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)
“Mr Ansary here carried out his own investigation several years ago,” Dad said. “He hired a private investigator who discovered the impersonator’s name was Samuel Teeling from Little Rock, Arkansas.”
“Once I found out his true identity, I started posting it all over the internet, alongside his photo,” Robert added. “It made it a lot harder for him to continue conning people. I venture this is likely around the time when he switched over and starting using your name in his scam instead of mine. He must’ve learned from his past mistakes because he didn’t use his own image this time around.”
A small quiet fell as I let it all sink in.
“I think he’s still outside, parked down the end of the street,” I said then, feeling numb. “You should call your Garda friend, Dad. Have him get here so that he can arrest him.”
“We’re already working on a plan to have him extradited back to the States so he can be charged for his crimes committed over there,” Dad said. “The key challenge right now is to ensure he doesn’t suspect anything.”
“Oh,” I said, emitting a joyless laugh. “He doesn’t suspect. In fact, he thinks I’ve decided Margie is the catfish. He must be thrilled that I was so off the mark.”
“Shannon’s friend Margie?” Mam asked in surprise. “Why would you think that?”
“Because she’s been lying about her identity, too,” Dad said, and I stared at him, mouth open.
“How the hell did you know?”
“The background checks. I did them on all of Shannon’s friends since she suspected her coworker, Dean. I still hadn’t entirely written him off until I discovered Dixon’s lies. But Margie’s check showed she’d changed her name by deed poll a little over two years ago, right around the time she and Shannon first met. Some more digging showed her birth name and that she was Cai’s sister.”
“And you were going to tell me this when?”
“I only found out this morning.”
“Yeah, well, there’s more to it. I went to visit Cai’s parents. Margie wasn’t his sister. She was his mother, but she had him young so his parents decided to raise him as theirs. Margie had big problems after that and ended up disappearing to Canada over twenty years ago. She’s been estranged from her parents ever since.”
“Oh my goodness, that’s awful,” Mam said. “But she’s been lying about who she is to Shannon? Why?”
“It could be down to any number of reasons,” Dad said, his expression thoughtful. “Perhaps she started the friendship off lying about who she was but then never came clean because she was afraid of losing Shannon as a friend. Or she could be lying intentionally because she has ill will towards you over Cai’s death and wants to use Shannon to get to you.”
“She doesn’t seem dangerous, though,” I said. “Every interaction I’ve had with her has been fairly normal.”
“That’s a good sign.”
“I hate to interrupt,” Robert cut in. “But I think we should move fast on our guy. If he gets a whiff that we’re onto him, he’ll skip town.”
“You’re right,” Dad said before looking to me. “We’ll discuss the Margie thing more later. Right now, we have a catfish to catch.”
“Okay. Like I said, he’s still outside.” It was odd that I wasn’t more angry about Dixon, but right then, I just needed to talk to Shannon. I’d accused her friend of something heinous, and I needed to set things right. Pulling out my phone, I hit “Call” and waited anxiously for her to pick up.
20.
Shannon
I was a mess.
I’d barely moved from where I stood in my kitchen, trying to comprehend that Margie could possibly be behind all this. I wanted Jace to be wrong so badly, but if she really were Cai’s sister, then it made far too much sense. I’d known her for over two years, had confided in her with so much personal stuff, and she’d been lying to me the entire time.
Needing something to help me calm down, I grabbed my fake vape and took a long puff of cherry flavoured air. It didn’t help to relax me like it normally did. Not one bit.
Maybe Jace was wrong. All the stress had gotten to him, and he was clutching at straws. Maybe, by sheer coincidence, Margie resembled Cai’s sister, and Jace had jumped to conclusions because he was so desperate for the mystery to be solved. Yes, that was it. He was stressed out and trying to pin the crime on anyone who could fit the bill. I didn’t blame him. I might’ve done the exact same thing in his position.
I became aware of the noise of the bins being collected, the loud, rumbling of the collection truck outside. On autopilot, I walked out to bring my empty bin back in when suddenly Viola was there. Her flowery perfume stung my nose, her coiffed hair so perfect it bothered my eyesight.