New York City, 1883
Travelers sluiced from the newly arrived trains onto the platforms like privy muck into the sewer, halting and sluggish. Their voices echoed through the car house, blending with the wheeze of steam and whine of metal. Daylight fought with streaks of soot and drifts of snow to penetrate the glass ceiling above. Una, however, preferred the shadows. She watched the travelers from behind one of the great ornamental trusses that supported the roof. Watched and waited.
The first to emerge were always the businessmen—bankers, speculators, oilmen, factory owners. They strode across the platform like it was their own private foyer, perturbed but undaunted by the noisome crowds. Time was money to these men, and their hurry and hubris made them easy marks should one be willing to suffer their over-perfumed clothes and superior airs. Today, Una was not.
Close on their heels came the coach class. Weary-looking women with wide-eyed children clinging to their skirts. Highfalutin debutantes and their weighed-down porters. Traveling merchants with leather-bound cases of their wares. Countryfolk carting chickens and leading braying goats. Many carried little more than they could squeeze into their traveling sack. A change of underclothes. A half-eaten loaf of bread. A worn Bible with the name and address of some distant relative tucked inside. Nothing worth Una’s time.
Then he appeared—the very man Una was awaiting. Well dressed, but not foppishly so. A ruddy, youthful complexion. He was a Middle West man, to be sure. Indiana, perhaps. Ohio. Illinois. Precisely where didn’t matter, only that he was not a New Yorker. Judging from the way his wide eyes scanned for a signpost or placard to direct him through the throngs, he was entirely new to the city.
Una checked that her hat was securely pinned and bit her lips to bring out their color. She unfastened the latch on her travel case, holding the handles tight so it remained closed.
The man shuffled and bobbed along the platform until his eyes lit on the overhanging sign directing travelers to the Forty-second Street exits. Then his shoulders squared and step quickened. Una threaded her way through the crowd toward him. When his eyes flickered up again, this time to a large clock perched high in the central tower at the far end of the platform, Una stepped in front of him. The man barreled into her. She gave a soft cry and dropped her traveling case, its contents scattering at their feet.
“Oh, I do beg your pardon, miss,” the man said. “It was my fault, sir. I was uncertain of my way.”
“You and me both. I’ve never been in such a large station.”
She knelt to collect her scattered belongings, flashing him a timid smile when he bent down beside her. The faint scent of tobacco clung to his fine Chesterfield coat. “Largest station in the world,” she said. “At least that’s what I’ve heard.”
He handed her a ribbon-trimmed bonnet and worsted wool shawl, which she carefully folded and tucked inside her bag. “You really needn’t trouble yourself.”
“It’s the least I can do.” He reached for another piece of clothing, then froze, his neck and ears reddening to match his cheeks. Una snatched the silk chemise, its smooth fabric and lace hem brushing the tips of his gloved fingers as she whisked it into her bag. In a show of embarrassment, she dropped her chin, hiding her face beneath the wide brim and drooping plumage of her hat.
“I . . . er . . .” He wobbled on his haunches, his Chesterfield brushing the dirty floor.
Una gathered up the last of her clothing and stuffed it in her bag. “Thank you,” she said, latching the bag and standing.
The man stood too. “Again, my apologies, miss.” He dusted off his overcoat and glanced again at the clock. “Can I see you to a carriage?”
Una dared another glance at his wide, honest face. Another timid smile. “That’s very kind, but I’m departing, not arriving.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, sir. Back home to Maine. I’d only come for a brief visit to comfort a sick friend.”
“I see,” he said, disappointment evident in his voice.
“Thank you again.” Una curtsied and hurried toward the boarding trains. At the far end of the car house, she crossed the tracks and slipped into the crowded waiting room. After tucking herself into the corner, she surveyed the room. A policeman stood at the far end, besieged by an elderly man brandishing a train schedule. Una smirked and opened her bag. Wrapped inside the shawl was the Middle West man’s cigarette case. Pure silver, by the look of it, and ornately etched with scrolling filigree. On the back were the man’s initials: JWC. But those could be burnished away easily enough. If Marm Blei didn’t want to melt it down.
After another glance at the copper, she slipped the cigarette case from her bag and into a pocket hidden within her ample skirt folds. It had been easy as tilly to free the case while the man worried after her scattered clothes. It practically fell out of his overcoat when he bent down to help her. Diving into the coat’s inner pockets was riskier. But that lacy chemise did the trick every time. While the man bumbled with embarrassment, she’d slipped a hand inside and relieved him of a few bills from his pocketbook and two silver dollars.
Una closed her bag and strolled from the waiting room out to Vanderbilt Avenue. The day’s waning sunlight did little to warm the January air. Four separate rail companies ran lines through Grand Central Depot, each with its own baggage rooms and waiting areas. With a stash of counterfeit tickets tucked inside her coat sleeve, Una could easily pass from one room to the next and back and forth from the car house.
