Hello, Darkness Read Online Free PDF

left?”
    This time, he didn’t even give her a verbal reply, only a shrug.
    Leaving the janitor, she ran to the men’s rest room and pushed open the door. Stan was at the urinal. “Stan, come here.”
    Stunned by the interruption, he whipped his head around. “What—I’m sorta busy here,Paris .”
    “Hurry up. This is important.”
    She rushed back to the studio and wheeled her stool over to the Vox Pro. It recorded each incoming call for optional playback. There was also a mandatory recording made of everything that went out over the air. But that was another machine and another matter. Right now, she was interested only in the telephone call.
    “What’s going on?” Stan strolled in, looking at his wristwatch. “I’ve got plans.”
    “Listen to this.”
    “Remember, my shift ends when you sign off.”
    “Shut up, Stan, and listen.”
    He leaned against the edge of the control board. “Okay, but I really need to be leaving soon.”
    “Shh.” Valentino had just identified himself. “This is a repeat caller.”
    Stan appeared more interested in the crease of his linen trousers. But when Valentino told her she would be very sorry, her coworker’s eyebrows shot up. “What’s that mean?”
    “Listen.”
    He was quiet through the remainder of the recording. When it ended,Paris looked at him expectantly. He raised his narrow shoulders in a quick shrug. “He’s a kook.”
    “That’s it? That’s your assessment? He’s a kook?”
    He snuffled. “What? You don’t think he’s serious? ”
    “I don’t know.” Turning, she punched the hot-line button on the board. That was the telephone line provided for the deejays’ personal use.
    “Who’re you calling?” Stan asked. “The cops?”
    “I think I should.”
    “Why? Nutcases call you all the time. Wasn’t there one just last week who wanted you to be a pallbearer at his mother’s funeral?”
    “This is different. I talk to a lot of people every night. This one…I don’t know,” she added uneasily.
    When her 911 call was answered, she identified herself and gave the operator a brief description of what had happened. “It’s probably nothing. But I thought someone should hear this conversation.”
    “I listen to your program on my nights off, Ms. Gibson,” the operator said. “You don’t sound like the type to panic. There’ll be a squad car there shortly.”
    Paristhanked her and hung up. “They’re on their way.”
    Stan winced. “Do I have to hang around?”
    “No, go on. I’ll be fine. Marvin’s still here.”
    “Actually he’s not. He split. I saw him leaving on my way here from the men’s room, where I was rudely interrupted midstream. A surprise like that, a guy could get hurt, you know.”
    She was in no mood for Stan tonight. “I doubt you’ll suffer any damage.” She waved him out. “Go on. Just lock the door behind you. I can let the police in.”
    Her nervousness must have conveyed itself and made him feel like a deserter. “No, I’ll wait with you,” he said glumly. “Go brew yourself some tea or something. You look rattled.”
    She was rattled. Tea sounded like a good idea. She headed for the employee kitchen, but never made it. An obnoxious buzzer sounded throughout the building, announcing that someone was at the main entrance.
    Reversing her direction, she rushed toward the front of the building and was relieved to see two uniformed policemen on the other side of the glass door. Never mind that they appeared to be fresh out of the academy. One of them looked too young to shave. But they were all business and introduced themselves with stiff-lipped laconism.
    “Thank you for coming so quickly.”
    “We’d been out this way and were headed back when we got the call,” one explained. He and his partner were looking at her strangely, as most people did when they first met her. The sunglasses made them instantly curious.
    Without acknowledging either her glasses or their curiosity, she led Officers Griggs