Returning to the front of the house, Angelo took a step away to determine which underground passageway belonged to Jack’s building. Each house had a sunken corridor reached by a half dozen steps. These corridors led to the backyards.

After deciding which was the appropriate one, Angelo gingerly walked its length. There were puddles and refuse which threatened his Bruno Magli shoes.

The backyard was a tumult of decaying and collapsed fencing, rotting mattresses, abandoned tires, and other trash. After carefully picking his way a few feet from the building, Angelo turned to look at the fire escape. On the fourth floor two windows had access. The windows were dark. The doctor wasn’t at home.

Angelo returned and climbed back into the car.

“Well?” Franco asked.

“He lives there all right,” Angelo said. “The building is worse on the inside if you can believe it. It’s not locked. I could hear a couple fighting on the second floor and someone else’s TV on full blast. The place is not pretty but for our purposes it’s perfect. It’ll be easy.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Franco said. “Should we still do the woman first?”

Angelo smiled as best he could. “Why deny myself?”

Franco put the car in gear. They headed south on Columbus Avenue to Broadway then cut across town to Second Avenue. Soon they were on Nineteenth Street. Angelo didn’t need the address. He pointed out Laurie’s building without difficulty. Franco found a convenient no-parking zone and parked.

“So, you think we should go up the back way?” Franco said, while eyeing the building.

“For several reasons,” Angelo said. “She’s on the fifth floor, but her windows face the back. To tell if she’s there, we have to go back there anyway. Also she’s got a nosy neighbor who lives in the front, and you can see her lights are on. This woman opened her door to gawk at me the two times I was up at Montgomery’s front door. Besides, Montgomery’s apartment has access to the back stairs, and the back stairs dump directly into the backyard. I know because we chased her out that way.”

“I’m convinced,” Franco said. “Let’s do it.”

Franco and Angelo got out of the car. Angelo opened up the backseat and lifted out his bag of lock-picking tools along with a Halligan bar, a tool firefighters use to get through doors in cases of emergency.

The two men headed for the passageway to the backyard.

“I heard she got away from you and Tony Ruggerio,” Franco said. “At least for a while. She must be quite a number.”

“Don’t remind me,” Angelo said. “Of course, working with Tony was like carrying around a bucket of sand.”

Emerging into the backyard, which was a dark warren of neglected gardens, Franco and Angelo carefully moved away from the building far enough to see up to the fifth floor. The windows were all dark.

“Looks like we have time to prepare a nice homecoming,” Franco said.