Hotline to Murder (4 page)

“Josh told me about your foray into the
Hotline. He also said the Hotline closed down. Because the girl who
was murdered worked there.”

“I think it’s going to start up again.”

“Josh said you listen to people talk about
their problems. But if you can listen to other people’s problems,
why couldn’t you listen to my problems?”

Josh was talking too much. And Tony didn’t
have an answer for Carol. He looked at his watch and said, “Carol,
I’ve gotta run. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.”

He broke the connection before Carol could
say anything more.

CHAPTER 5

Tony filed into the Bonita Beach High School
auditorium along with the other Central Hotline listeners. He
recognized some of them because they had been in his training
class. Patty, the Hotline administrative assistant, sat at a table
just inside the door, checking listeners’ names on a list as they
entered.

Tony said hello to her, and she smiled at
him. She knew his name because she had been at several of the
training classes and, being one of the few adults, he stuck out.
Patty was a young and pretty brunette with an oval face, large
eyes, and a boyfriend. She was also taking college courses at
night, so if she had a class scheduled for this evening, she was
cutting it.

He found a seat near the front of the
auditorium, over on the side, so he wouldn’t block the view of any
of the shorter listeners behind him. The room had a flat floor, not
inclined, and the metal folding chairs weren’t fixed in place. In
spite of these drawbacks, it was nice of the school district to
allow the Hotline to use the auditorium of the high school for this
meeting. All the listeners would not have fit into the Hotline
office. Joy had been a student here, and Tony was sure the school
district was cooperating in everything to do with the investigation
of her murder.

The mood of the listeners was subdued as
everybody found a seat. There wasn’t the usual banter and laughter
that one would expect from a young crowd. Tony estimated that close
to a hundred people had showed up, a high percentage of the active
listeners.

The stage contained a lectern with a
microphone. Three chairs sat beside the lectern. A few minutes
after seven, two women and a man climbed several steps to the stage
from the auditorium floor and sat in the chairs. The women were
Nancy, the Executive Director of the Hotline, and Gail, the
Volunteer Coordinator. Tony didn’t recognize the man.

After a whispered discussion among the
three, Nancy stood up and came to the lectern. A middle-aged woman,
she had her hair cut short and curly. It was a brownish color that
made Tony suspect it might be dyed. She wore a smart shirt and pair
of slacks and had a look of authority. Even before she said a word,
Tony admired her aura of composure in a difficult situation.

The audience became quiet without being
asked. Nancy tapped the microphone to see if it was turned on and
then started speaking. “Thank you for coming tonight. This is a
hard time for all of us. As those of you who attended Joy’s funeral
and listened to her friends and family talk about her know, Joy was
a very special person.”

Tony hadn’t attended her funeral. His
rationalization was that he had barely known her and couldn’t
afford to take time off from work, but in a rare self-analytic
moment, he had admitted to himself that he had a fear of funerals.
Now he had to contend with a certain level of guilt.

Nancy looked around the auditorium and
continued, “But all of you are very special people. As listeners on
the Hotline, you have made a commitment that few people can make.
You have committed yourselves to help others—not just go through
the motions of helping others, with surface gestures such as
donating money or old toys. You have agreed to enter their worlds,
to listen to their problems, to walk a mile in their shoes, to feel
what it’s like to be disabled or abused or bi-polar or even
suicidal. You have invested not just your time, but your emotions,
as well. And that is what is difficult to do. That’s what sets you
apart and makes you special. That’s what puts you in a class by
yourselves and gives you a bond with other Hotline listeners that
nobody who hasn’t been a listener can share. And all of you have a
permanent bond with Joy.”

The woman was an orator. As Tony listened to
her, he felt his usual cynicism slipping away. He looked at the
listeners around him with new eyes. He even looked at himself with
new eyes. He had been planning to quit the Hotline, using Joy’s
murder somehow as an excuse, but how could he do that now? He felt
tears rolling down his cheeks, which he tried to hide by brushing
them away with his sleeve, but when he dared to look around the
room again he noticed that there were not many dry eyes in the
place.

Nancy was saying, “We are going to reopen
the Hotline, starting tomorrow. Joy would want us to keep it open.
Our callers need us and want us to keep it open. We will be making
changes to increase our security. However, to those of you who feel
they can’t continue as listeners, we understand. But we would like
as many of you as possible to stay. In a few minutes we’ll tell you
about some of the changes we are implementing. But first, I want to
introduce Detective Croyden to you. Detective Croyden is with the
Bonita Beach Police Department. He will bring you up to date on the
investigation and answer any questions you may have.”

Nancy sat down, and Detective Croyden walked
to the lectern. He was an athletic man, wearing a dark business
suit with pinstripes, but primarily some shade of brown. His hair
was trimmed so short that it was barely there. He looked
overdressed for the modern casual world, but Tony realized that he
had at least one gun hidden beneath his jacket. He would have been
handsome if his nose hadn’t tilted to one side. It probably hadn’t
always been like that.

Detective Croyden took a few seconds to
survey the room. He had a penetrating gaze that prevented his
audience from fidgeting or talking. When he started speaking, he
had everybody’s attention.

“I want to add my thanks to you for coming
tonight. This is a difficult time for you. I am going to level with
you as far as what we know. I won’t hold back just because many of
you are young. Nancy and Gail told me that as listeners, you are
used to hearing strong language.”

He paused again for a moment which, Tony
realized, had the effect, planned or not, of riveting the attention
of the audience on him even more. “First, let me tell you what we
know and what we don’t know about the murder, itself. Joy walked
out to her car after her shift ended at ten o’clock, escorted by
the building guard. The guard remembers it as being approximately
five minutes past ten. She got into her car. The guard walked back
into the building. As of the time he entered the building, Joy had
not started her car, but he didn’t see anybody in the parking lot.
The only other vehicle belonged to him. So he figured she would be
okay.

