Southern Greed (19 page)

Eugene and I looked at each other and made a silent agreement.  When he nodded, I spoke up, “The way to help the police and yourself is to follow through with delivering the money.  The police already know that North is dirty and they’re setting up a sting.  They’re watching the house right now and will follow you when you leave here.  We will testify on your behalf.

“We’ll tell them that you were going to turn yourself in and we talked you into going ahead with the original plan so that the
y can catch
everyone.

“But if you’re conning me and my baby gets hurt, I’ll come after you if it takes the rest of my life and every penny I own, and I will kill you.”

“I’m not conning you, Mrs. Murphy.  I’m sorry.  I really am.  I want to help the police now.”

After she left we sat without saying a word for a long time, lost in our own thoughts.

I thought of something, “You know, Eugene,
when this is over, I want to give Patty some reward money, before we give the rest to charity.  If it wasn’t for her, Jeannie would be killed.
  I also want to reward all the staff, especially Mrs. Hildebrandt for being there for us.
”

“I think that’s a good idea, honey.  You want to try to get some rest?  It might be awhile before we hear anything.”

“I don’t think I could sleep, could you?”

“No, probably not.”

Mrs. Hildebrandt knocked on the door and stuck her head in, “There’s a buffet set up for everyone if you’re
hungry. 
Thing
s have been so crazy, I forgot to fix any supper and the guests were wondering if this had turned into some kind of fat farm.

“We decided to make it buffet so everyone can eat when they want.”

“
Why don’t I go get us a plate and we can eat in here,” I said to Eugene, and left with Mrs. Hildebrandt.

“How’re you holding up?” she asked me while we were heading to the dining area.

“I think I’ll be all right pretty soon.  Regina came earlier and she’s now helping us.  I can’t go into any details but I really think it will be okay.”

She hugged me and then we arrived at the dining room and I started fixing plates for us.  I made sure to get enough in case Eugene wanted to wake Ronnie up.  None of us had eaten enough to keep a flea alive these past few days.

CHAPTER 4
2

We had fallen asleep with my head on Eugene’s shoulder and his head on top of mine, sitting on the sofa.

I was dreaming and in the dream I was holding Jeannie in my lap.  She was holding something up to me and saying, “See, mommy,” but I couldn’t tell what it was she was showing me.

The she said, “Listen, mommy, listen,” and I heard a knock.  In my confused mind, I thought I was still dreaming.  I was trying to see what Jeannie was doing to make that knocking sound.  Then I heard Eugene saying, “Coming,” I became wide awake realizing the knocking was for real.

I sat up straight and looked at the clock.  It was five in the morning and I had a terrible creek in my neck.

Detective Phillips was standing at the door and he looked like death
warmed over.  Without being invited he collapsed on the sofa and put his head in his hands.  Mrs. Hildebrandt came in carrying coffee for everyone.

“Mrs. Hildebrand, you haven’t slept in days,” I said to her. 
“Come join us.  Y
ou deserve to hear what Detective Phillips has to say.
  Then go to bed!
”

I was trying to concentrate on everything except the fact that the detective didn’t have Jeannie with him.  I was afraid to ask.

Detective Phillips
put three spoons of sugar in the coffee that Mrs. Hildebrandt had brought in on a tray
and I noti
ced his hands were shaking.  No
one said anything as we watched him.  He blew on his coffee and took a sip and set the cup on the coffee table.

He let out a long sigh and then began, “I don’t know where to start.”

I felt like screaming but instead asked in a quiet voice, “Detective Phillips, where is Jeannie?”

He looked at me like he was surprised I had asked and then said, “Oh, God, I’m sorry.  I should have assured you right away.  Jeannie is with the caseworker.  She took her to the hospital to be checked out
.  She appears to be okay, but dirty.  They were hiding out in a cave.  She’ll be all right if she’s as tough as her mama, which I think she is.

“Okay, from the beginning, we watched the nanny when she came here and then followed her.  She stayed on foot and walked down the coast carrying the briefcase.  Detective
North
thought it was just me and him, but we had people up and down the coast watching, including the FBI, since it was a kidnapping case.”

He shook his head, “He’s been my partner for fourteen years and all this time I thought I could trust him.  Now that this has happened, I keep remembering cases where we thought
we were close to solving a case and the perp. got away.”

He took a deep breath and blew it out and sounded like a bull, “Okay, so we were following the nanny and he told me to go over the sand dune and follow her on the other side of the dunes while he followed
her
down the beach
.

“I went over the sand dunes, but
came
right back, keeping close enough to the shadows of the
sand dunes so he couldn’t see me
.  I could have stayed on the other side and let the other guys get him but I wanted to be the one to bring the son-of-a-bitch down.

“I saw him run into the cave and then run back out.  When he saw me he said, ‘no one in there,’ and I knew they were there.  I pulled out my handcuffs and had him on the ground and cuffed before he knew what hit him.

“As I was reading him his rights, I looked up and saw the other police
officers and FBI agents bringing the others out in handcuffs.  The caseworker
was carrying your little girl.”

Tears of joy
streamed down my face as I bent over and wrapped my arms around the detective.  Eugene put his arms around both of
us and he was crying.  Then Mrs.
Hildebrandt put her arms around all three of us and she was crying.
 
