Page 18 of The Inquirer

She acknowledged me with a single nod. “Nyx.”

“Everyone, this is Brewster and Shadae Huxley.” I gestured to the couple.

“I’m Min Wu, and I represent Carmine and Kathie Douglass.”

The couples exchanged greetings, and then we all turned to Min to begin the conversation.

“Nyx shared with me, and I’ve since shared with my clients everything that she’s discovered, including the conversation she had with the two of you yesterday, Mr. and Mrs. Huxley.” She gestured toward the woman at her side. “Brewster, you and Kathie are distantly related, far enough back that trying to figure out exactly how far you’re removed would take someone better than me at genealogy.”

“The site our son used gave some sort of number of cousins or however that works.” Shadae waved a hand. “If you’re interested in that kind of thing.”

“Oh, uh, thank you.” Min looked startled. “I’ll look into that. That probably won’t be necessary until we’re actually filing a lawsuit.”

“What, exactly, are you thinkin’ of doin’ with that lawsuit?” Shadae asked.

I smothered a smile at the expression on Min’s face. Maybe I should have warned her about Shadae’s forceful personality, but I wasn’t sure how I could’ve done that. Shadae was a force of nature that needed to be experienced. A simple description wouldn’t have done her any justice.

Min looked at the Douglasses, who nodded.

“The ultimate goal is to get some financial compensation for what was taken from your ancestors.”

“You’re tellin’ me you’re gonna get the Traylor family to pay us ‘cuz their people – white people, mind you – took things from black folk way before we were anythin’ but property?” Shadae crossed her arms. “I didn’t go to no fancy law school, but I’d think if that was the sort of thing you lawyers could do, it’d be all over the news. Black people’d be all up in that.”

Kathie laughed. “I said almost the exact same thing when Min told me what she thought we could do.”

Shadae turned her focus from Min to Kathie. “Did she come to you, or did you find her?”

“A little of both,” Kathie answered. “We were at a birthday party for Carmine’s mother, and we started talking about the research I was doing. His brother-in-law is a law student and mentioned that we should talk to a lawyer. I didn’t think anything of it. I mean, you hear about things like ‘statute of limitations’ and how people feel about the idea of reparations…” She shook her head. “I didn’t think there was anything we could do but have an interesting story to tell people. Carmine had other ideas.”

He gave her a fond smile. “I’m the steady one in our relationship. Kathie needs all that enthusiasm to teach all those junior high students, but she can sometimes be…impulsive.”

She glared at him, but even I couldn’t deny how much love I saw between them. “What he means to say is that he likes to analyze everything to death while I prefer to actually do things. I mean, it took him two years to figure out what phone he wanted, and by then, it was obsolete, and he had to start all over again.”

Carmine rolled his eyes. “Anyway. Back to the point. I took a little longer to think about the ins and outs of the situation and decided that maybe talking to a lawyer would be a good thing. After some research, we found Min.”

“All right, then.” Shadae sounded satisfied. “Now that we know the name of the people who stole the land and made slaves of your ancestors, how does this work? I’m assumin’ there’s more Calvert and Traylor people than the couple people we’ve still got here in Savannah.”

“That is one of the things we have to decide,” Min said, inserting herself into the conversation again. “But first, I’d like to offer my services to you, Mr. Huxley. While your wife is welcome to be part of all the proceedings, just as Carmine is, you would technically be the one I would represent alongside Kathie as it’s your ancestors who had been directly wronged by the Calverts.”

Brew looked at Shadae, and they had one of those silent communication moments again.

He nodded and focused back on the screen. “I still have some questions before I can give you an answer.”

“All right,” Min said, setting her hands on her lap and straightening her spine. “Ask me anything, and I’ll do my best to answer, as long as my clients are still giving permission to me to share.”

“Go right ahead,” Kathie said. “You can tell them anything.”

“Thank you,” Brew said to her before turning back to Min. “How can you sue people hundreds of years after somethin’ bad was done. I don’t like the idea of me bein’ responsible for somethin’ my great-grandfather did. We all got bad apples somewhere in our family trees.”

He had a good point.

“You’re right,” Min said. “Even if we can prove what the Calvert family did to the Adams family, the actual people involved are long dead. Some attorneys might try for restitution anyway, but those cases never turn out well, even if the case is found in their favor. Bad press that turns into threats and vandalism. What makes your case different is that there is a possibility that one or more members of the Traylor family know about what happened and are covering it up in present time. That could make it an ongoing crime, which may make it possible to file a civil lawsuit. There’s a good chance they might offer to settle if we sign a non-disclosure agreement and promise to keep things quiet, especially with Clancy Traylor being involved in politics.”

“And if they don’t know anything?” Brew asked.

“We’ll have to see where things go from there.” Min glanced at me. “Nyx will be looking into what the Traylors know, how long they’ve known it, and what actions, if any, they’ve taken to keep it hidden.”

When Min and I had talked last night, she’d asked me to extend my investigation, and I’d accepted. I still wasn’t entirely sure why I’d said yes, especially since it was clear things between Bradyn and I wouldn’t get any better.

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