“You were right. There was an accomplice.”
Hotel security footage showed Julian entering the building with a blonde woman several hours before he approached my table.
The woman had later used a service elevator to reach our floor.
She had entered the room with a key card registered to a housekeeping employee who had reported it missing two weeks earlier.
The detectives also discovered that Julian was not his real name.
His name was Marcus Vale.
He had used at least four other identities.
And I was not his first victim.
Over the past eighteen months, several older women had reported nearly identical threats.
Widows.
Divorced women.
Women living alone.
Women who believed their children would judge them for wanting intimacy.
Most had paid.
None had told their families.
Marcus and his accomplice had built their entire scheme around one thing.
Shame.
Detective Morgan asked whether I would help them catch him.
