Play@YSDC

"It's apartments," says the boy who boasted of how late he could stay up. "There's three of them, I think. The man who plays on the step has a wife."

"She bakes great cookies," the first boy puts in.

"The other two don't live with anyone," the braggart continues.

"No," the girl says. The two boys concur.

Jacqueline describes Walter Locke to the children. "Is he one of the hornmen?" she asks. "Is he the married one?"

"The married one's older," the first boy says. "White hair and a beard. But the man you're talking about lives there too."

Jacqueline can't think of anything else to ask, but she looks to Ellis to see if he has any more questions.

The boastful boy asks if they get a dollar each, since they all told you things.

"Yeah, go on" says Ellis absently, handing out the money. "You guys take care now."

Once the children are gone, he turns to Jacqueline.

"Do you have your gun?"

"I never go anywhere without it," says Jacqueline, patting her purse. "Especially not after...what happened before. Why, what did you have in mind?"

The children are duly thankful, and rush off, possibly in the direction of the nearest sweetshop.

You have an hour or so before Ellis has to think about getting to Mott High or devising an excuse about not doing so.

"Do you want to go see if he's home?" Ellis asks.

"If he is, won't he know we're onto him?" asks Jacqueline.

Ellis shrugs.

"I'm not sure how else we can find out what's going on."

"All right, let's try it," says Jacqueline.

The front door of the building turns out not be locked - there is a postbox beside it, with three slots - in descnding order, these bear the names John and Nora Lafayette, Walter Locke, and "Apartment 3."

Inside it's a walkup - stairs on side, landings and apartments on the other. The apartment on the ground floor is numbered 1. You can hear the sounds of movement and male and female voices through the thin walls - you remember that the children said the old hornman who played on the porch (and wasn't Locke) had a wife.

Heading up to the middle floor you find Apartment 2. There is no noise from within.

"Shall we knock and see if he's home?" asks Jacqueline.

Ellis shakes his head. He gently tries the door handle.

The door shifts then stops, in a way that indicates it's bolted on the far side rather than locked.

"If it's bolted, he must be home," whispers Jacqueline.

The brief rattle of the door provokes no response from inside.