The Fives Run North-South Read Online Free PDF

slight punch to the stomach, I felt a sudden tightening of my vision. From the time I parked this morning until around 5:30, this parking lot is always a flurry of activity. And come quitting time — starting about 4: 30 — the area is abuzz, an eleven - story building emptying out in a mad rush to beat traffic. It stays busy right up until…
    Until about ten minutes before I come out myself.
    I looked around. Street lights had illuminated around the fringe of the lot. A spotlight by the front entrance cast a small halo between where I was standing and the office entrance door. Everywhere else, deepening shadows and darkness. I thought of the knife, sitting tightly in the grip of the person who’d slashed my tires. Slowly, so it wouldn’t be obvious, I scrutinized my surroundings. Thick bushes extended from either side of the walkway leading from the front door. Those bushes ran around the perimeter of the building. On the west side of the executive/visitor parking lot was the employee parking garage — dark , quiet, and mostly empty with all but the night custodial staff having removed their vehicles (except there was always one or two there…random cars that would be there one night and not the next, as if sometimes folks decided to walk. One of those small mysteries I always wanted to ask about). Trees on either side of the parking garage were shifting in the breeze, causing lights from outside the garage to dance around the interior of the building, casting off support columns and stairwells, giving off the illusion of movement or activity from within.
    I heard a sound.
    Then just the breeze.
    I felt both a deep solitude and the dull sensation that someone was watching me.
    The glow from my cell phone suddenly disappeared as it went into sleep mode. It made me jump, much to my embarrassment (and really, if someone hiding in the bushes was watching me, embarrassment was probably the least of my worries). I glanced down at my watch. The dial was difficult to read in the dusk, but it appeared to be getting close to the time I was expecting Suze to show up. I looked out to the entrance road and saw no headlights approaching. I thought of calling her but felt the need to stay attentive.
    Okay, you’re acting like a jumpy teenager in a slasher movie ,I thought. Again, embarrassment. It occurred to me that perhaps the expression “dying from embarrassment” probably came from people in situations like this who allowed their defenses to drop in a silly effort to appear cool and unbothered.
    Another sound. A soft thud, from where?
    Again, I slowly moved my head around the perimeter of the lot. Moving shadows, all perfectly natural. No other sound, except…
    Finally. A car engine. I looked out to the entrance road and saw the high beams of the approaching car. As it turned into the parking lot, I exhaled as the familiar shape of Suze’s Volvo moved toward me. She pulled up beside my car, and I walked toward the passenger side. I was momentarily confused when she shut the motor off and got out of her car. I stood dumbly as she got out and walked around to inspect my tires. I wanted to order her to get back in her Volvo and get us out of here, but then realized that really, her actions were the more appropriate and reasonable. I told myself that it was best not to frighten her by acting nervous while ignoring the voice in my head; the one telling me that perhaps it would be preferable for me to get slashed than for her to see in me the embarrassing weakness of fear.
    “Oh my God, Adam,” she said, looking down at my tires. “Who would have done this? Did you fire someone today?”
    “I think it was random, Suze.”
    “Nothing’s ever random. I mean, first the brick, now this?”
    “I don’t know, but it’s probably just simple coincidence,” I said, slowly looking around and wandering toward her car. “Look, I’m tired. It’s been a long day. Let’s just go home and I’ll deal with this tomorrow.”
    “Have