Elizabeth Street - Laurie Fabiano [124]
“Thank you, signora. But I really must find her.”
Giovanna sat at their apartment window waiting and watching for Rocco. In the distance she saw a man running through the rain. He crossed the street in the middle and headed straight for their building. Giovanna’s heart pounded. Surely this meant news. Had Rocco found Angelina? Was Rocco dead? She paced in front of her door and opened it before the man reached her landing. Breathing deeply, she tried not to let her anxiety show. She recognized him, but from where? When his entire face lifted, she knew the dramatic mustache and hazel eyes.
“Signora! The photos have been ready but you haven’t picked them up,” exclaimed the photographer, taking a package from inside his jacket and handing it to Giovanna. “After all, they are paid for and I wanted you to have them.”
Giovanna stared at the package.
“Signora, are you going to take them?” The man was still holding out his hand.
She gingerly took the photographs wrapped in brown paper and tied with string.
“Don’t you want to see them?” asked the man with a hint of pride.
Trying to control her tears, Giovanna stammered, “I’ll open them with my daughter. She’s out with her father. Thank you. Thank you for delivering them.” The photographer was left standing outside the door.
Two hours later, Rocco arrived home. He looked away from his wife’s pained face and mumbled, “I lost him.”
THIRTY-SIX
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1909
There was nothing else for her to pursue, so Giovanna watched Leo’s apartment from the corner of Hester and Mulberry day and night. She had become so accustomed to not seeing him that she nearly missed him when he stepped out of the door. Leo looked up and down the street before heading west away from Giovanna.
In three short blocks he was on Lafayette and then turned left to the Canal Street Station of the underground railway. Keeping her distance, she saw him descend the stairs to the uptown platform. Hundreds of people mobbed the station, and Giovanna was reminded that the big American Hudson-Fulton parade was scheduled at one o’clock on Fifth Avenue.
Fumbling for change, she got a ticket and waited at the opposite end of the platform. She didn’t think the man had noticed her, but cursing her height and size, she pulled her gray shawl tight and high around her in an effort to be less conspicuous.
In seconds, a train thundered into the station. Giovanna stiffened. She was so focused on her pursuit of Leo that until that moment she had forgotten that the only other time she had ridden the underground railway, she vowed fearfully never to do it again. She entered the car adjacent to Leo and remained standing where she could see him through the car window. The train went all the way to Rector Street before he exited. At street level, he checked his pocket watch and headed to Trinity Church.
Entering Trinity’s cemetery, Leo sat on a bench under an oak tree. Giovanna lingered at the outskirts of the graveyard, pretending to look at the church. The sky was blue and the day was warm. The next time she took a glance, another man, this one considerably better-dressed, sat beside Leo. His hands, noticeably untouched by labor, opened his newspaper in front of a face framed by groomed sideburns. In the same motion, the man laid an envelope on the bench between himself and Leo. Leo nonchalantly picked up the envelope and walked away.
He didn’t go far. He leapt up the steps of a tall building next to the cemetery. Through the glass doors Giovanna could see a long, narrow marble corridor with ornate carvings on the ceiling and Leo waiting at the rear bank of elevators. When he stepped into an open lift, Giovanna hurried into the building. The door to Leo’s elevator closed, and Giovanna watched the numbers light as the lift ascended.
“Can I help you, ma’am?” questioned a guard, eyeing her suspiciously.
The words were foreign, but Giovanna knew he wanted to know where the Italian woman was going. A board with names and numbers faced the elevator. Giovanna picked one with an “Esq.” at the end, like