THE EMPTY LINE OF LAMBERN

Miren Ost understood he had been killed when he saw his own signature on a death certificate dated tomorrow. Four hours remained. In the morgue below lies a body whose face has been wiped smooth, with a card naming Miren as both the witness and the officiating official, and where the dead man's name should be there is an empty line. Then a cylinder drops out of the dead post with one sentence set in printer's type: the witness has arrived, begin the write-off.