The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Also by Walter Mosley

LEONID McGILL MYSTERIES

Known to Evil

The Long Fall

EASY RAWLINS MYSTERIES

Blonde Faith

Cinnamon Kiss

Little Scarlet

Six Easy Pieces

Bad Boy Brawly Brown

A Little Yellow Dog

Black Betty

Gone Fishin’

White Butterfly

A Red Death

Devil in a Blue Dress

OTHER FICTION

The Tempest Tales

Diablerie

Killing Johnny Fry

The Man in My Basement

Fear of the Dark

Fortunate Son

The Wave

Fear Itself

Futureland

Fearless Jones

Walkin’ the Dog

Blue Light

Always Outnumbered,

Always Outgunned

RL’s Dream

47

The Right Mistake

NONFICTION

This Year You Write Your Novel

What Next: A Memoir

Toward World Peace

Life Out of Context

Workin’ on the Chain Gang

RIVERHEAD BOOKS

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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Copyright © 2010 by Walter Mosley

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned,

or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.

Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials

in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Published simultaneously in Canada

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mosley, Walter.

The last days of Ptolemy Grey / Walter Mosley.

p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-44533-4

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

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For the man who gave everything—Leroy Mosley

AFTERWARD

Dear Robyn,

You are away for two days with Beckford and I’m sitting here in this apartment waiting to finally be a man. I have the Devil’s medicine burning in my veins and Coydog McCann whispering in my left ear. I have you in my life. That was something I never suspected, expected, or even dreamed about. I love you and I couldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for you taking care of me. And if you were twenty years older and I fifty years less I’d ask you to be my wife and not a soul on this earth would have ever had better.