October 1899
Skittery walked quickly away from the gambling hall on 42nd street. That had been it. That was what the last few months had been building towards. The bartender to whom he had been delivering messages failed to pay up to Morello.
"Break his hands…and any other bones that strike your fancy," were the instructions Skittery had received. Skittery had felt his stomach turn sour at the idea, and when he'd gone to the gambling hall, he couldn't go through with it. He couldn't bring himself to beat up a guy just because. It was different soakin' the scabs – all they really did was push the guys around a bit until they ran home crying for their mothers. But this was heavy-duty stuff.
Skittery felt his heart pounding. He hadn't been able to lay a hand on the bartender. He just couldn't do it.
He knew what he had to do now. He had to get out of town. He didn't want to think about what would happen once Morello found out Skittery hadn't followed through on his task.
He walked past the shop Maggie worked at. Maggie. Even after three months, it hurt to think about her. He had successfully avoided seeing her except at Tibby's.
As he walked past the shop, something nagged at the back of his mind. Something was wrong. Something was different. Something was…off. He turned back to the shop.
The doors were locked and the lights were off. Skittery peered in at the clock in there. It wasn't even 5:00pm – the shop should still be open, and Maggie should still be working.
He shook his head, brushing it off and walked towards his lodging house. He saw Amelia approaching from the opposite direction.
"Skittery, have you seen Maggie?" she asked.
"Why would I?" asked Skittery, bitterly.
Amelia put her hands up. "Sorry," she said. "It's just, her shop has closed up early, she's not at Tibby's, she's not at Medda's, and she's not at home."
"Maybe she's out wanderin' around," said Skittery.
"She doesn't do that," said Amelia. "Not since you dumped her."
"Well, maybe she left, found some one new to con."
"She never conned you, Skittery," Amelia said softly.
"Yeah she did," said Skittery. "For thirty cents and a pretzel, the first time I met her."
Amelia sighed. "If you see her, will you tell her to come find me? I'm kind of worried," she said.
"Fine," said Skittery, walking on, leaving Amelia behind.
Maggie paced back in forth in the small room she had been thrown into. She didn't know why she was there. She didn't know who these people were. They just kept mentioning her 'boyfriend.' She wasn't sure whom they meant, because she hadn't had a boyfriend in months. And she and Skittery were most definitely through. He hadn't even looked at her since she had come clean.
She sat on the floor and stared at the ceiling. Her boss had left on an errand when the men had come. They had grabbed her and stuffed her in a carriage. If she had learned anything from pick pocketing and conning on the streets was to stay away from well-dressed Italian men who traveled in pairs. There were certain people it was just better to stay away from. She'd learned that lesson one too many times.
She did remember puling one over on a couple of Italian guys right before she met Skittery…
Maggie sighed and closed her eyes. There was probably no one even looking for her.