"Shis?"
The lobby was cool and dark. The word disappeared into silence like a stone down a deep well.
Santino called again.
"Shis?"
Any. Even the ticking of the wall-mounted clock had stopped. No one had been there tonight to wind it up.
However, there were footprints on the floor.
Santino walked down the hall, heading for Shis's office. The atmosphere was vitiated by the smell of cigarettes, stale and long gone. He saw his cousin's chair by the window. She was crooked as if she had gotten up suddenly. There was an ashtray on one corner of the desk and inside it was a perfect roll of cigarette ash.
Shis was keeping watch here. Waiting for what? ... Mine, of course, she waited for me to arrive... What the hell was so important?
The dirt tracks were getting closer to the chair by the
