Fackelmann's scam; the wraith returns (p. 934)
and Joelle van D. appears with wings and no underwear and asks if they knew him, the dead guy with the head, and Gately starts talking about knowing him even though deep down he feels panic because he’s got no idea who they’re talking about, while the sad kid holds something terrible up by the hair and makes the face of somebody shouting in panic: Too Late.
Context
Inside the grave-dream, memory fails at the exact point the whole plot turns on: asked Hamlet's graveyard question — did you know him? — Gately performs knowing while privately possessing no memory at all of the man whose head he's digging for. Confabulation under panic: memory as performance with nothing behind it.