plowing through the crowd at the head of the pack.
Annie O'Day was barreling down the sidewalk and Billy of the Delicious Deli was a few feet behind. Inexplicably, they were being followed by a funny old man with a huge bulbous nose and an impressive ability to run like a younger man.
"What is it?!" T.S. cried out as they passed by.
"Your aunt!" the deli owner yelled back when he recognized T.S.
Heart thumping, T.S. joined the procession, bringing up the rear. They pushed through the disgruntled crowd without apology, enduring thrown elbows and sharp shoves. His heart pounded so loudly that, for a moment, T.S. was afraid he would not be able to keep up. But once he got going, he hit his rhythm. Plus fear and pride gave him energy. By God, but that funny old man was fast. But wait—here came someone even faster. Little Pete passed him on the left as they neared Ninth Avenue.
"What are we doing?" the boy shouted at T.S. as he fled past. He was ready to be in on the action.
"Follow them!" T.S. shouted back. "Or better yet, call the cops." The small boy screeched to a halt on the far side of the avenue and dashed to the nearest pay phone. T.S. kept running. Annie's light-colored sweat shirt bobbed in front of him like a beacon in the darkness. It was followed by a patch of white from the deli owner's apron. T.S. prayed fervently that whatever was wrong, those two were on the side of the angels.
The lead runners crossed Ninth Avenue and hesitated, unsure of where to go next. T.S. slowed with them and scanned the sidewalk. There was no sign of Auntie Lil. Should they go west or head up or downtown?
Suddenly, someone crashed into his left side. T.S. was momentarily thrown off his stride but recovered in time to continue the chase. A large black woman dashed ahead of him, eating up the distance between T.S. and the old man with the funny nose.
"Straight ahead!" she was shouting. "And hurry! Hurry!" Her beaded braids bobbed wildly as she raced along. Mesmerized, T.S. increased his speed.
The Westside Highway teemed with intermittent life, then fell back into loneliness. They were in an area of seldom used side streets, but as stoplights several blocks away on either side disgorged waiting cars, long lines of autos would periodically zoom past. No one slowed as they passed. People picked the highway because they were in a hurry and it would take more than a little old lady flanked by prostitutes to merit a second glance.
Only a few streetlights still worked on the deserted stretch of sidewalk where they waited in a pool of darkness for a chance to cross the road. A few blocks farther downtown, Auntie Lil could see the enormous bulk of the Intrepid', a huge aircraft carrier that had been converted into a floating museum. Now closed for the season, its shadow dominated several blocks of the river. Across from it, the lights of The Westsider bar blinked steadily.
She wondered if Detective Santos was slumped at his table, empty glasses of gin scattered before him. Would he ever guess that she had been brought just a few blocks from him before her death?
Auntie Lil could not stop the unhappy thought. Because she was certain now that they meant to kill her. Otherwise, they would have stopped in the last block where there wasn't a human being to be found. There was little she could have told them, but she would have tried. Now, with the deserted pier just a few lanes of traffic away, she saw that she had been more than foolish. It would have been better to have risked a stabbing in a crowd than certain death in the oily waters of the Hudson.
Ahead of them stretched a length of sidewalk along the river that was topped with the abandoned girding of an old highway. Unused now, its only purpose was to house the makeshift cardboard shacks of the homeless. Its structure cast deep shadows on the nearby piers, creating an area of virtual darkness next to the water. There was a lull in traffic and the two women quickly dragged her across the highway. They obviously had a destination in mind, no doubt because they had been there before.
They pulled her to a corner of the pier near the sidewalk, completely shaded by the darkness. Helplessly, Auntie Lil watched as lines of cars zipped past. No one