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Chapter 536 Image Search
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Tara knew that Dr. Namid was who he claimed to be because he was prominent in the medical community, but she had no idea if Eric was the children's book author he claimed to be since there were no pictures of the writer. Deepening her doubts about his identity, he wrote under a pen name.
She had been such an idiot to take him at his word and not check him out. What the hell was wrong with her? It was the damned Charming effect. It was a small town, so there was an assumption that everyone was who they said they were. If she had met him in Chicago, she would have been immediately suspicious and checked him out. Being back in safe little Charming had caused her to let her guard down. After the Kohn nightmare, she should know better.
She needed a picture of Eric to run a facial recognition program on him to see if there was anything out there that matched him. Getting a picture of him was going to be easy. She knew enough about him to know where he might be and when he might be there.
Eric was a cheapskate and he loved nothing more than Thursday's early bird steak special at the Blue Bird Café just off Main Street. If she ate there every Thursday during the early bird special she was bound to run into him. Since she had her Thursday afternoon off, she went to the Blue Bird Café got a table that would allow her to see who came through the door and hoped she would get lucky and he would appear soon.
Tara caught a break. She'd planned on spending the whole two hours during the early bird special in the café and, just as she ordered an appetizer of crisp onion rings in a light tempura-like batter and a glass of iced tea, he walked in the door. She quickly told the waitress that she would order the rest of her meal when she got the onion rings.
She grabbed her phone from her handbag and pretended to be looking at it while she took pictures of him. If she took enough, she was bound to get something usable. And then he did the unexpected; he walked over to her table and smiled at her.
"Mind if I join you," he leaned down and looked at her.
"I thought I made it clear that I never wanted to speak to you again," Tara said loudly to cover the soft click as she took pictures. This was better than she could have dreamed. If there was an image on the internet of him, she'd have the pictures to find it.
"We always came here when we were together," he said. "I thought you being here was a sign."
"Yeah, I like cheap food. Now get the hell away from me," Tara said her voice still loud as she kept her eyes on her phone as she took pictures of him.
"You don't have to be such a bitch, Tara. No wonder you can't get a date."
"I deserve better than you," Tara snapped. "Every woman does."
He snorted and returned to the hostess to be seated. She was delighted to see that he sat as far away from her as possible. Conceited bastard.
Tara focused on enjoying her onion rings, her Caesar salad and a small rib eye steak—her favorite steak. The pictures of Eric were so good; she rewarded herself with a piece of Black Forest cheesecake to go. Eric gulped his meal down and left before she had even finished her salad. He definitely looked uncomfortable.
Tara first tracked down the real writer of the children's books Eric claimed he wrote. She was an eighty year old retired librarian who had been writing her books since she was twelve. She'd finally gotten published when she was almost seventy.
It took Tara a couple of hours to download a facial recognition program and run Eric's photos through it. The results couldn't have been more shocking. It turned out Eric was his real name, but he also had another professional name—Jimmy Swallows. It was a good name for his job as a gay porn star. Among his movies were Jimmy Swallows and the Hand Job Police and Jimmy Swallows Takes Three for the Team.
She stared at the title images from his movies and began laughing so hard she was gasping for air. That explained why there was so much awkwardness. It wasn't her! What a relief.
She found a disturbing movie he'd made called Paradise Farm—Where the Men are Men and the Sheep are Nervous. He was seen looking lustfully at a sheep.
This time, Tara didn't laughter. There was nothing funny about a man forcing himself on a poor helpless animal. For a moment she wondered if Dr. Namid and his buddy Eric/Jimmy had special play times together where they played barnyard sex games together. Now that was funny. She wondered if Dr. Namid played the part of the sheep.
She didn't care what Dr. Namid did with Eric/Jimmy. It wasn't any of her business. Was that the reason for their odd behavior when she caught them together? It seemed like an overreaction. It had only made her suspicious.
There was still a little bit of a mystery. Why did Eric even bother to date her? Looking back with this new information, she realized she always felt like a chore for him and not a particularly pleasant one.
The next time Dr. Namid was being a bastard to her, which was almost daily, she was going to tell him about Eric's other life as Jimmy Swallows gay and bestiality porn star.
She chuckled imagining the look on his face.