Chapter One Hundred and Six
One Hundred and Six
Mary felt a shudder gather momentum at the base of her jaw, before it spread like wildfire down to her core. She blinked at the screen, unable to say anything back. After she and Denise had left England, she’d never once heard of Phillip Evans again.
THOMAS: ‘Once I got the letter, I jumped straight on a plane and flew to England, but I was too late. He was in prison, serving time for domestic violence and captivity, which made it sound like he was keeping you prisoner down in some dirty basement, while beating you up to his heart’s content.
While in prison, he was targeted by a group of righteous inmates. ’
Thomas tried to laugh again.
THOMAS: ‘Sounds hypocritical, doesn’t it?
You see, Mary, certain offences are considered too low, even by criminals.
Paedophiles top that list. Most of them don’t actually survive their time inside.
Rapists come second, and wife-beaters a close third.
Though they might be able to survive their prison time, that time will be made absolute hell by some of the other inmates.
By the time I got to England and visited Phillip in prison, he was blind. ’
Mary couldn’t hide her surprise.
THOMAS: ‘That’s right. A fellow inmate, whose sister was beaten to death by her scumbag boyfriend, decided to take revenge on Phillip.
The way that they look at it, Mary, is that every domestic abuser is the same – they are all scum, and they all deserve what is coming to them.
So, this guy, during lunchtime in the canteen, jumped on Phillip and stuck a pencil into both of his eyes. ’
Mary stuttered her next comment.
MARY: ‘I… I didn’t know that.’
THOMAS: ‘Of course not. Why would you? You were done with him. You took everything away from him and left him to rot. And rot he did. I only managed to talk to him once… one visit… that’s all I got.
During that one visit, he told me the whole story – how he met you…
how he fell in love with you… how he believed that you were the one…
and how shocked he was when he was arrested – for domestic violence and abuse?
False imprisonment and captivity? Phillip thought it was all a joke, but he said that your con was pretty watertight.
Too much circumstantial evidence against him and there was nothing that he or his lawyers could do…
just like the evidence is stacked up against you now. ’
Mary said nothing because there was nothing that she could say.
THOMAS: ‘A week after I saw Phillip, he committed suicide. He cut his own throat inside his cell. I bet you didn’t know that either, did you?’
Mary shook her head ever so slightly.
MARY: ‘I never meant for any harm to come to him.’
THOMAS: ‘Get the fuck out of my face with that bullshit, Mary.’
There was real anger in Thomas’ voice.
THOMAS: ‘You ripped his life from him. You took all he’d worked so hard for his entire life, but that wasn’t enough for you, was it?
You had to send him to prison as well – for something that he’d never done – you blood-sucking parasite.
You ripped his heart from his chest and took a bite right in front of him, and you’re telling me that you didn’t want any harm to come to him? Go fuck yourself.’
Thomas had one more sip of his drink.
THOMAS: ‘That was when I promised myself that I wouldn’t rest until I’d found you and made you pay.
You see, Mary, when I talked to Phillip, he told me everything he could about you – your favorite TV series…
your struggles as a child… your favorite film…
your favorite musical… everything you ever told him.
Sure, a lot of it was probably a lie – you’re a con woman after all – but when people lie professionally, like you do, there are certain rules that they tend to stick to.
The most important of them is – don’t ever go that far away from the truth.
That way, if something goes wrong and years later you get asked again about something you’d lied about, you’d be able to wing it because there are enough similarities with the truth.
As the saying goes – the best lies are wrapped in truth.
But even knowing everything I could about you, I couldn’t find you. ’
MARY: ‘So, how did you?’
THOMAS: ‘The old-fashioned way… luck. I searched for you for over ten years, and I got absolutely nowhere. I had practically given up, I’m not going to lie.
I tried everything, but without a single clue, it was impossible to find you.
So, imagine my surprise when, a little over two years ago, I get invited to teach a seminar at MIT, in Boston.
After the first day of the seminar, I was hanging around with some students and I saw an article in the university’s newspaper, of all places.
It was just a corner article, about a trial going on in Woburn, Massachusetts.
The plaintiff was a woman named Samantha Stewart.
The defendant was a fairly rich guy who went by the name of Nelson Stewart…
her husband. There was a small photo of each, and when I saw your picture, the world stopped moving.
I’d only ever seen one picture of you before. ’
Thomas once again reached outside the camera shot for something – a photograph.
It was an old picture that had been folded in four so many times that the creases crossing the image from top to bottom and left to right had cut into the picture.
He lifted the photo so that Mary could see it.
It was a photo of Phillip and her on their wedding day.
THOMAS: ‘You looked a little different in the newspaper photo. But I knew it was you. The story was almost identical to the one that Phillip had told me. I couldn’t believe that you were running the same con again, but this time, all the way over here, in America.
So, I cancelled my next seminar class and got my ass to the courthouse in Woburn as fast as I could – and there you were, looking all distraught and battered, as if that poor guy had really beaten you up for years and kept you chained in the bathroom like you said he did.
I was sitting at the back of the courtroom, shaking.
I had finally found you, after over ten years of searching,…
and I’d be damned if I was letting you get away from me. And just like that, it was game on.’