“Oh shit, man, don’t tell me you let that get away. I was hoping you had gone to her apartment.”

“No, man, I woke up here.”

“Crazy night, huh. My shift ended at four and I didn’t see you by then.” Kierk drums his fingers on the desk. “You’re saying that I did not walk through those doors to go to bed until sometime after 4:00 a.m. that night?”

“Well, I guess that’s right.”

“. . . Beyond the utmost bound of human thought,” Kierk mutters to himself, lost.

“What’s that?”

“What? Oh, nothing. Reveries. Impossible connections. Poetry and lost time. I can’t . . . I’m sorry, thanks so much for your time.”

As he leaves, the security guard calls out to him—“Hey man, you make sure you go after that lady!”

Kierk, having reached the glass doors, looks back and nods, then pushes the doors open.