Murder in Greenwich Village by Lee Harris Page B

honesty.”
    She arranged with the detective squad to have Mrs. Morgan taken home to pack, and then to be delivered to her sister. That accomplished, Jane went home by subway. She had a lot of hard work to do on her two hours’ sleep.

13
    THE GREAT UNDERGROUND fiasco in New York, the Second Avenue line was the subway the city couldn’t live without and never managed to complete, the subway they threw billions of dollars into over many years and then abandoned. It was a New York legend, a project of several beginnings and an equal number of endings. On and off for many years— off during the Second World War—it was finally back on again with a projected opening date in the early fifties.
    In the mid fifties, however, the ancient Third Avenue El began to be dismantled, leaving the city with no north– south subway east of Lexington Avenue, and the idea of the Second Avenue subway began to be tossed around again. Jane’s father remembered the El, the dark street below it that eventually saw sunlight with the removal of the structure, and then the amazing transfiguration. Old tenements were replaced with luxury high-rises, and dinky antique shops with expensive stores, later called boutiques. John Bauer often shook his head as he thought of the transformation he had never believed would take place. But once again the Second Avenue subway didn’t get off the ground. Money appropriated for it was spent on other projects, not unusual in a city with many needs.
    Finally, in October 1972, on the anniversary of the opening of the old IRT line, and with adequate funds and plenty of optimism, ground was broken at East One Hundred Third Street and Second Avenue. This was the subway Curtis Morgan worked on until it was once again abandoned several years later.
    What Jane’s father recalled was the years of barricaded streets in Midtown, endless traffic detours, and the difficulty walking in the area. Recently, new rumblings had surfaced about building the subway. The cost had gone from millions to hundreds of millions to more than sixteen billion, but if it had been necessary in the twenties, the forties, and the seventies, it was crucial now. Surface traffic was a nightmare; underground was the fast way to go.
    So, Jane reflected as she rode home underground, Curtis Morgan had intimate knowledge of the Second Avenue subway tunnel in the East Sixties. The tunnel was still there. If plans to complete the line were reactivated, the existing tunnel would be used, completed sections linked, tracks would be laid, and lighting provided. What she had to do was get over to the portion of the tunnel Morgan knew and make a search—and to do that, she needed assistance.
    In the elevator in her building, her cell phone rang. It was Hack.
    â€œYou take part in that Lexington search party?”
    â€œI got Graves to authorize it. I got a lead and thought Defino might be hidden there. We didn’t find anything. But I’ve got another lead, the Second Avenue subway.” She explained as she walked down the hall, put the key in her door, and went inside.
    â€œGraves’ll be apoplectic.”
    â€œI have to do this, Hack. They’re holding Gordon somewhere, and I’ve got to find him before they kill him.”
    â€œIt may be too late.”
    â€œI know that, but I have to try. My God, what if they didn’t do it for me?”
    â€œI would take care of that.”
    â€œI know you would, and I have to do it for him. I’m exhausted. I wish we were back in Paris.”
    â€œSo do I. We’ll do it again, baby. I’m just concerned about you right now. Have you slept?”
    â€œA couple of hours this morning.” She sat on the sofa. Her body ached and she was parched again.
    â€œWatch yourself. Keep in touch. You have plenty of phone cards?”
    â€œYes.” They used phone cards whenever they could to disguise the origin of the calls.
    â€œCall me anytime. If