vacuum down the last half of the sandwich and occasionally checking his watch in astonishment.
"I'm very hungry," she admitted, which was as close as she ever came to apologizing for her eating habits. "Besides, it's delicious."
"I make the secret sauce myself."
"Very good." She nodded and carefully wiped her mouth, pulling the cheesecake over and smelling it with approval. "How well do you know the ladies?"
"Pretty well. I give them credit." He shrugged his shoulders. "Not many stores around here will. But they always pay me back when their checks come the first of the month. And they don't eat much, bless them. I guess they don't have the money."
Auntie Lil slid one of Emily's photos from the packet and pushed it across the table toward him. "Did you know this one?"
Billy picked up the photo and winced. He turned it around several times while he examined it carefully. "That's the Pineapple Lady," he finally said. "She stopped here every morning for a small glass of pineapple juice. I've been wondering where she was." He handed the photo back. "What happened to her?"
"She's dead," Auntie Lil said. She would not mention murder yet. "We're trying to find out where she lived and who she was."
"I don't know her name. Sorry." He shrugged. "She paid cash. Always had exact change, even. Sixty-five cents, right down to the penny. I didn't even know she knew the others. I never saw her with them. But I think that she lived in an apartment building somewhere on Forty-Sixth Street."
"An apartment building? Not a shelter?" Auntie Lil asked.
"I think an apartment building. Once I saw her walk by here really late one night. I have to stay open until midnight to catch the theater people coming home from work. It helps me earn enough to cover the rent. She shouldn't have been on the streets so late, and I was surprised to see her out. So I kind of stood in the doorway and watched her walk down Forty-Sixth Street to make sure she'd be safe. I saw her turn into some building there in the middle of the block."
"Which building?" Auntie Lil leaned forward eagerly, her cheesecake forgotten.
"I don't remember." He shrugged his apology. "Wish I could help more. But it was over a month ago. I think it was the south side of the street, though."
She was disappointed but not undaunted. It was a start.
The front door bells chimed and three construction workers stepped inside, eager to try the he-man hero and best coffee in New York. Billy scurried back to work behind the counter and Auntie Lil finished her cheesecake while she watched him. He would see a lot, hanging out in the deli all day, just inches from the big picture window. She had to remember that. He’d know everyone in the neighborhood. It would not be her last visit to the Delicious Deli.
She left her money next to the register, waved goodbye, and headed back to the streets. She had enough time to knock on a few doors before she was to meet T.S. at the soup kitchen. Just then, a patrol car zoomed past and she followed its path up the avenue two blocks to Forty-Eighth Street. It turned right and slid in quickly beside the curb, its bumper protruding into the avenue. She hurried up the block and saw two men dressed in dark suits climb out of the back seat of the police car and wave away the uniformed men in the front seat. She reached the corner just in time to see the plainclothesmen push their way through the waiting crowd and disappear down the steps to the St. Barnabas soup kitchen.
Auntie Lil scurried up the block and cut through the line of waiting patrons, reaching the stairs in time to see Officer King, the bad-tempered patrolman with the Marine haircut letting the two plainclothesmen in the back gate. It clanked shut just as she reached it. Officer King did not seem to recognize her; he simply turned away and led the other officers through the soup kitchen door.
So, Dr. Millerton had notified the police of Emily's poisoning. That meant there was no sense grasping at straws on Forty-Sixth Street, when there might be an entire scarecrow waiting here at St. Barnabas. She waited resolutely at the entrance steps. Someone else would come along soon. And if the police knew anything, she'd soon find out what it was.
CHAPTER FIVE
Auntie Lil didn't have long to wait. Father Stebbins