“Here’s the other thing. That was the only job I ever did strictly for the money. I was just getting into the business. I’d borrowed from the bank to set up my office, but clients weren’t exactly breaking down my door. The loan officer . . . the cranky so-and-so . . . expected payment and I didn’t have a dime. I put him off as long as I could, but I was running out of excuses. I don’t know what the bank would’ve done if I’d defaulted. I figured the last thing they wanted was an empty office filled with my used furniture. I knew the location was good and I was convinced I’d have business enough to support myself—at least modestly—within a short period of time. I just didn’t have the cash in hand.

“Mrs. Kinsey came along and told me what she had in mind. Even as desperate as I was, I didn’t want to work for her so I named an exorbitant price. She agreed to pay it and I was stuck. I sat surveillance on Virginia off and on for weeks—first in 1955, then again in ’56 and early ’57. In truth, I never saw your aunt as a motherly type. She provided you with the basics, but I didn’t witness much in the way of affection.”

“I can testify to that.”

He smiled. “You were a tiny little thing and you clung to her like a monkey. So much so that I wondered about your emotional stability. You’d taken a hit. The loss of your parents was a blow I wasn’t sure you’d recover from. Virginia wasn’t nurturing, but she was solid and she was constant. She was also a firecracker when it came to protecting you. In my opinion, that was enough.”

“You decided all this sitting in a car parked down the street from us?”

“Not quite. I’d been out there less than a week when she spotted me. I thought I’d been discreet, but she was sharp. She must have known her mother was up to no good. One day she came out to the car, gestured I should roll the window down, and then invited me in. She said if I was going to spy on her I might as well do it up close and net myself a cup of coffee in the bargain. After that, she knew I was following her, but she made no concessions. She did exactly what she always did. What I thought of her and what I reported was of no concern.”

“I’m missing something here,” I said. “My grandmother was ancient even then. What made her think she had any chance of gaining custody?”

“It was the other way around. She thought she had the means to knock your Aunt Gin out of the running. If she managed to do that, who else was going to step in?”