Page 32 of Shadow Scorching

“Let’s see…Estelle is a widow, comfortably well off. She’s childless, loves to read, is lonely since her husband died, misses having someone to talk to, loves to cook. What else? Oh, Estelle likes men who are younger than she is. So, what do you think Tilly wrote about herself?”

Dante thought for a moment. “I think she probably said nearly the same thing.”

“Let’s see…maybe I can find her on here.” I searched through the app and finally found Tilly’s profile. It read uncannily close to “Estelle’s” except Tilly had changed her status to “Engaged—Not Currently Looking.”

“Well, we’ll see if this works. I’m marking that I am upper income, and that I haven’t ever been out of the States.” I skimmed over the profile again, and then pressedPublish. “Okay, now I want to see if I can find Jet’s profile.”

I typed in his name, and—sure enough—he was still on the app, still looking. He had listed ‘financial analyst’ under his occupation, and that he was living in Seattle. His profile listed him as single. “How does Tilly feel about him still having a profile up on Dates Before Mates when they’re supposed to be engaged? He’s still listing himself as single.”

“I don’t know. I doubt if she realizes he hasn’t changed his status.”

“She probably doesn’t know,” I said. “If she trusts him enough to turn a blind eye toward the red flags, then she’d probably believe him if he says he forgot to delete his profile or something like that. I’ll swipe right on him and see if he answers.” I hit the ‘interested’ button and then closed the app. “Well, now we wait and see.”

Penn peeked around the corner, into the living room. “Lunch is ready.”

Dante and I joined her in the kitchen. The pizza filled the kitchen with that yeasty, savory scent. As we settled around the table, I realized that I was sliding into a depression. I wasn’t sure what was wrong, but I hadn’t noticed it earlier.

“I can’t figure out what’s wrong, but I’m depressed,” I said.

“What do you think it is?” Penn asked.

“I don’t know, but it started…” I thought for a moment. “It started when I made the profile. I think I’m just disheartened by the cruelty of people. I did a little research. Did you know that online romance scams are abillion-dollar industry? Thousands of women and men are being swindled when all they’re looking for is love. Some of them are delusional—the ones who think they’re dating Johnny Depp or Jennifer Aniston—but a lot of them aren’t tech savvy, and they’re lonely. They want a partner, not just their kids or grandkids.”

“I hate these scum,” Dante said.

I played with my pizza. “I know. I do too.”

“It makes me sick to think of this guy breaking Tilly’s heart…and her bank account. I tried to call my father about it, but he won’t accept my calls.” Dante ducked his head. “I don’t know what else to do. Tilly’s the only one in the family who will talk to me.”

“What about a friend in the Pack? Do you have anybody you still know who you can ask to talk to the Alpha about this?”

Dante hung his head. “No, that might make things worse. He might blame her. Our Pack is stern. I thought about trying to get in touch with one of her friends, though.”

“That might work.” I paused, then thought for a moment. “She must belong to several organizations, right? Rich older women always seem to belong to some charity organization.”

“Well,” Dante said, thinking for a moment. “Actually, yes, she belongs to a foundation called Elda-Care. They provide help for elderly people who are poor and have no resources.”

“They might be perfect to help her out, once we take care of this guy. They might have resources who might be able to deal with these situations. Can you get in touch with them?” I asked.

“I’ll look them up after lunch and give them a call.” Dante looked relieved. “My great-uncle did assign a financial advisor to his estate, but I think she fired the guy.”

“Do you have his name?” I asked.

Dante squinted. “I’ll try to remember. I never talked to him…Wait, Ididtalk to him. A few years back, when I told my aunt I wanted to buy a new car and asked her to cosign the loan. I didn’t have the best credit back then, so she instructed him to help me out. I paid back every penny, and the guy reported the loan to the credit agencies, and it helped my score.”

“I guess the Fae part of me doesn’t understand that need for a long-term partner,” Penn said.

“No, but your human side might understand…someday.” I paused to take another slice of pizza, then added, “What you don’t know, Penn, is that Tilly and her husband didn’t love each other. They had an arranged marriage, and they respected and liked each other, but she’s never had that deep, core connection with another person.”

“That seems like it would harder than being alone,” Penn said.

“I think so,” Dante said. “Especially when she really hoped for true love.”

We turned the discussion to Michael’s house.

“I’ll look at the footage you emailed me as soon as we finish eating,” Penn said.

“I’ll do the dishes,” Dante offered. Penn protested but he insisted. “I want to hear what you have to say about the shadow being we saw.”

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