Southern Greed (17 page)

“Did you tell anyone else about them?”

“Well, I didn’t tell anyone but one time when I was treasure hunting, the door into one of the other bedrooms opened and Mr. Adam was in there.  He had been looking for his shoes under the bed and saw the button and pushed it.  He got mad at me for hiding in there.”

“What was he doing in another bedroom, looking for shoes under someone else’s bed?” I wondered to myself.  He must have slept with many women under this same roof.

“Ronnie, when you say you were trea
sure hunting, what did you mean?
 
You already knew where the treasures
were.”

“I knew where the main treasures were but I used to find pieces of jewelry hidden in the passages close to the bedrooms.  I had found a bracelet that day.  I found some notes sometimes too.”

I got excited, “Did you keep the notes?”

He hesitated and I knew that sometimes little boys kept a stash of things they didn’t want grownups to see.

“I’m not going to take them from you, but I need to see them.”

He got up and took my hand.  He led me to his room and crawled under the bed.  He pulled out a cigar box and opened it.  I caught sight of a few marbles, rubber bands, an
Indian arrow
head, a few baseball cards,
the
kind of things that little boys tend to collect.  He rummaged into the box and
brought out a stack of notes bound together with a rubber band.

He took the rubber band off and handed the notes to me saying, “I didn’t understand some of them but I think the pirates wanted to smooch with the ladies who lived here.

He was right.  T
hey were love notes.
  These men were from all over the world, apparently.  One said, “Sorry I missed you, lassie.  Here is a token of my esteem, just a little trinket.  Hope it fits your pinkie.”

Some were sexua
lly explicit and I was glad
Ronnie didn’t understand them.  Did I now
have prostitution
to ad
d
to the si
ns of my ancestors?  I wondered what else, there was and if
my grandmother knew about them.

I
could see that Ronnie was getting antsy and I t
old him to go back out and swim
and
went to find Eugene.  I needed to read my grandmother’s memoirs.  I found him talking to one of
the employees who worked the front desk.  Her name was Patty and we had hired here right out of high school.  She thought she knew everything and we had talked about getting rid of her.

As
I walked up, I heard Eugene
saying, “I don’t care if you are right. 
L
et the guests believe they are right.  It’s not that important to be right all the time, Patty.  You’ll understand this as you get older.”

She walked off in a huff and he saw me and smiled, shaking his head.

“I need to read my grandmother’s memoirs.”

He shook his head, “I don’t let anyone read my manuscript until it is finished.  Wait a little while.  I don’t have much more to go.”

I felt frustrated, “Could you just tell me this?  Did she talk about how her grandfather made his fortune?”

He got a twinkle in his eyes, “Boy
did
she
ever!
”

“If I guess it, would you tell me if I’m right?”

He hesitated and the said, “Well, all right but don’t tell anyone else.”

“Did her family make their fortune through piracy and prostitution?”

He laughed, “Among other things.
  By the way, I decided to let Ronnie stay home from school today.
”

“I know
,
I already talked to him.”  As I walked off, I threw over my shoulder, “Ask him to show you his treasures, especially the notes.”

So I came from a bunch of criminals and now I was enjoying the profits from all that.  And now my daughter had been kidnapped because of the money.
  That fat producer was going to exploit my life for money and even the woman I thought was my mama was going to cash in.

I was getting angry.  A simple life looked inviting.  A life where you could work, save up to buy things you
wanted and have children without the fear of them getting kidnapped.

CHAPTER 3
8

By two o’clock in the afternoon, we still hadn’t heard from Adam.  I figured he was making us wait just to put our nerves on edge.  But I was glad he had waited.  It gave the police time to, hopefully, set up a trap.  I had warned of secret passages in the note I had slipped to the banker, Mr. Fogarty.

I had no way of knowing which passageway he would be coming in and I didn’t know which staff member would let him in.  I was hoping t
he police were guarding the only
entrance leading up from the beach. 
I had included that in my note also. 
I doubted they would arrest him right then and there but would follow him so he would lead them to Jeannie.

I was a nervous wreck.  All I could think about was my little girl and how she was so innocent and trusting of everyone.  I was trying to hold it together but every time Eugene looked at me with sympathy and tears in his eyes, I would break down.

He held me and we cried together
.  O
nce, when Ronnie found us like that, he hugged us both and cried as well.

We waited all day and Adam never showed up.
  That night we had supper brought to our apartment but we only picked at it.  We were quiet but then I thought of something I had been meaning to ask Eugene.

“Eugene, where
did you find Regina, anyway, I
’ve been meaning to ask you.”

He had the coffee cup halfway to his lips,
but put it back into the saucer.  He looked totally confused. 
“You didn’t hire her?”

When I slowly shook my hea
d,
he said, “Oh, no.  I should have checked with you to make sure.  I’m so sorry, Kathy.  It was just before the grand opening.  Sh
e came to the desk and said that
you had hired her and told her to see me when she got here.

“It was just before the grand opening and you know how hectic everything was.  I didn’t see you around, so I set her up in the nanny’s quarters…” His voice trailed off.

I took his hand to try and reassure him as I told the rest of the story from where I came in, “I found her in the nursery later in the day and she introduced herself to me.  She said you had hired her but that if I wanted to continue to look around, she would understand.

