CHAPTER 19
It was Brad. He lay on the floor, eyes closed, his leg bleeding profusely where an alligator had bitten him. I gasped.
“I know. It looks pretty bad,” Heath said grimly.
“That’s not what I mean,” I told him. “That’s Brad!”
“Brad? Your ex-husband? What’s he doing here?”
“I have no idea. I thought he was in Chicago!”
Brad’s eyes fluttered open, then closed again. I stared at him in astonishment then remembered the dispatcher on the phone.
“There’s a man here who’s been bitten by an alligator!” I told her.
She briskly gave me a list of supplies we would need to give Brad first aid and then waited as we found everything we needed in the emergency kit. Then she walked me through the process of administering first aid to keep Brad stable until the paramedics could get to the house.
We dragged an air mattress into the dining room and placed a heavy sleeping bag on top. Heath and Graydon carefully lifted Brad onto the mattress and he lay there, motionless, as I bandaged his leg, his arm, and his head. There was nothing else we could do but wait for an ambulance to arrive. My thoughts turned to Lucy. I didn’t want her to know her father was in the house, and I certainly didn’t want her to see him in his condition. I called Evie over.
“Can you keep Lucy occupied in the drawing room and upstairs until the EMTs can get here and take Brad away?”
She nodded. “No problem.”
Graydon and Heath had been drying off and getting warm drinks. They both came to stand near me, as did Vivian and Ruby.
“I wonder why he’s here,” Graydon mused.
I shook my head. “I have no idea. I thought he was in Chicago.”
“What do you suppose he wanted?” asked Vivian.
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
Heath decided to spend the rest of the night at the manor. He sat with me in the dining room where Brad was curled in a fetal position on top of the sleeping bag. Though it was nearly impossible, I must have dozed out of sheer exhaustion, because I awoke to a strange silence in the house. Mercifully, no tornado had come.
Vivian was opening the door to the EMTs and police. I could see daylight outside. Heath and I stood up quietly and tiptoed to the front door. I showed them where Brad was still lying—either asleep or unconscious, I didn’t know—on the dining room floor.
They quickly took charge of the situation. The police pulled Heath and Graydon and me to the side while the EMTs got to work on Brad’s leg. I heard one paramedic utter the terse phrase “in shock.” I peeked into the hallway just in time to see Evie leading a still-sleepy Lucy upstairs. Thankfully she seemed to be completely unaware of the drama in the dining room.
Heath and Graydon and the police were looking at me. I had missed a question from the police officer.
“I’m sorry. What?”
“Do you know that man?” the officer repeated.
“He’s my ex-husband.”
“Where does he live?”
“Chicago.”
“What was he doing here?”
“I have no idea. I didn’t know he was in South Carolina.”
“Would he have any reason to be here that you know of?”
I shook my head. “Not unless he was here to check up on our daughter. She’s here with me while I’m working on restoring this home. But she talks to him every night on the phone and he never said anything about being in the area.”
The officer was writing in a small notepad and turned when one of the paramedics walked up to him.
“We’re taking him in,” the medic said. “You coming?”
“Yes,” the officer answered. He turned to the rest of us. “I’ll be back once the other side of this storm moves through.” Then he followed the paramedics steering Brad on a stretcher around to the front of Peppernell Manor.
Heath and Graydon were staring at me; Vivian and Ruby had joined them.
“I’m so sorry, all of you. I have the same questions that you must have.”
“Brad isn’t the only problem,” noted Graydon. “There’s an alligator on the property that we have to take care of. I’ll call Animal Control after the storm ends. They’ll know what to do. The gator could have come out of the river, or it could have been in the pond. The storm probably stirred it up and it came out of hiding.”
“I hope they don’t kill it,” Ruby said quietly.
Vivian looked at her in disgust. “Ruby, how can you say that? I only hope it doesn’t attack someone else before Animal Control can catch it.”
Graydon addressed his sister. “I don’t think they’ll kill it. They’ll probably capture it and release it far away from here.”
“Good,” she said with a sigh.
“Heath, if you want to get back to the carriage house you’d better do it now before the storm worsens again,” said Graydon.
Heath nodded and whistled for Addie. He looked at me, concerned. “Don’t worry. We’ll figure everything out once the storm is over. Just be glad Lucy never found out Brad was here.” Then he kissed me. I smiled wanly.
He descended the front steps, then turned around just as Evie came up behind me.
“What happened to Mother’s car?” He nodded in the direction of the garage.
Evie rolled her eyes. “Long story.”
“You’ll tell me later, I gather.”
“Of course. Daddy’s mad at her, but I think it’s just a mask for his relief. She got home during the storm last night, long after you left.”
Heath winced. “Thank goodness she’s all right.” He turned around and headed back to the carriage house.
“Lucy’s asleep in her bed,” Evie told me before I even had a chance to ask her.
Ruby brought me a cup of tea, which I drank gratefully. I walked to the front door and looked outside again. It was still. I could see the damage wrought by the wind, but it seemed to be mostly confined to tree branches, plants, and some roof shingles from the garage, at least from where I stood.
As everyone made their way into the kitchen, Phyllis appeared and set out slices of homemade banana bread and fresh fruit. Luckily, there was a gas stove in the kitchen and she had been able to heat up water for tea. She said that there were eggs in the refrigerator but since the power had gone out at least seven hours ago, she was reluctant to use them.
We waited for just a short time before the wind started howling again. The back of the storm had arrived, bringing with it more slashing rain. It was somehow easier to wait through the rest of the storm during the daytime. We played games in the drawing room by candlelight since we still couldn’t open the shutters to let in the light, and we read books. Everyone took turns reading to Lucy.
At last the storm was over. The wind petered out slowly, and the rain slowed to a steady drumming. Heath came over and he and Graydon went around the manor, opening shutters to gray misty light. A couple of windowpanes were cracked, but Ruby’s shutter and window seemed to have suffered the worst damage. The rest of the house had made it through another storm intact. Phyllis reminded us as we ate a late lunch of bread and fruit that it was the work of her ancestors that had kept us all safe from the hurricane.
The police and paramedics had my number and had said someone from the hospital would call later. I hadn’t heard from anyone yet, so after lunch Lucy followed me around as I gathered the supplies I would need to refinish the staircase in the entry hall. I began the tedious job of sanding and restaining each step. Around midafternoon, Heath called.
“Feel like going into Charleston with me?” he asked. “I need to check on things at the office.”
“I’d love to, but I assume I’m going to have to talk to the police again and I should probably find out what’s going on with Brad. Besides that, I’ve taken the past few days off and I should really get some more work done,” I explained. “Lucy will have to go back to school tomorrow and I have a couple of shops I need to visit after I drop her off. Want to meet for lunch then?”
“It’s a date,” he said.
The hospital finally called later that evening. Brad was stable, the nurse told me, but he could not yet receive visitors. Someone would call when he was awake and alert. The police called, too, and said they wanted to talk to Brad before they questioned me again.