16
Lee Green Ripper how an exercise in ownership. But after she decided to accept completely, she became herself forthright, evocative, and deliciously bawdy when the mood was upon her.
After she took a sip of her drink I put fingertips under her chin, tilted it up, kissed her gently on the lips, and then said, “Whatever it is, I would like to know. Okay? Like management trying to slip up on your blind side?”
She grinned. “That I can handle, McGee. What makes you think there’s a blind side?”
“If there isn’t, what are you doing here?”
She frowned into her drink. “I think P11 tell both of you. I think I could use more than one opinion.”
We went back in and she sat next to Meyer on the yellow davenport. “What it is,” she said, ‘I think something other than what is supposed to be going on out there, is going on out there.”
“Bonnie Brae is a front for something else?” I asked.
“Not really that,” she said. “I mean, it’s pretty big and elaborate. Mr. Ladwigg and Mr. Broffski borrowed a fantastic amount of money to buy the land. It’s twelve hundred and eighty acres. There was a big stone-and-cypress house on it, and outbuildings. It was called the Cattrell place and was empty for years while the estate was being settled. They put a half-million dollars into renovating the house and some of the other buildings. And they put in roads and a sewage-treatment plant, water supply, and all that. And they fixed the old airstrip near the barns. They digging lakes, and building and selling houses, and selling building sites. We can accommodate twenty-four raffles in the main house at one time, feed them from the diet kitchen, and keep them busy. They pay twelve hundred a week, and there’s a waiting list. And there’s a waiting list for membership in the tennis club too. I mean, without knowing all the financial details, I’d say it’s going very well. Mr. Ladwigg and Mr. Broffski have both built houses for themselves in the best part of the development, where the lots have to be two acres each, and Mr. Morse Slater, the manager, has a new house near theirs. There are twenty-five or thirty new houses occupied, and room for an awful lot more, of course. There are some staff quarters in the baclc of the main house, because it is sort of like a small hotel, or hospital. There is a nice flavor. I mean it’s a good place to work. We have some laughs. People get along.” Her voice trailed off and she sipped and frowned.
“And now something doesn’t seem right?” Meyer asked, prompting her.
She smiled and leaned back. “Maybe I was lied to for too many years. Husband Billy was a world- champion-class liar. Brother John wasn’t exactly clumsy at it.”
“What’s my rating?” I asked.
The Green Ripper
“All the returns aren’t in. What I’m saying, maybe I get suspicious when there’s no real need.”
“We’ve got the whole evening, my dear,” Meyer said. “If we’re all patient, you’ll probably get to the point sooner or later.”
“I guess I’m dragging my feet because it sounds so weird I hate to mention it. Last week I had a batch of fatties down by the barns in the middle of the morning, making them do exercises, when a pretty little blue airplane landed on our strip. When I went back to the office, I asked Mr. Slater who had come in and he said that it was somebody to see Mr. Ladwigg, he didn’t know what about. I asked because sometimes a buyer flies in, and when they buy something, it means more paperwork for me. Now we come to the coincidence part. I woke up real early the next morning. It was brisk and clear. The model house I’m living in is about a half mile from the office. A couple of days before, I lost a pin I like very much while leading a group jogging. So I put on a heavy sweater and went out to retrace our route, thinking maybe I could find it in the grass. I was over by the airstrip, searching near a patch of palmetto, when I heard a motor. For a moment I thought it was a plane, and then I stepped out almost into the path of Herman Lad- wigg’s Toyota, going cross-country. It’s like a Land Rover, tall and open, with winches and things, and huge tires. It’s white with red trim. Mr. Ladwigg was driving, and it startled him as much as it did me, I guess. I dodged back, and I was on the passenger side of it as it went by. So the face of the man riding with Mr. Ladwigg was not more than a yard away from me. I saw him very very clearly. And I knew in that split second I had seen him be- fore. He looked right at me, and I saw the flicker of his recognition. He knew me too. But I couldn’t remember where or when. All I could remember was that it had been an unpleasant experience.”