A tale of deceit

I have this system for getting exactly what I want out of people. It doesn’t take a great deal most of the time. So you know, no amount of cleavage shown, overtly flirtatious use of eyeliner, or wafting of my hair endlessly in anyone’s direction, is used to give me an advantage.

For one thing, I am a man, and perfume ain’t my style!

No, my ways involve the simple use of psychology and the ability to really listen for the relevant facts. We all have our weaknesses and I could smell yours from a mile off. It wouldn’t take me too long either. I wouldn’t be oppressive with my manner nor intimidating with how I spoke to you. I would merely be the sort of person you would need me to be at that very moment.

And I am great at that trust me! I have tried to show others this style and maybe thought once or twice how that could really work for me, but I didn’t see a true net gain.

I work for myself and no one else, except those with generous fees in mind of course! If it keeps me happy in my little square office, with its dark green walls, decent (enough) view of city, then I am game.

My goal would not be to rip you off or take undue funds from your private, desperately worked on savings either oh no, no, no. That would make me a monster...and I assure you I was raised properly!

No, I offer a simple service. If you need help getting the best of a certain someone, a boss who is treating you unfairly, or a lover who is cheating on you, or indeed a dearly loved family member who is just taking you for a fool, then please step into my office!

For I can get what you need oh yes, and who am I to be different than the rest of the people earning a decent buck or two from the efforts I expend for doing such deeds? I need food on my plate and a roof over my head just like anyone else right?

That’s the justification I tell myself anyway...we all cheat in one way or another as this is one very dog-eat-dog kind of world and you know this for you are an adult, not an idiot.

So let me show you what I do, and see what you learn!

Take a woman I met recently, Sheila, single mother (partner Michael had ran off a few months ago) who was owed a huge inheritance from her dearly departed father and she needed my help. She believed her son was stealing money from her and could, therefore go after said inheritance. Very sad story, this poor woman was working two jobs, one a night shift in a supermarket, the other a cleaning job during the day and her thieving little runt was constantly taking money from her purse, thinking she didn’t notice.

I however could see this woman’s tells and if this son only knew, he could stand to never need money from his mother’s purse. More to follow dear listener!

“My dear,” I said as I got in my plush swivel chair and sat at my modest, hand built desk of mahogany wood keeping a nice barrier between myself and her as I was positioned comfortably, “this is simply awful. May I ask how and you came to know about this behaviour?”

As she began, I paid close attention as she revealed more and more, and not just in what she was saying.

For one thing she started taking up a lot of bad habits, her shift in the seat to the right as she lowered her head whenever she described the effort of her two jobs, like she wasn’t confident in what she was saying. The way her wrist lifted up when she wiped her brow revealing an initialled hankie and expensive looking watch, the crack in her voice as she told me about what her son was like was all becoming clear to me that this woman was loving the victim role, as well as hiding something.

The dog-eat-dog in me was just looking for the facts, the facts that could lead me to a gain, a purpose to have this woman in my office, using my time.

The description of her son was one of disgusting selfishness. How he would be home quite often and not be doing a great deal other than be seen in her private study appearing to have been rifling through her legal papers as he would always look sheepish and walk out head held low.

Was he going through her purse then? Doubtful as I am sure by now Sheila keeps that closely guarded. No he was possibly looking at the legal documents that most likely pertained to the inheritance. I couldn’t be sure but this sounded most likely; who goes through such papers for much else when you are related to someone due a large inheritance and spend a lot of the time in the house? This was yet another bad habit as this woman was clearly careless with her documents and hadn’t really learnt from the recklessness with her purse.

Maybe she had still left that lying around after all!

As I stood up and walked towards her I looked her in her eyes and breached my personal comfort zone to see what this woman really had to offer me.

Short flowing brown hair (framing a homely brown eyed freckled expression) to her shoulders and with a jet black blouse that had a high priced label poking out the back and skirt complete with black designer high heels.

Who is she trying to kid? Two jobs to blow on getting clothing, personalised hankies (and who has these in 2023?!) and a watch like this? This screamed of an ulterior source of income. Had the inheritance already gone through? Had she a sugar daddy already on the side who was oppressing her son from any of the money he was no doubt due to have and this was his petty means of getting back at her? Also, why is she coming to someone like me for something like this unless there is more to it?

