'You're dead, Sam,' she whispered.
'Figured as much,' said Sam. 'Poor guy. Kind of a waste. How old was he?'
Kay felt the elevator behind her. She touched it with her hand. And yet the car did not arrive.
'Please,' she said. 'Please go away.'
Sam laughed again and inspected the toes of his well-positioned shoes.
'You gotta have somethin' to alleviate the boredom on a job like this. Know what I'm sayin'?'
'No, I don't.'
'Sure you do.'
'Are you — are you a ghost?'
'Didn't know there was such a thing. Goddamn. Goddamn, of course. Poor guy. Know something? This is about the safest job I ever had.'
Sam laughed again as Kay Killen started to scream.
In the boardroom on the twenty-first level, Mitch looked up from his computer and frowned.
'Did any of you hear something just now?' he asked.
His three colleagues shrugged or shook their heads.
Mitch stood up and opened the door.
This time they all heard it.
'Kay,' said Mitch.
The atrium was still echoing with her screams as they ran towards the elevators. On the way, Mitch leaned over the balcony and shouted down into the darkness. 'Kay, hold on, we're coming.'
'Jesus, what now?' said Kenny following Mitch into the elevator car. The doors slid shut and the car started its descent with Mitch banging on the walls impatiently.
When they reached the atrium Kay collapsed unconscious back into the elevator, her head banging on the floor of the car.
Mitch and Helen crouched anxiously beside her while Kenny and
Levine swiftly searched for whoever might have attacked her. By now all the lights were on and Kenny was soon back, shaking his head with bafflement.
'I didn't see anything,' he said. 'Not a damn thing. Is she OK?'
'She just fainted, that's all,' said Helen.
'It sure didn't sound like that was all,' observed Levine. 'Shit, I thought she was being raped or murdered for sure.'
Mitch lifted Kay against his chest while Helen fanned some air against her pale-looking face. Her eyelids flickered and she started to come round.
'What happened, honey?' said Kenny.
Levine came back, shrugging his shoulders. 'The front door's still locked,' he reported. 'And there's no sign of anyone on the piazza.'
'You're OK now,' Mitch said gently, as for a moment she became agitated again. 'You're safe now.' Then he helped her to lean forwards and place her head between her knees. 'Take your time. You just fainted, that's all.'
'Sam,' she said quietly. 'It was Sam.'
'Did she say Sam?' said Levine.
'Sam Gleig?' asked Kenny.
Kay lifted her head and opened her eyes. 'I saw him,' she said tremulously, and started to weep.
Mitch handed over his handkerchief. Kenny and Levine exchanged a look.
'You mean — like a ghost?' said Kenny. 'Here? In the Gridiron?'
Kay blew her nose and sighed profoundly.
'Can you stand up?' Mitch asked.
She nodded.
'It sounds crazy, I know,' she said, and let Mitch help her on to her feet. 'But I saw what I saw.'
She caught the look that passed between Kenny and Levine. 'Look, I didn't imagine it,' she said. 'He was there. He even spoke to me.'
Mitch handed Kay the purse she had dropped on the floor.
'I'm not the kind of person who would make up something like this. Or imagine it.'
Mitch shrugged. 'Nobody's suggesting you are, Kay.' He looked at her and added, 'Look, we believe you, honey. If you say you saw Sam, then you saw him.'
'You sure don't look like you're shitting us,' said Levine.
'He's right,' said Helen. 'You're as white as a sheet.'
'What did he say?' asked Kenny. 'What did it look like?'
Kay shook her head with irritation.
'Not it. I'm telling you, it didn't look like anything except Sam Gleig. Just listen to what I'm saying, will you? He looked the same as always. And he was laughing, too.' She opened her powder compact and frowned. 'Shit, I'm a mess. He said — he said he figured he was dead and that it was a waste. His exact words, I swear to God.'
'Come back upstairs,' said Mitch, 'and let's get you fixed up before you go home.'
'I think we could all of us use a drink,' suggested Kenny.
They stepped back into the elevator car and rode up to the twenty-first floor. While Kay attended to her make-up Levine opened the boardroom drinks cabinet and poured four shots of bourbon.
'I believe in ghosts,' declared Aidan Kenny. 'My mother saw a ghost once. And I never knew her to lie about anything. Never even tell a tall tale.'
'You've been making up for her since then,' remarked Levine.
'I'm not lying now,' Kay said firmly. 'It scared the shit out of me and I don't mind admitting it.' She finished her eyeliner and drained the glass before applying some more lipstick.
'What about the foundations?' said Levine. 'I mean, they're thirty feet deep, aren't they? Did we, like, you know, build on top of anything?'
'You mean an old Indian burial ground or something?' said Kenny.
'C'mon, man.'
'This site used to be the old Abel Stearns building,' said Mitch. 'One of those northern carpetbaggers from San Francisco who bought land here and built around the turn of the century. When the company got taken over in the 1960s, the new owners demolished it and the lot lay fallow until a developer came along. Then he went bust and the Yu Corporation bought the site.'
'But before Abel Stearns,' persisted Levine. 'I mean, this area was all Pueblo de los Angeles, wasn't it? Mexicans and Aztec Indians? Why not?'
'Don't let Joan hear you say the word Indian,' said Kenny. 'That woman's the Native American equivalent of the Reverend Al Sharpton.'
'Those Aztecs used to practise human sacrifice. They used to cut their victims' hearts out while they were still alive.'
'Just like Ray Richardson,' said Kenny. 'Anyway Tony, Sam was black. Or rather, African-American. He was no fucking Aztec. An asshole, maybe. What kind of security guard gets himself killed then spooks a defenceless woman like that?'
'Look', said Kay, 'I want you all to promise me something. I want you to promise me that you won't go around telling people what happened tonight. I don't want to turn into the office joke, OK? Will you promise me that?'
'Sure,' said Mitch.
'Of course,' smiled Helen.
Kenny and Levine shrugged and then nodded their acquiescence.
'Let's just hope we can get tomorrow's inspection done without any more mishaps,' said Mitch.
'Amen to that,' breathed Kenny.
Mitch returned to the Gridiron at seven-thirty the next morning. In the bright, flat sunlight it was hard to imagine how anyone could have seen a ghost in the place. Perhaps it was some kind of hallucination. He had read how an LSD experience could make a return visit at any time in your life, no matter how long ago the original experience had occurred, and Mitch thought that this, or something like it anyway, was the most likely explanation.
He'd wanted to call in to see Jenny Bao for her answer on the temporary feng shui certificate. But he was facing a whole day with Ray Richardson and he knew that his principal would arrive before eight. So the first thing he did upon his arrival was to telephone her.
'It's me,' he told her.
'Mitch?' she said sleepily. 'Where are you?'
'At the Gridiron.'
'What time is it?'
'Seven-thirty. I'm sorry, did I wake you?'
'No, it's OK. I was going to call you anyway. I decided to let you have your certificate in time for Monday. But only because it's you. And only because the Tong Shu says that Monday will be an auspicious day.'
'That's great. Thanks, Jenny. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it.'