by Ang Pompano
Each woman was so eager to share the story with someone hearing it for the first time that I could only imagine how many times the two of them had discussed this between themselves over the years. Avalou took over again.
“He found a gas station attendant in Waynesboro who said that a tall light-haired man with a little dark-haired girl came in to get some snacks after pumping gas. The attendant thought them an odd pair. He looked out the window at their white truck. It was dark and he couldn’t make out who was in it but he assumed it was the child’s mother. He remembered the man asked directions on how to get back on the highway headed south. The gas attendant noticed fishing gear in the vehicle. Al searched every gas station and restaurant on the road headed south for three days, finding several people who remembered the man and the truck. By that time, he was close to the Okefenokee and he had a hunch based on the fishing gear the attendant saw. He went place to place looking for someone who fit the description of Georg Gerber and Christmas Granville. When he got here, we told him that we never saw the little girl, but of course we knew Georg was our tenant.” Avalou was shaking as she told the tale.
“Please, Avalou. You’re getting all upset. Let me finish the story.” Daryl turned to me. “We told him that a man named Gerber and his family were renting a fishing cabin from us about two miles from here.”
“Was the Granville child there when my father found Gerber?”
“Georg’s wife swore that a lady with an English accent came to take the girl back to Granville,” Avalou said. “They found a sweater that belonged to Christmas on the clothes line. That sealed poor Georg’s fate. The wife said she had washed it and forgot to give it to the woman who picked up the child. I believe the story. If Georg did kidnap the child, why would they leave the sweater in plain sight?”
“People do strange things,” I said. “I understand the child was never found.”
“The ransom was left at the drop-off spot by the water tower with the picture of Pogo that reads Welcome to Waycross.”
I had to laugh. “Until recently the only Pogo I knew was a phone game. But I know the tower you are talking about.”
“Game? No, the cartoon possum. How old are you anyway?”
I shrugged. “Tell me more about the ransom.”
“It was never picked up. The police assumed that Georg panicked. The little girl was never found.” Avalou looked to the distance. “That is a swamp out yonder. Who knows where she is?”
I knew Georg was convicted of kidnapping and went to prison. He wasn’t in jail long before another inmate killed him. “What happened to the wife?”
“They were going to arrest her as an accessory but she insisted that her husband told her Granville wanted them to watch the girl until someone could pick her up.” Daryl said.
“I’d like to see that cabin.”
“You can’t. It burned down not long after the kidnapping. The insurance company claimed that somebody torched it and they wouldn’t pay a penny.”
Avalou couldn’t keep out of the conversation in spite of Daryl’s plea for her not to get over excited. She went into a drawer and came out with some papers.
“I have the contract that Georg signed when he rented the cabin for the summer. He rented it under his real name. A kidnapper would not do that. He would use a false name.”
She handed the contract to me. It was a standard lease. There was also a note from him inquiring about renting the cabin. The last lines were written in German. Ich bedanke mich bei Ihnen im Voraus. Hochachtungsvoll, Gerber.
“Do you know what this means?”
“I looked it up once. I think it basically means thank you. I don’t recall exactly, but I know it wasn’t anything significant,” Avalou said.
“Would you mind if I scanned these?”
“I don’t know what good it would do now. Georg Gerber is long dead. But go ahead if you want.”
I took out my phone and scanned the contract and then the note as well.
“I’m surprised that my father didn’t think that something was up with Granville.”
“I think he was too close to the situation. Your father and Martin Granville became friends for a while. It wasn’t until later that they had a falling out.” Daryl took a long sip of her Dr. Pepper.
That shouldn’t have surprised me. I could imagine that in his younger days, my father made a lot of enemies.
“What did he have against my father?”
Avalou sighed. “It’s not my place to say.”
“But she will,” Daryl said.
“Well, I’m only telling you facts, not gossip. We learned all of this after we became friends with Big Al.”
Daryl fidgeted in her chair. “Tell the story or I will.”
Avalou cleared her throat as if she were about to give a speech. “I’m getting to it. As you know, your father found Gerber but not the child. Eventually, Martin Granville divorced his wife and was feeling pretty low. He started doing drugs and would have gotten in deep if Big Al and officer Johnson hadn’t stepped in. The three of them became close. They were like the Rat Pack of Chatham County. Ringa Ding Ding. You know what I mean?”
“Not exactly.” Rat Pack? Ringa what? It was like she was speaking a foreign language.
“There were parties, and drinking, and girls, and who knows what else. The famous racecar driver and the hero private eye were like local celebrities. The cop partied right along with them, but because of his position, kept out of the limelight for the most part.”
“The falling out, Avalou. Tell me about that.”
“That happened when Martin married one of the young ladies who worked in your father’s office. Your father felt his friend stole the woman from him. Martin’s point of view was that he felt the woman married him on the rebound after your father didn’t marry her.”
