She checked her watch. It was five-fourteen. Any second now Gerald Aarons, one of her three bosses – the most important of the three, he really ran the place – would come out of his office, glance at her, mumble something nearly incoherent, and head toward the elevator. He did it every day, unless he had an important meeting, leaving right at a quarter after five so he could make the five forty-five train to Westport. The minute hand on Joanie's watch moved and… Yup. Right on time. Gerald's door was opening, he was stepping into the outer office, and there it was – the glance, something that sounded vaguely like "gnightseeya," and then he was down the hall and gone. It didn't take long for the rest of the office doors to open and shut. Soon the hallway was filled with three-piece suits rushing by. Most of the lawyers were gone by five-thirty since almost all of them had commutes and families waiting for them, too. The ones who didn't left just as early. They had martinis or stewardesses or poker games waiting for them.

Okay, enough worrying about Jack, Joanie thought. It was ridiculous. There was nothing to worry about. Nothing at all. He'd come, she'd tell him, he'd be thrilled. No problem. So just get back to work, she told herself. How often does this happen? You've got half an hour, free and clear, to really clean up your desk. No one's going to bother you now. There's no one left to bother you.

With a little shake of her head, Joanie realized it paid to be a lawyer instead of a paralegal. It was five thirty-one and the place was already deserted.

Unbelievable, she thought. One minute after quitting time.

Empty.

Just one meager minute and she was all alone in the office.

– "-"-"REGGIE IVERS WAS certain that people were staring at him and he hated that. Really hated that. It made him crazy.

Walking quickly down Forty-second Street – no one was walking as fast as he was, he was passing them by like they weren't even moving – Reggie giggled. So what if they were looking? It couldn't really make him crazy. He wasn't crazy. That's what the doctors had told him. Maybe he'd been crazy. But not anymore.