Thanks for the feedback.

Don't worry, the last thing I would ever do would be to get into ANY financial dealings with these folks! I wouldn't even do that with friends whom I didn't know had a history of scamming/conning others, much less with someone who did. Friends and money can be a very sticket wicket, and I don't mix 'em.

It would be very hard to be friends with Kathy without Bill. I don't even have a phone number for her as we've always corresponded via email when planning lunches and such in the past. They are together all the time. Even though I am 95% sure she was not involved in his scams, she is a nurse by trade and may have a "rescuer" type of personality and feel she can save him. And he may have even convinced her that there was nothing wrong with some of what he was doing. I am not sure. I don't really want to have lunch with her and sit around discussing Bill. I had already written them off as friends when I found out about his past and when she left the island -- I never expected to see her again, to be honest.

Here in Belize, it is my understanding that AA is attended by people with a variety of compulsive disorders. It's not like the states where there are different groups for overeaters, sex addicts, drug addicts, etc. AA is pretty much a catch-all here as it is all that is available, besides church. Kathy did say that they are attending church here as well.

I do see what you mean, irulan, about him not being able to "make amends" from here -- good point. I just don't know the entire situation.

I did have a long discussion with my DH about this, and after talking, he realized he was still uncomfortable with Bill as well -- so for now I'm just going to write a quick reply to her email thanking her for some bookstore info she gave me and telling her how happy we can tell that Bill is to have her back on the island. I am not going to mention lunch. If it comes up again, like if we run into them in town, I may have to talk to her further about our discomfort, but I'm hoping she'll just get the message when I don't respond to that part of her email. She had to assume that that was a possibility when she wrote me, I'd hope.

I realize that email may be kind of impersonal, but as we were new friends, more on a casual basis than a deep friendship, I don't feel bad about handling it this way rather than in person. If we had a long history, it would be different, but this was just a quick friendship we struck up based on all being here on the island together. It's a small island and expats tend to strike up friendships quickly, but they are usually pretty casual as people come and go here frequently.