Chapter 5 #3
To Benaiah, Elwood grumbled, “You know that Hawker Hurricane Mk1 you got me for Christmas the year before last?”
“The model. Yes.”
“I hated it. Since when do I do models? Brain is sharp, but my fine motor skills went to shit in the nineties. Arthritis,” he clarified to Diem and me.
“Why do you think I’m in this godforsaken joint?
Can’t do up buttons, and you want me to put together a model.
” Elwood pffed. “All those damn pieces. No. I threw it out. The laptop is inside that box in the closet.”
Benaiah stared at his father with a mixture of shock and hurt and something else I couldn’t quite understand. With what looked like a million things on the tip of his tongue, he got to his feet and excused himself.
Poor guy.
The minute his son was gone, Elwood narrowed his eyes. “All right. Tell it to me straight, boys. Was I scammed?”
“Yes,” Diem said.
“And we’re not straight,” I added.
“What?” Elwood’s confusion deepened.
“Nothing,” I said. “You were scammed.”
Elwood shook his head. “I don’t get it. I’d swear on my wife’s grave that boy was Kael.
How would he have known all that stuff? He had pictures of his girlfriend.
Of his travels. He knew about the cabin in Muskoka and the paddle boat.
His broken arm on the bunny hills. About his gran’s famous cookies. ”
“How old is Kael?” Diem asked.
“Twenty-two. Born February 8th, 2004, at shortly past one in the morning. He took a year off to travel Europe with his girlfriend. Applied to King’s College in London.
He’s going to be an English professor when he graduates.
Marissa’s a linguistics major. Kael’s writing a book.
It’s dystopian. He told me all about it.
Got the idea after that pandemic crap. You see? I ain’t stupid.”
I glanced at Diem, who nodded for me to explain.
Elwood was sharp. I wouldn’t have been surprised to learn he had an eidetic memory with the way he rhymed off dates and facts, but his understanding of the intricate nature of the World Wide Web was in its infancy.
“I’m going to say something that’ll upset you, Elwood.”
“I’m already upset.”
“The man who visited and claimed to be your grandson was likely a fraud. Scamming senior citizens is what he does. You’re probably one of many targets. Are you familiar with the term social media?”
“Yeah, I got my face booked last week. Still sorting out the bells and whistles, but I’ve got fifty-seven friends already. Forty-two of them are female.” A fact he seemed proud of. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
“There are all kinds of social media platforms out there, and people use them to share about their lives. Photos, stories, videos. Some people are religious about posting every day. Other people are more private and share little. This person who posed as your grandson likely selected you specifically for many reasons.”
Elwood seemed confused despite how I simplified things.
“The man who visited you must bear a near enough resemblance to Kael that you made an ideal target for his scam. If they look alike, it wouldn’t have been hard to fill Kael’s shoes for a short time.
Especially when you don’t see him frequently.
Minor differences in appearance would be easier to explain as the passage of time and ageing.
“Kael is of the internet age. I’m guessing he’s on social media a lot and is one of those people who share about their lives regularly.
He’s probably been posting about his trip with his girlfriend and shared those special moments you remember from the past few years.
It wouldn’t take much for this stranger to dig into Kael’s profile and learn enough to make you believe he was who he claimed.
He could have stolen Kael’s pictures and stories, uploaded them to his phone, and used them as proof.
He only needed to deceive you long enough to get what he really wanted. ”
“My goddamn money.” Elwood sagged, the truth seeming to finally sink in.
Benaiah returned with the dated laptop and handed it to Diem.
Diem presented it to Elwood. “Mind if I go through this?”
“Knock yourself out.”
“Is there a password?”
Elwood shook his head. The poor man looked defeated. He twisted his gnarled and knobby hands together where they dangled between his thighs.
“Can you tell us about the visits, Elwood?” I asked. “How many times was this man, who called himself Kael, here?”
“Three. It was early December. He told me he was done with school until after Christmas and flew home for a couple of weeks. Said he planned to surprise Ben and his mother on Christmas Eve, so he made me promise not to spill his secret. In the meantime, he told me he was staying with Marissa’s family.
“We chatted about his classes, his book, and his plans for when he graduated. He mentioned more than once how he struggled to keep up with schoolwork because his laptop was old and clunky.”
Elwood glanced at the jalopy of a machine on Diem’s lap.
“Worked fine for me. I asked why he didn’t buy himself a new one.
He said he couldn’t afford it. He was too proud to ask his father for a loan, so he made do.
I told him I’d buy it for him. He could sign me out, and we could go to the bank.
I’d have loved the field trip. Don’t get out much anymore. ”
At this, he glared at his son.
“Let me guess,” Benaiah said when his father paused. “He showed you how to set up online banking instead.”