All very good questions but I needed more information so as I knelt in front of her I looked her right in the eyes and said “I do see where you are coming from I do, (hands on hers for comforting reassurance) but you must understand that I’ll need more time to assess the facts of this issue before we can think of a way to address the issue properly.”

As I spoke, giving her more assurance that I’m on the case and that I’ll need a few days, my fingers carefully assessed the weight of the watch on her wrist, quickly assuring me of whether it has been there long. The skin appeared to show no sign of extra whiteness as one does with regular use. No discolouration, damage, or nick of any kind was present, and with the plastic film still on the screen I could practically smell the box it came in.

This was a recent present and her whole image was one of way too much expense for a woman working even four jobs of the nature Sheila was describing. Either it was all given to her, or bought with a recent sum of hefty money.

Sheila was lying to me right where she sat, hoping to follow in the example no doubt imposed on her by a third party, one strong enough to make her want to push her own son away who appeared to want to know what was going on.

Who was really pulling the strings here?

Over the next few days Sheila came back now and then to present documents showing the nature of the inheritance in question, all of which proved nothing as it could all be easily doctored.

But I kept playing the foolish, bumbling person Sheila needed me to be, listening to every word and making sure I was on her side as I told her I would need copies of these documents to amount a case against her son which was looking good with every bit of paperwork she brought my way...

Of course this idiot was feeding me all of what I needed for I could see where the tell-tale signs of forgery were on the documents, the photo-shopped section for the part where a family member could be included or mentioned as being due a part of the money. They come in all shapes and sizes and the only way I know how I could spot them, was because I have seen this done a thousand times…and I may have played this game myself once or twice…

Though I am far better at this than she is!

Sheila was trying to bullshit a bullshitter and I was practically rubbing my hands with glee as she mentioned a woman called Hillary, a confident, a lover of hers, who was everything she could ever hope for and was integral to this case that was before me.

Indeed, everything became resolute the day Sheila brought Hillary to my office.

From the look in her eyes, the glint in her smile, and to the way she shook my hand and lingered for a fraction of a second too long to see if something valuable was there to lift, I knew that Hilary was the epicentre of this whole debacle. Everything fell into place the more this blonde (hiding brunette hair under the wig which was good but not good enough) make-up covered seductress with heaving chest, spoke.

She had met Sheila two months ago at the wake of her father’s funeral in the local pub, introduced by a mutual friend. The two had gotten talking and become close and with the faux story of beauty-from-sadness coming pouring out of this woman like poisonous smoke I became amazed as to how Sheila didn’t see what was going on.

Another noticeable thing was that the valuable watch I saw on Sheila recently was now missing and her clothes were no longer looking so sharp on her thin frame so I could tell that Hilary was up to something, maybe in the final throes of cashing out. She was hoping to fool me into casting the son aside for good by showing he was on no named documents and with no dirt on her hands for foolish, naive Sheila to notice she would be in the clear.

And to think my services were only to be worth a fraction of the money that must already have been in play here, hurt!

After the final smile on Hilary’s deceitful face as the two women left my office on the promise that I had everything in hand I got to work immediately. For I knew that Hilary was due to soon leave both son and mother in ruin....

Dangerously naive and trusting woman was Sheila...but of course the real victim was the son.

A departed father, a duped mother, and an inheritance that was about to be stolen.

But what did I say before hand? No bullshit do I tolerate. For every meeting in my office was filmed, every document given stored and scanned for analysis for proof of the tampering. I also tailed her on the few occasions I deemed it feasible and found she was often meeting an unknown man, later shown to be her real lover, Michael. The couple clearly scheming to get back at Sheila. He hadn’t ran away, Sheila had split with him after she had caught him cheating with someone else and kicked him out of the house.

Guess we know what he was up to after the split…cold hard revenge!

All of this evidence was under my belt. I had my mountain of proof and would be able to prosecute “Hilary” to the ends of the earth and back, or blackmail her into submission.

It was my time to approach the son...with an offer he couldn’t refuse...