Entry# 5: Standing at the Edge.......

"He's what?" my cousin asked.  I repeated myself.    This son of a bitch was married.  I started scrolling through dozens of photos of him and his wife at a park of some sort.  I noticed that there wasn't a bridal party or photos of a reception or ceremony.  I figured that they must have gone to the justice of the peace and then had photos taken afterwards.  There were photos of Jason and his wife on vacation in Disney with a little boy about three years of age. His son I presumed since the child looked just like him.  I shook my head at the thought that this man had a wife and kid and was actually acting as if he had neither one.  I quickly ran through past conversations in my mind and never once did a child ever come up.

I came across photos of other women some of which were nude photos and even a sex video that was taken.  One of the photos of the women caught my eye.  I clicked on the file to enlarge it and the woman looked very familiar to me.  I knew that I had seen her somewhere before but I couldn't put my finger on it.  Then it hit me.  It was the same woman that was staring at me at the coffee shop where I had first met Jason.  I now understood why she was staring us down.  She clearly had a vested interest in Jason. 

My cousin was asking me about the files and I was describing the photos to her when I saw a file labeled "resume."  I clicked open the document and at the top of the document in large letters was the name Geoffrey Franklin.   I read through the resume and it listed some random jobs and a 2 year technical degree.  "Girl, I think he lied about his name.  I think his name is Geoffrey."

"Is there a phone number or address?  If there is, Google it, "  Tammy said.

I researched the address, which of course did not match the one that Jason had given to me when I was trying to mail him the card.   It was linked to a cleaning business owned by a Terry Shuler.   Tammy suggested that we call the number to see who answered the phone.  So Tammy made a three-way call from her line and we anxiously waited for an answer as the phone rang.  On the fourth ring, a woman answered the phone.  Tammy asked to speak to Geoffrey regarding some cleaning products and the woman, who we assumed was his wife, asked us to hold.  A few seconds later, a man said hello and I sent a text to Tammy informing her that was indeed Geoffrey's, A.K.A,  Jason's voice.  My cousin gave him the run around and then she made up and excuse about her cell phone being in a bad area and that she would call him back.

My cousin asked me if I was okay.  I told her that I was in shock more than anything else.  She advised me that I needed to keep up appearances until I decided what to do.  I told her that was fine but I needed to find out who this mother effer was.  I told her that I would call her the next day.  Tammy was extremely apologetic to me and I think she was more upset than I was in that moment.  I was not ready to go to sleep as my mind was racing.  I decided to do some research to find out who this guy really was.  I entered his real name on Facebook and of course he had a page.  His profile picture was one of his wedding photos with his wife.  Apparently they got married a little over one year ago as he had a post about a great first anniversary.   I started by scrolling through his timeline and looking at his about page.  This guy listed where he worked and I made a note of it.  I saw that it said he was from a small town in Alabama.  He lied about where he was from.  The rat bastard had claimed he was from Miami.  I then clicked on the link that said family only to discover that he didn't have any sisters like he claimed, just a brother and a Facebook friend labeled as his mother.  Yes, his MOTHER.   I clicked on the link to his mother's page and the latest post was on Thanksgiving.  HIS MOTHER WAS VERY MUCH ALIVE.  She lived in Locust Grove, GA and had been living in Georgia for quite some time.

I moved onto the photos section of his page and there were a plethora of photos of his wife and son along with a variety of other family members.  When I decided that I had enough, I looked for a website that would help me put a trace on his cell phone number.  I came across one and put in the number only to discover that the phone was in his wife's name, Terry Shuler.  I then decided that I needed to go to bed because the information that I had come across was overwhelming.  I knew that I wanted to dig deeper, but I needed to get some sleep.  I sent my friend Melissa, my friend with access to the private investigator database, a text message letting her know that I needed her assistance and that I would call her in the morning.   I shut down my computer and said a quick prayer asking the Lord to help me not lose it and went to bed.

The next morning, I called Melissa and told her what happened.  I gave her all of the information that I had and asked her to see what she could find out.  I then logged back onto the internet and ran a people search on Geoffrey.  I found a site that for a small fee, I could pull records on up to five people.  I paid the fee and pulled Geoffrey, his wife, mother, mother-in-law and brother's records.  Geoffrey had quite a few court cases regarding refusal to pay rent.  His wife's record came up clean as well as his mother and mother-in-law.  His brother apparently had landlord issues as well.  I didn't see anything that looked like much of a red flag.  I saw Geoffrey's residential history and he had moved from Alabama to Atlanta in 2006.  He lived with his mother for a few years and then moved out and lived in several different apartment complexes in which he clearly didn't like to pay rent to live in.

