Zoe was the first to reach the top but there was no sign of the masked woman or man on the street. “You go right, I’ll go left,” she commanded. Several minutes later they both returned to the subway entrance out of breath.

“We lost them,” said Zoe throwing her head back and looking up at the sky. “Now, we have no idea where they live. They could be anywhere. They could be going all the way to Lower Manhattan to the City Hall stop.”

“Wait a second,” said Sean, “Let’s think about this a minute. If you lived near City Hall, would you ever take the local?”

Zoe thought for a moment. “Probably not, it would take forever. I’d only take the local if the train board said the express was down or delayed.”

“How about if you were going to Canal Street?” said Sean, his eyebrows raised.

“No way, would take too long,” said Zoe, following his reasoning. “But, I would take the local from 42nd to 14th Street or maybe even to Bleecker, but no further.”

“Exactly. It stands to reason that our masked couple got off at either 14th or Bleecker,” said Sean. “That means they must live somewhere on the east side between those two stops.”

The two friends stared at each other for a long while without speaking. “That’s a really big area,” said Zoe, breaking the silence, looking defeated. “We’re never going to find them, are we? That poor man is going to die. We’ve got to do something.”

“Why don’t you call Conner and ask him to help us,” said Sean.

“I can’t do that,” said Zoe, agitation visible on her face. “He’d freak out. Remember what happened last year when I thought the woman at the nail salon on 101st Street was a Ukrainian spy?”

“Turned out she was from Sweden,” said Sean nodding in solidarity. “She’d never even been to the Ukraine. Then there was that Brazilian au pair who worked in your building that you thought was part of an international slave-trade ring.”

Zoe nodded slowly.

“You called the Brazilian embassy. Poor girl almost got deported,” said Sean.

“I thought she was recruiting other au pairs,” said Zoe, rolling her eyes. “I couldn’t let that happen, could I?”

“Maybe you should have waited until you knew for sure before you alerted the authorities.”

“I guess. When Conner had to leave work and intervene with the consulate and the Brazilians threatened to call the State Department, that’s when the shit really hit the fan.”

“I remember,” said Sean, grimacing. “Wasn’t a good day for you.”

“That’s when Conner made me start to see Dr. Eisdorfer.”

“I remember that too,” said Sean. “I never thought therapy was necessary. That was overkill if you ask me.”