Southern Greed Read online

  Ronnie handed me what looked like a dish towel to wipe my eyes on when I was calmed down.

  CHAPTER 31

  Eugene and Ronnie lived in a small house off one of the town squares in Savannah. It was a wooden house with a small patio off the back. There were two bedrooms and two baths and then one large room that served as a living room, dining room, and kitchen.

  “I’m sorry, it’s not what you’re used to, but it’s the best I can do,” Eugene said after showing me around.

  I laughed, “Are you kidding? The house I grew up in was not much better than a shack. Then I had a small apartment when I left home. I’m not used to living in a mansion. I just appreciate what you’re doing for me. Thank you.”

  “No problem,” He said. He turned to Ronnie, “Well, little buddy, looks like you’re going to be bunking in with me for awhile. Is that okay with you?”

  “I’d rather bunk in with Kathy.”

  Eugene winked at me, “I think Kathy needs more room than I do, since she’s going to have baby. Right now I think both of you need to take a nap since you’ve been up all night.”

  I woke up at around three and heard country western music, “Blue eyes crying in the rain…”

  I found both of them on the patio. Eugene was playing a guitar and singing. He had a beautiful voice and I had always like that song. Ronnie was swinging on a swing made of rope tied to an old tire and hanging from an oak tree in the tiny backyard.

  Neither one of them saw me, as I watched from inside the screen door. Eugene was wearing only a pair of bellbottom jeans. His bare foot was tapping in time with the music. Every now and then Ronnie would join in but he was tone deaf. He sounded like a frog. It was adorable.

  I stared at Eugene’s bare back and shoulders. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. He looked like one long muscle. I had been so blinded by the beauty of Adam I hadn’t noticed how handsome Eugene was. His sandy hair was wet and combed straight back. He looked like he had just gotten out of the shower.

  “Don’t stop,” I said to Eugene as I stepped out onto the patio. But he stopped playing anyway.

  “Did I wake you up?” He asked.

  “No, I woke up and then I heard you singing. You sing so good I thought the radio was on.”

  “Hey, Kathy,” Ronnie yelled as he pumped making the swing go higher.

  Eugene laughed, “I think he’s trying to impress you,” He said and I waved at Ronnie.

  Eugene got up and put his guitar in the case, “I have something to show you,” He said opening the screen door for me. He walked over toward the couch and picked up a newspaper off the coffee table, “You made the front page,” He said to me, and handed me the paper.

  The headlines jumped out at me: PREGNANT WOMAN MISSING.

  The words blurred before my eyes and he took the paper from me. “I’m sorry,” He said. “Here, sit down. You don’t need to read it.

  “The only reason I showed it to you is because the police will probably come here eventually. How do you want to handle this?”

  “What do you think I should do?”

  “If I were you, I would call the sheriff’s department and have them arrested for kidnapping and trespassing. You were held prisoner there, right?”

  “Yes I was. I’m going down right now.”

  “Don’t you think you should eat first? When was the last time you ate?”

  “Uh, supper last night.”

  “I have some macaroni and cheese I made for supper last night. It’s Ronnie’s favorite. I could heat some up in the oven. It’s not much but it could tide you over until supper tonight.”

  “I love macaroni and cheese. That would be just right.”

  After I ate, Eugene gave me directions to the police station. It was only two blocks from his house. He offered to go with me but I said I wanted to do this myself.

  I was only a half block from the police stations when Adam’s car pulled up along the curb beside me, “Get in the car, Kathy,” He screamed.

  I ran and as I got in front of the police station, Detective Phillips came out of the front door and started down the steps. I fell. I fell onto my belly and I screamed in pain and at the same time I heard Adam’s car take off I heard Detective Phillips’ feet running toward me.

  He reached down to help me up and I felt something wet come out of me and trickle down my legs. I was so embarrassed because I thought I had wet myself. He yelled over his shoulder at someone else who was coming down the steps to call an ambulance.

  The ambulance screamed to a stop in seconds and I was put onto a stretcher and taken to the hospital

  I hadn’t wet myself, my water had broken and I was in labor. I gave birth to a baby girl at 5:32 the next morning, six pounds and eight ounces. She was beautiful.

  They had taken her away to let me sleep and brought her back for me to nurse after my nap. I was admiring her while I watched her nurse when Eugene came in.

  “How are you?” He asked and without waiting for my reply he continued, “When you didn’t come back, I left Ronnie with our neighbor and went to the police station. They told me what had happened.

  He came closer and looked at the baby and smiled, “I remember when Ronnie was born. It was the happiest day of my life. She’s beautiful, but with a mother like you, she would be.”

  I looked at him in surprise and he smiled again, “One of the things that contribute to your beauty is that you don’t even know you are beautiful.”

  “Eugene, Adam tried to get me to get into his car. If Detective Phillips hadn’t come out when he did, I would have been a prisoner again. I would have had the baby in the mansion and that awful dirty Spanish woman would have delivered her. They would have probably killed me after I gave birth,” I shuttered.

  “Don’t worry,” He said, “They went out there to arrest them but they had all cleared out. You don’t have to worry about them anymore. Detective Phillips said they have warrants out for all of their arrests.”

