Southern Greed (18 page)

“Thanks,” She said. 
“
I didn’t want anyone else to see me.
”

Eugene came out of the bedroom after putting Ronnie back to bed and, when he saw Patty, he sighed, “What do you want, Patty?”

She started crying, “I’m sorry, Mr. Murphy.  I know you don’t like me and you’re probably not going to believe what I have to say.  But I just had to tell you what I heard.  I’
m
, sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

I put my arm around her and led her to the sofa, “
It’s
okay, honey.  Sit down here and tell us what you heard.”

I got some Kleenex and handed to her and she dried her e
yes.  I sat down beside her and Eugene sat across from us on an easy chair.

She looked down while she shredded the Kleenex
. “
The reason I didn’t tell you right away, Mr. Murphy
was because I didn’t know what was going on.  I didn’t know your baby was kidnapped, so I didn’t understand what I was hearing.
”

She looked at me, “Your first husband, Mr. Kramer, well when I was still in high school, me and some of my girlfriends came over to Tybee Island to the beach.  We saw Adam there, and followed him.  It was a stupid thing to do, I know, but we thought he was so good looking and we wanted to know who he was.

“He pulled into the parking lot of that little crab shack down
on
the beach and we went in and got some cokes and French fries and sat and watched him.  He didn’t even notice us.  Another man came in and joined him at the table he was sitting at and they started talking.

“We couldn’t hear what they were talking about but I did hear the other man say, ‘just don’t hurt her.’  I thought maybe Adam was dating the
other man’s sister and he wanted to make sure Adam treated her right.

“When you were arrested for your grandmother’s murder, there was a picture in the paper of you being taken out of this house in handcuffs by two men.  One of those men was the man with Adam that night.  It wa
sn’t t
he one who came to the grand opening of the resort.  It was the other one.”

Eugene frowned and I looked at him, “Detective Phillips came to the opening, Detective North didn’t.  So it’s Detective North.”

He nodded, “That means we’re in trouble.  If your ba
n
ker talked to Detective Phillips and he told his partner, then Adam knows we notified the police.”

I have never been so scared in all my life.  Adam knew we had called the police and now he was demanding more money and my baby might already be dead.

“We’ve got to somehow or other talk to Detective Phillips without his partner.  This can’t be handled like before.  Patty, neither detective knows you.  There were so many people at the opening, I doubt he noticed you.”

She interrupted me, “What if I go to the police station and ask to talk to Detective Phillips and try to get him alone.  Then I can explain everything to him.”

I looked at Eugene, “What do you think?”

He shook his head, “I just don’t know.  It sounds kind of risky. 
I believe Detective Phillips get
s
off at around 5:30.  Patty, do you think you could be there and follow him until you can get him alone and talk to him?  Adam doesn’t know you and I
doubt he is watching Detective
Phillips.  Follow him home at a discreet distance, park around the corner from his house, and go knock on the back door.”

“Yes, I think I can do that.  Y’all just leave it to me.  I really think I can do this.”

She went back to her room and we finally went to bed.  It was after four in the morning and I passed out from exhaustion.

CHAPTER
40

There was a loud pounding and I thought someone was nailing my coffin shut
,
.
  The knocking fit into the nightmare I was having.  B
ut
then realized someone was knocking on the door.

I rolled over and looked at the clock.  It was 7:34 a.m.  Eugene was already pulling on a pair of jeans.  I jumped up and threw on my robe and we went to the door together.

It was Patty, “Both the detectives are here.  They came in the back door. 
They want to talk to y’all.
  I didn’t let them see me.  Mrs. Hildebrandt let them in.
”

They wer
e sitting in the kitchen and
Mrs.
Hildebrandt was pouring them coffee.  When she saw us, she got two more cups down.

Detective Phillips added three heaping spoonfuls of sugar and blew on it and then took a sip, “I’m sorry to say w
e lost them.  When the nanny
left here we followed her car and
she drove across
the bridge and
down to the docks.

“
S
he parked her car and took the briefcase and
started running.  She ran into one of the warehouses and since all those buildings have back doors, we didn’t know which way she was headed.  Some of those buildings are interconnected and go up and down on several levels.  It’s very complicated. Have you ever been down there?”

We both shook our heads and he continued, “My partner and I decided to split up and we lost her.  I can’t tell you how sorry I am.  We called for backup and we all combed that area with a fine toothed comb but we couldn’t find hide
nor
hair of her.  We’ve been out all night looking.

“I’m going to go home and get some sleep.  I suggest you do the same thing, partner.”

I looke
d at Patty who had been listening from the kitchen but with her back to us
.  I don’t think either of them had noticed her.  She nodded
like she knew I was looking at her, even though her back was turned to me,
and left.  I assumed she would wait in her car for them to leave and then follow them.

After they were gone I told Mrs. Hildebrandt to let her assistants handle breakfast and for her to go take a nap.  She looked tired.  Eugene and I went back to bed also.

I was up at a quarter to nine and left for the bank.  I had to keep up the appearance that I was following instructions
.  I let Eugene sleep.

I went directly into Mr. Fogarty’s office and told him what was going on.  He gave me another briefcase filled with money in case we had to carry the charade that far.  I was hoping Detective Phillips would arrest his partner and maybe get him to talk, but he might have wanted to catch him red-handed.

