Chapter Fifteen
Rigger and Autumn found a drugstore three blocks from the café. When they walked in, the lady behind the counter gave them a quick once-over; apparently satisfied they weren’t going to rob or r**e her, she licked a thumb and turned the page of her National Enquirer.
Autumn looked around the store, then stepped to the counter. Rigger followed. As they stood watching the woman for a moment, she flipped another page of her magazine.
“Excuse me,” Autumn said.
The woman moved in slow motion, looking first toward Autumn, then to Rigger. She glanced back at Autumn, raising her eyebrows—a New Yorker’s way of saying, “You want something from me?”
“Do you have hearing aid batteries?”
The lady was in her mid-forties, overweight by a hundred and fifty pounds, and wore orange eye