  I kissed the baby on the cheek and then put her on my shoulder and patted her back trying to burp her.

  “Let me do that,” Eugene surprised me by saying. “I’m very good at it and I love tiny people.”

  I handed her over and he started pacing the room while he patted her back.

  “I think I’ll name her Jeannie. What do you think?”

  He laughed, “Sounds kind of like my name.”

  “That’s the whole idea. You’ve been such a good friend to me. I don’t know how to thank you.”

  Jeannie burped loudly just at that exact moment and we both laughed. “She agrees,” I said.

  CHAPTER 32

  The doctor announced both mommy and baby in good health and I was free to leave the hospital. Eugene came to pick me up.

  “I hope the baby can sleep with you for awhile. How do you feel about me going out to the mansion and getting a baby crib from the attic? I saw it there once when Miss Gracie sent me up there for some old albums.”

  “Why don’t we, all three of us, move back out there now that everyone else has gone. There’s a lot more room.”

  He drove a few blocks before answering and I thought he had forgotten the question. He finally pulled over and turned to me, “Are you sure, Kathy? I mean, you’ve had some really bad memories there.”

  I was sure and I told him so, “I’ve also had some good memories there. I spent some wonderful times with my grandmother and with you and Ronnie. We may as well use it. I’ll need you to help me re-staff it, of course.

  “You can finish your book there and you can keep the royalties for yourself. I sure don’t need them. Ronnie knows where the treasures are and I plan to donate them to the museum.

  “I thought I would use the quarters that were my grandmother’s and I want to get a carpenter in to help me build an art studio in part on the ballroom that hasn’t been used up with grandma’s living quarters.

  “I think Adam was right about one thing. The mansion would make a great resort. I could hire
a manager or you could manage it if you want to. I would like to see if we can find Mrs. Hildebrandt. She was an excellent cook. That’s important to have. You want the guests to have good food.”

  I glanced over and he was laughing so hard he was shaking, “Boy, you’ve been thinking a lot about this, haven’t you?”

  “Well, I’ve had plenty of time to think about it. I was bored out of my mind laying there waiting for them to bring my baby to me.”

  CHAPTER 33

  We moved ahead with my plans. Eugene and Ronnie moved into the mansion with me and I had an art studio built right off my suite. I turned Nurse Rachael’s room into another closet.

  Ronnie wanted to live in the gold suite because of the secret tunnel and I told them to redo it however they wanted. Ronnie showed me where the treasures were. I laughed. Adam and Mrs. Dover would never have found them.

  They were in a small opening halfway down the stairs leading out to sea. You had to push a button in the wall that no one would ever notice and the door slid back and there they were. I was surprised there were so many treasures.

  Ronnie had to crawl into the space to pull most of them out. They were packed back in there for several feet. Most of the jewelry was heavy with large stones like rubies, diamonds, topaz, and emeralds embedded into heavy metal.

  The swords had jewel handles and the goblets were so heavy I couldn’t imagine trying to drink out of them. We loaded up Eugene’s car and hauled them to the museum.

  I spent money on the mansion like it was going out of style. I had always had to budget my money before and it was fun to buy new linens for the beds, new towels, etc. Ronnie went with me on some of these shopping sprees and we had a blast picking out colors for the different suites.

  It was his idea to name all the suites different pirate names and so we had a Black Beard suite, a long John Silver suite etc.

  I had tried to find Mrs. Hildebrandt and couldn’t, but one day when Eugene, Ronnie and I were in Atlanta, we stopped for lunch at a small restaurant just outside of town on our way out. As soon as we sat down, she ran out of the kitchen and hugged me.

  I hired her on the spot and took her back to Tybee Island with us. I told her to hire whoever she needed to help in the kitchen and it didn’t take her any time at all to have the kitchen in perfect working order. She thanked me over and over and she seemed so happy.

  Eugene helped me find people to maintain the yard, the gardens, and the pool and spas. He suggested we also put in an outdoor pool saying that some people might want to get some sun instead of just swim. It made sense and I put him in charge of that.

  Hiring the staff was easy until I started trying to find a manager for the whole place. I didn’t want to be the manager, I wanted to study fashion designing.

  One night during supper I asked Eugene, “Who can we get to manage this whole place? I don’t want to just put an ad in the paper. I want someone I can trust.”

  He looked at me and dropped his head. He looked up again and acted like he was going to say something and then gazed off into space.

  I laughed, “Would you spit it out?”

  “Well, it’s just,” He cleared his throat. He stared again, “I thought I was already the manager.”

  “Oh, Eugene, I’m so sorry. You’ve been just wonderful helping me out with everything. I didn’t think this was something you want to keep doing. Do you want to manage this place, really?”

  “I really do,” He said. “I realize that I like what I’ve been doing. I want to continue to write for fun but I really would like to try my hand at managing this place.”

  Without thinking I jumped up and ran around the table and hugged him. He pulled me into his lap and hugged me back and then we were gazing into each other’s eyes. I thought he was going to kiss me and I wanted him to but then I remembered where we were.

