I glanced to my left at the two men walking beside me down the hall. I didn’t envy Jonny. I only had to deal with Lisa; he had to answer to Agnes. And Tony was still in hot water and now seemed likely to remain so for quite a long time. There were no leads left to explore at this point; we had run out of ideas.
We reached the end of the hall and turned left and then left again. We came up to the locked door with the guard station immediately inside.
“Hey Max,” Jonny greeted the guard. “Thanks again for the pop, man. We’re headin’ out.”
“Nice meetin’ ya Jonny,” replied the guard as he slid the log book across the desk in our direction. Jonny wrote in the time (4:51 now), our names, and our purpose. The three of us then signed it and, with a final nod to Max, walked out the door and into the elevators. Nothing was said as we waited for the elevator and descended to the lobby. The three of us walked out to the cars together.
“Sure is nice that they puts these lights up,” Tony remarked with a smirk. “Now I can find my car more easily. I can even find the keyhole for the door-lock. My car doesn’t have a remote-control door-lock.” We were all tired, but Tony most of all. He laughed a little too hysterically at his own (poor) joke as he said goodbye and collapsed into his dirty rusty clunker.
Too exhausted to bother with elaborate goodbye’s Jonny and I waved our hands, said we would see Tony the next time we were in town, and climbed into the Taurus. I immediately reclined the seat-back as far as it would go. I stretched and let out a long sigh. It is amazing how comfortable a car-seat can be when compared to cheap office furniture and when the evaluation is made after considerable sleep deprivation. I didn’t even mind the clammy feeling from my clothes as the sweat that had soaked into them over the hours cooled down from the air-conditioning in the car. Jonny didn’t look or smell like he was any fresher. I wondered if somebody would have to sit next to me on the airplane. I hoped not. I wondered if I would have to sit next to Jonny on the airplane. I hoped not. I slipped into sleep.