Ronnie came out of his bedroom and saw us crying and he started crying, “Is Jeannie dead?”

Eugene picked him up, “No son, she’s okay.  We’re crying because we’re happy.”

“That’s stupid, to cry when you’re happy.
”

We all laughed through our tears and then heard a knock on the front door.  A very pretty young woman with dark brown hair and eyes and a perfect figure opened the door before we got to it.

She was holding Jeannie and as soon as
my baby
saw me she reached for me.  I held her tight and nothing had ever felt so wonderful and perfect.

Everyone was trying to hold
her at once and she said, “Me was in
cabe
. 
Me
don’t like
.”

“Why Jeannie, You’re speaking so well,” I said.

“Jeannie
stay here, mommy.  Don’t like mean people.”
  The she saw the p
uppy and said, “Me want down!” a
s she reached for the puppy.

CHAPTER 4
3

Adam, his sister, his mama
,
his lover, and Detective North got life.  The nanny got fifteen months and two years probation.  If she tries to be a nanny again, I hope the parents are smart enough to run a criminal background check.

Mr. Budd, the producer made the movie about my life starring Janet Stone.  The movie was a low budget, B-rate movie and didn’t make her career like she had hoped.  Mama got no money from the movie and Mr. Budd didn’t make a comeback like he had hoped.

Something positive came out of the sorry movie, they portrayed the Reverend Jacobs as such a villain that several of his victims were courageous enough to press charges.  We helped put him away for life. 
He continued to profess his innocence saying he was being persecuted for being a man of God.

I guess you’re wondering what became of the mansion.  I talked to Colin and we decided to turn it into a luxury alcohol and drug Rehab
ilitation
, but not for the rich and famous.  It was for people with no money.
  It wou
ld take a lot of money to run
so that’s
where the rest of the money would go.  We would also have fund raisers from time to time for the high society people I had met through my grandmother.

We hired
a psychiatrist named
Doctor Drew to be the director and he lived in our old suite.  He hired counselors and psychiatric nurses but agreed to keep
all my old staff for cooking, housekeeping, etc.  Mrs. Hildebrandt was delighted.
  Now she had people who needed her even more than we had.

We were given enough money out of the estate to buy a house with a swimming pool and a back yard big enough for the kids and dog to play in.

I gave Patty and some of the other staff $100,000.00.  I tried to give Mrs. Hildebrand money but she wouldn’t take it.  Patty was going to use hers to get an MBA so she could run a hotel or resort by herself.

Eugene’s book was a hit and he went on to write novels after that.  He became a best-selling author.  We eventually had enough money for me to open a boutique that carried some of my own designs.

Ronnie started first grade the next year and Jeannie loved her big brother.

It seems our life is perfect, at least for now.

#####

About the author

After retiring from three major careers, teaching high school math, exploring for oil and gas as a geophysicist in offshore Gulf of Mexico, and working as a counselor/psychotherapist, I decided I wanted to try my hand at writing.  I had read one to two books a day for over forty years and decided to just go for it
.
  I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoye
d writing it.  Look for my
Judith McCain thrillers beginning with Blood
On
White Wicker, my first book.  Or you can start with Southern Fried Chicken, which
is
my first two books condensed into one.  Also look for
my self-help book, The Answers Are Within, and my science fiction/fantasy, 3037

Contact me at:  [email protected]

or
visit my blog site at
http://authorpholloway
.com

FROM DOUBLE SHOCK:

CHAPTER 13

December 7, 1941:

I thought at first it was the end of the world.  For once all three daddies were with me and the baby.  We were having a good time drinking wine and talking and laughing when, all of a sudden there were loud noises like about a million guns being shot at the same time.

I had heard the guns from the rifle range near my house but this wasn’t that.  We went running outside and looked in the sky and there were planes shooting at us.  Cole and Adam picked me up and Daniel picked up the baby and ran with us to an underground bunker I never knew existed.

On the way there, I saw several people falling down covered in blood.  People were screaming and running in all directions.  I’ve never been so scared in my life.  When we got underground, the three men left.  People were screaming and
making so much noise, the baby started screaming too.

She’s maybe cried twice in her life.  She’s such a good baby.  She turned two this year and toddles around on her short little legs like she is in a hurry.

I got her quieted down by rocking her in my lap.  She put her thumb in her mouth and went to sleep in spite of the noise.

It was killing me not knowing what was going on above us and I asked another lady to look after Ramona and climbed out of the bunker.

I saw a GI and asked who was shooting at us.  He said it was Japanese planes.  If he had said German planes I wouldn’t have been confused. 
But Japanese planes?
  They weren’t in the war were they?

I was just wandering around and found that I had wandered to an area I had never been in before.  I was on a road made of white sand and I could see no one.

I heard someone say, “
Psst
,” and turned toward the sound.  It was a Japanese soldier. He was about my age. He was
laying
in a ditch beside the road and he was wounded.  It was very confusing.  Why was one of them down here?

I looked around and behind a tree I spotted a parachute.  I looked back at him and he looked terrified.  “I’m not going to hurt you,” I said but I could see he didn’t know what I was saying.