scared for her. She’s not cut out for prison.”
Jace’s features were soft as he pulled me into his arms. He held me for a long time, and I closed my eyes, so glad we had each other through all this madness.
“I have to go get Zara from school,” he said after a time.
“She’s probably going to have a million questions about why we’re staying here.” I blew out a gentle breath. “I have no idea what to tell her. We can hardly go with the truth.”
“We’ll just say it’s a little staycation,” Jace suggested. “We’ll make it fun, play some card games. She’ll love it.”
“Okay,” I allowed, relieved Jace didn’t mind taking the lead on all this. Normally, I always had energy for my daughter, no matter how emotionally wiped out I was, but on this occasion, it was nice to have Jace to lean on.