And Now She's Gone(41)

Gray stood in the doorway.

A talk show blared on the television.

Mrs. Tompkins pushed the Mute button on the television’s remote control. “Kevin just fixed it for me right before you came, so I don’t wanna turn it off. He’s a good son.”

A good son and a pervert.

“That was nice of him to do. He come by whenever he’s in town?”

Mrs. Tompkins pawed through a sideboard drawer. “Oh, he ain’t posted anywhere right now. I’m glad, cuz he can take care of me, like sons are supposed to take care of their mothers. Them ex-wives of his ain’t never understood that. But he knows—his momma always comes first. That’s how nice boys are. Where is that … It’s in here somewhere…”

Nice boys. Boys who would never hurt a fly. Boys who were always misunderstood, who fell head over heels for the wrong tramp, the slut after his money, the whore who attacked his manhood. Nice guys—like Ian O’Donnell—who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and bam! That Jezebel made him hit her, made him steal or kill or …

That’s what Sean’s mom had thought. Sean could do no wrong in Loni Dixon’s eyes. Bruises had been a result of thin skin; cuts came from moving away at a strange angle; threats were just words. Stop being so sensitive. Be lucky. You got a nice car, a nice house, and he comes home at night. You don’t even have to work a job. Don’t call me again with that nonsense.

And so it was with Mrs. Tompkins and her nice boy Kevin.

“They never liked us,” the old lady sniffed. “The ex-wives, that’s who I’m talking about. Jesmyn, his first wife, was an awful, awful woman. Drank a lot. And the other one … Oh, what’s her name? Kelly, Kelsey … That one worked. That was always her excuse. ‘I’m working, Kevin. I’m tired, Kevin.’ She was lousy is what she was. She stopped speaking to me and Arnie back when he was alive. That was fine with me.” She lifted her chin and poked out her bottom lip.

“So, is Kevin single now?” Gray asked.

The old lady stopped her search and smiled. “Why? You interested?”

Gray shrugged, played coy.

“You ain’t like them at all. See, Jesmyn, she was only with him for his military benefits, and the other one, she kept nagging him about how come he ain’t been promoted. She never gave him a chance. And she was jealous of me.”

“Izzy mentioned Kevin a few times.”

Mrs. Tompkins flicked her hand. “Now, I like Isabel, but she’s something of a tease.” She piled envelopes on top of the sideboard. “Isabel would smile at him—I seen her do it—but then, she’d tell him No, I don’t wanna go to this or No, I don’t wanna go to that. He’d send her flowers, but she’d bring them to me, tell me that it was sweet of him to do but that she didn’t wanna send him the wrong message. But then, the next day, she’d go back to smiling at him and then turning him down. He just wanted to take her to dinner.”

“Could it be Kevin’s mistake?” Gray asked. “That her smiling was just being polite?”

The old woman glared at Gray.

What was the thought? On dates, a man worried about the woman rejecting him and the woman worried about the man killing her?

Gray had been polite to men who’d thought that her smile meant “blow job.” Men had thrown bottles at her for not responding to their catcalls, or they had dumped Special K into her vodka tonics when she had responded No, thanks and had turned the other way. Men told her all the time to smile, and when she didn’t smile, they called her a bitch.

“Sometimes, men don’t understand,” Gray said now, those words making her gag. “Unfortunately, they get in trouble for simply not understanding.”

The old woman’s eyes shifted to the muted television. “This one girl dropped the charges against Kevin, but only if he gave her some money. He met her up in Washington. He ain’t mean her no harm. It was all a misunderstanding.

“See … he was in her apartment—and what kind of girl lives alone anyway? Anyway, he was in her apartment and she says that he was trying to steal some of her … personal items. But Kevin told me that he’d stayed there overnight before and that he’d left some of his clothes, and so he was only looking for them.”

Gray’s mind screamed, Your son’s a liar! He’s a stalker! A panty thief! “I can see where there’d be a misunderstanding.”

“All she wanted was his money.”

“How much did he have to pay her?”

“Around six thousand—oh.” Mrs. Tompkins swiveled to the foyer. “It’s over there.” She returned to the doorway and pulled from the doorknob a grocery bag filled with mail. “While you’re here, let me give you…” She handed the bag of mail to Gray. “You can go through and sort it all out. I’ve been collecting her mail since she left.”

“I’ll do that today. Izzy texted me this morning. She got held up and won’t be back until Sunday or so. It’s her birthday today and some friends of ours surprised her with a quick trip.”

Frowning, Mrs. Tompkins plopped down in a chair. “Oh no. Kevin’s gonna hate hearing that. He’s been looking forward to seeing her.” A pause, then: “You happen to be going over near Fox Hills Mall today?”