Page 10 of Beau
She’d done it before.Posed as one of the family members to a group of people grieving about their loved ones.It had netted her a great deal of money when she could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was related to them.Not even DNA would stop her, as she had access to the body before it had been embalmed at the funeral home.When they’d ask for some proof that she was related, she would just pull out a sample of the dead person’s blood and send it on its way.Every time, it would come back as a match to the family, and they’d pay her off to keep the nasty bit of a secret out of the papers.Posing as an illegitimate child always worked.But this time was different.She thought that she could pull off being someone they’d lost.And it would work too.She knew that she had all the information she needed from the funeral records.
That’s where she’d gotten the phone numbers, off the paperwork.She’d gotten blood samples and DNA from the deceased.She knew their names and who they were married to from the paperwork that was to go into the paper.She only needed to look enough like her that they thought it was their mother after all this time.And that had cost her nearly all the funds she had left from her last scam.She might well have to do that again in order to keep up appearances with the Watson family and all their millions.
She was only going to do it as a lark.Have some fun messing with their minds.But then, recently, one of the women had married a Sheppard.And she knew them to have plenty of money to bring herinto the family.The more research she did on her ‘children’, the more she realized that they had a bit of money too.But being married to a powerful and wealthy family was what sealed the deal for her, so to speak.
She didn’t know which one had married Rogen, but she had a good idea that they were all as wealthy as the next.The houses that they’d had built were large as a mansion, and they seemed to have an endless supply of money when it came to helping the city in which they lived.Even Rogen had money to burn when she wanted it.
Marsha looked down at the picture she’d taken of the dead woman and then at the picture they’d been given to have her makeup and hair done right for the funeral, and knew she was a perfect match.Her hair had been the hardest to match with color.It was a dark hair that had these blue highlights throughout it.But because of the strange color it was, she’d needed to go to three different parlors to have it matched perfectly.But her hair had been the least of her problems.There was the tattoo that she had on her left shoulder that was difficult to match at all, and she still wasn’t happy with it.
It had been a paw of some kind.Probably a dog or cat she’d been close to.The paw had been large and the colors difficult to match again, but how often when they ask to see a tattoo, she more than likely got when she was drunk and out on the town.Looking at it now, she thought that it was just too slanted to be on her shoulder, and it had healed incorrectly when she’d gotten it done.Some of the colors had faded and had blurred after it had healed, and it was what had her thinking it was a cheap tat that Marsha had gotten one night a long time ago.
She had all the confidence in the world that she could pull this off, and if she did, she was going to be set for life.She’d make good on her own promise to herself to get into the family, take as much as she could from them, and then ‘kill’ herself all over to do it to someone else’s family.And if they brought up something that she didn’t know about, it would be easy to say that it was from the accident that she’d been hit in the head when it had happened.
Tomorrow, she was going to see Calhoun Watson.He was the sappiest of the men in the family and would believe her if she told him that she was their long-lost queen or something.As it stood right now, she was going to keep her cool and just play right into his hands.Or he was going to be playing right into her hands.Either way, she was excited about this as she was the first time she’d scammed a couple that she was the husbands long long-lost daughter from an affair and needed to be paid off.
Actually thinking about it now, it had been twelve years now since she’d first started with her little games.The couple had divorced after she’d shown up and started her trouble for them.She didn’t care one way or the other if they ended up separated or not.It was a very profitable game that she played with people that she saw while working at the funeral home.
She didn’t work there anymore.After it came out that someone had been embalming people who were to be cremated, they went out of business.A shame that she had quite a thing going for herself.But charging people for those services when they specifically were told that it was direct cremation had gotten them into trouble with the board.Whoever that might have been.
Marsha had only been the hair and makeup artist.Or so they thought.But she did as much work as she could there to grab all the information she could about the dead.It was fun for her, really, another game that she played in not getting caught.And she never had in all the time she’d been doing this.
Picking up the phone, making sure she had the right number, she called the oldest son and told him that she wanted to meet with him.He didn’t seem to be inclined, and she thought for a moment she was already being pushed out, but in the end, he said it would be all right.Good for him.
“I’ve been trying my best to get to you all, but I didn’t know that you moved.”That had been something that she’d not counted on when she called them.That it was going to take her some time to get to where they were living now.Not even the stupid farmers had stayed home to be called by her.“When I said I was in town, I didn’t realize that you all no longer lived there.I was concerned about that.”