When I got back, I locked the briefcase in the safe in our bedroom.
  Eugene was still sleeping and I didn’t wake him.  I went into my studio and tried to design clothes but I couldn’t concentrate.

I put my head on my desk and cried.
  I felt so helpless and everything seemed so hopeless.  I thought I was done and then a fresh wave of grief overtook me and I cried still harder until I felt a hand
on my shoulder.  When I looked up and saw Eugene I tried to quit crying but I just couldn’t.  He held me until I was cried out.

I had gotten his tee shirt soaking wet.  I laughed as I tried to dry it with my hands.  I noticed he had his manuscript under his arm and when I looked up at him with a question in my eyes, he put it on my desk.

“I’ve been selfish, Kathy.  Jeannie is more important than this manuscript.  I want us to read this together and maybe we can find something to help us.”

“You can still publish it even if I read it, Eugene
.  It’s not one thing or the other
.”

“All right, let’s just do one thing at a time.”

I started reading out loud and what struck me first was that Eugene was a wonderful writer.  The way he
put
words together was unlike anything I had ever seen.  I thought to myself that
he was going to be a best-selling author and he would be able to support us just fine after I gave all the dirty money to charity.

We mostly scanned the manuscript but I was looking forward to reading the book.  The first part was about Grace’s life as a little girl growing up with everything she ever wanted.

She talked about her marriage and her son and her life in general throughout the years.  It wasn’t until the last few chapters that she began to talk about where the money came from and how she found out about the pirating, the prostitution,
the gambling, the money laundering, the bootlegging during prohibition, and the drugs.

I looked at Eugene when I read this part aloud and he dropped his head.  “I was caught between the need to get my book published and the love I had for you.  I thought you wanted to live in this mansion and be rich.  I wanted to
make you happy but, at the same time, I wanted to publish the book.  I didn’t know if you would want the money if it was dirty.”

When I frowned, he tried to explain more, “I didn’t say that right.  I didn’t think you would want the money if you found out where it came from but I didn’t want you to read my manuscript until it became a book.  I was selfish.”

“No, I think I understand.  I really do, Eugene.  I don’t like for people to see my designs until they are done.  But now that I do know, I don’t want any part of this money and I’m glad you don’t either.
  I want a simple life but maybe we can eventually afford to have a house with a swimming pool.”

We both laughed and it relieved the tension.
  He patted my knee and said, “Let’s go lose ourselves in each other for awhile.  Mrs. Hildebrandt volunteered to watch Ronnie so he’s up in her quarters.”

“That was so sweet of her, but she needs to get some rest.  She’s not that young and she was up in the middle of the night making coffee.”

He shrugged, “She wanted to.  You know how much she loves you.  She would do anything for you”

We made love with the desperation of two starving people and then held each other afterward and fell asleep.

We slept until after three and I awoke with a start and sat up in bed, “Eugene, they haven’t come for the money. 
It’s after three.  They haven’t come for the money and we haven’t heard from Patty or Detective Phillips.  What does it mean?”

“Calm down, honey.  It could mean anything.  Remember, Regina didn’t come until late yesterday.  The police are probably waiting for her to get here and they’re probably setting up a sting operation to bring down Detective North.”

We went into the kitchen and raided the refrigerator and Mrs. Hildebrandt found us and said, “I would have fixed you a proper dinner or supper or whatever it is you’re having.”

“You’ve already done enough, Mrs. Hildebrandt.  Where is Ronnie by the way?”

She dropped her head and smiled.  I looked at Eugene and he had a puzzled look on his face just like I must have.

“Well,” She said.  “
There was a man came by selling puppies and I got one for Ronnie.  He’s in your suite playing with it.”

We took our sandwiches with us and when we got to our suite we found Ro
nnie on the floor giggling as
a
Golden Retriever puppy crawled all over him.

CHAPTER 4
1

It was almost nine o’clock and w
e were watching Ronnie play with the dog when someone knocked softly on our door.
I opened the door to find Regina Walker, the nanny standing there wringing her boney hands.

“She looked over her shoulder before stepping into our suite,
“I came for the money,” She said.  “But you’ve got to call the police.  He plans to kill her as soon as we get the money.  I didn’t know he would go this far.”

Eugene and I sat there in shock while she continued, “I don’t know what to do.  He said he loved me and we were going away together.  He was going to marry me.  I’ve never had anyone pay any attention to me before, especially someone like him.”

Eugene got up and took Ronnie to bed saying, “We need to give the dog a rest, son.”  The dog followed them into Ronnie’s bedroom.  Ne
ither of us said
anything until
Eugene came back and handed her the briefcase.

I was so angry I didn’t have any sympathy for her, although I could identify with her.  I had lost my head and agreed to help Adam pull a scam.  He could be very charming.

She kept standing there like she wanted to say more.  We watched her and Eugene joined me on the sofa.  She was twisting the handle of the briefcase and she finally said, “There’s something else.  Detective North is a dirty cop.  He plans to get rid of the body in exchange for two million dollars and he has false ID just like all of us.”

We didn’t let on that we knew about North.  We waited to see what Regina was going to do.  It seemed that we all were at a loss as to what should be our next move.

“I want to turn myself in,” She finally said. 
“
But I don’t know how to
set it all up.  I know I’ll have some jail time but I don’t want anything to do with murder.  It was different taking money from you, you had plenty.  You wouldn’t even miss it.  But I want no part of this here.”