Holy shit. I didn’t have to be a detective to see where this was going. “Estelle was married to Martin Granville?”
Both women nodded.
If I had this right, when my father didn’t divorce my mother so she could keep his pension, Estelle decided not to wait and married his friend Martin Granville.
“I’m getting it, go on.”
Avalou was clearly the bigger gossip of the two. “So, Martin moved his bride up to Augusta to put some distance between Estelle and Big Al. It wasn’t long before Estelle realized she had made a mistake but she stuck with the marriage and had a baby.”
“Jill?”
“That’s right. But until the day he died in that crash at Daytona, Martin suspected Estelle was cheating and suspected that the child was not his.”
“Was Jill my father’s daughter?”
Daryl leaned in as if someone might hear the secret.
“What do you think?”
43
THAT WAS WAY TOO MUCH for me to process all at once. If what they were telling me was true, then not only was Estelle my stepmother, but her daughter Jill was my half-sister. “I should see my truck now,” I said.
“It’s fine,” they both said.
Fine? Maybe I was dreaming, but I seemed to remember that it had been engulfed in flames. I stumbled to the door. Daryl and Avalou looked at each other.
The F-150 was a burnt-out shell sitting on its rims. I couldn’t speak. In fact, I didn’t want to because if I did, I’d spew out a string of profanity in front of the two old women that I would only regret later.
“Well, there is some good news,” Avalou said in a mock cheery voice that cracked on the word news. “Show him, Daryl.”
Daryl went to a basket on an old kitchen table that was repurposed for use on the porch. She picked up Batshit’s errant GPS and handed it to me. “It was blown out of the truck before it burned.”
I actually lost my vision for a second. I’m sure it was from anger more than the head wound. When I could fi
nally see, I tossed the GPS into the yard with a grunt.
“Daryl...” My voice was a little above a whisper and so calm that I actually frightened myself.
Fear covered both of their faces. Daryl managed a tentative, “Yes?”
“Return my gun, please.”
“You’re not leaving yet, for sure,” Avalou said. “Rest a while and then have something to eat before you go.”
“My gun, please.”
“Oh Lord! He’s going to shoot us, Daryl.”
Daryl went back to the repurposed table and took the gun from the same basket.
“Don’t hurt Ava. I take full responsibility.” Daryl stood in front of her love and handed me the gun. Her hands shaking.
“Thank you.” My voice was a little less psychotic, but not by much. I took the gun.
“Stop!” Avalou screamed.
I pulled the trigger and put three bullets right through that mother lover, and the GPS danced on the dusty ground as pieces of plastic and electronic innards flew through the air.
When the dust settled, I felt as if I was finally rid of what I realized was Psycho’s curse, and all of the shit that went along with it.
“Thank you, Daryl. That thing has been nothing but a pain in my ass since I got it.”
“Well, if we had any doubts that you were your father’s son, that proved it. You are as impetuous as he is.”
I didn’t want to hear about how much I was like my father. Not then. Not ever.
“I need to get a vehicle to get back to Ava Island.”
They wanted to drive me but I assured them that I could drive. Then they insisted that I take their Prius. After a little while of back and forth, I agreed to borrow their car.
The whole way back, I thought about Keller and Hicks and my father. Things started to fall into place. When I finally got back, I took the higher bridge to Ava Island. No more waiting in traffic on that lower little drawbridge.
44
AS I CONGRATULATED MYSELF on my triumphant crossing of the bridge and my new outlook on life, Greenleaf called.
“Where are you?”
“I’m on Midnight Pass. I just got back to the island.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line. Greenleaf didn’t say it, but it was obvious that if I was on Midnight Pass I had taken the high bridge. I could sense her surprise.
“I wanted to get you before I went home. The Palms has been trying to reach you. I told them you were probably in a dead zone out in the middle of nowhere, and that I’d let you know that you had to call them. That was an hour and a half ago.”
“What did they want?”
“They said they would only talk to you. I left you several voice messages but, of course, you never bother to check.”
One of these days, Greenleaf was going to have to come into the 21st century and learn how to text. Nobody uses voicemail anymore.
“I’ll call them,” I said and hung up. I didn’t have time to deal with their complaints. If they had found my father, they would have told Greenleaf. I was sure that they were going to tell me that in light of Big Al’s most recent disappearance, they were going to put him out of their facility. I’d call them later after I got home and rested.
*****
I was curious about the German phrase at the end of the note from Gerber inquiring about the rental of the cabin.
When I got back to the Blue Palmetto I sat in the Prius for a few minutes and typed the German words, Ich bedanke mich bei Ihnen im Voraus. Hochachtungsvoll, Gerber, into an online translator on my phone.
