She had already finished her soup and couldn't have done a faster job with a straw. "Which is why we need to cover all the bases in the weeks ahead."
"You have a plan?" Lilah asked, though the others knew this was a rhetorical question. Auntie Lil always had a plan in mind and it usually involved the efforts of others.
"Yes. I've asked Herbert to begin watching the apartment building where she lived. And I'm going to go to the police for help." She added this last sentence as if it were a great sacrifice on her part. "Theodore—did you find out who owned the building?"
He told them what he had learned and it was decided that he would try to track down the person or persons behind the dummy corporation, Worthy Enterprises.
"Excuse me," Herbert Wong then announced politely. They turned to him and waited. "I am most happy to devote all waking hours to my appointed task. But there are times when I must sleep," he admitted reluctantly.
"Of course. You'll have to have help watching the building." Auntie Lil drummed her fingers impatiently and the waiter, misinterpreting her movement, brought them another large basket of bread. She bit absently into a huge breadstick, which immediately crumbled into a small anthill on a spot of the tablecloth directly beneath the chin. She brushed the crumbs idly onto the floor, her brow furrowed in deep thought. "I've got it," she finally said, then swallowed. "Adelle and the other old actresses want to help," she quickly explained. "Herbert, you can supervise them in shifts. We'll watch that building like a hawk, or eagle as it were. There are enough of them to follow anyone who leaves the building. Keep track of their descriptions and the addresses where they go. It won't be easy, but then we won't be doing the work, will we? And it could be most informative." She smiled, extremely pleased at her logic.
That decided, Lilah asked how she might help. Without missing a beat, Auntie Lil explained how it was important for her dear Theodore to have someone he could call on night and day for aid.
Her extreme lack of subtlety went unnoticed by everyone but T.S., who was acutely embarrassed by the "night" part. But Lilah was unfazed and happily agreed, pleased to be a part of their plan.
"I'm going to keep interviewing neighborhood people," Auntie Lil assured them. "I'll go back to the Delicious Deli owner first. He mentioned she'd been out quite late at night a month or so ago. It was a change in her pattern and there must have been a reason for that change." She rooted around in her pocketbook while they waited, and finally produced the strip of dime store photos. "I'm also going to try and find out who these young boys are and what their connection to Emily might be."
T.S. was silent for a moment, but knew that he needed to speak up. He did not want to tell them what he'd seen going on next door to Emily's apartment, but there might be a connection. If so, Auntie Lil needed to be told. The trick would be to do so tactfully. T.S. was a big believer in tact.
He cleared his throat but was saved from immediate action when their entrees arrived. The apportioning, tasting and exclaiming that followed made it easier for him to broach the subject.
"Those young boys," he told his aunt as she shoveled shepherd's pie into her mouth. "I have a feeling about them," T.S. continued. "I think you'll probably find that they live on the streets. And earn their living doing… odd jobs and stuff around the neighborhood."
Auntie Lil looked at T.S. as if he were daft. "Odd jobs?" she repeated skeptically. "There are no lawns to mow in Hell's Kitchen."
T.S. sighed. "No. But there are plenty of disgusting and perverted human beings willing to take advantage of starving runaways forced to make a dollar any way they can."
Auntie Lil stopped chewing and stared at him. She swallowed slowly and blinked. "Oh, dear. You don't say."
"I say," T.S. confirmed grimly.
"All right, then. I promise to be careful." Auntie Lil's shoulders slumped a little as she returned to her meal and Lilah gazed anxiously at T.S. Herbert patted Auntie Lil's hand and murmured something soothing. She was not overly fond of children, but Auntie Lil did delight in innocence.
"Perhaps you should try to speak to someone who works with runaways in the area," Herbert suggested diplomatically. "They