“It’s not the first case like this that has come across my desk. I bet things moved quickly.”
“Very,” Natalie said, “but in a good way.”
“These cons can be extremely charming. Did he push you into buying the house?”
“It was something we had to move on fast, but he didn’t coerce me. It was never like that, and we did all the paperwork. Everything to the letter. Marc was diligent about that. Making sure everything was legit.”
Sheila’s lips pressed tight.
“How about you? Any red flags?” he asked Natalie’s friend.
Sheila gave a sigh. “Well, he was moving fast, and monopolizing all her time, but she was so happy, and after Jeremy died… she deserved to be treated nicely.”
“You’re a widow?”
She nodded. “Marc took care of me. Of everything. It was nice to not have a worry in the world for a little while.”
“His name wasswindle.” Randy couldn’t hold back the harumph. “I’m sorry, it’s not funny, but if I’m right about the situation, he was practically advertising it. Cocky SOB.” He regretted letting that last part slip out.
“Swindell.” She enunciated theell,refusing to pick up on the coincidence.
“Swindle… swinDELL. Tomato, tomAHto. You call it a tomAHto, and I’d think something was up. Probably a coincidence, but who knows. These guys are brazen.”
“I still find this hard to believe.” Natalie shook her head. “I think you’re drawing the wrong conclusions. Please look for him.” Another tear slid to her chin. “You have to find Marc. There’s got to be an explanation.”
“We’re looking for him,” he said. “I’m sorry if some of the questions make you uncomfortable.”
“They do.”
“He’s just doing his job.” Sheila patted Natalie’s hand. “We understand, Detective.”
Randy stood. “I think he had a plan before you even officially met him. They carefully select their targets.”
Natalie ran her hand up and down her arm. “That’s a little creepy.”
“Yeah, it’s what they do. If I can get you to go public and make a statement, we could possibly shake out some other victims. This is definitely not the first time he’s taken advantage of someone. Not with the meticulous planning this took.”
“I can’t make a statement. I’d look like a fool.”
“You’re not a fool. You’re the victim of a crime, ma’am.”
“I don’t want to be the victim either.” She ran her fingers over the soft fabric of her dress. The one Marc had bought her in Mexico. A watercolor wash of orange and magenta and even a dab of yellow. The fabric had floated weightlessly around her as she walked out to model it for Marc that night.He hadn’t wasted one minute pulling her into his arms to tell her just how much he loved it on her.
I’d never felt as beautiful as that night. How can this be true?
“Unfortunately, that’s why and how these cons can keep doing what they do,” Detective Fellowes explained. “They count on their marks, men or women, to be too embarrassed to come forward.”
“Can you blame them? There’s no way I’m telling everyone that I was conned out of everything I own.” She raised her hand. “Which is not what happened. It can’t be. You need to go back and start from square one and look for Marc.”
“Do you want your stuff back? Do you want justice?” The detective tucked his notebook in his pocket. “We’re keeping an eye out for him. We aren’t discounting anything at this point, but I’m pretty sure you’ve seen the last of him, and not because something happened to him. You’re the victim here. If you don’t want him to do this to someone else it would be best if you make a public statement so we can flush out any leads before he liquidates all of your stuff.”
“He’d never do that to me. He knew how broken I was when he met me.” She gulped back a sob. The machine monitoring Natalie began blipping and beeping. The nurse whisked into the room straight to the source, pressing buttons and adjusting settings.
“Please think about it,” he said. “You don’t want him to get away with this, do you?”
The nurse spun around from the machine, then glowered at him. “Detective, I will need to ask you to leave.”
He got up and let out a sigh. “I’m sorry.”
