Chapter 8
THE GHOST
Rebekah, with extreme difficulty, got me up at noon and I went to the office. I wanted to follow up on the information General Burton had given me on Melba Thorn. I pulled out the piece of paper with her son's name and number on it and began to dial the telephone. It rang several times and then a man answered.
"Hello, this is Robert Thorn."
"Hi Mr. Thorn, this is Stan Turner, I'm an attorney and I'm calling about your mother."
"My mother?"
"Yes, Melba Thorn."
"My mother's been dead for over two years."
His words left me speechless. How could his mother be dead? My heart began pounding in my chest. What was going on?
"Did you say your mother is dead?"
"Yes, she is, so what's this all about?"
"Well, that’s really strange. A woman has been calling me claiming to be your mother and asking me to help her."
There was a momentary silence on the line. Finally, Mr. Thorn said, "That's ridiculous. Who would do such a thing?"
"I don't know, but I'd sure like to find out. You don't have any ideas do you?"
"No, absolutely not, the whole thing is absurd," he said. "What did this woman say she wanted?" Thorn asked.
"She said she was being held against her will by members of her family and she wanted me to help her regain her freedom."
"That is totally ludicrous. Aside from the fact that my mother is dead, no one in our family would have ever held her against her will."
"I don't doubt that Mr. Thorn, but I'm just telling you what the woman told me. What I don't understand is why this impostor called me."
"Who are you, anyway?" Thorn asked.
"Just an attorney here in north Dallas. I've just recently started a law practice."
"Is this some kind of a shakedown? Are you after something?"
"No," I said. "I'm just trying to figure out what's going on."
"I'd suggest you forget the whole thing. I don't want you snooping into our family's business."
"Well, I'm sorry I bothered you. I guess it must have been a prank."
"Apparently so," Thorn said. "Someone's got a strange sense of humor."
"Very strange," I replied, "Well, . . . thanks for the information, good bye."
Mr. Thorn's revelation that his mother was dead stunned me. Either Robert Thorn was a liar or I had been talking to a ghost. Not being a believer of the supernatural I opted for the falsehood. I had no choice now but to find Melba Thorn or her impostor no matter how difficult that might be. As I was pondering my next move the phone rang.
"I'm Martha Sweet from the office of the United States Postal Inspectors."
"Yes."
"We're conducting an investigation into the activities of Gena Lombardi and we understand you are her attorney."
"Well, I'm her bankruptcy attorney."
"We want to arrange a time to meet with you and her to discuss her case. We've gathered a lot of evidence and we wanted to discuss the possibility of a plea bargain."
"Gee, I'd like to help you, but I'm not a criminal attorney. I'm just handling her bankruptcy."
"Well, we'd like to talk to someone so we can avoid having to go for an indictment."
"What did she do anyway?"
"We've got a lot of complaints from people out of state who sent her money for tickets and travel packages but never got the merchandise. I guess you know it's a federal offense to use the United States mail in any kind of fraudulent scheme."
"Well, I'll call her and see if I can find out who’s going to represent her in this matter. I think she has a criminal attorney. Maybe he'll be handling this case too."
"Let us know real soon, otherwise we'll just have no choice but to go for an indictment and arrest her."
"Okay, I'll call her right now."
"Thanks. Good bye."
The last thing I wanted to do was call Gena but I had no choice. I pulled out her file, found her number and called her.
"I just got a call from Martha Sweet at the Postal Inspector's office," I said. "They say they are investigating you for mail fraud."
"What?" Gena replied. "I've already told that bitch that it wasn't my fault. You know I told you about Tony taking all my money. Well some of that money was from customers for tickets and hotel rooms and obviously since Tony took the money I couldn't buy them. There wasn't anything fraudulent about it."
"Well, it sounds like you may have a good defense but you need to get your criminal attorney to call Martha Sweet."
"He won't take any more cases from me."
"Why?"
"I don't know. He's just a jerk. He says I'm not a good client. Can you believe that?"
I laughed to myself. "No. Why aren't you a good client?"
"He says I don't listen to him and I don't pay my bills."
"Well you can't blame him for wanting to get paid."
"I've already paid him over $5,000. You'd think he would cut me a little slack while I'm down."
"Well, you need to find someone to defend you."
"Why can't you do it?" Gena asked.
"For starters I don't practice criminal law and secondly I'm kind of fond of getting paid myself."
"Well that's okay, I've got another problem that you can handle."
"Oh really, what would that be."
"Did you look in your mail today? My mortgage company is trying to foreclose on my house."
"Have you paid them since we filed bankruptcy?"
"No."
"Well, I told you you've got to pay them each month from now on. The bankruptcy only takes care of the past arrearage."
"But I don't have the money."
"Then you'll have to let the house go."
"I can't do that. I've got to have the house."
"Then you better come up with money to pay the mortgage company otherwise there is nothing I can do to help you."
"Great. You're a big help."
"I'm sorry, I just practice law, I don't perform miracles."
"Okay, I'll go try scrape up some money somewhere."
"Good. See you later."