Jasmine & Elijah: a Catfish Story

Chapter Six: Research

Nev POV

Monday morning, I awoke to an email from Jasmine. Attached were several links directed to Elijah's social media pages along with a list of information she'd accumulated over the years. She explained that Elijah was an only child of divorced parents and that he lived on his own in Syracuse, New York. She also mentioned that he worked as a customer service representative at Best Buy and was attending university online for a Computer Engineering degree. She assured us that we could call her at anytime with further questions, but I was sure that we already had plenty to work with.

"Let's start off with his Facebook," I suggested, copying and pasting Elijah's profile URL into the search bar. Max nodded in approval as he directed his digital camera toward the computer screen. Sure enough, Elijah Lee's timeline began loading and eventually filled the screen. His picture wasn't quite what I'd expected; catfish typically stole their pictures from some Instagram model, but this guy looked average.

Max voiced my thoughts aloud. "Wow, he must have a great personality. Jasmine's way out of this guy's league."

The cameramen behind us laughed in concurrence, but I couldn't help feeling disturbed by the profile. Elijah's actions had "catfish" written all over them, yet his Facebook profile seemed legitimate. He had several hundred friends added, pages of tagged photos from multiple accounts, and dozens of likes and comments on his pictures and statuses. Failing to meet these guidelines was usually a dead giveaway, but Elijah had passed the Facebook test.

Determined to find something suspicious elsewhere, I closed out of Elijah's timeline and went to my phone to search through his Instagram. Once again, I found myself shocked by the authenticity of his page. He was following 547 users and had 718 followers himself, consequently putting him above the line of suspicion by a long shot. Like his Facebook, he was also tagged in a multitude of photos coming from several authentic looking accounts. Max seemed to have noticed the frustration in my eyes because suddenly, he was pulling the laptop toward himself and returning to Elijah's Facebook page.

"Might as well try a reverse image search," he muttered as he right-clicked and saved several of Elijah's uploaded photos. I knew he was trying to help, but I didn't have much confidence in the method with the photos we were dealing with. The reverse image search had been a significant help in many of our past cases, but Elijah's pictures seemed too average to be from a noteworthy internet page or profile. As predicted, the photos yielded no results.

"No luck," Max exclaimed, playing up his shock for the cameras. "Nev, try contacting the Best Buy he works at. I bet that'll give us something."

Agreeing to his suggestion, I closed out of Elijah's Instagram and opened Google search. I typed "Syracuse Best Buy" into the search bar and waited for several locations to load. Fortunately, Syracuse was a smaller city and only had two stores to choose from. Tapping the phone number of the first option, I hit speaker-phone immediately and listened to the dial tone in anticipation. After a few seconds, the bored voice of a young man mumbled a greeting.

"ThankyouforcallingBestBuythisisJacobhowmayIhelpyou."

"Hi, Jacob. I was hoping to speak to Elijah Lee. Is he available?"

My question was preceded by a long pause, probably because he'd never worked with an Elijah Lee before and didn't know how to answer. However, my assumption was quickly refuted as the employee got back on the line. "Nah, he's off today. He'll be working again on Thursday."

I muttered a "thank you" and promptly ended the call, disconcerted by what I'd just been told. Max looked taken aback as well, an ajar mouth exhibiting his shock. Contrary to our expectations, the phone call confirmed that Elijah was currently employed at a Syracuse Best Buy and that more importantly the guy really existed. Lost for words, I looked to Max to provide commentary.

"Well, it's really beginning to look like we have a real guy who's just a sucky boyfriend."

...

A/N: Hello readers! I would truly love and appreciate if you'd leave a vote on this story so I can know that all the writing is paying off! Feedback is what encourages me to keep going and get chapters published fast. :) Peace and much love xx