Sat in Mama’s Diner on the outskirts of town, I glanced outside and smirked at the silver Camaro Paul had rented.
“What?” he asked. “I wanted a Bumblebee one but they didn’t have any.”
I giggled at him as I looked over the menu. After we’d given our orders, Paul turned the conversation quite heavy.
“So, I did a bit of digging into our friend Tim.”
I raised an eyebrow, unsure of what was to come next.
“Sometimes my parents’ lifestyle has its up sides,” he said, smiling. “They have contacts. Anyway, what do you know about Tim?”
“Not a lot,” I replied, shrugging my shoulders. “Mum met him three years ago whilst she was out here with work. She fell in love, decided to stay, and there we go. She married him two years ago.”
“Well,” he said, lowering his voice. “Mr. Tim Masters is also known as Mr. Tim Roker, and Mr. Tim Bycraft.”
I gasped, not quite grasping what he’d just said. How could he have three identities? Why did he need them? A feeling of dread began to unfurl inside me as endless possibilities swam through my mind.
He took a sip of his water and cleared his throat. “Mr. Tim Bycraft is originally from New York and was under suspicion for a series of rapes that happened in and around his apartment building. He vanished before the police could formally charge him.”
“What? Are you being serious?”
He nodded, pulling his lips into a thin line. “Mr. Tim Roker suddenly appeared in Florida twelve years ago. He married a lady called Lisa a year later who happened to be worth a lot of money. She was found dead eighteen months later after a nasty fall down the stairs whilst Mr. Roker was out of town. Mr. Roker inherited all of her two-million-dollar fortune as she no longer spoke to her kids and had written them out of her will. Two years later, Mr. Roker remarried another wealthy widow who also ended up dead within two years from a nasty fall. She had also written her only child out of her will, leaving her six-million-pound fortune to Tim.”
I leaned back, running my hands through my hair. How could someone get away with all of this so easily? My mind was whirling, spinning, from this massive revelation.
“There’s more,” he said, giving me a sympathy smile. “Three years later, he married a divorced lady who ripped her plastic surgeon husband off for fifteen million dollars in the divorce courts. She died two years ago, and Mr. Tim Roker disappeared after her children and ex-husband contested her will in court. Mr. Tim Roker was awarded twenty-five per cent of her estate with the remainder being split between her three children. He then vanished before Mr. Tim Masters appeared in Texas a mere six months before your mum unfortunately met him.”
“What? Is he some kind of black widow or something?”
Paul smiled. “He always goes for older women, and those who are on their own or divorced. They always have kids as well. Now, the rapes back in New York were connected with a series of cash robberies as well. The police were putting a link together between the victims being raped and their bank accounts being emptied. They were getting close, and I suspect this is why he disappeared.”
“I can’t believe this,” I said, leaning my head in my hands. “This happens in movies, not real life.”
“Unfortunately, sweetie, the movies get their ideas from somewhere, or rather the criminals get their ideas from somewhere.”
“So what do you think this has to do with me and my mum? Mum didn’t have any fortune to her name.”
“That’s where you’re slightly wrong, sweetheart,” he said. He reached across the table and grabbed my hand. “The compensation she got from your father’s accident she invested in the stock market.”
I shook my head at my mother’s stupidity. She knew nothing about finances let alone something like the stock market.
“She pulled her shares three weeks ago and was worth nearly ten million. In sterling.”
I balked at his words, my mouth hanging wide open. I couldn’t even formulate thoughts let alone words. Thankfully, the waitress appeared with our food.
“There’s something else,” Paul said.
I looked up at him, holding my breath in expectation. What else could there possibly be?
“Your mother changed her will the day after she pulled her shares.”
I gulped, adrenaline now pumping round me at a rate of knots. What else was he going to surprise me with?
“After your row at their wedding, she had changed her will and cut both you and Ash out, leaving everything to Tim. Three weeks ago, she changed it so that Tim was left with nothing and you and Ash were left with everything—split fifty-fifty.”
Tears sprang from the corners of my eyes. Endless possibilities of what could have made her change her mind raced around my mind.
“She filed a report of assault against him ten days ago—after they rowed over his discovery of her changing her will.”
I was speechless, stunned, frozen in time. I felt somehow guilty for not being able to do anything for her. Why hadn’t I just patched things up with her?
“I think his plan of suing you for slander was to get that money.”
I had managed to eat a handful of fries but now pushed my plate away. The information overload had me on edge, fidgety. I couldn’t settle after hearing news like that. Food was definitely the last thing I wanted when I was upset.
“Finish your food,” Paul said, pointing at my plate. “You need your strength.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Kyra,” he said, putting his knife and fork down and reaching across the table for my hands. “Please eat. You’re no good to anyone, especially yourself, if you don’t keep your strength up. Come on, please.”
He stabbed one of my fries and offered it to me with a beaming smile. I couldn’t help but laugh at him and gave in to his request. We ate in silence, and whilst I wouldn’t admit it to him, each mouthful of food I took actually made me feel a hundred times better. Eventually, with some fuel in my body, my brain seemed to cooperate and enabled me to ask some questions.
“What made her change her will?” I asked. “And how did he get away with all of this?”
“I managed to stumble across a couple of reports where women had stayed at Tim’s ranch and reported a man in their cabin at night. No charges were ever brought against him as they couldn’t be sure whether it was just a dream or if it was real. I can only assume he did to them what he had in store for you. My guess is that your mum discovered what he was up to.”
“This is insane. I just can’t believe it.”
“My contact who gave me all of this information has been tracking him for a number of years but has struggled to provide solid evidence to bring about any charges. It is suspected his identities are stolen from dead children but it can’t be one hundred per cent proven at the moment. In all fairness to Tim, he is exceptional at covering his tracks and creating smoke screens.”
I briefly wondered who on earth Paul’s contact was before pushing the thought away. “So now what?”
“Well,” he said, finishing off his fries. “We need to call his bluff and make sure that yours and Ash’s inheritance stays with you guys.”
Finishing off my drink, I mulled over the past hour of my life and the massive turn in events. How was this even possible that this was my life right now?