Chapter 9
Looks like I’ll have to investigate deeper on my own. The detectives are so busy looking in my direction that they don’t even seem to care about finding Charlie. Greg. Whatever his name is. Ugh! The fact that Charlie Shorts isn’t his real name is so sad. Does that mean my last name isn’t Shorts? I hope not.
A few days had passed since Willow’s accounts had frozen, and she hadn”t left the cottage. She didn’t have anywhere else to be. On top of that, she was sick of having the detectives watching her every move.
While she secluded herself away from the world, she started to do some actual digging. Richy and Willow kept in contact through the phone and got through some pretty tall barriers. There was a woman in Sanibel who knew Charlie. In fact, she was the first woman he’d ever scammed into marriage.
Her name was Monica Maxwell. She was a thirty six year old immigrant from Spain. Her father was a well known businessman who had heavy ties to their community in Spain. Monica was rich––flying out to different countries just for lunch or a day party, rich. The woman had everything she’d ever dreamed of handed to her just because of her household name.
It was a wonder to Willow how she fell for a guy like Charlie. Sure, he was handsome and knew the right things to say, but Monica was gorgeous, completely out of his league. Willow was a little intimidated while scrolling through her pictures.
“Wow,” Richy said. “She is stunning.”
“She is, right?” she agreed. “I wonder if she’s still living in Sanibel.”
It didn’t take long for Richy to find that information out. Luckily for them, Monica had a vacation home on the island and was in town for a celebration around the time. It was a long shot that she’d even talk to Willow, but she had to at least try to get a word in with her. Just to see if she would open up about her experience with Charlie.
“What are you going to ask her?” Richy asked.
“I don’t know. Everything. What made her marry him? How much money did he steal from her? Where might he be? Everything, I guess.”
“Okay, well, don’t push her too hard. What if she’s working with him?”
At times, she felt like Richy was so deeply involved with trying to find out the facts that he lost sight of who might truly be innocent. From what she read about Monica, she had pressed charges against Charlie and had her family looking out to find him ever since.
“I highly doubt she’s involved,” she said. “Her father still wants to have a word with him, and I can only imagine what those words might be.”
“He probably wants to handle him the way the cartel does.”
“Probably.”
Charlie was a real scumbag. According to the article about Monica, he got away with over a million dollars of her money and jewelry. Willow couldn’t imagine losing that kind of money to a man she thought was her husband. He probably got away with a lot more than that, and Monica either hadn’t said anything, or she hadn’t noticed.
“I’m going to reach out to her now and see if she’ll be willing to talk to me.”
“Fingers crossed,” Richy said. “Let me know if you hear anything back from her. Until then, I’ll keep digging.”
After Willow hung up with Richy, she started to type out her email to Monica.
Hello, Monica.
My name is Willow. I came across your article about a man named Charlie “Greg” Shorts. It seems you and I have him in common. My life”s in shambles because of him. He didn’t steal money me, but he has caused me a lot of trouble. Unfortunately, he fooled me too. So much so, that I married him five years ago.
I wanted to reach out to you to see if you’d be willing to sit down with me about all of this. I’m currently searching for where he is, but I have no idea what’s going on. So, you can imagine I don”t know where to look. I’m not even sure how all of this started or where to go from here.
I know it’s been a long time since you’ve had to deal with this and you’ve probably moved on with your life by now, but if you could find the kindness in your heart to have a conversation, I would greatly appreciate it.
Willow.
Willow hit send and waited for a reply. She wasn’t even sure if the email address was an updated one, but sent the email anyway. There was nothing but silence and notifications from Facebook and Twitter for about two hours. Nothing from Monica.
It wasn’t until Willow was ready for bed that she got a reply.
No words. Only her phone number.
She was nervous, but rather than overthinking it, she dialed the number immediately. When Monica answered, Willow was stunned by her voice. S
he sounded like such a sweet and nice woman. Innocent and friendly, someone who would have given Charlie anything he ever asked of her. Willow instantly understood why he felt like she was an easy target.
“Hi, it’s Willow.”
“Hello there.” Her accent was heavy, but it was a joy to listen to. “You want to talk about Christoff? Or Charlie, as you call him. Do you know where he is by chance?”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don”t. I wish I did, because he’s got me in some deep trouble here too.”
The phone was silent for a moment. Willow thought Monica would clam up and not speak a word about him and their marriage, so she had to turn up the heat a little bit. She didn’t want her to feel like she was another scammer calling on Charlie’s behalf.
