Sweet Tea and Secrets (34 page)

“Your great uncle?”

“My mother wrote about those pearls in her journal. John Carlo told her about them when she was just a child. My uncle was a selfish bastard. He’d rather take care of that grandmother of yours than his own flesh and blood. We lived hand to mouth while he lavished your family with money and jewels. When he died, he didn’t leave us a thing. I deserve that treasure.”

“That ring
is
the treasure. It’s all I have.”

“Liar.” He slapped her with the back of his hand. His face turned bright red, and sweat glistened on his forehead.

She covered her face where his knuckle met her cheekbone, but stood her ground. She prayed Carolanne would drive up soon enough to call for help.

His anger bubbled like lava. She could feel the burn even from the distance.

She worked her mouth open and closed trying to soothe where he’d just slugged her.

Bradley drew his fist back, but a noise from the lane stopped him short.

A red car with a U.S. MAIL sign strapped to the top drove up to the house. The local mail carrier was new. How she wished Mr. Grizzard still worked the route. He’d know something was wrong.

Right before her eyes, Bradley’s face transformed from angry, edgy and dark to as hospitable as a good southern gentleman. He wiped the sweat from his face on his sleeve and smoothed his hair, then jogged out to meet the mailman’s car with a smile. Bradley engaged the mailman in idle conversation, accepting condolences for Pearl, calmly shooting the breeze as if nothing was wrong.

Jill stared in disbelief for a moment at the transformation, then scrambled into the house, hoping he wouldn’t notice. She lifted the phone receiver and began pushing buttons, but she misdialed twice and now she couldn’t get a dial tone.

She ran to the back door.

Clyde’s ears perked immediately to the sound of her voice. He ran at full speed into the kitchen and headed straight out the front door like she knew he would. Clyde would scare Bradley to death. She raced to the front door to enjoy Bradley’s reaction to Clyde.

But Clyde wasn’t barking.

Not at all.

In fact, when Clyde saw Bradley, the big dog slowed down and wagged his tail as he plodded out to him and sat, pretty as you please, right next to him.

Jill stood there with her mouth agape, as the big dog pushed his nose under Bradley’s hand to accept a pat on the head.
Impossible.

Bradley nodded towards her with a knowing smile. “Hey, baby doll,” he called and then wrapped up his chat with the mailman.

She should be running into the house, locking the door and dialing for help, but her legs wouldn’t move. She’d seen Clyde bark and scare every man that had come to this house, and yet he didn’t seem the least bit worried about the man threatening her now.

She watched as Bradley waved goodbye to the mailman, and the car disappeared through the trees down the lane.

Bradley slapped his thigh, just like Garrett had done, and Clyde pranced alongside him as they closed in on her.

Jill stood frozen to the spot on the porch.

“I don’t believe this.”

“What? Disappointed in your guard dog? Again?”

“Clyde hates men.”

“Not all of us.”

“I don’t understand it. I’ve seen him.”

Bradley scrubbed the top of the big dog’s head. “We go way back, don’t we boy.”

“What?” She took a step back. “It
was
Annie.” She remembered the pictures in the photo album and younger pictures of Clyde.

“Sit,” Bradley said with a hand gesture.

Clyde responded, sitting at full attention.

“Down.”

Clyde folded to the ground with his chin between his paws.

“That’s why you kept Annie around—because of Clyde.”

“Everyone has to serve a purpose. That was certainly one of Annie’s contributions. She trained this dog as a puppy. There are no free rides. Clyde here’s done a great job.”

“How did you get Pearl to take him?”

“A little scare and people jump at the chance to have a champion like this one in their home. It wasn’t that hard at all.”

The arrogance of his statement was hard to miss. “You broke into Pearl’s house?”

“I’m not a petty thief. I was looking for the pearls, my pearls.”

“You’re disgusting.” Her fear turned to anger. “What was my purpose?”

“Initially? A way for me to stay close to Pearl, but you ended up being so much more.”

