The cemetery is where Philip McGuane’s fear of the Ghost becomes immediate: after arriving alone, McGuane reaches an unnamed grave and finds John Asselta approaching with flowers. Its rows and hidden sightlines make the place a tense meeting ground, joining a visit to the dead with the search for Ken Klein and the danger surrounding anyone who pursues him.

Setting and Approach

A limousine stops a block from the cemetery, leaving McGuane to continue on foot. The distance places a short interval between his arrival and the encounter he expects, while also making the cemetery’s approaches part of the scene’s suspense. Before setting out, McGuane has accepted that refusing the Ghost would only bring the Ghost to him; he believes the man’s patience and ability to wait for an opening make avoidance futile. Going to meet him seems the safer choice, though not a safe one.

Once alone, McGuane pulls up his collar and scans the graveyard. He wonders where Tanner and Tanner’s man are concealed, guessing that they may be nearer the meeting place, in a tree or behind a shrub. Their absence from view does not reassure him: in McGuane’s assessment, competent surveillance would leave him unable to spot them. The cemetery thus becomes a space in which apparent stillness cannot be trusted. The people who may be watching are defined by their concealment, not by any visible movement.

The Cemetery’s Atmosphere

The setting is rendered through details that sharpen McGuane’s isolation. The sky is clear, but the wind strikes him with the force of a reaper’s scythe, and he hunches his shoulders. Traffic from Route 22 carries over the sound barriers and reaches the dead below. Against that noise, the cemetery’s interior is quieter, peaceful, and green. The contrast does not make McGuane feel secure: the graveyard can seem calm while the threat he anticipates remains nearby and unseen.

A smell of something freshly baked drifts through the still air, briefly bringing cremation to McGuane’s mind. The passing association folds the living world into the cemetery’s work of remembering the dead, without supplying a comforting pause. McGuane wonders whether everything began there, then continues onward. The question is left open in the scene; what follows is movement through the grounds rather than an answer. The cemetery’s quiet therefore holds both physical calm and unresolved history.

The Grave and the Encounter

McGuane turns left, slows, and scans the surroundings as he approaches the grave. He makes another left, follows a row, and stops at the grave he has come to find. He reads the name and date, but the available scene does not identify them. His attention travels backward in memory; when he considers what he feels, he recognizes that he feels very little. He no longer bothers to look around. He senses that the Ghost is somewhere in the cemetery.

The first sign of the Ghost is a soft, silky voice with a slight lisp, commenting that McGuane should have brought flowers. The remark is followed by a visible reversal: the person approaching with flowers is John Asselta. McGuane steps away as their eyes meet, and the narration conveys his reaction as if a steel claw had reached into his chest. The cemetery has brought the anticipated threat into view, but not in the form McGuane expected. Asselta’s presence turns the grave visit into a face-to-face confrontation.

From Mourning Ground to Pursuit

The grave remains the point around which the meeting is organized. The Ghost looks toward its tombstone while asking whether Ken Klein is back. McGuane says he is fairly sure and is asked how he knows; the exchange establishes that the cemetery meeting is also about information and access. The Ghost acknowledges McGuane’s stake in the matter, then emphasizes that McGuane has sources and access to information he himself lacks. The exchange gives the location a practical role as a place where their interests and knowledge meet, not merely a setting for a threatening arrival.

The scene’s movement—from the stopped limousine, through the watched but apparently empty grounds, to the grave and Asselta’s approach—changes uncertainty into direct confrontation without dispelling danger. The cemetery’s atmosphere of quiet and remembrance is set against the living men’s surveillance, fear, and pursuit. What begins as a journey to meet the Ghost ends with McGuane facing Asselta and the question of whether Ken has returned. The graveyard makes those concerns converge: its dead are physically still, while the people gathered among them are acting on unfinished business.