17
PlanningFern disguised her true intention when she asked everyone to join her on the patio on Memorial Day.
A few days earlier she visited Herbert Plotnick, who passed his life in one of the warren of offices on Nassau Street. Even though the buildings were taller in other areas of New York, on Nassau Street the air felt thicker, the street darker and narrower, and the light bulbs dimmer. It was forbidden to wash windows. Reminders of WWII in the form of metal-clad windows that prevented light from seeping through during an air raid could still be found. It was the perfect environment to cultivate mushrooms and stamp dealers.
Fern saw a distorted figure through the frosted-glass window framed by his office door and rang the buzzer. Plotnick answered. He was an ordinary-looking sort,
