A Murder In Passing Read Online Free PDF Page B

took the matching one to the left, and Nakayla sat on the end of the sofa closest to our potential client. Neither one of us pulled out a notepad. At this point, we were simply having a conversation. I waited for Nakayla to take the lead.
    â€œYou said this was about a burglary.”
    Marsha Montgomery nodded.
    â€œHave you notified the police?”
    â€œThey were notified.”
    I caught that Ms. Montgomery didn’t specify she had notified the police. My partner was also as attentive.
    â€œWho notified them?” Nakayla asked.
    â€œMy mother. Lucille Montgomery.”
    â€œWas she the one who was burglarized?”
    â€œYes, ma’am.”
    â€œWhere does she live?”
    â€œAt the Golden Oaks Retirement Center.”
    Nakayla flashed me a quick look. We were both familiar with the site and knew some of the residents. “That’s a surprise. The security there is excellent.”
    â€œIt didn’t happen there. It happened in her home.”
    â€œSo she still owns her home?”
    Marsha Montgomery shook her head. “No. I live there now.”
    â€œYou were burglarized?” Nakayla asked.
    â€œNo.” She looked at me and then back to Nakayla. “My mother was the victim.”
    Again, Nakayla zeroed in on the question I wanted to ask.
    â€œWhen did this happen?”
    â€œIn 1967.”
    â€œ1967?” I blurted out the year, unable to contain my frustration at the prospect of a case with zero chance of a solution.
    â€œI know,” she admitted. “It was a long time ago. But it was the summer, if that’s helpful.”
    â€œThe summer,” I repeated. “What did they steal? Bathing suits?”
    â€œA photograph, Mr. Blackman.” The ice in her voice was as cold as the glare Nakayla gave me. “A photograph I’ve just learned might be very valuable.”
    â€œOkay.” I ratcheted down my exasperation. “That’s helpful. Do you have a way to prove ownership?”
    â€œI do. You see my mother is in it. The photograph was taken at the Kingdom of the Happy Land. Ever heard of it?”
    I looked at Nakayla. Our world had just taken a very interesting turn.

Chapter Four
    Nakayla leaned forward on the sofa. “Ms. Montgomery, didn’t the Kingdom of the Happy Land disappear over a hundred years ago?”
    â€œPlease call me Marsha. And yes, it did. Then the property was sold for back taxes in the mid-teens.”
    â€œThen how old is your mother?”
    â€œShe’s eighty-five. She never lived in the Kingdom. That’s just where the picture was taken.”
    â€œThe one that was stolen?” I asked.
    â€œYes. I know it sounds complicated, but it’s really not.”
    â€œMaybe you’d better take us back to the beginning,” Nakayla said. “Assume we know nothing about the Kingdom.”
    Marsha Montgomery nodded. “All right, but my knowledge is limited to what my mother knows. She said her mother’s mother, my great grandmother was born on the Kingdom sometime in the eighteen-seventies. There weren’t any real records kept so we’re talking oral tradition. My mother says the Kingdom was founded by a former slave owner from Mississippi a few years after the Civil War.”
    â€œSlave owner?” Nakayla asked. “I thought they were freed slaves.”
    â€œThey were. Led by their former master, the first king. My mother says he was the son of a white plantation owner and young slave woman. The plantation owner freed the woman before the birth and the mulatto child was born as his acknowledged progeny. The boy was educated and given his own farm and slaves.” She looked at Nakayla and shook her head. “Seems strange he would own his own people.”
    â€œSounds like he didn’t abandon them,” Nakayla said.
    â€œNo. At the end of the war, Mississippi was in ruins. The plantation house and land had been razed. He gathered the now