As Avalou had recalled, it simply meant I thank you in advance. Sincerely, Gerber.
That seemed like a lot of words to say so little. I decided to try another translator. I found one and typed in Ich bedanke mich bei Ihnen im Voraus. Hochachtungsvoll, Gerber to see if I got the same translation.
To my surprise I saw the words I thank you in advance, Sincerely. tanner on my screen.
By mistake, the second time I typed it in I put a period instead of a comma after that long German word Hochachtungsvoll. That made all of the difference and translated the name Gerber into the word tanner, as in a person who works with animal hides.
Before I could process what I had discovered, Max came into the yard through the opening in the bamboo hedge.
“Where did you get that?” she asked as I got out of the Givens’ car.
“I had to borrow it.”
“What about your fancy truck?”
“I don’t have it anymore. The GPS either.”
Max followed me up onto the porch and sat on the swing. “Is everything okay?”
Wondering why she cared would have normally been my first reaction, but I think I was finally beginning to understand that she genuinely cared about my wellbeing.
“I have never been better. I feel like a curse has been driven from me. Did you know that Estelle was married to Martin Granville before she married my father?”
“Yes, Greenleaf told me. But she figured you’d be more willing to believe it if you heard it from somebody else. So, she asked me to keep my mouth shut.”
She was right. I did have an irrational tendency to disregard what Greenleaf told me.
“Well, I have one up on the two of you. Do you know what the German word ‘gerber’ means?”
“Tanner.”
“You knew that?”
“I lived in Germany when my father was in the army.”
“I had to use an online translator.” I showed her the note Georg Gerber wrote inquiring about renting the cabin.
“Georg Gerber and David Tanner must be related.” Max was thinking exactly what I was thinking.
“That makes sense, and it gives us a motive. Georg Gerber went to jail for kidnapping the Granville child. Let’s assume that David Tanner is his son. If the son didn’t want Andy Keller to do a blog piece dragging up the kidnapping, that would be motive to kill him.”
“I don’t know. What about Hicks? Why would he want Hicks dead?” Max had a good question.
“Hicks was married to Estelle’s daughter. I assume Jill was Granville’s daughter as well.” I watched Max’s face. Maybe she was a better poker player than I was, but she gave no indication that Jill could be my father’s daughter. “Hicks told me that Keller was interviewing Jill when Tanner had an argument with him. All of the facts link to the Granville kidnapping and point to Tanner as the killer.”
When I heard the dirge ringtone from my phone, I knew it was Maryann from The Palms again. My first reaction was to ignore the call. Then I remembered that Greenleaf said they had tried to call me when I was out in Waycross. If anything, they were calling to cover their asses about my father going missing. I decided to answer anyway, in case they had some news that he had been found.
“DeSantis.” My voice was less than friendly.
“This is Maryann Fena. I’ve been calling all over hell’s half acre trying to find you.”
“Well, consider me found.”
“I have some information about your father.”
“Which is?”
“It seems this isn’t the first time your father has left The Palms without our knowledge.”
I could have told her that. But I knew that if I did, she would use it as a way to absolve herself and The Palms of any wrongdoing. I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of doing that. Besides, Big Al wasn’t at the point where he was a danger to himself. I’m sure that when he signed himself in, he didn’t think that they were going to hold him prisoner.
“I see.”
“I have to tell you I had no knowledge of what was going on. If I did, I would have creamed somebody’s corn.”
It was typical Maryann mucking around in the bullshit instead of coming out and telling me what she had to say. Maybe if she had allowed
him a little more freedom, he wouldn’t have had to sneak out.
“Exactly what was going on?”
“It came to my attention through one of the guests.”
“What did?”
“That one of our staff had been sneaking Mr. DeSantis out early in the morning at the end of their shift.”
Staff? Now that was news. I thought my father had been going out on his own. I played along to hear her squirm.
“How was that possible?”
“The staff member worked until 4:00 a.m. and would leave with your father, bringing him back before the staff change at 7:00 a.m.”
I guess Maryann didn’t run as tight of a ship as she had thought.
“Who is this staff member?”
“I can’t say, but be assured I kicked them into the middle of next week, and they won’t be back.”
“I think I have a right to know. This staff member might know where he is.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t say.”
“And what about my father?”
“As you know, the authorities are looking for him. You did say that you didn’t want any alerts in the media.”
“You realize that you’re going to be held responsible.”
“Look, Mr. DeSantis. I know we got off on the wrong foot. I’m trying to make that right by giving you this information which the police do not want made public yet.”
I was about to give her an argument when she hung up the phone.
Maryann had carefully avoided giving me any clue as to whether the person working at The Palms that was taking my father out was a man or a woman. Could Tanner have gotten a job at the nursing facility knowing that Big Al was there? Then the even creepier notion of Batshit being the culprit crossed my mind.