Chapter 9
The bar was old and rundown. There weren’t many people inside, and the others that were looked so old, no one would be listening. According to Charlene, Charlie had a lot more money hiding than the detectives knew about.
“Greg owes Mark and I a lot of money for helping him cover things up for as long as we have,” she said.
“What kind of things?” Willow asked, but her question was ignored.
“I hear those detectives found an account in your name. So, where’s the rest of it?”
“I don’t know where any of the money is. I swear it,” Willow said. “I wouldn’t even know how to access the one that is in my name. I had no idea what Charlie was doing or where he’s gone. I didn’t even know he had a sister. I”m still trying to figure this all out for myself so I can start to piece together my life again. It would help if you could tell me more.”
“Are you playing me for some kind of fool, the same way Greg did?”
Willow frowned. Charlene scooted her stool closer to Willow’s at the bar and got really close to her face. She was a small woman, very petite, but she was a lot more intimidating than she looked.
“No,” Willow said. “No. I”m not trying to play you for a fool. I honestly don’t know where the money is.”
“You have to know!” she raised her voice but quickly dropped it when people started to glare in their direction. “You have to know something. There’s an account with your name on it. You were married to my brother. You lived together, for crying out loud. How don’t you know anything? Are you that oblivious?”
Apparently Willow was oblivious to the facts of Charlie’s life. She had no idea who that man was or what he stood for. She thought she had found the love of her life and would ride off into the sunset with him for eternity. Instead, she got hit by a curveball she never saw coming in her direction.
“How much money is he hiding?” Willow asked.
“A lot. Millions.”
She thought Charlene should’ve been in jail for helping her brother scam women out of their hard-earned money, even though she looked hopeless. The only reason Willow didn”t go to Tommy or the detectives was because she wanted more insight about Charlie. If she got close to Charlene, and made her feel like they were friends and after the same thing, Charlene would tell her where he was. Or at least point her in either direction to start looking.
“How much money does he owe you?”
“A lot.” She looked Willow square in the eyes. “I’ve been helping him hide out all this time but he up and disappeared when it was time to pay up. He left home because the cops got wind of him. That’s why he was so adamant about staying out of sight. You just had to keep pushing him and pushing him. Showing up at his office, demanding things. If you had kept your mouth shut and let him make the right moves, he wouldn”t have had to uproot himself.”
“What? You’re making this my fault?” Willow scoffed. “If your brother been an honest man and made an honest living instead of stealing from innocent people, none of this would be happening! He got himself into this mess. I had nothing to do with the cops finding out where he was and it’s a good thing they did. He deserves to be in prison for ruining people’s lives.”
Charlene gave Willow the coldest glare she had ever seen in her life. Not even the glare from Sheriff Tommy was as cold as hers. Willow was sure Charlene would knock her off the stool and pound her into the concrete floor beneath their feet, but she didn’t. She was angry with Charlie, not Willow.
“Why were you helping him?” Willow asked. “Didn’t you know what he was doing was wrong?”
Charlene shook her head and looked away. She couldn’t look Willow in the eye. That alone told Willow she carried a lot of guilt in her consciousness; she just didn’t know how to get over it. She just wanted to get what she was owed and get out. Unfortunately, everyone had to pay for the roles they played.
“Did he force you to help him?” Willow asked again. “You know you can go to the police, Charlene. You don’t have to keep doing this. Sheriff Tommy is a good guy. He’d be happy and willing to help.”
Willow placed a gentle hand on Charlene’s arm, hoping she would open up about Charlie”s whereabouts. But she pushed Willow’s hand away. For a split second, Willow thought being someone who cared about her feelings would make Charlene see the light in everything, but it only made her colder.
“Don’t try to sweeten me up,” she said. “I’ve had enough of that from my brother all my life. You think you’re going to be able to get information out of me by pretending to care about my wellbeing and honesty? Think again. The only thing I want out of this is what I”m owed.”
Willow was speechless. Here she was, sat in front of a woman who helped scam other women out of millions of dollars. Why would she expect her to open up to anyone? She knew about everything Charlie had done and she helped cover for him. That was just as bad as what her brother did.
“Then I guess our business is done here.” Willow stood up to leave. “If you’re not going to help me, I can”t help you.”
Charlene glared at Willow again with those cold, dark eyes of hers. Whatever fear tactics she used on Willow to get her to go to that bar wasn’t working anymore. Willow had stood her ground, though inside she was shaking like a leaf.
“I guess so then,” she said.