“The kids seemed to like her already so I trusted your judgment.  It’s not your fault, Eugene.  It’s no one’s fault.”

Ronnie spoke up, “She played good games with us but sometimes she pinched us.”

“She pinched you, son?
  Why didn’t you tell us?”

“She told me you said for her to do that if we misbehaved, dad.”

Eugene sighed, “Never let anyone hurt you again, son.  You tell me or Kathy right away.
  I would never tell anyone to pinch you or hit you or be mean to you in any way.
”  He looked at me and shook his head, “I can’t believe we let that tiny scrap of a girl fool us like that.”

I was silent for a longtime and they didn’t speak either.  It was as if they were waiting for me to speak.  “When this is over, I don’t want to live like this anymore.
  I don’t want someone else taking care of our kids.  I don’t want someone taking our kids for money.”

I was crying hard as I continued, “Everything bad that’s happened to me
these last few years was because of this damn money.  I feel like
it’s
dirty money and I feel dirty spending it.  My little
girl
was taken for the money, my own mama, or the lady who raised me, is trying to exploit me for money.  I ended up marrying an evil man who was after the money
”

Neither one of them said anything as I stopped speaking and broke down onc
e again.  When I dried my eyes
I smiled at both of them, “You two are the only good things that have come into my life as a side effect of the money.”

Eugene paused before asking slowly, “What kind of life do you want, Kathy?”

“I want a regular house where just the four of us can live a modest life.  I don’t care about any of these things anymore.”

“Thank God,” He said and took me into his arms.

“Can we still have a swimming pool?” Ronnie asked and we laughed and just then Regina walked in.

“
I’m glad you can laugh about it. 
Adam sent me to get the money,” She said.  “Oh, and by the way, your mama sends her regards.
”

I picked up the briefcase and shoved it at her and she caught it and laughed.  “Oh, one more thing, we’ve decided this won’t be enough.  By the time we pay for everything we need to skip the country,
we’ll need more for each of us.  Adam figures another 10 million will do it.”

“I’ll tell you what, you no good piece of white trash,
I’ll
give you 20 million.  Or will that be enough?  How about 50?  How much is enough?”

Eugene put his hand on my knee and whispered in my ear, “Don’t lose your cool.  Promise her anything she wants.”

“You’ll have to wait until the bank opens again in the morning,” I told her
,
“
and I
will get you 20 million if you’
ll just not hurt my baby.
”

She picked up the briefcase and as she was leaving she said, “I’ll be in touch.”

CHAPTER 3
9

We waited until after midnight and still the police didn’t call or show up.  Ronnie finally fell asleep on the sofa and Eugene picked him up and put him to bed.

“I don’t know if we should take a chance and call the police or not,” I told Eugene when he got back.  “If one of the staff is listening in or watching us, we’ll tip them off.”

“Why don’t we start questioning
the staff?
”

“Most of them have already gone to bed, Eugene.  The only ones who are
up are the skeleton crew on the front desk.”

“I don’t care.  We’ll wake them up.  Let’s wake them up, Kathy and interrogate them.”

We had had an intercom system put in so we could call any of the staff when we wanted them even if they were in their rooms.  Eugene got on that and told everyone to meet us in the largest dining room.

“I’m going to wake up Ronnie,” I said.  “I don’t want him to be in here by himself.”

As soon as I woke him up, he got excited, “This is just like in the movie, The Pink Panther.  I saw it once on the late show on TV
w
hen you were on your honeymoon.
  Nanny let us stay up late but Jeannie fell asleep.  I don’t think she liked it anyway.”

Some of the staff had gotten dressed but most hadn’t bothered.  Mrs. Hildebrandt had put on what looked
like a man’s bathrobe.  “Should I put on some coffee, Kathy?”

I nodded and she motioned for a couple of the young girls who helped her in the kitchen to follow her.

We let everyone talk among themselves while we waited for the coffee which didn’t take long.  They also brought an assortment of pastries.  I couldn’t help but smile at Mrs. Hildebrandt.  She was so efficient.

I let Eugene lead the meeting and
he
started off by saying, “Some of you may know what’s been going on and some of you might now.  I’m going to fill you in.

“Adam Kramer, his sister, Susan, his lover
,
Rachael, and his mother, Mrs. Dover has kidnapped our little girl, Jeannie.”

I watched their reactions carefully.  Most of them looked shocked and they started to talk among themselves.
  My eye caught Patty’s, the know-it-all and
she looked away.  She wasn’t talking to anyone else.

Eugene continued, “Does anyone know anything
at all
about any of this?  Maybe you heard something and didn’t think anything about it at time but now, looking back, it could mean something.

“Don’t worry about speaking up and then finding out what you suspected was nothing.  Or if you want to talk to us after this meeting in private, that will be fine too.  We’re grasping at straws here.  We can’t go to the police.  They said they would kill her.”

I heard several people gasp, but no one said anything.  Eugene and I looked at each other and I could see the frustration in his eyes that I was feeling myself.

We were getting ready to go to bed when there was a knock on the door to our suite.  I put on a robe and opened the door and there stood Patty.  She
looked over her shoulder and I pulled her inside.