Southern Greed

by Peggy Holloway

  “I’ll go talk to her,” I said putting my shoes back on. “Where is she now?”

  “Well, that’s the other thing. When she left my kitchen she went into the red parlor and crawled on that fat producer’s lap and he has his hands under her panties. She’s going to ruin the reputation of the place.”

  I told Mrs. Hildebrandt to go on back to the kitchen and I started toward the red parlor. I could hear her before I got there, “You going to give me the part, Hermie?”

  “Of course, darling, just make me happy this weekend. Oh yeah, baby, just rub right there. Let me see those titties. I need to nurse. I’m hungry.”

  She giggled and I walked in. They were so involved they didn’t see me at first. “I want y’all to leave,” I said and he stood up and started zipping up his pants. She fell on the floor when he stood up.

  “I’ll ruin you, little lady. Do you know who I am? One word from me and this second rate resort will never make it off the ground.”

  “If you don’t leave, I’ll call the police. I know them well. Just get your thing and get out. I’ll give you a refund for your room.”

  I didn’t wait for their reply but walked out. I felt so proud of myself and the person I was becoming. I felt powerful. I never gave them a second thought after I saw them get into a taxi and drive away, but I should have.

  The rest of the weekend went by without a hitch and everyone seemed to have a good time. All of the amenities were used. There were people sunning by the outdoor pool, playing tennis, and golf, swimming laps in the indoor pool, getting messages, getting their hair done, enjoying wonderful meals and shopping in downtown Savannah.

  I hoped by this time next year I would have a boutique in the basement with some of my own designs there.

  When everyone left on Sunday, they all thanked me for the wonderful time. Doris Day and Joanne Woodward both hugged me. It had been exciting but after they all left I breathed a sigh of relief.

  CHAPTER 35

  My divorce had gone through, Eugene had asked me to marry him and I had said yes. The baby was toddling around all over the place and was the center of attention with all the staff. The resort was doing great and my designing classes were coming to an end. I was ready to get experience.

  I had everything I could possibly want in life and never thought it could end. Then one day my mama showed up. Not my real mama, of course, the one who raised me.

  I was playing with Jeannie on the floor in my suite when Mrs. Reese, my housekeeper knocked on the door and told me someone was there to see me.

  “Just bring them on in here, Mrs. Reese.”

  She hesitated and then said, “She said she was your mama.”

  I only nodded and Mrs. Reese went to get my mama, the woman who had raised me.

  My heart started beating a hundred miles an hour. What was my mama doing out of jail? I got up and paced until they came in.

  It hadn’t even been three years since I had seen her but she had aged about ten. Her hair was completely white and terribly thin. It used to be dark brown and thick. She was always a tiny woman and stood just under five feet tall, but she looked even smaller.

  “Do you know what they do to small people like me in prison?” Were the first words out of her mouth. And then she looked around and said, “Well, looks like you landed up in the lap of luxury. ‘Build not treasures on earth where thieves will break in and steal,’” She quoted and looked at me with hatred in her eyes and continued, “But build treasures in heaven.”

  My speeding heart slowed down as my eyes were opened and I saw her for what she was, an angry woman who thought life had cheated her and she used the Bible to get even. I was supposed to, once again, feel guilty for having what I was supposed to have had all along before she, in fact, had cheated me out of my birthright.

  I realized I was no longer intimidated by her as I asked her, “What do you want, old woman? How did you get out of jail?”

  She looked shocked. She used to be able to manipulate me with fear of hell fire by quoting what she called God’s word.

  Jeannie had toddled over to mama and was holding out one of her toys to her. I picked her up and put her in my lap and kissed her cheek.

  “So, this is my granddaughter?”

  I didn’t even answer her, I just stared at her. Then I asked, “How did you get out of prison? I know you don’t get less than three years for kidnapping. Did you escape?”

  She looked at me and smiled, “Did you know that quite a few of Jesus’ disciples were in prison? Did you know that, if you’re a Christian, you will be persecuted? But God always wins out. I didn’t have to escape, my behavior was spotless, and I brought many women to the lord.

  “He answered my prayers. My lawyer appealed and the judge said due to my good behavior and the fact that I had done a good job in raising you, I was free to go.”

  “I really don’t care,” I said, “as long as you stay away from me. For the first time in my life, I have a life, and it’s a good life. I’m happy. I could never say that growing up. I was always afraid of doing something wrong and going to hell.”

  “Well, let me tell you something, missy. Some big shot from Hollywood is giving me a lot of money to make a movie about this whole thing.”

  I laughed, “Isn’t money the roof of all evil? And besides, you never let me go to movies. You always said it was sinful, remember?”

  She didn’t answer me but slowly got up out of her chair, “They’ll be seeing you in the movies. By the way, the woman who will be playing you is named Janet something-or-other. Mr. Budd, the producer discovered her right here in your resort. Can you believe it? He came here just to get your story but, when you threw him out, he came to me, lucky for me.”

