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"There you are!"

He was startled when Leslie rushed over and hugged hinizable, she was so covered in the dust of the past, but her eyes were bright in her s foolish for stating the obvious

She laughed He saw that Professor Laymon, Brad Verdun and a number of other workers were clustered at the far side of the roonificance of the find farat a wall

"It’s a crypt," she told him

"A crypt?"

"There was a church here at one time, built in 1817, to be exact," she told hiround in the fire that destroyed s went up on the site and were razed over the next century, and then, in the late 1930s, e’d now call a miniskyscraper went up That’s as just torn down But this is it, the proof that we’vefind Look! This is where the priests and the wealthy were buried, not mixed with the poorer people buried in the churchyard We’ve already found gold crucifixes and other High Episcopalian paraphernalia, and even a storerooreat?" she de," he told her "And your…" He found hi his voice "Your instinct led you to it?"

She started laughing again, delighted, elated "No, I leaned against what I thought was an eh"

He had to appreciate the rueful humor in her eyes

Professor Laymon let out an excited cry "I can’t believe it! It’s a cache of sermons There’s a protected niche here…watch the bones," he warned, as eager workers surged forward

"Congratulations," Joe said "And thanks for gettinghis hands, he realized, as if they were old friends But then again, they did have a bond

They had both loved Matt

She pulled hihtly on her toes to whisper, "You had to see what I was talking about"

"I did?"

"The city under the city"

"And," he said softly, "you think that thereprostitutes and then hiding the bodies in hidden crypts?" He didn’t mean to sound as skeptical as he did, but she merely stared at him, amused

"Maybe not crypts, but somewhere in the abandoned places under New York Do you have any better answers?" she inquired

"No So let’s start exploring underground"

She nodded, s "I’m just about done here, anyway So hoas your day?"

He started to answer, and then decided not to bother He’d spent the day retracing his steps He’d gone back to Genevieve’s apartment He’d studied every little scrap of paper she’d left lying around, every note He’d checked out her last doctor’s appointment and her last dentist appointment He’d visited the bars where she’d partied with friends, and all he’d found anywhere were people who spoke of her wistfully and with affection He’d checked again for any evidence of her credit cards being used Then he’d headed back to the street where Didi continued to ply her trade She hadn’t re else, and none of the other prostitutes she’d introduced hih they had all spoken adly of Genevieve In the end, it still seemed he had hit his best stroke of luck when he first met Didi--the last tiotten into the dark sedan

The highlight of the day, of course, had been telling Didi about the waitressing job he had arranged

"Your friend would hire me?" she asked skeptically

"Yes Cut thethat covers you…you know the drill"

"You’re taking a risk"

"Life is a risk"

"I owe you I’ll be there And I won’t let you down Except noon’t have Genevieve to help itied hi to Eileen Brideswell and telling her that, so far, he’d traced Genevieve to a street corner and a dark sedan, and no further

"Leslie," Brad Verdun called excitedly "Come look at these"

She turned at the sound of her na at him when he first noticed Joe For a ht, but he seele word Matt

"Sorry, no Joe Connolly, Matt’s cousin," Joe said, walking carefully across the uneven floor and offering his hand

"Wow" Verdun stared at hiasped

"Joseph Connolly," Joe repeated "Matt’s cousin" Did they all believe in ghosts? Hell, these people spent their lives working with the past and the dead

"You’re a dead ringer for hiht Leslie asked me down here"