  We had decided to let the staff eat at the table with us and there were servers coming in and out of the kitchen and Ronnie was sitting there watching us and not saying a word which was rare for him.

  I got off Eugene’s lap and went back to my chair, the moment passed and we finished supper, discussing plans for the resort and getting suggestions from the rest of the staff.

  I was sleeping well and I was so happy. Jeannie was gaining weight like she was supposed to and she was a happy baby.

  Ronnie usually came by to see me before going to bed and that night he said, “Why don’t you marry my daddy? You like him don’t you?”

  “Well, we don’t know each other that well. Why we’ve never even been on a date.”

  “Oh, Okay, I’ll tell him to take you on a date. I’ll help nanny look after Jeannie, but I’ll let nanny change her diaper. That’s gross.”

  At first Eugene was very shy about asking me out. I think he was afraid I would think he was after my money. But after awhile we both began to concentrate on our relationship. I thought of him as equal partners in the resort and I believe that was carried over into our personal relationship.

  The role models I had watched growing up had been with the woman looking up to the man and letting him make all the decisions. Once Eugene and I had started working toward a common goal, that of getting the resort ready, I felt more on an equal footing with him.

  It was a new and exciting way of looking at men and women relationships. Eugene and I were photographed often for the society page of the newspaper and the reporters began to speculate about our relationship and if it would end in marriage.

  I thought about it myself and wondered if I could get a divorce from Adam without him. They still hadn’t found any of my kidnappers.

  I went to see Colin and asked him if it was possible to get a divorce without Adam.

  “You can get a divorce by publication,” He said. “I’ll take care of it for you. I will need to get an affidavit of Diligent Search which is not going to be difficult at all because there has already been a diligent search done by the police. It shouldn’t even take a month since the first steps have already been done.”

  He patted my hand, “Just leave it to me, Kathy. I’ll take care of it for you.”

  “Thank you so much, Colin. I’m so glad I have you to help me. I hope you know how much I appreciate you. By the way, you do know that you’re invited to the opening celebration of the Southern Comfort Resort, don’t you? It’s May first.”

  He smiled, “Less than a month away! I’ll be there.”

  CHAPTER 34

  Opening day for the resort was May first, and the celebration was covered by all the major newspapers all over the south as well as all major magazines.

  It became almost out of control when, two weeks before the opening, a Hollywood producer called and asked if he could come and bring some of his actors.

  I was so excited about meeting actors and actresses that I told him to bring as many as possible. I hadn’t been allowed to go to the movies growing up. It was considered sinful, but Eugene had been taking me to some and I loved them.

  What I had at first thought was going to be a local shindig turned out to be a Hollywood extravaganza. The grand opening was supposed to be on a Saturday but stars began checking in on Thursday.

  Oleg Cassini, the designer, arrived Thursday night and brought me a present. It was a beautiful one-of-a-kind evening gown designed by him for me to wear Saturday night. It was covered in silver sequins, backless and fit like a second skin, with long sleeves and a slit up the left side that showed my left leg all the way to my thigh.

  I had kept a few pieces of jewelry from the hidden treasures, among them an emerald bracelet with matching earrings. I thought they would add some color to the silver. My high heels were silver sandals. We had a beauty salon in the basement that I had decided to add and hired some hair dressers. I had my hair done down there.

  I was star struck as some of my favorite movie stars started checking in. I felt like a country hick and I felt underdressed in my simple white eyelet blouse and tan a-line skirt and flat shoes.

 
I could see why these people were called stars. They shined like the stars in the sky. My guests list read like the guest list for the academy awards. The first to arrive was my very favorite, Doris Day. She was accompanied by Rock Hudson and they were getting a lot of publicity for their new movie they were making together.

  Sandra Dee was there with her agent. Cary Grant was there with his wife and the star couple Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman. There were producers and agents, scriptwriters and directors.

  They kept coming and I was getting worried. I finally decided that no one could have a suite and when I told them they were real sports about it. By splitting up the suites and using the rooms with baths on the third floor, we had enough rooms.

  When Eugene saw the situation, he suggested that I share their suite and rent out mine. I had the maid hurrying around remaking the beds in my suite and getting those rooms ready and finally the people quit coming.

  I breathed a sigh of relief and escaped to Eugene and Ronnie’s suite. Ronnie was down at the pool and Eugene and I sat in the living room with our feet up and were getting relaxed when there was a knock on the door.

  “I’ll get it,” Eugene said. “You just sit back and relax.”

  When he opened the door I was surprised to see Mrs. Hildebrandt. She had never knocked on my door before.

  “I’m so sorry to bother you,” She said and she was fanning herself with her apron. Her face was red and she was sweating.

  “It’s okay, Mrs. Hildebrandt, come on in. What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t mean to complain, mam, but it’s that blond young woman that I heard someone call a starlet. I don’t know what that means. Her name’s Janet and she’s here with that fat producer.”

  “I know the one you mean, what about her? What did she do?”

  “Well, she acts like she owns the place. She’s bossing everyone around. That bothered me some but when she came into my kitchen and started telling me how to run my kitchen, I won’t put up with that. She’s trying to tell me what to cook, how to cook it, when to cook it, and like that.”