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Show 80 to be there, but he couldn't think how to ask the question across that distance without seeming to shout, and the next instant the man had flung the door open and disappeared inside. Through the lighted window next to the door he saw the man stalk through the tiny alcove that served as the shipping clerk's office and then he vanished around a corner into the stockroom itself. Lorin knocked the head of his broom against the floor once or twice to clear the bristles of loose particles and resumed sweeping, watching the door. He swept ripples of dirt into a widening half-circle originating at the crate the man had sat on, and continued to watch'the door, pausing now and then to cough. The heavy segmented door of the loading dock had been rolled back, and moths fluttered in out of the night. Crickets chirped in the weeds along the invisible chain-link fence. A red light winked on a hill somewhere in the distance. Lorin swept a few more waves of dirt into his ridge and waited again. Finally he went over, unlocked the door, and still carrying his broom, stepped inside. He looked under the shipping clerk's desk, then entered the stockroom. He wandered up and down the aisles of screws, bolts, hubs, flanges, and chains. He looked under the workbench where the shipping clerk packaged parts. He looked up at the I-beams near the ceiling, feeling foolish. He inspected all the crates containing electric motors, and crushed a black widow spider that ran out of one. He walked backwards toward the door, fumbled behind him for the knob, opened it and closed it carefully after he was back in the shop. He noticed his broom handle was slippery where he had been holding it. It made sweeping difficult for the next few minutes. It occurred to him that Melanie had not called him yet tonight. The shipping clerk's phone was connected to an alarm system that could be heard all over the shop and even out back where the trucks were parked, so he couldn't have been out of earshot |