Chapter 19 #2
Holy shit.
“It was the worst mistake,” Nina confessed, a tear falling down her face. “After Cai was born, keeping the secret only made her so much worse. She started drinking again, going missing for days on end, not turning up for school.”
“We told ourselves we were doing it for Melanie and her future, but really, we were just ashamed and wanted to avoid judgement from our family and friends,” Dan said, getting choked up.
Wow. This was so much more complicated than I ever could’ve expected. Cai wasn’t Margie’s brother; he was her son who she’d been forced to pretend was her brother. No wonder she’d left and not spoken to her parents in twenty years.
“So, Cai was Margie’s … I mean, Melanie’s child?”
“Yes,” Nina replied. “He was hers, and we … we never should’ve taken him from her. Perhaps if we hadn’t, things wouldn’t have turned out how they had.”
“Who’s Margie?” Dan asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion.
I cursed myself for letting the name slip.
Margie obviously had good reason to estrange herself from her parents, and I had no intention of telling them her new name or where she was living.
That wasn’t my place. I did, however, have no problem informing them that she’d befriended Shannon under false pretences and that she may have been orchestrating some kind of revenge against me through my ex-wife.
I didn’t tell them about the catfishing or the near hit and run because, so far, there was no evidence to prove she’d been behind those things, even though in my mind I was almost certain it was all her.
Nina burst into tears when I’d finished speaking, while Dan stood and went to wrap his arms around her.
I had empathy for them, sure, but what Dan and Nina had made Margie do was cruel and messed up.
Living your life having to lie to everyone that your son was your brother would eat at anyone’s psyche.
But it made sense if she were out for revenge.
If Cai had died while she was away in Canada, I’m sure she had a lot of anger over losing him before she could ever tell him the truth of who she was to him.
When I was ready to leave, I promised Dan and Nina that I’d keep them updated as much as I could before I texted Dixon. He pulled up outside the house, and I slid into the passenger seat, mind racing.
“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I feel like I have,” I replied.
A silence fell before he offered, “Want to talk about it?”
“It’s all so insane. You know Shannon’s friend? The blonde?”
He shifted a little in his seat. “Uh huh.”
“She’s been lying about her identity. She was Cai’s mother, but she got pregnant really young, so her parents made the decision to raise the baby as their own and pretend to everyone that Margie was his sister.
She moved away to Canada twenty years ago and hasn’t been heard from since.
Well, until now. She obviously reinvented her life and, for some reason, found cause to befriend Shannon. ”
“Shit,” Dixon swore. “They told you all this? The parents?”
“They seemed pretty ashamed, but yeah, they came clean. They feel terrible about what Margie might be doing, asked for her address so they could go speak to her, perhaps convince her to get help.”
“Did you give it to them?”
“No. That’s not my place. Maybe after I can prove she’s behind all the crazy shit that’s been happening, I will.
But even then … I don’t know … it’s so hard to hate her knowing what she’s been through, but at the same time, if she’s the catfish, she needs to be arrested or something for causing so much havoc in our lives.
I just don’t know what to think right now. ”
“Have you told Shannon?”
I nodded. “She’s in shock and refuses to believe any of it yet. She loves Margie and doesn’t want to think she could do something like this.” Exhaling heavily, I rubbed my jaw. “Can you drop me back at my parents’ house? I need to talk to my dad.”
“Sure thing.”
We drove in quiet, and we were almost to the house when my dad started calling me. I silenced my phone since I was only a few minutes away and would prefer to talk everything through with him in person. He called again just as we pulled into the drive. There was also a text.
Dad: We need to talk. Come to the house asap. Make sure you’re alone.
Huh. Seemed ominous. Wouldn’t it be funny if Dad had figured out Margie was the catfish right at the same time I had?
“Jace, where are you?” he asked when I answered.
“I’m just outside. What’s the big rush? I was looking for you earlier, but the house was empty.”
“Listen, it’s been a busy morning. A lot’s come to light, and we need to talk. Are you alone?”
“Yes, but—”
“Good. Come inside.”
I shook my head, vaguely aware of Dixon pulling away, probably off to park down the street and watch for suspicious activity.
I opened the front door and stepped inside, finding my parents in the kitchen, alongside my manager, Angelica, and another man I didn’t recognise.
He looked mid-forties, with short, dark hair, a bit of a military vibe.
“Okay, good. You’re all here. I have a lot to tell you,” I said and realised that they were all incredibly tense, and it seemed to be down to the presence of the military guy. “Who are you?” I asked, and my dad stepped forward, placing a hand on my shoulder.
“Jace, this is Robert Ansary.”
“Okay.” I looked to Dad again, wondering why he sounded so grave.
“His identity was used in a catfish scam, just like yours was, by the same person who’s been impersonating you.”
Wait, what? “So you know who it is? Who’s been behind all this?”
“He goes by the name of Dixon Levitt now,” Robert Ansary explained. “Though by all accounts that’s another false identity.”
Time froze while my attention went from my dad to Robert and then back to my dad. “What? No. Dixon is—”
“An imposter. Identity thief. Scammer extraordinaire,” Dad finished. “He’d been masquerading as this poor gentleman here for years until he got found out and had to find a new identity.”
This was way too much to comprehend, especially since I’d just been about to announce that Margie was the culprit, and I’d been completely wrong. I had to sit down.
Lowering onto a seat, I let my head drop into my hands and searched my thoughts. Was this real? I’d been sitting in the car next to Dixon only minutes ago. He’d driven me home and listened to me tell him all about Margie when really he was the one behind everything?
Fuck.
Thank goodness I only told Margie’s parents about her lying to Shannon and hadn’t accused her of the catfishing.
But I had accused her to Shannon and that was the worst part.
Shannon and I had been growing so much closer, and now I’d potentially screwed it all up.
Yes, Margie had been lying about her identity, but Dixon was the one terrorising us, all the while pretending to be watching out for us.
The idea that I’d left Shannon and Zara under his watch countless times over the last few weeks made me want to be sick.
“After the whole fuck up at the barbecue,” my dad began, “I had to go back to the drawing board. I had background checks run on everyone you come into contact with. That was when I saw that Dixon Levitt wasn’t a real person.
So, I ran his picture through a reverse image search and up came dozens of online posts warning about a scammer called Samuel Teeling, who’d been catfishing people using a retired U.S.
Army Sergeant’s identity, Robert Ansary. ”
I looked at Angelica accusingly, “But you hired him. Surely you ran a background check?”
She had the grace to look apologetic. “Actually, I hired Dixon based on the recommendation of his references, which I’m now guessing were probably fake.
It was a really busy time for the band, and I never got around to doing the full background check.
Plus, Dixon had already started working for us, and he got along so great with you and the rest of the band.
In the end, I just felt like we could trust him. He seemed so genuine.”
“This man knows how to swindle people,” Robert explained.
“He had been using my identity for years and I’d been contacted by countless people who’d been conned out of their life savings by him.
I understand he’s now started using your identity, and if what happened to me is anything to go by, there are more victims out there. ”
More who have been conned and stolen from. Fuck.
Now I really was going to be sick. My stomach heaved. To think I’d just been sitting in the car with Dixon, or whatever the hell his real name was, telling him all about Margie and how I was convinced she was the catfish. He must’ve been having a real good laugh at my expense.
“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.