'Hi,' she said.
I went to her and kissed the top of her head.
'Have a seat,' she said without looking away from what she was doing.
I scanned monitors. There were arrows for Manhattan-bound, Brooklyn-, Bronx- and Queens-bound trains and an intricate grid showing streets, schools and medical centers. All were numbered. I sat beside her and got my glasses out of my briefcase as Commander Penn reappeared, her face stressed.
'That was no fun to do,' she said, standing behind us, the pistol on her belt almost touching my ear.
'What are these flashing symbols that look like twisted ladders?' I asked, pointing out several on the screen.
'They're the emergency exits,' Commander Penn said.
'Can you explain what you're doing here?' I asked.
'Lucy, I'll let you do that,' the commander said.
'It's really pretty simple,' Lucy said, and I never believed her when she said that. 'I'm supposing that Gault is looking at these maps, too. So I'm letting him see what I want him to see.
So I'm letting him see what I want him to see.'
She hit several keys and another part of the subway was there before me, with its symbols and long linear depictions of tracks. She typed and a hatch work appeared in red.
This is the route we believe he'll take,' she said. 'Logic would tell you that he'll penetrate the subway here.'
Lucy pointed to the monitor left of the one directly in front of her. 'This is for the Museum of Natural History station. And as you can see there are three emergency exits right here near Hayden Planetarium and one up by Beresford Apartments. He also could go southbound closer to Kenilworth Apartments and get into the tunnels that way and then pick any platform he wants when it's time to get on a train.
'I haven't altered anything on these field surveys,' Lucy went on. 'It's more important to confuse him at the other end, when he gets to the Bowery.'
She rapidly typed and one after another images appeared on each monitor. She was able to tilt, move and manipulate them as if they were models she was turning in her hands. On the center screen in front of her the symbol for an emergency exit was lit up and a square had been drawn around it.
'We think this is his snake hole,' Lucy resumed. 'It is an emergency exit where Fourth and Third merge into the Bowery.' She pointed. 'Here behind this big brownstone. The Cooper Union Foundation Building.'
Commander Penn spoke. The reason we think he has been using this exit is we've discovered it has been tampered with. A folded strip of aluminum foil has been wedged between the door and its frame so someone could access the exit from above ground.
'It's also the closest exit to the pharmacy,' Commander Penn continued. It's remote, back here behind this building, basically in an alleyway between Dumpsters. Gault could go in and out whenever he pleased, and it's unlikely anyone would see him, even in broad daylight.'
'And there's another thing,' Lucy said. 'At Cooper Square there's a famous music store. The Carl Fischer Music Store.'
'Right,' Commander Penn said. 'Someone who works there recalls Jayne. Now and then she wandered in and browsed. This would have been during December.'
'Did anyone talk to her?' I asked, and the image made me sad.
'All they recalled was that she was interested in jazz sheet music. My point is, we don't know what Gault's connections to this area are. But they could be more involved than we think.'
'What we've done,' Lucy said, 'is take away this emergency exit. The police have bolted it shut, and boom.'
She hit more keys. The symbol was no longer lit up and a message next to it said Disabled.
'It seems that might be a good location to catch him,' I said. 'Why don't we want him there behind the Cooper Union Building?'
'Again,' the commander said, 'it's too close to a crowded area, and should Gault duck back into the tunnel, he would be very deep inside it. Literally, in the bowels of the Bowery. A pursuit would be terribly dangerous and we might not catch him. My guess is he knows his way around down there even better than we do.'
'All right,' I said. 'Then what happens?'
'What happens is, since he can't use his favorite emergency exit, he has two choices. He can pick another exit that's farther north along the tracks. Or he can continue walking through the tunnels and surface at the Second Avenue platform.'
'We don't think he'll pick another emergency exit,' Commander Penn said. 'It would place him above ground too long. And with a parade in progress, he's going to know there will be a lot of cops out.
So our theory is he will stay in the tunnels for as long as he can.'
'Right,' Lucy said. 'It's perfect. He knows the station has been temporarily closed. No one's going to see him when he comes up from the tracks. And then he's right there at the pharmacy — practically next door to it. He gets his money and goes back the same way he came.'
'Maybe he will,' I said. 'And maybe he won't.'
'He knows about the parade,' Lucy said adamantly. 'He knows the Second Avenue station is closed. He knows the emergency exit he's tampered with has been disabled. He knows everything we want him to know.'
I looked skeptically at her. 'Please tell me how you can be so sure.'
'I've worked it so I get a message the minute those files are accessed. I know all of them were and I know when.' Anger flashed in her eyes.
'Someone else couldn't have?'
'Not the way I rigged it.'
'Kay,' Commander Penn said. 'There's another big part of all this. Look over here.' She directed my attention to the closed-circuit TV monitors set up on a long, high table. 'Lucy, show her.'
Lucy typed, and the televisions came on, each showing a different subway station. I could see people walking past. Umbrellas were closed and tucked under arms, and I recognized shopping bags from Bloomingdale's, Dean amp; DeLuca food market and the Second Avenue Deli.
'It's stopped raining,' I said.
'Now watch this,' Lucy said.
She typed more commands, synchronizing closed-circuit TV with the computerized diagrams. When one was on-screen, so was the other.
'What I can do,' she explained, 'is act as an air traffic controller, in a sense. If Gault does something unexpected, I will be in constant contact with the cops, the feds, via radio.'
'For example, if, God forbid, he should break free and head deep into the system, along these tracks here' — Commander Penn pointed to a map on screen — 'then Lucy can apprise police by radio that there is a wooden barricade coming up on the right. Or a platform edge, express train tracks, an emergency exit, a passageway, a signal tower.'
