“Probably,” Gertie said. “It’s the only new one she has.”
I grimaced and looked back at the screen.
I promise to wear it whenever we meet. Unless, of course, I’m not wearing anything.
“I’m going to be sick,” I said.
“Me too,” Ida Belle agreed. “I shouldn’t have had Italian for dinner.”
“I’m thinking we all should have skipped dinner,” I said.
“Look,” Gertie said. “He’s talking about money.”
I have leave coming up soon. I would love to see you, but funds are tight right now. I send everything I make back home for Mother’s care.
You are such a wonderful son. Your mother raised you well. If money is all that is keeping you from visiting, I can send you the amount you need to get home.
You are very kind. The military will get me home to my mother. I just wouldn’t have the funds to see you once in the States. Perhaps you could visit me in Virginia.
I’m afraid my duties as mayor prevent me from leaving Sinful right now. How about I send you the money to visit me here? I could get away for a couple of days to New Orleans. You’d love the city.
“And here we go,” I said.
Ida Belle shook her head. “This is ridiculous. How can she be so silly?”
If you wouldn’t mind, that would be incredible. Five thousand should cover everything.
I blew out a breath. “Five thousand dollars? To get him from Virginia to New Orleans? Is Richard Branson personally picking him up?”
“He’s got an angle,” Gertie said, pointing at the screen.
Five thousand seems an awful lot.
It’s not the trip that would cost so much. I can drive there, and gas would be very little. It’s Mother. She needs a treatment for her cancer that Medicare won’t cover. The doctor said it would relieve eighty percent of her pain. The cost is $4,500 and I don’t have that kind of money. But I couldn’t go to New Orleans with you, knowing she was there suffering. I will probably try to pick up some construction work while I’m home to see if I can make the money.
“The man has no conscience,” I said.
“I hope his mother’s already dead,” Gertie said. “I always figure this sort of thing comes back to haunt you if you’re doing wrong.”
“Karma does have a great sense of irony,” Ida Belle said.
“Well, that’s it,” I said after I’d scanned the last of the messages. He gave her a PayPal address and she said she’d send the money the next day. After that, nothing. She sent him five messages with no response.
“Same MO with the ‘taking care of Mother’ plea,” Ida Belle said. “The only difference is this time the profile hasn’t been deleted. Click over and let’s take a look.”
I clicked on Jimmy’s name and it took me to a profile page with a picture of a group of military men standing in front of a tank. It was clearly overseas.
“Jimmy is the one on the end,” Ida Belle said.
I saved his bio picture to the desktop, then opened a search page and did a reverse-image search. Immediately, a Facebook page for Corporal Eddie Spencer popped up. I clicked on the profile and checked out the photos.
“That’s Jimmy,” Ida Belle said.
I nodded. “Except Eddie is legit. Six hundred friends. Facebook history that goes back three years.”
“And a wife,” Ida Belle said, and pointed to the relationship status.
“I think we can safely assume that Eddie Spencer is not the catfish. He was just another good-looking guy in uniform.”
Gertie frowned. “How many of these people do you think there are? I don’t mean good-looking guys in uniforms. I mean these scammers?”
“Thousands?” I said. “Tens of thousands. I have no idea.”
“Well, there’s only one in Sinful,” said Ida Belle, “best we can tell, anyway. So that’s the one we concentrate on.”
“We still don’t have anything to go on,” I said. “All this did was confirm Beulah’s story and our suspicion that it’s the same man working all the women.”
“Check her email just to be sure there’s nothing else,” Ida Belle said.
I clicked over to her email and saw an outgoing email to “eddietheman” at a Gmail address.
“Eddie the man?” Ida Belle said. “When we find this guy, I’m going to shoot him. I’m just letting you know up front.”
“You’re not hurting my feelings,” I said.
“Mine either,” Gertie said. “In fact, I’ll load the gun.”
Eddie,
I’m attaching the pictures I mentioned last week. I hope you find them to your liking.
Love always,
Celia
I clicked on the attached folder and the screen came alive with images. Two selfies of Celia in the horrible green dress and one with Celia mostly out of the green dress.
“My eyes!” Gertie cried.
I looked over at Ida Belle, who’d closed her eyes and had an expression as if she’d smelled something rotten.
“I never thought I’d say this,” Gertie said, “but the dress was better. Close those down before one of us needs therapy.”