Her tone was cold. Dark. Lifeless even. Had Willow been the same Willow she was when she first got to Sanibel, she probably would have cried and begged Charlene to tell her where her brother was. But when Willow saw that Charlene was just as helpless and hopeful of finding him as she was, it changed her perspective on the entire situation.
Charlene was no threat. She was merely a woman scorned just like the rest of Charlie’s victims. Charlie was the true culprit. He was the one everyone had their heads on a swivel for. He was the one who manipulated them all into believing he would love and care for them, and in the end, he was the one who pulled the wool over their eyes.
“Sheesh lady! I thought you got kidnapped or something. What took you so long? I almost left.”
Willow’s Uber driver was furious with her, but he waited around until she walked out safely. She was surprised to still see his car there when she left the bar. Anyone else probably would have left her the minute she walked inside.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “Thank you so much for waiting for me. I’ll make sure I leave you a big tip for that. Thank you.”
He put the car in drive and headed in the direction of home. Home. It sounded like Sanibel would be Willow’s home for a while.
·
The next morning Willow woke up feeling refreshed. She didn”t know how or why, but she felt like the day was new and there was a whole world of possibility out there waiting for her. It had a lot to do with her chat with Charlene the night before. Something about her being as close to Charlie as she was and still being played by him gave Willow an uncanny joy.
She went to the beach that afternoon, and what do you know, Richy was there. He was excited to see her; it had been a few days since their showdown with his parents. Willow was excited to see him too. Although she was on edge about running into his dad again, she missed the little rascal.
“Hey stranger.” She greeted him with a knuckle sandwich.
“Hey,” he laughed. “It does feel strange not seeing you for a few days.”
“Uh huh. Did you get grounded?”
“Nah. My dad was only upset that one day. After that, he went right back to drinking and forgetting about life again.”
It was a shame to have such a terrible father. Richy didn’t deserve to have a man like that in his life. Neither did his mother. But there was nothing Willow could do about any of it. Like Tommy said, they were Dale’s family and he would run them the way he saw fit. All Willow could do was give Richy advice whenever she got to see him on the beach.
“Are you planning on staying here a while?” he asked. “Sanibel, I mean.”
“Maybe,” she said. “I love it here and it’s nice to be able to come out to the beach whenever I want. But I”m not sure yet. I’ve been thinking about it though.”
She thought about it even more while they sat looking out over the waves. There weren’t many words shared between them for a while that day. It wasn’t until she got a text from Tommy that Richy asked what was going on with finding Charlie again.
“Did you two find anything new?”
“Kind of, sort of,” she replied. “I met with his sister last night.”
“What!? No way!”
Willow was surprised she met with Charlene herself. It was a dangerous risk to take, but it was worth it. For Willow anyway. Charlene, not so much.
“Yep. I met her at some old bar about an hour away from here. Do you think I should tell Tommy?”
“Heck yeah you should tell him! Isn’t she in on this! Why didn’t you tell him last night?”
“I don’t know. I wanted to get some information out of her first,” Willow said. “I knew that if I told him I was going to meet her, he would’ve probably taken her to jail before I got to ask her anything.”
She wondered if Tommy would be mad at her for not telling him. She figured he probably would have since he had already been looking for Charlene, but she hadn’t thought that far ahead before she went to meet her.
“What if she’s long gone by now?” Richy asked. “Then what? You won’t be able to find her or Greg.”
“Nah, I doubt she’ll leave. She thinks I know where the hidden money is and she wants it. Apparently, the account the detectives found isn’t the only money left. She said there’s millions hiding somewhere.”
“Millions?”
Richy’s eyes grew as wide as the ocean. Willow knew he had the same thoughts she had when she heard about how much money there was, but she didn”t feed into his imagination because she knew there was no way she”d get to see any of that money. At least, she didn”t think she would.
“It doesn”t matter,” Willow sighed. “That money will be given back to whoever it belongs to once it’s found and Charlie goes to prison.”
“What if some of that money was a gift to him, though?” Richy asked. “Isn’t there a way for them to divy it up between you and everyone else? Maybe he worked for some of that money, they never know.”
“That’s the thing,” she shrugged. “They never know.”
Charlie did have a business. It was true, some of that money could have come from his work. But it was impossible to tell. Willow didn’t think about the money much, however. She was more concerned with putting things to rest so that she could get a divorce and be done with him forever.
“All I know is, I”m ready for this to be over so I can get divorced and move on with my life. That’s my main focus right now.”
“Won’t you be sad? I mean, you were in a relationship with the guy.”
“I thought I would be sad, but I”m not,” she said. “I guess when you find out someone isn’t really who you thought they were, it takes the sadness away.”