There were no buses from the Desert Castle hotel and I could not see a taxi. I stared at the large white car. The driver got in and was going to drive away. I leaned forward and knocked on the window. It opened and the driver looked at me. He was in his thirties, with a round face and short red hair.
Ray described the car and told me the license plate number. Then he and Laura went off to the fire stairs. I used an elevator to go down to the lobby. When the doors opened, Gilbert was standing there, waiting to go up.
I could touch the ceiling above me. I was standing on a narrow metal catwalk, high inside the building. Along the right side of the catwalk, there was a metal chain at the height of my waist. It was the only thing between me and the darkness below. I walked slowly, staying close to the wall.
I came to small wooden door and opened it. In front of me, there was a lighted corridor about six feet high. There were windows along the top of the corridor wall on the right side, and some were open. I shut the door behind me and went to the nearest window and looked down. Below me there was a large, long room.
I shook the things out of my shoulder bag onto the floor of the corridor. I pushed my driver's license, phone charge card, private investigator's license, credit card, knife, toothbrush and toothpaste, and the keys to Ray's rental car into my jacket pockets. I left the bag on the floor. Now i could move more easily. Then i heard someone walking along the metal catwalk on the other side of the door. I went back to the door and quickly pushed the bolt across.