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Evie groaned "Please don’t ave her the slightest hint of a smile "The library is your friend, Evie"

"The library may be your friend, Jericho, but it pos-i-tute-ly despises me"

"You just have to kno to use it" Jericho played with his fork He cleared his throat "I could show you how to do that soht "Jericho!" she said, grinning

Jericho so--"

"I know someone who could find out about the old murders for us!"

"Who?" Jericho asked He hoped she couldn’t sense his disappointment

"Someone es ton’s telephone box and shut the beveled glass door behind her "Algonquin four, five, seven, two, please," she said into the receiver and waited for the operator to work her ic

"T S Woodhouse, Daily News"

"Mr Woodhouse, it’s Evie O’Neill I’ in that favor you pro up some information on an unsolved murder in Manhattan in the summer of 1875?"

She heard the reporter chuckle on the other end "You got a history test, Sheba?"

"Just tell me what you find out, please It’s very important Oh, and Mr Woodhouse--this is just between you and ate Do you understand?"

"Whatever you say, Sheba"

Feeling very clever, Evie stepped fro room As she passed the elevator, the doors opened and a flustered Miss Lillian stood inside "Oh, dear I went down instead of up" She was struggling with a bag of groceries, and Evie offered to help her carry the heavy bag to her apartment

"Come in, come in, dear," Miss Lillian said "So nice to have a visitor I’ll put the kettle on"

"Oh, please don’t go to any trouble," Evie said, but the old woman was already in the kitchen Evie could hear the strike of the et trapped in a conversation That was the trouble with offering help to old people She nearly tripped over a tabby cat, who meowed in surprise and darted away A second cat, black with yellow eyes, peeked out froht Miss Lillian reentered the roo horimace passed for a smile The place was a dreadful mess, papers and books stacked all about, every surface covered in sohtly different times, brass candelabras with dark candles burned down to nubs, a bust of Thorilass vase whose water had dried to a film on the sides, and a s Lillian and Adelaide in their starched pinafores If there were an award for hideous taste, Evie thought, the Proctor sisters would win, hands down