I sat at my computer dumbfounded.  This jackass was willing to kill his own mother to get me to sympathize and let down my guard so he could tug at my heart strings just to pull off his charade of a life.   He truly created an entire world that did not exist.  His so called educational history was nonexistent.  Masters degree in computer engineering my ass, he had a two year degree from a technical school.  He lied about being in the music business.  He was nothing but boy who was aspiring to be in the world of hip hop and was willing to lie about it to make himself feel like he was big time.  The asshole claimed he knew all of these artists and clearly made up a bunch of bullshit stories trying to impress me.   And on top of it all, the jerk was married.  I needed to clear my head.  It was practically spinning with all sorts of thoughts about the whole situation.  I went looking for my ipod so I could play some music and try not to fall so deep into thought and I still couldn't find it.  I checked several handbags and it was nowhere to be found.  I was standing in the middle of my closet trying to remember the last time that I used it when my cell phone rang.  It was Melissa.  She had an update on Geoffrey.

I walked over to my bed and sat down as she began to run down the information.  The home that Geoffrey lived in was in his wife's name.  She was the one who bought the house; his name wasn't even on the deed.  His SUV was also in his wife's name.  The dude's credit was shot.  However, this information paled in comparison to what Melissa told me next.  Geoffrey had a record a mile long for credit card fraud, theft by taking, probation violation, and robbery.  He was arrested earlier in the year for probation violation.  He had been in and out of jail for several years mainly for credit card fraud.   That's when it hit me.  I told Melissa that I would call her back.  I then pulled up my credit card statement on line and checked the dates in which there were fraudulent charges.  The first charge date was the day after Geoffrey had left the flash drive at my house.   The first purchase that was made was at a gas station.  I checked the proximity of the gas station to his home address and it was less than ten miles away.   I looked more closely at the stores and realized that they were all located at a mall fifteen miles away from his home address.  I looked at the stores where there were charges and one of them was at Bakers Shoe store.  The son of a bitch used my card to buy me a pair of shoes as what I assumed would be my Christmas gift.  I knew for a fact based off of the photos of his wife that the shoes at that store were not her style.  She was a woman who dressed very conservatively. 

I began to wonder when he was able to take my credit card and then I thought back to the time when he insisted on using the shower in my bathroom as opposed to the guest bathroom down the hall.  No wonder he was so persistent.  He wanted to rifle through my things so he could steal my credit card and I had no doubt that he was the reason why my ipod was missing.  I then remembered the money that I gave him for the trip that he supposedly was planning.  In that moment, the scam became very clear and I became very angry.   At the time, I wasn't sure if I was more upset with the fact that I was endangering my own safety by being so trusting or the fact that I fell for a scam.  I think I was angrier at the fact that I fell for it.  There was no way in hell I was going to let this fraud get away with what he had done to me.  To think I let him into my home and let my guard down enough to trust his psycho ass.  I had a friggin' career criminal in my personal space without even knowing that was the case.  The more I thought about it, the more I literally began to see red.  I wanted to put his name on a bullet and paralyze him permanently.  I wanted to get into my car, drive to his house and run him over until he was no longer able to move.  I wanted to ruin his life.   I was going to ensure that he never would be able to pull such a scam on another woman ever again as I was sure that I was not his first victim but I damn sure was going to be his last.  

I decided that I was going to make his life a living hell and make him suffer before I put the final nail in the coffin.  I was going to expose him in the worst way possible and make him regret that he ever met me.  In order to pull this off, I had to enlist someone who I knew would do anything for me with no questions asked. I picked up my cell phone and called my best friend Omar.  He had a way of handling things but never told anyone how he did it.  I told him what was going on and he simply told me to give him the address.  I told him the only way that I would do that was if I was a part of whatever he had in mind.  I knew if anyone could help me with this matter, I knew it would be Omar and boy was I right.  We talked for awhile and came up with the ultimate plan of revenge that would make Geoffrey wish he never pulled this scam on me and that he would burn in hell for it in more ways than one.......

©All original content copyright Kim M. Washington, 2012-2013.