Hotline to Murder

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