Hotline to Murder Read Online Free PDF Page A

the bad
guy now. He also didn’t want to get hurt anymore. He said, “When
would you like to get together?”
    “What are you doing this evening?”
    “I have to go to a meeting.”
    “Oh. I’m going out of town on business
tomorrow. I won’t be back for several days. I hoped we could see
each other today. What time is your meeting?”
    “Seven.”
    “When will it be over?”
    She was starting to act as if she owned him.
Again. “I’m not sure.”
    “May I ask what kind of a meeting this
is?”
    He didn’t want to get into that. It would
require too much explanation, which he didn’t owe her. Maybe if he
said it fast. “I-I joined a Hotline. The meeting tonight is for all
the listeners.”
    “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