  I was speechless as she walked out. She was going to expose my life to this pig of a man and a good part of what she would tell him would be lies. I had to talk to Colin and find out what I could do to stop her. She was pure evil.

  The nanny’s quarters were adjacent to mine and I knocked on her door. Her name was Regina Walker. She was in her twenties and was extremely thin with light brown hair and brown eyes. She had a sweet disposition and the children loved her. I asked her to look after Jeannie and then I went to find Eugene.

  He was at the front desk trying to deal with a difficult guest. “I want a different room. I can’t take all that knocking in the walls in there. I think that room is haunted by one of your pirates,” She was saying.

  “I’ll have some of my staff move you right away, Mrs. Kurt. But I assure you we have no ghost here.”

  He was grinning as she left with a couple of bell boys. When he saw me he said, “Hi beautiful, how about some lunch?”

  “Can we have them bring it to my quarters? I need to talk to you.”

  He waited until we had finished eating and I still hadn’t said anything. Then he asked, “Sweetheart, what’s wrong? You said you wanted to talk and you still haven’t said anything.”

  “My mama was here today. Can you believe they let her out after serving less than three years?” Before he could say anything, I continued, “She is teaming up with that producer and that slut that I threw out of the resort during opening weekend.

  “It turns out that he came here for the sole purpose of getting my story and apparently some of the staff talked to him. I know it wasn’t Mrs. Hildebrandt. I know I can trust her.”

  “Yeah, she worships the ground you walk on, Kathy. Don’t worry, honey. I’ll question the rest of the staff and I’ll fire anyone who talked to that fat creep. Are you going to talk to Colin about what you can do, legally?”

  “Yes, I just wanted to talk to you first and get your support.”

  “Well, you always have it, you know that. By the way, when are we going to tie the knot so I can move in here with you?”

  “I don’t know. There never seems to be enough time, does there?”

  “We have to take time, honey. If it doesn’t have to be a huge social event that has to end up in the
newspapers, we can do it anytime with no planning but I figured you wanted a big wedding since you didn’t get that before.”

  “No, hell, no, I don’t need all that. Let’s do it tonight.”

  CHAPTER 36

  We eloped. We didn’t tell a soul. We asked Regina if she could keep the kids after supper that we needed to go out. We went to the Justice of the Peace and got married. We told everyone when we got back and Regina offered to let Ronnie and Jeannie spend the night with her if we wanted to get a room somewhere else.

  Instead, we chose a room on the second floor away from where any of the guests were staying. In fact it was the one that the guest had said was haunted.

  After the wedding night, I was even more in love with Eugene than I had been before and we decided to stay another night in that room.

  The staff covered for us and they were excited and happy for us. On the second night we had made love and had room service and were propped up in bed talking when I said, “Listen, Eugene. What’s that?”

  We both listened and, sure enough, there was a knocking in the wall over the bed. We looked at each other and I got out of bed and felt around under the bed frame and found another small button like the one Ronnie had told me about in the gold room. I got the pen out of my purse and pushed on the button and another panel slid open.

  Adam almost fell onto the bed and we both jumped back. He righted himself then I saw the gun. He motioned with the gun for us to get away from the bed and we moved out of his way.

  When he came through I noticed how filthy he was. He looked terrible. He saw me looking him up and down and laughed, “Yeah, I’ve been sleeping in the woods. All four of us have been hiding in the woods. Does that make you happy, bitch? We need money to help us get out of the country and you’re going to give it to me. You owe me.”

  I looked at Eugene and he shook his head. I didn’t know what he meant by that so I shrugged my shoulders. Then he spoke, “We will not give you anything. Are you really ready to use that gun?”

  Adam gave a vicious laugh again, “I don’t have to use the gun. Y’all should check references before you hire a nanny. She brought my daughter to me. You can have her back as soon as we’re out of the country. If you contact the police, I will kill her. She looks just like you and I never did like the way you look.”

  I began to beg, “Please don’t hurt her, Adam. Even you couldn’t be that cruel.”

  “You know, it’s a funny thing, desperation. It makes you do things you wouldn’t ordinarily do. Just give me five million dollars, one million for each of us and I won’t ever bother you again.” He looked at his watch, “Let’s see, it’s 12:01 a.m. You probably have to wait til the bank opens at 9:00 a.m. I’ll be in touch.”

  He turned to go and then turned back and looked at Eugene, “She’s a pretty poor fuck, isn’t she? By the way, you boy is tied up in the closet in the nanny’s room. I’ll be in touch.” He climbed on the bed and backed into the passageway and disappeared.

  We ran downstairs and found Ronnie in the closet. He had been hogtied and gagged. It was the first time I had seen Eugene angry. He was usually so gentle. After we got Ronnie untied and calmed down, Eugene started destroying things. I let him and wished that I could join him.

