The planters were gone the next morning. Patricia had them moved before sunrise, like a thief cleaning up a crime scene in reverse. But she wasn’t done. She was nowhere close to done. It happened on a Saturday in June.
James was on his veranda at 7:00 in the evening, the way he was most evenings when the heat broke and the river breeze picked up. Captain was asleep under the rocking chair. Duke and Pearl stood in the far pasture, silhouetted against the sky turning from gold to copper. James had a glass of sweet tea and a Robert Caro biography open on his knee, and for the first time in months, he wasn’t thinking about Patricia Davenport. She was thinking about him.
At 6:53 p.m. Patricia Davenport picked up her phone and dialed 911. The call lasted 2 minutes and 47 seconds. The Beaufort County dispatch recording, which James obtained 31 days later through a FOIA request, captured every word. “Hello, 911. What is your emergency?”
“Yes, my name is Patricia Davenport. I’m the president of the Palmetto Crest Estates Homeowners Association. I need officers at the Whitfield property immediately. There is a man on the property who does not belong here. He may be armed.
I’ve seen him walking the grounds multiple times this week, and tonight he’s sitting on the porch like he owns the place. I want him removed. Get him out.” “And, ma’am, can you describe the individual?” “Male, late 50s, medium build.
He’s been trespassing on this property for weeks. The estate has been vacant. The previous owner passed away, and no one has claimed it. This man has no right to be there. Please send someone immediately.
I don’t feel safe.” “Is he threatening you or anyone else?” “He could be armed. He has a dog. Just get him out.
Now.” She hung up. Everything she said was a lie. Every word. The property was not vacant.
The previous owner had not passed away. The previous owner was the Aldrich Whitfield Trust, and James had purchased the property from the trust three years earlier. James was not a trespasser. He was the legal owner, sitting on his own porch reading a book in a house he’d paid $5.2 million for. Patricia knew all of this.
She’d met him. She’d stood at his gate. She’d mailed him letters addressed to this property. She’d filed county complaints listing him as the property owner. She knew his name.
She knew where he lived. And she told the 911 dispatcher none of it. What she told them was designed to do one thing, bring armed officers to the property of a man she wanted gone using a story calculated to make those officers arrive with their hands on their weapons. Two patrol units responded. Dispatch classified the call as a possible armed trespass priority response.