“Concerned, why?So we moved?It’s been over ten years since we were notified that you weredead.”She didn’t care for his tone and said that to him.“Well, since we’re still trying to figure out how you survived being killed and embalming, I think we have the right to be snarly.”
“You don’t believe that I’m your mother?”He said no, that none of them did.“If I could just get to you soon, I’d be able to prove it.I’d ask you to ask me something that only I would know, but with the head injuries that I had during the accident, I’m afraid my memory isn’t as good as it used to be.”
“That’s a good one.Are you going to stick with that story?”She decided that she wasn’t going to try to get money from this one at all.He was just too mean to her.Telling him that she needed to go, he laughed harshly and told her to talk to him.“There is no telling what you can say to me to make me believe that you’re my mother from ten years ago.I would ask why it took so long for you to get in touch with us.We’ve already figured out where you might have gotten our phone numbers.Unless that’s the only thing you remembered.”
“You’re not very nice.I think I raised you better than that.”Again, the harsh laughter that had her pulling the phone from her ear.“I’m going to hang up now and hope that you get better manners in the future.You shouldn’t be talking to your mother this way.”
“When I believe that you’re my mother, I’ll apologize.Until then, this is all you’re going to get from the lot of us.None of us believes you’re who you say you are.Not even dad.”She asked when he spoke to their dad, fearful now that he might have given her away somehow.“He’s here staying with my sister, that’s Rogen in the event you’re going to ask me what her name is.We’ve all been catching up and having a wonderful time.You’re barely mentioned as a matter of fact.”
“You’re very cruel, aren’t you?”He said again that when he believed she was his mom, then he’d apologize to her.“I believe you should be apologizing right now.I’ve never been spoken to that way in my life.And I am your mother.”
“You’ll have to prove it then.Right now, all I can tell you is that you’d better have all your information correct because we’re not going to take this well if you’re not her.Which I don’t believe at all, so you know.”She said that she’d gotten that from him.“Good.I don’t want any misunderstanding when you come around and think that it’s going to be all fun and games for you.Rogen is especially pissed off, and Sandy too.”
“I’ve heard that Rogen recently married.And that Sandy’s husband is on trial for murder.Seems like my little family could use a good person in their lives right now.”He said it wouldn’t be her.“We’ll see about that now, won’t we?”
“Yes, I suppose that we will.”His laughter was getting on her nerves, but she was keeping her cool.If she lost her temper now, all her hard work would be for nothing.She needed to get where the money was, and they had a great deal of it.“I’m hanging up now.Don’t call me again, whoever you are.”
“And what will you say if I turn out to be your mother, like I’ve been telling you I am?What will you say to me then?An apology will not be enough from you.”He asked her if she was talking about money.“Yes.”
The phone went dead, and she was grateful for it.She’d lost her cool in that last question from him, and she needed to make him think that she wasn’t there for just the money.She was, no doubt about that, but she needed to make them believe that she was their mother first and foremost so that she could get as much from them as she could.
She had to think about the conversation that she’d had with Calhoun.He was smarter than she’d given him credit for.She didn’t know what he did for a living yet, but she had someone looking into that for her.It paid to have as much information as she could when infiltrating a family like she was doing this time.The rewards would be much better if she could get everything that she could about them.The next time she spoke to Calhoun, it would be in person, then he’d have to deny that she wasn’t his mother to her face.Not that he was going to be able to.She was, after all, the real deal when it came to being his mom.
~*~
Rogen didn’t like this.There was something very off about this woman that she couldn’t put her fingeron.Calhoun said that she was having trouble getting to them since they moved—he claimed that he thought she was begging for money until he pissed her off.That was something else he told her.Mother would have said something along the lines of his respect for her and that she was going to tell his dad.She seemed to be surprised that they’d even called their dad into this thing.
Then she said that he was going to have to give her money for the way that he’d treated her.Their mom wouldn’t have demanded money; she would have told him that he was going to be beaten.She had never thought of them as too old to be beaten by their dad, and it mattered little that they were married, either.She would take care that they were punished for doing something against her.
There were just too many things that she said to Calhoun that didn’t add up.Most of her problem had been that she didn’t want to believe that she was their mother.And she wasn’t.Dad had been present when the embalming had been done because she was a shifter.He would answer any questions that needed to be answered by being there.
There is no way that she could have survived that kind of work on her body, no matter what she was calling herself.The draining of her blood and then using the trocar on her would have killed even the strongest of shifters, much less a human being.What the embalmer thought he was embalming.