More than a hundred trains stopped at the depot each day, spewing dupes into the city. It was easy pickings if you were smart. Una never lingered in one place too long. Never returned to the same waiting room more than once a day. Never snatched more than she could easily hide. A good thief had her rules and kept to them.
The Middle West man, Mr. JWC, wore a watch on a silver chain and had at least ten other bills in his leather that she’d left behind. But not out of kindness. The more you filched, the more likely your mark would notice before he left the station. Una didn’t always come home with the fattest haul, but she didn’t get caught neither. Not often, anyway. Bail money added up, and she knew Marm Blei kept score.
Una’s empty stomach grumbled. The depot basement housed a ladies’ restaurant, but she seldom ate on the job. You had to be ready to sprint away
on a moment’s notice, and a belly full of ham and cabbage or oyster stew would slow you down. But there were good pickings in the basement—men perfumed and freshly shaven strutting from the barbershop, ladies hurrying to the toilet, railwaymen stumbling from the saloon—and Una decided to do a little more prospecting before heading home.
She slipped back into the station house through a different company’s waiting room. On her way to the basement stairs, she spied a young boy dressed in shabby trousers, a patched coat, and dirty cap. Una rolled her eyes as he sidled up to a well-dressed man sporting a shiny top hat. Don’t do it, you looby, she thought. The boy cast a quick glance around the room, then reached for the man’s overcoat. Una lingered at the head of the stairs, even though the room was about to become a hotbed of coppers. Don’t do it.
She’d been that young once. And just as stupid. Miracle she hadn’t ended up under lock and key at the House of Refuge.
The boy managed to slip his grimy hand into the man’s pocket. Una shook her head. Loobychin. A moment later, the boy’s hand reappeared, clasping a gold watch. It was probably worth a hundred dollars, but the boy wouldn’t get more than twenty for it from a fence. Less if he were working for a boss. But she had to give the kid credit for lifting it without the man’s notice. Maybe he wasn’t such a looby after all.
He started to slink away, and Una turned back to the stairwell. She’d gone only a few steps when a deep voice hollered, “Thief!” Every muscle in her body tightened. Her feet tingled, ready to skedaddle. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that the well-dressed man had the boy by the wrist, the shiny gold watch dangling on its chain from the boy’s hand.
He’d just earned himself a spot at the House of Refuge, the boy. Scrawny as he was, he’d as likely freeze to death as finish out his stretch there. Una mounted the steps and pushed through the growing gaggle of onlookers toward the boy before her smarts could stop her. She tucked her carpetbag under her arm and threw up her hands with great show. “There ya are, Willie! Your ma’s worried plumb sick over ya.” She turned to the man. “This lad ain’t botherin’ ya, is he?”
The man’s eyes narrowed. “This lad is a thief. He tried to steal my pocket watch.”
Una clutched her breast—a bit dramatic, to be sure, but she needed to keep the man’s attention. “What? Willie, is that true?”
“I . . . er . . .” The boy glanced from Una to the man’s hand, still tight about his wrist, and the confusion in his face melted away. “Sorry, Aunt Mae, ya know how Ma is when she’s in liquor. I ain’t had nothin’ to eat for three days.”
Una held back a grimace. Sick was a far better card to play than drunk. But clearly the boy was green. “That ain’t no excuse. Ya know ya could’ve come to me for a meal. Give this fine gentleman his watch this very minute and apologize.”
The man’s fingers slowly loosened from the boy’s wrist. He’d left red, angry marks on his skin. A feral, skittish look in the boy’s eye told Una he might run, leaving her on the hook for his thievery. She grabbed the back of his threadbare coat and gave him a gentle shake. “Hand it over now, ya hear?”
“Yes ’um,” the boy muttered, but not before casting Una a glare. He dropped the watch into the man’s waiting palm and gazed with longing as it was stuffed back in his overcoat pocket.
“And what about yer apology?” Una said.
“Sorry, mister. I won’t never do nuthin’ like that again.”
“That’s a good lad.” Una kept a grip on the boy’s coat and turned to the man, flashing a doleful smile. “My deepest apologies, sir. His ma’s a good woman, just mournin’ the loss of her husband is all. I’m sure ya understand, bein’ such a fine-hearted gentleman. We won’t be takin’ up any more of your time.” She gave the boy another shake. “But ya can best believe he’ll be gettin’ a good lashin’ before his supper.”
The man’s expression didn’t soften. He brushed the sleeve of his overcoat as if his mere proximity to her and the boy had sullied it. “You see that he does.”
Una made a hasty curtsy and dragged the boy by the back of his coat from the waiting room. When they reached the street, the boy shrugged to free himself, but she held on, yanking him behind one of the steel support columns of the nearby elevated railway.
“What you playing at, boy?” she said. “You looking for a first-class ticket to Randall’s Island?”
“What’d you care?”
She let go of his coat. “I don’t. But an imp like you who don’t know his head from his rear gonna get every mark in there antsy, checking their watches and leather, looking around all suspicious like. Not to mention the
coppers. Makes my job and any other divers working the spot twice as hard.”
