Chapter 37
All week, Roly couldn’t get what Ella had said out of his head – especially when he called his mum on Friday and she was all excited, planning the weekend with Mike.
‘Tonight, I’m cooking dinner just for the two of us.
His flight gets in around six. Tomorrow we’ll go out – I’ve booked a table at Chapter One.
But you must come for dinner on Sunday – Mum’s coming too. I can’t wait for you to meet him.’
‘Great! I’m looking forward to it,’ he said, even as he had a sick feeling of foreboding in the pit of his stomach.
‘Oh, Roly, I’m so excited! I’m all jittery, and I can’t settle to anything. I feel like a bloody teenager. I can’t believe I’m going to meet him finally.’
‘Are you picking him up from the airport?’
‘No, he’s getting a cab here. He’ll be so relieved to finally get here after all he’s been through the past few months.’
‘I bet. Mum, could you send me a photo of him?’
‘What do you want a photo for?’ she asked, laughing.
‘It’s just… I want to make something for Sunday. It’s a surprise,’ he said, hating himself for lying to her. But he still hoped Ella would be wrong, and he didn’t want to make his mum feel like a fool for no reason.
‘What are you up to? You’re not going to get his face put on a cake or something, are you?’ She sounded so happy and light-hearted, and it killed him.
‘You’ll have to wait and see.’ If it turned out Mike was legit, that wasn’t a bad idea.
‘Okay, I’ll send it to you now.’
Roly found instructions online for doing a reverse image search and uploaded the photo of Mike his mum had sent him. The results were everything he’d dreaded.
He tried calling his mum, but she wasn’t answering her phone. He really started to worry an hour later when she still hadn’t responded to his constant calls and messages. He checked his watch. It was almost seven. She’d probably know by now that Mike wasn’t coming. He’d just have to go over there.
Almost without thinking about it, he called Ella. She sounded surprised to hear from him.
‘So I did that image search thing on Mum’s boyfriend,’ he said.
‘Oh?’ Her tone was wary.
‘Yeah. And you were right. It’s a scam. His photo came up on loads of social media profiles, different names—’
‘Oh no! I’m so sorry, Roly. I really wanted to be wrong.’
‘I know.’
‘How’s Loretta?’
‘That’s the thing. I haven’t been able to reach her. You know he was supposed to be coming tonight?’
‘Yes. She… told me.’
‘Well, obviously that won’t be happening. She’s not answering her phone, so I’m going to head over there.’
‘Good.’
‘And I was wondering…’ He cleared his throat. ‘Um… would you come with me? I mean, if you’re not doing anything. I know it’s Friday night—’
‘Of course,’ she said without hesitation. ‘If you want me to. I’ll leave now.’
‘Where are you?’
‘I’m… in town. At the karaoke bar.’
‘Look, I don’t want to mess up your evening—’
‘No, I’m leaving now,’ she said firmly. He could hear that she was moving as she spoke. ‘I’ll jump in a cab and meet you there?’
‘Okay. Thanks, Ella.’ He hung up feeling a little calmer for speaking to her.
* * *
Ella saw Roly just turning into his mum’s street as her cab pulled up and she jumped out.
‘Thanks for coming,’ he said. ‘I really appreciate it.’
‘It’s no problem.’
‘God, poor Mum!’ he burst out, seeming on the verge of tears. ‘She’s going to be gutted.’
‘I know.’ She reached out tentatively and touched his arm.
He took a deep breath. ‘Well, let’s go.’ He took his key from his pocket.
Ella’s heart was hammering as he opened the door, scared of what they were going to find.
‘Mum?’ Roly called softly as they walked quietly down the hall.
Ella realised she was holding her breath.
They found Loretta in the dining room, slumped in a chair pulled out from the table.
Ella’s heart twisted in sympathy as she took in her tear-streaked face.
The table was set for an intimate dinner for two, with flowers and candles, and a bottle of red wine sitting on a silver coaster.
A small gift-wrapped parcel sat in front of one of the plates.
Loretta was wearing a silver wrap dress and high heels, obviously dressed for a romantic evening à deux. It was heartbreaking.
‘Mum.’ Roly sank to his knees in front of her, and she looked up, her face a picture of dejection.
She turned to him as if in a daze. ‘He should have been here by now,’ she said forlornly. ‘I checked the website and the flight he was meant to be on landed ages ago. He’s not coming, is he?’
Roly shook his head slowly. ‘No, he’s not,’ he said, his voice gentle.
‘Oh, Ella, pet.’ She looked at Ella as if she’d only just noticed she was there. ‘It’s lovely to see you.’ It broke Ella’s heart that she made the effort to dredge up a smile for her. ‘Have a seat.’
Ella sank onto one of the chairs.
‘He’s stopped texting. I’ve been ringing him all day, but he’s not answering his phone. You don’t suppose something’s happened to him, do you?’ Her voice was almost hopeful.
‘No. He’s just a con artist, Mum. He was never coming.’