“What happened after that is speculation
because we don’t have any witnesses. The murderer—I will use the
word ‘suspect’ and the masculine pronoun, although we are not
ruling out the possibility of a female at this point—may have
gained access to the car, previously. He may have been hiding in
the backseat. Another possibility is that he was hiding behind a
nearby bush in the park that borders the parking lot. Whatever the
case, he was able to gain control over Joy and get her into the
park.”

Nobody moved in the auditorium as the
listeners waited for Detective Croyden to continue.

“Once in the park, he was able to get her
clothes off, except for one sandal. The other sandal was found
nearby. Also found was a tank top and a pair of shorts. Both were
ripped, as if they had been removed with considerable force. She
had bruises on her face and other parts of her body and several
small cuts, as well, which could have been inflicted with a knife.
However, the cause of death was strangulation.”

There was an audible gasp from the audience,
even though everybody must have already known this. It had been in
the papers, on TV, and on the Internet.

We think the suspect must be a physically
strong person. Joy was a big girl, and she was an athlete. It would
have taken somebody quite strong to control her. However, there is
no evidence that she was raped.”

This was new information. That’s why the
police hadn’t ruled out the possibility of a female suspect. But it
would have to be a strong female.

Detective Croyden continued, “In fact, we
have nothing from the suspect that would contain DNA—no skin, no
body fluids. The suspect was lucky in that respect. But that
doesn’t mean we won’t get him. And you can help. I have talked to a
few of you—those who were especially close to Joy. I don’t have
time to talk to all of you, but if any of you knows anything that
might help us, please come forward at the end of the meeting. I
will give a business card to everybody who wants one and leave some
with Nancy. If you remember anything, if you come across any piece
of information, please call me immediately. Even if you think it’s
inconsequential, tell me. Don’t pass judgment yourself. And now,
are there any questions?”

Some people in the audience looked around,
but nobody raised a hand for a few seconds. Then a girl timidly put
up her hand. Detective Croyden pointed to her and said, “Yes?”

“What about underwear?” the girl asked.
Nobody laughed. “None of the reports have mentioned underwear being
found.”

“We have reason to believe that Joy was
wearing underwear,” Detective Croyden said, with a straight face.
“We think the suspect took it with him. He may have a fetish of
some sort. That could help us in our investigation.”

Detective Croyden had used the word fetish,
just as Tony had. He was glad to have official support for his
conjecture. When nobody else raised a hand, he got up his nerve and
raised his own hand.

When Detective Croyden recognized him, Tony
stood up and said, “What about the guard as a suspect? By his own
admission he was the last person to see Joy alive, other than the
suspect. Couldn’t he be a suspect?” He had mangled the question,
but he thought it was a valid one.

The detective said, “We haven’t ruled
anybody out. We are investigating anybody and everybody at this
point. We have talked to the guard several times. We have no reason
to believe that the guard was involved in the murder.”

It was a carefully worded answer, calculated
to relieve their minds, since they worked in the building. It had
the intended effect.

Then a boy raised his hand and asked whether
the Hotline phones would be tapped.

Detective Croyden appeared to consider his
answer before he gave it. Then he said, “The Hotline phones will
not be tapped. Typically, phone tapping is done to allow the police
to overhear conversations and to attempt to determine the location
of the caller. Nancy has pointed out that if the phones are tapped,
the Hotline could no longer claim that your conversations are
confidential, and you would have to shut down for good. Although I
believe that there would be some value from tapping the phones, we
are not going to do it at this time. We will depend on you, the
listeners, to file full reports for any calls that you consider to
be suspicious.” He looked as if he might be going to say something
more, but then he asked for the next question.

A few more people raised their hands and
asked questions, but that didn’t produce any new information.

When the questioning stopped, Detective
Croyden turned the microphone back over to Nancy, who said that
Gail would explain how they would get the Hotline restarted. Gail
was older than Nancy and a longtime Hotline employee. She had taken
the job, which was part-time, as a sort of second career after her
children had left home. She was beloved by all the listeners. And
because she was in good shape, she looked younger than her years as
she approached the lectern.

First, Gail said a few words about Joy. Then
she said, “The security of the Hotline has been compromised to some
extent by the news reports. It is possible to piece together from
the reports which building we are located in. Not everybody will
make the connection but, unfortunately, the people most likely to
make it are the ones we least want to. The good news is that our
office number hasn’t been publicized. And of course, we aren’t
listed on the building’s list of tenants.

“But still, you should be careful when you
come to work. If anybody suspicious is loitering near the building,
report them to the guard. The guard will call Detective Croyden. We
don’t want people following any of us up to our office.
Fortunately, a lot of young people frequent the mall, so it is
fairly easy for you teens to get lost in the crowd.

“As for the new rules, we haven’t completely
finalized them yet, but the emphasis is on security. Therefore, at
least two people must work the four-to-seven and the seven-to-ten
p.m. shifts. On the late shift, at least one of the listeners must
be male. If we can’t get the required listeners for these shifts,
we will cancel the shifts. The listeners will walk to their cars
together. On the seven-to-ten shift, the male will make sure any
female listeners have safely left the area before he leaves. That
means staying with someone who is waiting for a ride until that
person’s driver arrives. And you will still use the guard as an
additional escort after the seven-to-ten shift.”

Gail talked a little about the procedure for
signing up to work, and then she said, “I would like all the male
listeners to meet with me on the stage right now.”

Because he was sitting in an end seat, Tony
was the first one to mount the steps to the stage. Over the next
few minutes, between twenty-five and thirty other men and boys came
up on the stage. Most of the female listeners clustered in front of
the stage to sign up for shifts and talk to Nancy and Detective
Croyden. Almost nobody left.