he did other things.”
“Everyone in the Hollows did other things. Everyone had an angle. You didn’t make your scratch unless you were in the game.”
“So what was Mr. Prosnicki’s part of the game?”
She began to cough, sending ripples down her body. Finally she stopped and leaned over her chair slightly, spitting into a brass spittoon. “Are you paying attention to what I’m saying or are you just dim, Mr. Poole? I don’t know any specifics. Nobody knows anyone else’s exact business around here. That’s what can get you hurt. Especially in the old days. Which, as a matter of fact, pretty much ended after the Prosnickis and Reif left. Pretty soon after that. Even now, you wouldn’t want to stick your nose into anything, mind you. But you’re not likely to get a visit in the middle of the night anymore, neither. I’ll give the mayor credit for putting an end to the gangs. Now it’s just hoods, and they aren’t half as crazy.”
Poole was beginning to realize that she could talk all day, but was not going to say anything. “So you don’t really have any ideas, then, where I could find Casper?”
She smiled, lips pressed together, hiding her teeth. “I’m sorry, Mr. Poole. I would certainly love to help you.”
Polly watched Poole emerge from the front door and go to his car. He stood on the running board to rub at a scratch on the roof, then got in. The car executed a U-turn, then glided back toward the center of the City. When it was out of sight, she reached over to the telephone on the end table to her left. Taking the stem in one hand and the earpiece in the other, she gave the operator the number she wanted.
“Yes?” The answer was immediate.
“It’s Polly. I’ve got a message for the mayor. Tell him I’ve had another visit.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Feral had learned from the bouncer at the Prado that the previous night’s performance would be Nora’s last for at least a week. He spent the morning at the diner across the street from her building, washing dry toast down with muddy coffee. Earlier, he had scouted the two alleys that ran along either side of her building and the small, grassy park just behind. He spent several minutes from each vantage point, noting the placement of windows and fire escapes. A service entrance out back was locked. Feral spent a moment there, too, noting that the lock needed a key from either side, and slipping a piece of wax into the keyhole. Holding the end of the wax between two fingers, he heated the lock with a lighter. Then he let the wax cool and harden before slowly pulling it out and storing it in a tin cigarette box.
Sitting in the diner, he sketched each angle of the building. His proportions were careful and accurate, even if the drawing was not exactly of draftsman quality. He then sketched a map of the three-block radius. The trouble, he realized, was that she was recognizable. It was easy to walk an anonymous person wherever you wanted to. With Nora, chances were good that someone they passed would recognize her and recall the small, dark man who accompanied her. He would have to find another way.
Feral was in the alley that bordered the west side of the building. The fire escape was on this side, the bottom twelve feet from the ground. He dragged two tall garbage bins to a spot beneath the fire escape to provide some visual cover from the street.
Feral pulled a laundry bag from a pocket of his trench coat. From it he removed twenty feet of thin rope. He took off his trench coat and hat and placed them in the laundry bag, which he then tossed up to the landing at the bottom of the fire escape. It took him three tries to throw the rope through the railing of the landing. He played the rope down until he had both ends, which he then tied into a knot. This was the most dangerous moment. He looked down the alley and watched pedestrians cross the opening without looking toward him. Anyone looking in then would have been astonished to watch the little man pull his way up the rope with the practiced ease of a spider navigating its web. On the landing, Feral pulled the rope around until he had the knot, which he quickly untied, then coiled and stuffed the rope in the