She nodded. ‘It wasn’t real, was it? Any of it?’ Her voice was hollow. ‘He was just stringing me along to get money out of me.’
‘Yeah. Sorry, Mum.’
‘And I let him. God, I’m so pathetic! How could I have fallen for all that bullshit? We’d never even met and he was carrying on like he was madly in love with me – and I was stupid enough to believe it.’ She drew a heaving, shaky breath. ‘Oh, Roly, what’s wrong with me?’ she wailed.
‘Nothing’s wrong with you, Mum.’ He rubbed her leg, looking up into her face. ‘He’s a dickhead, that’s all.’
‘But why do I never learn?’ She sniffed. ‘You must think I’m such a gullible old fool,’ she said, looking across at Ella.
‘No, of course not.’
‘I should have known better than to think a man like him would be interested in me.’
‘Don’t be daft, Mum. Anyone would be lucky to have you.’ He rubbed her arm soothingly. ‘But there is no “man like him”. He doesn’t exist. It’s just a scam.’
She nodded furiously, tears spilling from her eyes. ‘And of course I was eejit enough to fall for it. I should have known when he asked me for money. How could I not have realised? Your nan is right about me, Roly. I don’t have the sense I was born with when it comes to men.’
‘Don’t beat yourself up, Mum. Lots of people get taken in by these scammers.’ He looked to Ella for back-up.
‘These people are very clever, Loretta,’ she said. ‘They know what they’re doing. I read an article just the other day about a high court judge in America who’d fallen for a scammer. She’d given him hundreds of thousands of dollars before she realised.’
Loretta heaved a deep breath, wiping her eyes with the back of her sleeve. ‘Well, would you two like a cup of tea?’ she asked, rousing herself.
‘I’ll make it.’ Ella jumped up and went to the kitchen, glad of the excuse to leave Roly and Loretta alone for a bit. She wasn’t good at looking after people. She wasn’t naturally motherly. But she knew Loretta would do it for her in a heartbeat. She had to step up and be the grown-up for once.
The kitchen was hot, and there was a delicious smell wafting from the oven. She peeked inside – it looked like she’d arrived just in time to save Loretta’s dinner from burning. She’d just flicked on the kettle when Loretta came in behind her.
‘I turned that off,’ Ella said, nodding to the oven. ‘I hope that’s okay? It looked like it was done.’
‘I’d totally forgotten about it. Thanks, Ella. I’m not thinking straight, offering you tea. There’s wine open, if you’d prefer?’
Ella looked to Roly, who’d followed his mum and was standing in the doorway. He gave her a nod.
‘I think that’d be a good idea.’
‘Well, I know I could do with some. And you two should stay for dinner. There’s all this food. Have you eaten?’ Loretta looked between them.
‘No, we haven’t, and I’m starving. It smells really good, Mum.’
‘Why don’t I go and leave you and Roly to it?’ Ella said. ‘You can have dinner together.’
‘I’d love you to stay, Ella. I could do with the company. And I’m not in the mood for drinking alone.’
‘Okay, if you’re sure…’ She looked doubtfully at Roly.
‘Yes, stay,’ he said, nodding.
‘I only cooked for two, but I was allowing for Mike,’ Loretta’s voice caught on the name, ‘to have a big appetite. Being a military man and all that,’ she said, rolling her eyes. Ella was relieved she seemed to be cheering up, and seeing the funny side.
‘I’m sure there’ll be plenty,’ Ella said.
‘There’s some garlic bread in the freezer,’ Loretta said. ‘We can bulk it out with that. And we’ve three courses. I was pushing the boat out.’
‘I’ll do the garlic bread,’ Roly said, shooing them out of the kitchen. ‘You two can get started on the wine.’
* * *
‘He said it was because of being in the military that he couldn’t do video chats,’ Loretta told Ella when they were ensconced on the sofa with a couple of glasses of wine. ‘Something about having to keep his location a secret.’
Ella nodded. ‘That’s why so many of these scammers pretend to be soldiers on a mission somewhere. It gives them lots of excuses for not being in touch. They say they have no phone reception, or the Internet is dodgy, or they’re not allowed to make calls for security reasons.’
‘You must think I’m such a chump, falling for it.’
‘Not at all. They wouldn’t be so successful if they weren’t so plausible.’ Ella toyed with her glass. ‘Did you give him much money? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,’ she added hastily.
Loretta took a deep breath. ‘About five thousand altogether. I sent him the money for the flight, and I paid some of his daughter’s hospital bills. At least, that’s what I thought I was paying for.’
‘Well, you should go to the police,’ Ella said.
Her eyebrows shot up. ‘Because my boyfriend dumped me? Hardly a matter for the police, is it?’
‘He’s not your boyfriend,’ Ella said softly. ‘He was never your boyfriend.’
‘Oh yeah. I keep forgetting that.’
‘It’s a crime, and it should be reported. You won’t be the only one. They get cases like this all the time.’