I decided to put Rebecca off for a few days so I could wait until the end of the month and use some of the money for rent. In the meantime, she tried to make a last effort at the money:

Wednesday, June 21, 2006 10:37 AM

Hello you have not responded to my email. I hope everything is alright. Did you mail my brothers money yesterday? Please let me know.

Thanks,
Rebecca

That was the last I heard from her. She probably thought the guy proved the money was his and figured it best to quietly fade away. So I'm hoping to reel her back in.

Rebecca,

Sorry it took so long to reply. That other guy said he would be able to show me his withdrawal slip and even have the bank pull the surveillance video to prove it was his, so I started to think that he must have been telling the truth.

But after I asked him to just show me the slip, he dropped off the map completely, so it sounds like he was just bluffing and trying to get your brother's money.

Anyway, I'm sorry it's taken so long to get it to you.

Unfortunately, I ran into a little bit of a problem with my car, and I had to use the money that I would normally use to pay the rent to fix it, so I got into a little of a jam, and since I hadn't heard from you in so long, I went ahead and used $600 of what I found to pay my rent.

I'm really sorry, but I figured that since your brother was unreachable somewhere in Europe, it wouldn't really make a difference to him whether the money came back this week or when I get paid again in two weeks. It just seemed like fate had led me to the money when I needed it the most.

Anyway, I'm definitely going to pay it back, so I wanted to send you what I still have. The $600 for my rent plus the $50 reward he wanted to give me plus the postage to send it leaves $124.61 that I can send now. Should I make the check out to your brother or your parents? Or do you just want me to send the cash? It seems a little risky, but whatever you want, I'm willing to do, because I know this has been such a drawn-out drama for you.

Anyway, I'm really sorry it's taken so long. Just let me know what you want me to do next.

--Brian

It didn't occur to me until just now that my math up there was off, but it seems extra funny, so I'm going to go ahead and send it that way anyway.

Assuming she takes the bait, I've a got a really good plan for about two e-mails from now.