  The rage didn’t last long and then we sat with Ronnie and he told us what had happened, “The nanny tied me up. She said we were going to play a game and that she was the thief and I was the victim. When she tied my hand, I told her I didn’t want to play anymore She put that rag in my mouth and I couldn’t yell. She took Jeannie. I’m going to kill her when I find her.”

  Eugene hugged him, “No, son you’re not going to kill her. We’ll let the police handle this.”

  He picked up the phone and I tried to stop him, “No, Eugene. They will hurt her if we call the police.” I was terrified.

  He put the phone down and held me for awhile then he said, “Kathy, I’m sorry, sweetheart, but we have to get the police to help us. Do you want to let them get away with this? They killed your grandmother. You think they will think twice about harming Jeannie?”

  I knew he was right but I was so scared I couldn’t think straight. Finally I said, “We have to talk to the police without them knowing it. What if they’re watching?”

  “Well, we won’t go to the police station. Call you lawyer friend to act as a go between. If they’re watching, they probably won’t think anything about you talking to your lawyer. In fact, if you’re going to withdraw that much money from your account, you might get in touch with your lawyer.

  “Once Colin gets here you can talk to him and he can call the police from his office. He could maybe meet Detective Phillips by accident in the diner and join him for lunch. How does that sound?”

  I thought it sounded risky, but I didn’t know what else to do. We put Ronnie to bed but had to stay with him until he fell asleep. We all slept in my suite, now ours, so we were right next door to Ronnie.

  Actually Eugene and I didn’t sleep but stayed up the rest of the night talking. We thought we had a better plan worked out and all we had left to do was to wait for the bank to open.

  CHAPTER 37

  The next morning I waited outside the bank for it to open. I was ready to carry out our plan. Eugene stayed home and worked like always. Ronnie stayed home and stayed close to Eugene.

  I could see the tellers inside counting money and then I saw Mr. Fogarty come in the back door. When he spotted me he came and unlocked the door.

  “Come on in, Kathy,” He said, unlocking the door. He led me to his office and told his secretary to get us coffee.

  We made small talk while we waited for the coffee and when we were settled in and the secretary had left us, I discretely pulled a note out of my purse and slid it over to him. I couldn’t be seen by the tellers but I wasn’t sure about Mr. Fogarty’s secretary.

  I glanced over my shoulders and noticed that she was bent over some forms, frowning. I put my finger to my lips as he was getting ready to speak.

  I began to feel more at ease as I told him that I wanted to make a rather large withdrawal, explaining that I wanted to give each of my staff a big cash bonus for the good job they did during the grand opening.

  He had placed the note inside his desk drawer and was reading it while pretending to look for some forms.

  “Ah, here they are,” He said pulling out the forms and giving me a slight nod. “If you’ll just sign here and here and initial here.”

  I did so and he excused himself and went out to where the tellers were. I got up and watched while he said something to an overweight woman with red hair tied on top of her head and she accompanied him to the vault.

  He came back with a leather briefcase and put it on his desk. My breath caught as he opened the briefcase and showed me the money inside. I glanced over my shoulder and the secretary was still hunched over some forms frowning.

  When I looked back at Mr. Fogarty, he again gave me a slight nod and pushed the briefcase toward me. He had tears in his eyes and I knew I could trust him.

  He stood up and shook my hand, “If there’s anything else I can do for you, please feel free to call me. By the way that teller I was talking to out there has been with me for 22 years. I would trust her with my life.

  “Thank, you,” I said. I couldn’t say anything more. I knew if I did I would break down and cry and that would only bring me unwanted attention. I picked up the briefcase and left.

  Mr. Fogarty would leave to run an errand, go to a phone booth and call Detective Phillips and they would meet in a motel outside of town and Mr. Fogarty would give him my note in which I had told him everything.

  I had left instruction for neither one of them to call me in case some of my staff was listening in on my calls. Now I had to just wait and hope that Adam didn’t make his move before the police got there.

  When I got back from the bank I locked the briefcase in the safe, told Eugene that everything had gone great and found Ronnie swimming in the pool ou
tside.

  Kids are resilient, and when he saw me he yelled, “Hey, Kathy watch this,” as dove off the diving board.

  When he came up I clapped, “I want to talk to you, Ronnie. Can you get out of the pool for a minute?”

  He got out by climbing over the edge of the pool instead of climbing the ladder. He had seen Cary Grant do that and he thought it was cool.

  “I was sitting in a lounge and when he came over I patted the seat by me, “Sit down here by me. I want to ask you something.”

  He sat down and I took a towel and as I dried him off I asked, “Ronnie, did you know about the secret passageway into the other bedroom?”

  He dropped his head, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it.”

  “No, that’s okay, really, Ronnie. Are there any others I should know about?”

  Now he looked excited, “They’re in just about all the bedrooms that are that side of the house. After Granny Grace showed me the one in the gold room, I went and found the other ones. I don’t think she even knew about the others.”

  “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 treasure 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?”