“Yup. Had a lunch date with his girl, he said. Didn’t have time for a field trip. Online banking was what people did. He said you could transfer money at the push of a button. Didn’t even have to leave the building. He said he could set me up in under ten minutes if I wanted him to.”
Elwood sucked his teeth. His troubled expression amplified the wrinkles beside his eyes.
“Seemed magical thinking to me, but he swore it was what people did now. He asked if I had a laptop so he could show me how, and I laughed. ‘In this place,’ I said. ‘No one here would have the first clue how to use a laptop.’ He said it was no problem. He could do it from his phone just as easy.”
Elwood sighed. “So, I gave him the numbers he required. Had to pull out my bank papers, but that wasn’t hard.
I’m organized. I knew where they were. When he finished the basics, he told me to call the bank and confirm everything was solid.
That’s what he said. Solid. I didn’t know what it meant.
Kid lingo. He said I should tell them that I was going to give my grandson a couple of thousand dollars for school stuff and wanted to be sure it wasn’t going to get flagged.
That means not approved, he said. So I called.
Then, he showed me how to do the transfer right there on his phone.
Snap of a finger.” The wonder of such technology colored Elwood’s tone.
“He said he would bring me his old laptop as a thank-you gift and show me how to use it.”
And from there, the man calling himself Kael had not only procured access to Elwood’s bank account, but he’d given the bank the green light to allow large transfers of money to the bogus account supposedly belonging to Elwood’s grandson.
***
In the hallway sometime later, Diem asked Benaiah if the police or anyone had checked the login details for the dates the impostor had visited.
Benaiah confirmed that the police had both viewed and dismissed them.
Kael Scarrow was on the approved visitor list, and before leaving the country, the real Kael had visited his grandfather semi-regularly.
The home never questioned his appearance or asked for ID.
“I saw the records myself,” Benaiah said. “The signature matches, but I’m no expert in handwriting. I suppose it was easy enough to forge. To be honest, security is lax around here. If you look like you know where you’re going and have a right to be in the building, no one blinks.”
And wasn’t that the truth. We’d had the same problem six months ago when we got tangled with a syndicate that threatened Nana’s life. Diem had kicked up a fuss, but clearly nothing had changed.
Diem requested that Benaiah give us the exact times and dates the man visited, and Benaiah headed to the main level to check the records again to be sure his notes were accurate.
The moment he disappeared into the elevator, a nurse breezed up to Diem.
A rosy flush highlighted her cheekbones.
A distinct mole above her upper lip stood out against her smooth, ivory skin.
She wore a silver loop in her left nostril, a dainty piece of jewelry on her button nose.
She was pretty and made googly eyes at my boyfriend.
Huh.
“Hi, D. I heard you were looking for me.” Her name badge read Donna Polaski.
I didn’t visit the nursing home as frequently as Diem, so I didn’t know the staff by name or who worked what shift.
When he mentioned people, I couldn’t draw up their image inside my head, but I knew for a fact that my boyfriend had never revealed that he’d become the object of desire for a recently hired nurse fresh out of college named Donna.
Donna, who called him D.
Donna, who seductively gnawed the corner of her lip like she was embarrassed or ashamed… or flirting.
Donna, who had yet to acknowledge I was present.
“Hey.” The gravel in Diem’s tone, something I ordinarily enjoyed, rubbed me the wrong way. That tone belonged to me. It was mine. Not Donna’s.
“I know what this is about.” Donna touched his forearm. “I’m so sorry. I know I shouldn’t have given out your number like that, but I couldn’t remember the name of your business, and I was afraid Mr. Scarrow would find someone else. I was trying to help.”
“It’s fine,” Diem mumbled. “I need a favor.”
“Anything.”
I wanted to roll my eyes because I suspected this woman would have stripped naked and done a dance right there in the hallway if Diem asked. And since when was it fine to share Diem’s personal cell phone number? He’d spent the past two days bitching about it.
Diem discussed Evergreen’s security and surveillance and asked if she knew what the police had done so far. He was his typical awkward Diem self, but not once did he look to me to rescue him.
Donna hung on his every word during the entire conversation.
I was about to tell her to close her damn mouth because she was ten seconds from drooling on my boyfriend when a thought struck, and I balked.
“Oh my god,” I unintentionally said aloud, interrupting their conversation.
When they both noticed me—because I’d been invisible up until that point—I laughed.
“Wow. Yeah, ignore me. I was hit in the face by a two-by-four of unexpected jealousy. Then, I suddenly understood Diem’s out-of-proportion animosity toward my best friend.
It all makes sense. No wonder you’re so snarly with Memphis.
Jealousy. Huh. Who would have thought? Never mind.
I’m better now, but as far as I know,” I said to Donna, “my boyfriend has never had a single bi thought in his life, so you’re wasting your time. ”
When they continued to stare, I cleared my throat and ducked my chin. “Carry on.”