Hotline to Murder

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.
    Gail ushered the males over to a corner of the stage, away from the chatter of the others. As they clustered around her, she said, “I realize we’re putting a lot of pressure on you guys. In a way, we’re implying that you’re not in any danger, which you realize is not completely true. So, if any of you have doubts about this or want to talk about it, now’s your chance.”
    Tony looked around at the others. He estimated that four of them were adults. At least two were older than he was.
    One of the older men said, “I have a license to carry a gun. I could bring it with me to the Hotline.”
    Gail shook her head. “No, Dick, no guns in the Hotline office. We don’t want an armed camp. Or the risk of a shootout. Although there’s no evidence that the suspect used a gun.”
    But there was also no evidence that he hadn’t used a gun. He certainly had a persuasive method of getting Joy into the park. Tony didn’t necessarily agree with the no gun policy, but as the new kid on the block, he figured he’d better keep quiet. But he had another question. “I assume different guards work the evening shift on different days. Have the police taken a look at all of them?”
    “Nancy and I have talked at length to Detective Croyden about the guard situation,” Gail said. “And also to the building management. We would not have reopened the Hotline if we hadn’t been convinced that the guards were completely trustworthy.”
    Gail had a positive way of talking that made you believe her. And Nancy did too. If they thought that the guards were reliable, Tony would take their word for it. There was some further discussion about safety procedures, which Tony used as an opportunity to glance around at the other men and boys. Most of them looked as if they could handle themselves in a fight. One of the boys was quite small, but he had a determined look in his eye. None of them talked about quitting the Hotline.
    When they finished talking, they went back to the front of the stage where the signup sheets were located. Tony noticed that the teens filled most of the weekend slots quickly, since they didn’t have school those days. At first he thought he’d sign up for the seven-to-ten shift once a week, but after some hesitation, he ended up putting his name down for Mondays and Fridays for the rest of September.

    CHAPTER 6
    Tony kept a wary eye out for any suspicious people as he entered the building to work his first shift since Joy’s murder. There were the usual customers entering the shops in the mall, but nobody seemed to have any interest in him. Inside, he took the stairs two at a time to the third floor and was pleasantly surprised to find that he was not panting quite as hard as he had in the past. The workouts at the health club he had joined must be paying off.
    The door to the Hotline office was locked, but it was now standard procedure to keep it locked after the office staff left for the day. He entered the combination to the lockbox and extracted the key. Upon entering the office, he saw two people, one male and one female, in the listening room, both on the phone. By the time he signed in, the man had ended his call.
    The man walked out of the listening room and said, “We had some callers asking about Joy. Whether she worked for the Hotline. That’s how some people get their kicks. We told them we couldn’t give out any information.”
    “Thanks for the warning,” Tony said. “I’m Tony.”
    “Nathan.”
    They shook hands. Tony noticed that Nathan didn’t look him in the eye. He