“I was wondering if we could meet for lunch. Dinner. Or even just a drink. I know it’s probably hard to talk about… I know it is for me. I can’t believe I was so blind and could use a few words from someone who knows him, too.”
“It’s been such a long time since I”ve talked about my story with Christoff,” she sighed. “I’ve moved past it and have gotten remarried by now.”
“Oh! Good for you.” Willow tried to sound happy and pleasant about her new marriage. She was happy for her, but she still needed answers to her own story. “I’m so sorry to bother you with all of this. But it would mean the world to me.”
She took another moment of silence. Willow figured she was either trying to weigh her options, or she was trying to figure Willow out more before sitting down with her. Both were perfectly fine with Willow. She had nothing to hide from her. She simply wanted to know how she met Charlie.
“Are you in Sanibel now?” she asked. “I can meet with you tomorrow afternoon for lunch. Do you know Bleu Rendez-Vous? We can meet there at noon.”
“Yes! Perfect!” Willow said. “Thank you so much for your time. I’ll see you tomorrow at noon.”
Willow was so thankful they had arranged a meeting that she could barely sleep that night. She tossed and turned every hour, thinking about how their talk would go. She seemed so sweet and calm, but who really knew?
What if she has a flashback about Charlie and gets angry with me? What if she sets me up with her father, and they kidnap me in exchange for Charlie? I am still married to the man. I watch so many crime shows and movies. I see this kind of thing happen all the time. I doubt Charlie would resurface and come to my rescue, though. Ugh! This is all so nerve wracking.
By the time Willow finally fell asleep, it was six in the morning. Her meeting with Monica wasn’t until noon, so she forced herself to stay in bed until about ten. When her alarm went off, she got up, took a shower, and got herself as presentable as she could to meet with Monica. She didn’t know why, but she felt like she had to impress her. Or at least dress as nicely as she did in her photos.
Willow guessed she didn”t want Monica to take her as a joke, or someone who wasn’t worthy of talking about her life with. She did her hair and makeup and put on a nice day dress to look her best.
When she got to the Bleu’s, Willow spotted her right away. She sat at a table off to the side and had a bodyguard sitting not too far away. Willow knew Monica was precious cargo, but she didn”t know she walked around with a bodyguard with her everywhere she went.
“Monica?”
Willow double checked with her before she sat down, and so did her bodyguard. The guy looked as if he wanted to turn her away before she even opened her mouth.
“That’s me.” Monica smiled and stood to greet her. “You must be Willow?”
“I am.” Willow smiled and waited for her to invite her to sit.
“Please, take a seat.”
The nervousness left Willow’s chest once she sat down. Although Monica looked a lot more serious in person, she still seemed pleasant and sweet. But there was still a subtle hint of danger present in her demeanor.
“So, about Christoff.” She poured them both a glass of champagne and waited for Willow to do the talking. “How did you meet him?”
“Through some friends at work,” she said. “He seemed like such a nice guy when I first got involved with him. We’ve been together for five years and things definitely changed after a while.”
“What, like long nights at work? Sudden business trips? Never going out in public anymore?”
“Exactly!” she said. “He did the same thing with you?”
She nodded her head to agree. The look in her eyes told Willow she was still angry about what he did to her. Rightfully so. Not only did he swindle Monica out of a lot of money, but he also swindled her out of her time and love.
“I met him here in Sanibel,” she said. “Sometimes I only come back to see if I”ll run into him again. I want to ask him why he did what he did to me. I loved him, even though my father told me he was not the right guy. Somehow, he saw right through him.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “Some men are such losers it”s heartbreaking to even talk about. Believe me.”
Over lunch, Monica told Willow everything she knew about Charlie. Christoff, as she knew him. She said he told her his family was from Greece and he was only in Sanibel for a vacation. He also told her he was some big shot lawyer who owned his own firm and fought cases for Hollywood celebrities.
Hearing the stories of their life together, you would have thought Charlie truly loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. That was just how good he was at getting people to believe in his lies. He was a true scam artist. A man who didn’t care about anyone but himself.
And why? Why did he feel the need to make a living off his crimes? Sure, he got away with a lot of money, but the money couldn’t have been worth all the trouble he ended up getting himself into.
By the end of their conversation, Willow knew enough about Charlie to know he was not a good guy. He never was. Neither of them knew where to find him exactly, but Monica believed with all her heart that he would return to Sanibel someday.