“Don’t pretend you really cared for me?”

“Oh, I didn’t say that.”

His smirk made her sick.

“You used me,” she fumed.

“I sure did. Meeting you was like striking oil. Your small-town, goody-two-shoes way had people lining up to invest in my deal of the day. I’ve never taken money from rich people with such ease.”

Melanie had said some of his deals were going bad. Called them dodgy, and then that article. She’d trusted him. “
I
never took anyone’s money. Don’t group me in your category.”

“Oh, but you did. And all in a good days work. Now, once I have those pearls I’ll be set for a long stretch. You did all the work. I get all the benefits.”

“The charities benefited,” she lifted her chin. He wouldn’t take that from her.

He looked at her like she was crazy.

“You’re kidding, right?” Bradley smirked. “Are you that naïve?”

His words didn’t register on her dizzying senses.

“You still don’t get it, do you?” Bradley threw back his head and laughed. “I’m a con, Jill. It’s what I do. I’m the best. There were never any charities. The Kase Foundation goes straight to me. There were no great real estate ventures. I took money from greedy people. Don’t feel sorry for them. They had it to spare and wanted more.”

“I saw the camps. The Foundation does good work,” she said, but her head swirled with doubt.

“Those camps have nothing to do with the Kase Foundation. I wove videos from YouTube together to get most of them.” He slapped the mail in his hand against his thigh.

“You and Annie were in cahoots when she broke into Pearl’s house, weren’t you?”

“You know I was out of town.”

“So says you. What’s your word worth? Nothing? You locked me in the attic, didn’t you? No, wait. You called me from out of town.”

“Maybe I was at the end of the driveway when I called you that morning,” he said smugly. “Just like today.”

“You could’ve killed me. It was the hottest day of the summer.”

“But I didn’t,” he said with a wink. “I was going to save you. You, my dear, are like an endless line of credit.”

She pointed her finger in his face and searched for the words that spun like a tornado in her mind. “I’ll tell. I’ll have you arrested so fast.”

Bradley
grabbed her finger and then her wrist and twisted hard. “Don’t you ever—”

Jill screamed.

Clyde’s huge jaws clamped around Bradley’s forearm, and pulled him off balance away from Jill.

Bradley wailed in surprise, and lost his footing. Blood soaked through his shirt, turning it dark and shiny.

He shouted commands at Clyde, but he didn’t respond to one of them. Finally pulling free from Clyde’s jaws Bradley ran to his car leaving a trail of blood from the porch to his car.

As he slid behind the wheel clutching his bleeding arm, he yelled back over his shoulder.
“This isn’t over. Not by a long shot. Get your shit together, or you’re going to be sorry. If you really don’t know where those pearls are, I’d suggest you figure it out…and quick.”

Clyde barked and stomped his front paws on the ground, then charged the vehicle.

Bradley threw the mail out the car window at Clyde and left, spinning tires all the way.

Clyde’s tongue hung to the ground. Bradley’s blood stained one of his paws.

Jill ran to Clyde and hugged the dog’s neck. She took a deep breath punctuated with several even gasps. She and Garrett had thought the ring was the treasure, but was there more? Bradley had made a clear threat against Garrett. She couldn’t let Bradley hurt him again.

She ran to the yard and picked up the mail that he’d strewn across the yard. Out of breath and confused, she went through the mail and got rid of the bloody envelopes before racing to the attic to search for a clue.

A tumble of confused thoughts assailed her. All the way up the stairs she tasted the bitter guilt of putting her trust into that man. He’d used her and everyone she cared about. How would she ever find a way to repay the people he’d swindled with her help? And Garrett? He could have died. She gulped back the sobs. If she hadn’t ever met Bradley, she would have been here for Pearl. How could she have been so stupid to fall for his evil ways?

Jill fought to control her swirling emotions. She had to look again for a clue, anything that might lead her to the treasure of pearls.

