“You know, Nina, you are probably the most beautiful woman I have evah seen in ninety years.”
Reggie’s lovely young widow smiled and looked away.
“Mr. Grey!”
“Oh yeah,” he said. “I had a wife named Sensia.”
“That’s a pretty name.”
“And she was a beautiful girl. But not as beautiful as you.”
Nina turned back to the old man, wondering with her gaze where he wanted to go with this line of flattery. “Really?”
“Oh yeah. And Reggie loved you too. He loved you so much that when he found out that some other man had caught your eye he decided to take you down to San Diego so that he didn’t have to share all that loveliness.”
Nina’s smile froze. Her head moved back an inch.
“What?” she asked.
“I got a trust in the bank,” Ptolemy said. “It’s set aside for my family. There’s money for your chirren’s education and their wed-din’ days.”
Nina’s expression changed again. Ptolemy wouldn’t let her get a bead on his intentions.
“Yeah,” he said. “And I made a gift for Reggie.”
He took an old gold coin from his pocket. The date on the coin read 1821.
“This here twenty-dollar gold piece. It’s worf five thousand dollars or more to a collector. I got twenty’a them for Reggie. He told me to hold them for you.”
Nina brought both hands to her mouth.
Ptolemy put the coin back in his pocket.
“But before I hand them ovah I got to know how my boy died.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “I, I don’t know who shot him.”
“What about Alfred?”
“No.”
“Did you tell him that Reggie was takin’ you and the kids away?”
Nina tried to speak but could not.
Sirens blared and suddenly four police cars raced past Niecie’s house and on down the street.
“He couldn’t, Mr. Grey. My Al couldn’t do nuthin’ like that.”
“What was he in prison for?”
“No.”
“Was he wit’ you when Reggie was killed?”
“I’m a good woman, Mr. Grey . . . a mother.”
“Was Alfred wichyou when they opened fire on Reggie on the front steps of his friend’s house?”
“My baby couldn’t do nuthin’ like that,” Nina said, her eyes begging him.
“How long aftah you told Alfred was Reggie killed?”
“A, a, a day and a, a, a day and a half.”
“An’ you didn’t think nuthin’ about that?”
Nina’s hands were back at her mouth again. She shook her head and tears squeezed out from her eyes.
“I’m a good woman, Mr. Grey.”
“But did you tell Alfred that you was goin’ away with Reggie?”
She nodded almost imperceptibly.
“Did he say he wanted you to stay?”
She nodded.
“An’ what else did he say?”
“That I was his woman. That I belonged wit’ him.”
Ptolemy thought about his great-great-grandniece and -nephew again, this woman’s children.
“Why you wanna run around wit’ him, treatin’ Reggie like that?”
Nina looked away.
“Did you know?” he asked.
