Hotline to Murder

his toes he could look over the door. He shone the flashlight around the stall. Huddled in a corner beside the toilet, looking scared, sat Tina.
    It took him a couple of minutes to coax her to come out of the stall. Then he escorted her to the picnic ground. When Tina saw the police and realized she was safe, a torrent of words came out of her mouth. She said, among other things, that she and Nathan had entered the park while it was still open, through an entrance from a residential area. This was before officers had been stationed at the entrances.
    The two had scurried through the gate in broad daylight when a nanny tending a baby had opened it with a key she had. They had hidden in the brush when officers and employees searched the park, after it closed. Nathan had taped Tina’s mouth during this period. They had joined the others on the plateau only a few minutes before the action started.
    Throughout, Nathan had controlled Tina with the threat of his knife and by keeping a strong grip on her arm. She had been too scared to scream or to ask anybody for help. In spite of her name, she didn’t speak Spanish, and so she didn’t try to communicate with the nanny in that language. And she thought the members of the congregation were somehow working with Nathan. It sounded as if she had convinced Nathan she believed in the Ascension so that he wouldn’t kill her.
    Tony went to a local police station with a mixed group of officers, including police from Bonita Beach and LAPD, and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies. Detective Croyden was there. After he told them about borrowing the truck, they found the owner, who was still at work, and effected an exchange of the vehicles. Tony suspected they did this because they thought he had stolen the truck.
    As he told his story, he learned that they had found the bra and panties at Nathan’s apartment. They appeared to have no doubt that Nathan had murdered Joy. The testimony of Tony and Shahla would be vital to the prosecution. That was nice to hear. Nobody criticized him for not working more closely with the police, now that the case was solved.
    As for the faithful who had not been carried up to heaven on schedule, Detective Croyden said they told him that they had entered the park from the backyard of one of the parishioners, much as Tony had envisioned. Luther Hodgkins had stationed himself at the entrance, which was through a hole in the fence, acting as ticket taker, meaning that he took all their cash. But then he disappeared. Nobody remembered seeing him on the plateau. The police had put out an APB for him.
    In spite of this, the parishioners still believed in the Ascension. Some believed they had seen Jesus. They tended to blame the police for screwing it up. However, it would still happen. But, as Croyden wryly remarked, their faith wasn’t going to help them survive without food and shelter until they got the timing right.
    Now, as Tony walked out of the morning sunlight and through the doorway into the hospital, the first thing he saw was a shop selling flowers and balloons. Women liked flowers. He went into the shop and purchased a bouquet in a vase. He learned Shahla’s room number from an attendant at the information desk and took an elevator to the third floor.
    He walked along the corridor, past the nurses’ station, trying not to look into the rooms, until he came to the correct one. As he went through the doorway, the first thing he saw was Shahla, asleep in a hospital bed, complete with its fancy gadgets for raising and lowering the whole mattress or sections thereof.
    Shahla’s body looked like a disaster area. Her left shoulder was bandaged, and she had a patch over one eye. Scratches covered her face, arms, and legs, which were bare. However, she seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Her dark hair was spread out on the pillow. She had an IV going into her wrist. She was wearing a hospital gown, and a sheet covered the trunk of her body, to give her what little modesty could be had in a hospital.
    Tony noticed Rasa, who was sitting beside the bed. For some reason, he hadn’t pictured her being here. When she saw him, she smiled and stood up. She took the flowers and placed them on a table beside the bed. Then she gave him a big hug.
    “Thank you for helping Shahla,” she said softly.
    Helping Shahla? He had almost gotten her killed.
    “Shahla told me everything,” she continued. “How you rescued her from man who tried to kidnap her and