She still wasn’t even sure what the Pacini Pearls consisted of. Was it jewelry, loose pearls, one pearl, a hundred? Where were they hidden? She’d scoured that attic.
What am I overlooking?

Chapter Seventeen

Frustrated and dirty from the unsuccessful search, Jill doubted there was any treasure other than Pearl’s ring. As she searched the attic one last time, someone pounded on the door downstairs.

She came to an abrupt stop, her heart jumping in her chest.
Had Bradley come back already?

Relief washed over her when she heard the visitor yoo-hooing from the porch.

“Carolanne.” Jill ran downstairs.

“The door was locked,” Carolanne said, stating the obvious. “Good for you. I’m glad you’re taking my advice more seriously these days.”

“It’s been a bad day.” She didn’t want to worry Carolanne, and she wasn’t sure she could explain what all had just happened anyway, so she avoided the details.

“I bet.” Carolanne dropped her purse on the hall table and stepped out of her clogs. “Why are you so filthy and what happened to your cheek? Is that dirt?” She touched the bruise rising on Jill’s cheek.

“Ouch.” Jill winced.

Carolanne’s eyes flashed with concern. “What happened to you?”

“Bradley was here.” She touched her cheek.

“That bastard.” Carolanne’s jaw set and her eyes narrowed. “He hit you?”

Jill nodded. “The man Pearl was secretly married to. From the letters. John Carlo. Bradley’s mother was his niece. He wants the Pacini Pearls. He thinks Pearl had them.” Her eyes bordered with tears. “He’s going to hurt Garrett if I don’t find them.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. This sounds straight out of some B movie.”

Jill swallowed hard, biting back tears but then breaking down. “I don’t even know what I’m looking for.”

Carolanne wrapped an arm around Jill. “Calm down, sweetie. I thought you said that ring y’all found was the treasure.”

Jill shook her head, speaking between gulping sobs. “I gave Bradley the ring. I didn’t want to.” She shook her head. “It was Pearl’s, but I had no choice.”

“Of course, honey. It’s just a ring. Thank goodness you’re okay.” Carolanne comforted her. “I’m going to call Scott.”

Jill grabbed her arm. “No. Don’t. Wait, you don’t understand, when I gave Bradley the ring he became livid. Totally nuts. He threw Pearl’s ring across the porch.” Jill jumped to her feet and ran to the porch to get the ring.

She came back inside with the ring in the palm of her hand. “At least I still have this.”

“It’s so pretty.” Carolanne took the ring and admired it.

“I’ve been scouring the attic for clues. That’s why I’m so dirty. I don’t have what he’s looking for, but if I don’t find it he’s going to hurt Garrett.” She blew out a breath, feeling a little calmer, but defeated.

“Have you googled it to see if you could get any clues?”

Jill rubbed her hand under her nose and sniffed back the lingering tears. “The pearls? No, Pearl doesn’t have an internet connection. My laptop is at Bradley’s so I guess I’ve kissed that goodbye.”

Carolanne lifted her oversized black leather tote bag. “I never leave home without mine. Let me see what I can dig up, but first you’re calling Scott.” She pulled out a wireless device and settled on the edge of the couch, already clicking away on the keyboard.

Jill sat next to Carolanne on the couch. “We can’t call, Scott. Not yet.”

“Why? Bradley is dangerous.”

“That might be true.” She wrung her hands. “Apparently, I’m a horrible judge of character.”

“He took advantage of your good nature. Don’t be so hard on yourself.” Carolanne dialed the sheriff’s number on her phone. “We have a restraining order on Bradley. They’ll arrest him.”

“Wait. There’s more.” She grabbed the phone from Carolanne. “I think I’m in trouble. That’s why I haven’t called yet.”

“Trouble? For what?”

“Bradley said that all those deals, even the fundraisers, were a big con. Even the Kase Foundation. It’s a fraud. No such thing, and I helped him close those deals and make all that money.”