The Gift Read Online Free PDF Page A

winked. “Thanks for your help, Gabe.” He slipped a ten-euro note into Gabe’s cup.
    “Cheers, man,” Gabe beamed, immediately grabbing the bill from the cup and tucking it into his pocket. He tapped it with his finger. “Can’t let everyone know, remember?”
    “Right,” Lou agreed.
    But, at the exact same time, he didn’t agree at all.

C HAPTER 5
The Thirteenth Floor
    G OING UP ?”
    There was a universal grunt and nodding of heads from inside the crammed elevator as the door opened on the second floor to an inquiring gentleman who looked in at the sleepy faces with hope. All but Lou responded, since he was too preoccupied with studying the gentleman’s shoes, which stepped over the narrow gap and into the confined space. Brown brogues shuffled in and then turned around 180 degrees, in order to face the front.
    Lou was looking for red soles and black shoes. Alfred had arrived early and had lunch with black shoes. Black shoes left the office with red soles. If Lou could find out who owned the red soles, he’d know who she worked with, and then he’d know who Alfred was secretly meeting. This convoluted process made more sense to Lou than simply asking Alfred, which Lou thought said a lot about the nature of Alfred’s honesty.
    “What floor do you want?” A muffled voice camefrom the corner of the elevator, where a man was well hidden—possibly squashed. As the only person with access to the buttons, he was forced to deal with the responsibility of comandeering the elevator stops.
    “Thirteen, please,” the new arrival said.
    There were a few sighs and one person tutted.
    “There is no thirteenth floor,” the disembodied voice replied. “You either want the twelfth floor or the fourteenth floor. There’s no thirteen.”
    “Surely he needs to get off on the fourteenth floor,” somebody else offered. “The fourteenth floor is technically the thirteenth floor.”
    “So you want me to press fourteen?” the muffled voice asked impatiently.
    “Em…” The man looked from one person to the other with confusion as the elevator ascended quickly. He watched the numbers go up on the monitor above and then dived into his briefcase to find his schedule.
    Lou pondered the man’s confusion with irritation. It had been his suggestion that there be no number thirteen on the elevator panel, but of course there was a thirteenth floor. There wasn’t a gap with nothing before getting to the fourteenth floor; the fourteenth didn’t hover on some invisible bricks. The fourteenth was the thirteenth, the very floor his office was on. Perfectly simple.
    He himself exited on the fourteenth floor, his feet immediately sinking into the spongy plush carpet there. He strode through reception toward his office and hissecretary, arms swinging, lips whistling, while the lost man in the brown brogues wandered aimlessly in the wrong direction, eventually knocking lightly on the door of the broom closet at the end of the corridor.
    “Good morning, Mr. Suffern.” His secretary, Alison, greeted him without looking up from her papers.
    He stopped at her desk and looked at her with a puzzled expression. “Alison, call me Lou like you always do, please.”
    “Of course, Mr. Suffern,” she responded, refusing to look him in the eye.
    While he settled in and Alison moved about her desk, Lou tried to get a glimpse of the soles of her shoes. Once again avoiding his eye, she returned to her desk to type, and as inconspicuously as possible, Lou bent down to tie his shoelaces and peeked through the gap in her desk.
    She frowned and crossed her long legs. “Is everything okay, Mr. Suffern?”
    “Call me Lou,” he repeated, still puzzled.
    “No,” she said rather moodily, and looked away. She grabbed the diary from her desk. “Shall we go through today’s appointments?” Standing, she made her way around the desk.
    Tight silk blouse, tight skirt. His eyes scanned her body before getting to her shoes.
    “How high are your