“I could’ve gotten away.”
“That man had a hold on you like a vise. You think they’ll go easy on you in the Tombs ’cause you’re a kid? The beak will eat you for breakfast and spit your bones out in the yard. Don’t give two licks about the likes of you or me.”
The boy just shrugged. Hard-headed looby, he was.
“Your parents know you’re out here dipping into fancy men’s pockets?” “Ain’t got no parents.”
“Then you best get your scrawny ass over to the Five Points Mission.
They’ll feed you there. Learn you your letters too.” “And send me west with the rest of the orphans.”
“Better than a life on the cross.” Una’s words met with another shrug. She crouched down. The boy’s cheeks were chapped and mud-streaked, his nose raw and dribbling. “At least you gotta be smart. Easier pickings on the el.” She nodded at the tracks above them. “Fewer coppers too. And you gotta start small—the loose change in a man’s pocket or a few shines from a lady’s purse. You take it all and they’re gonna notice. Makes it harder to get away. A man-about-town’s bound to realize his watch is missing and soon. Best wait till he’s settled down someplace with his nose stuck in a newspaper or a glass of gin before going after a prize like that.”
She pulled out a hankie, spit on it, and swiped it across his cheeks. “Clean yourself up some too. The best thief is one who don’t look like a thief.”
Once he was somewhat presentable, she reached into her pocket for a dime. “Here. Get yourself some supper. And think some on the Mission.”
No sooner had she placed the dime in his hand than she felt his other hand fishing in her coat pocket. “That’s good. Always easier to dip into someone’s pocket when they’re distracted with something else. But I ain’t stupid enough to leave anything of value where the likes of you can free it.”
He gave her a sheepish smile and withdrew his hand.
“You gotta be quicker too. Move in with a lighter touch. Maybe partner up with some of them boys who work the horsecars. They could teach you a thing or two.”
“You got a partner?” “No, I don’t trust—”
A commotion by the depot entry snagged Una’s attention. She stood and peeked around the iron beam. The man whom the boy had tried to pickpocket was outside speaking loudly with two coppers. Una frowned. He’d seemed cross but mollified when they’d left him. She turned back to the boy, yanked him close, and dove through his pockets until she found the man’s watch.
“You cheeky little bastard, this is likely to wind us both in the clink.”
She left the watch in the boy’s pocket—better it was found on him than her—but took back her dime. “I’ll go north on Fourth, you east on Forty- Second. Don’t run. It’ll only draw attention. And if I ever catch you in the depot again, I’ll turn you in to the coppers myself.”
The words had scarcely left her mouth when the boy took off running. And not across Forty-Second Street but up Fourth Avenue, the way she’d planned to go. Looby! Una tucked the handles of her bag in the crook of her arm, squared her shoulders, and stepped beyond the beam. Two women with fur hats and muffs strolled past. Una walked beside them, matching their pace. Behind her, the commotion at the depot entry intensified. A shout. A whistle. Likely the coppers had seen the boy run and unscrambled their wits enough to give chase.
Una didn’t look back. She inched closer to the women, even as one shot her a cutty-eyed sneer. Una’s clothes, clean and respectable as they were, paled next to these women’s finery. But from a distance it was hard to tell lambswool from horsehair. Real silk trim from imitation. Certainly if you had the peanut-sized brain of a copper. Eyeing her from the back at twenty paces away, she looked the same as any young lady out for a stroll with her friends. Or so Una hoped. Rule number five: Look like you belong.
Thick-soled boots thudded on the pavers behind them. One set. Walking fast but not running. Una drew closer to the women.
“Why, what a lovely muff you have,” Una said to the woman next to her, donning a pleasant smile. “Sable, is it?”
The woman looked surprised. “Why, yes. My father brought it back from the Continent.”
“Russia, I imagine. I hear the finest sable comes from there. It matches your hat quite perfectly.”
“Yes, they were a set.”
“There’s a sable-trimmed reticule at Stewart and Company that would complement the ensemble nicely.” Una knew because they’d fenced such a
moll-sack at Marm Blei’s shop just last week. The thief said it sold for thirty dollars on Ladies’ Mile. They gave him seven for it and sold it for twelve after Una had painstakingly removed A. T. Stewart’s stitched-in label.
The thudding boots drew closer. Una didn’t need to turn around to know it was a copper. They must have split up to look for the boy after he slipped them. Unless the well-dressed man had recognized her and pointed her out among the crowd.
The copper stalked past without a glance in her direction. Una exhaled with relief. She peeled away from the women and turned down Second Avenue. Tempting as it was to return to the depot for one more dive, she knew it was too dangerous. Stupid boy. She almost hoped the copper did catch him for all the trouble he’d caused her. And to think, she’d almost given him a dime!
She’d gone less than a block when a sniveling voice sounded behind her. “There she is! That’s the rogue!”
This time, Una turned around long enough to see a bruiser of a copper barreling toward her. She ran.
