Bacardi Girl

If Johnny knew anything, he knew how to scam… he could make a buck or two out conning even the thriftiest person on the planet.

He had charm, he had grace and most of all he had the looks. Hearts would melt and bingo he’d lay his trap again.

He would never stay too long in one place… cos Johnny knew staying too long would be his fate. From town to town he would roam, looking for his next target.

He knew it wouldn’t be long before his sob story broke the heart of his next victim and the money would roll in. Once he got what he wanted, he would pack up and head for the next town.

His mum, God rest her soul, died early and he was his father’s tool to scam the rich and even the poor. His father never cared who he scammed just as long as the cash came rolling in. Prior to him following in his father’s footsteps, he soon began to realise there was little money in petty theft, so scamming it would be.

So, day by day, and year by year, he would find another victim… to whom he would play his evil game upon… and then walk away from with the proceeds.

Slyly he would play the game until it was time to leave with a healthy bank balance, without any shame or remorse. He was cold and calculating and didn’t care about anyone only himself. In fact, he believed he was a better scammer than his father was.

Then it finally happened….

Johnny found his next victim, a teller at the local bank, he never planned on finding love ever in his life, but she was different, and Johnny found himself falling in love with this beautiful woman. He had never felt love like this before.

His whole life, had always been rocky, even from the day he was born, with his mother dying from alcohol poisoning when he was 2.

His new found love would listen, she showed compassion and would cradle him in her arms as he spoke about his father and how he was forced to keep on moving from town to town with his father, who was a scammer and preying on vulnerable middle-aged women. He told her how he worked hard for a living, never wanting to tread in his father’s footsteps.

Love blossomed and for once in his whole life… he couldn’t bring himself to scam another person, for fear of losing this wonderful human being who had walked into his life and made him feel complete.

He would do anything for this woman, he would die for her, he would give up his life as a scammer. Over the months he became respectable as he did an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. All he had accumulated from his various scams; stayed in his saving account, never touched or used. In his mind, this money was cursed and he wasn’t going to take risks, no more.

Together they planned their future. Things were great, life couldn’t be better, he was happy and not once did he feel the need to return to his old life. They were so in love and so happy until her dreaded ex turned up and demanded she sell the house.

Johnny couldn’t stand by and do nothing, as his future wife lay in bed shedding tears over the demands that her ex was making on her. Night after night she would lay and cry… and he would console her and wipe away her tears, whilst cradling her in his arms and reassuring her it would be OK.

On this particular morning after hearing her sob into the early hour’s things became clear to him, so over breakfast, he knew what he had to do.

Knowing he was away on business for a week, and couldn’t stand being away from his love. Especially knowing how she cried at night over her ex-husband’s demands and how she would continue to cry all the time he was away.

With him not being there, this was the only one thing he could do to fix it. It was the only way he knew, that would protect her from what her ex might do, as he appeared to be getting more aggressive with every demanding letter.

He handed her a cheque written out for the entire sum of $50,000 that her divorced ex-husband had demanded. This being the illicit money earnt from his years of scamming, and the money he vowed never to touch for fear of it coming back and haunting him and destroying the life he now had.

She told him she couldn’t take it and Johnny begged her to finally get rid of that ex of hers, as he headed out of the door to on his business trip, whilst tenderly whispering in her ear, ‘I’ll see you when I get home on Friday. Now ring Jake and pay that man off. So, when I return, we can plan our future, our wedding and our new life together. She smiled and whispered back… ‘OK’

As he returned home in the early hours of Saturday morning, due to flight delays, he put his key in the latch and cried out in sheer horror as he switched the light on.

The house was completely empty and the love of his life had vanished with all of hers and his possessions.

Little did he know as he boarded the plane that fateful day, that her so-called best friend Jake, who was her solicitor, was also her lover. It was Jake who had furnished her with fake documents with regards to her ex’s settlement and demands. And if that wasn’t a bitter pill to swallow, the truth that Jake was not just a fake solicitor, he was also her husband, and they were still legally married, just stuck in his throat and made him feel physically sick.

He soon realised, that today was Karma Day, cos the scammer has now been scammed. Oh, the wonder of hindsight, he should have seen it coming. How the hell could he go to the Police? He couldn’t… he had to accept the fact she was a better scammer than him.