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.
Angelo didn’t answer. Instead, he took his lock-picking tools over to
the metal fire door that led to the back stairs. He slipped on a
tight-fitting pair of leather gloves, while Franco readied the
flashlight.
At first Angelo’s hands shook from sheer anticipatory excitement of
coming face-to-face with Laurie Montgomery after five years of
smoldering resentment. When the lock resisted Angelo’s efforts, he made
a point to control himself and concentrate. The lock responded, and the
door opened.
Five floors up, Angelo didn’t bother with the lock-picking tools. He
knew that Laurie had several dead bolts. He used the Halligan bar. With
a quiet splintering sound, it made short work of the door. Within twenty
seconds, they were inside.
For a few minutes, the two men stood motionless in the darkness of
Laurie’s pantry so that they could listen. They wanted to be certain
there were no sounds suggestive that their forced entry had been noticed
by any of the other tenants.
‘Jesus Christ!’ Franco forcibly whispered. ‘Something just touched my
leg!’
‘What is it?’ Angelo demanded. He’d not expected such an outburst, and
it caused his heart to flutter.
‘Oh, it’s only a goddamn cat!’ Franco said with relief. All at once,
both men could hear the animal purring in the darkness.
‘Aren’t we lucky,’ Angelo said. ‘That will be a nice touch. Bring it
along.’
Slowly, the men made their way from the pantry through the dark kitchen
and into the living room. There they could see significantly better with
the city night light coming through the windows.
‘So far so good,’ Angelo said.
‘Now we just have to wait,’ Franco said. ‘Maybe I’ll see if there’s any
beer or wine in the refrigerator. Are you interested?’
‘A beer would be nice,’ Angelo said.
At police headquarters, Laurie and Jack had to get ID badges and go
through a metal detector before they were allowed to go up to Lou’s
floor. Lou was at the elevator to welcome them.
The first thing he did was take Laurie by the shoulders, look her in the
eye, and ask what had happened.