Answers

On Monday morning while Barbara was wrestling with her problem, Greg received a call from Ted, his Private Investigator friend.

“I’ve done some searching starting of course on the Internet. Obviously, without many details, I couldn’t find much but I did log onto a local paper in Cowley that gave information about an horrific car crash in which the occupants of both cars died. The strange thing is that there was a girl in one of the cars with the same name as your girl. Do you think this is a coincidence? And do you want me to look further into this?” he asked.

Greg asked him if he would check out the story and see if there were any relatives he could talk to. Thanking Ted, he rang off and sat for a while with a grim look on his face. Julia had already left for the beauty salon she owned and as he worked from home as a freelance IT Consultant, he had the house to himself.

He decided to do some checking for himself.

At about the same time, Detective Inspector Steve Royal, Cathy’s friend, was speaking to Cathy. He too had found this other Barbara and wondered at the coincidence.

Cathy was concerned for Sandy and also for Barbara. She had really liked the girl and wouldn’t like to think she had done anything illegal. However, she asked whether Steve could check with the local police to see if there were any relatives that they could talk to. That done, she hurried round to Sandy to tell her of this development.

*****

That afternoon Barbara hit send on the computer. She had decided that the best policy was honesty and had told Sandy how she had known her daughter at work and how they became friends. She told her how devastated she was after the accident, and of going to the funeral. She assured Sandy that she meant no harm. She was looking for a family and thought that she could convince Sandy she was her long lost daughter. But now she realised that she had committed identity theft and was frightened that if she went any further she would cause more hurt to Sandy.

She finished by saying how very sorry she was to have opened the old wounds. She had enjoyed meeting Sandy and also had loved her friend Barbara. Sandy could be proud of her dead daughter. She didn’t really feel much better after sending the email. She had still committed an offence but as she hadn’t benefited from it financially or in any other way it was Identity Theft rather than Identity Fraud. During the afternoon she had taken the opportunity to discuss Identity Theft and Identity Fraud with one of the junior solicitors in the office and he had explained the difference to her. So she now had to deal with her own conscience rather than the law. She really felt bad about tricking Sandy as she had done.

*****

Sandy was surprised to see Cathy on a Monday morning and immediately asked what was wrong. Gently Cathy told Sandy of how she had asked her friend to do a little digging into Barbara. She said that they hadn’t come up with much but there was this girl with the same name who, with her parents, had died in a car crash a couple of months ago. They had no way of knowing if this was in any way connected to the Barbara they had met, but Cathy’s friend had agreed to talk to the local police in Crowley to see if there were any relatives they could contact.

Sandy sat there with her face contorted in shock. But before she could say anything the phone started ringing. Excusing herself she went to answer the call.

It was Greg passing on the information he had gained from his friend and he also had some further facts that he had gained himself. Could he come round now to see her?

Meantime, Cathy had decided that tea was called for and went to the kitchen to make some.

While Cathy was occupied in the kitchen the computer pinged and there was an email from Barbara. Sandy was too confused to read it. She decided to wait until Greg arrived and then the three of them could decide what to do and also read the email.

In no time, Greg was knocking on the door. Cathy went to let him in and they sat to discuss what they had learned.