"Isn't it just too much?" Lilah agreed. "I've only used it once, to order some Chinese food from the curbside. And that was just for fun. Fun that cost me about three dollars."
T.S. took the phone and suspiciously punched in Auntie Lil's number. He hated machines he did not understand. It would probably cut them off in mid-sentence.
Surprisingly, the connection was quite clear. He could tell that she was tired.
"What's the matter?" he asked Auntie Lil, alarmed. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Just a little discouraged," she admitted. "I didn't find out much today." She filled him in on the details of her meetings with Bob Fleming and Little Pete. But she did not tell him about Billy's advice as she knew this would trigger a fresh round of warnings from him. In return, T.S. told her about their dinner with Lance Worthington.
"He sounds like quite an oily operator," she decided.
"I'm beginning to be sorry I volunteered to find out more about him," T.S. admitted. "The thought of spending another evening with him is repugnant."
"But you also get to spend it with Lilah." Auntie Lil could always point out the good side of a situation. Particularly if it helped her get what she wanted.
"I'm just not convinced that this is getting us anywhere," T.S. said. "Seems to me you're having all the fun."
Auntie Lil sighed. "It is certainly not fun tramping around the streets all day. If you want to be more useful, why don't you go back to the library and check more Playbills. This time, see what you can pick up on any of those old actresses. I'm not sure I trust them. At least, I don't trust some of them."
T.S. agreed only after extracting a promise from Lilah that she would accompany him to Lincoln Center. "Okay," he told Auntie Lil cheerfully. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going back to St. Barnabas," she said and rang off.
"Do you get the feeling that we're doing all the grunt work?" T.S. asked Lilah. "While she gets to have all the fun?"
"Isn't that the point of this entire episode?" Lilah asked back. "To keep your Auntie Lil happy?" She patted his knee and T.S. was more than pleased to agree.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Auntie Lil had stayed away from the soup kitchen for two whole days, but the strain of controlling her curiosity was starting to get to her. Convinced that they were missing clues that might lead them to Emily's killer, Auntie Lil rose early the next morning and took up a new post near St. Barnabas Church. Mindful of Lieutenant Abromowitz's orders to stay away, she stationed herself in the shadows of the deep doorway of a welfare hotel located across the street. She would just watch for a while, she told herself, and see who came in or out. Then maybe, if the coast was clear and that insufferable Fran nowhere to be seen, she'd risk setting foot on the premises. She wanted to talk to Father Stebbins and see what he knew about Emily. Perhaps she had been one of his parishioners. After all, what was the worst that could happen? An order from Lieutenant Abromowitz to stay away from the church wasn't exactly the law. Was it?
She had gotten there early and the street still belonged to trickles of commuters that flowed quickly past, heading east and west for their office buildings. They clutched their briefcases tightly in both hands, men and women alike, as they marched determinedly toward more familiar turf. St. Barnabas was on a transient street that belonged to the homeless and hopeless. People came and went, but very few cared to stop. The church itself looked desolate and abandoned in the early morning light. For the first time that year, there was a chill in the air. Auntie Lil wrapped her sweater coat more tightly about her, shivering slightly. At least she was not suffering alone, she told herself. Herbert or Franklin would be just a few blocks away watching Emily's building.
But Herbert was much closer than that. Even as she wondered what progress the watchers might be making, she spotted Herbert near Ninth Avenue, heading east. His path would take him directly in front of her hiding place. As he got nearer, she saw that his face was troubled. Clearly he was preoccupied, yet he did not even blink when she grabbed his elbow and pulled him into the doorway with her.