Hotline to Murder

particularly offensive. Do not under any circumstances give him any information about Joy, the Hotline or yourselves. Do not agree to meet him anywhere. Give your call report to Nancy, Patty, or me, immediately. If none of us is here, place it on my desk.”
    “Detective Croyden has been talking to the ladies in the office,” Tony said.
    “Duh. I’m surprised you didn’t get fired.”
    “How can you get fired from a volunteer job?”
    “You know what I mean.”
    “And yet you were willing to go with me. Nay, you insisted on going.”
    “But I wasn’t planning to tell Croyden about it.”
    “Okay, truce.” Tony liked this high-spirited girl too much to want to be at odds with her. “What do you plan to do now?”
    The phone rang before she could say anything. Tony answered it. “Central Hotline. This is Tony.”
    “I’ve got a problem,” a female voice said. “I need to talk to someone.”
    “You can talk to me,” Tony said. “Who’s this?”
    “Gertrude.”
    He would bet a week’s pay that her name wasn’t really Gertrude, but she could be anonymous if she wanted to be. When she didn’t immediately say anything more, he said, “What’s your problem, Gertrude?”
    “I like sex.”
    He was tempted to say, “That’s a problem?” but she sounded quite young, so he waited her out. He put the call on the speaker so that Shahla could hear it.
    After a pause she said, “I’m sixteen, but I like to have sex. What do you think I should do?”
    The Hotline rule was to not give advice because the listeners were not trained counselors. Tony asked, “What would you like to do?”
    “Should I stop having sex?”
    “Do you want to stop?”
    “No. I like sex. I’m always horny. But other kids are saying bad things about me.”
    “So you’re getting a bad reputation? How do you feel about that?”
    “How do you think I feel? I feel awful. So what do you think I should do? Should I go on fucking every boy I go out with or should I stop?”
    This was turning into an obscene phone call, but it was also somewhat titillating. Tony had never heard of a call like this coming from a girl. He looked at Shahla. She had a look of surprise on her face. Then she walked out of the listening room. Tony took the call off the speaker, figuring that Shahla didn’t want to listen.
    “I can give you the number of a sex hotline,” Tony said to the caller.
    “Don’t brush me off,” the girl said. “Tell me what to do.”
    “Have you talked to your parents about this?”
    “Are you crazy? Of course not. I’m talking to you. So what should I do?”
    “What would you like to do?” Tony repeated. He felt trapped. He wondered whether he should tell her this was an inappropriate call and hang up.
    “You’re no help. You’re just like all the others.”
    There was a click. She had hung up before he could. Tony stared at the receiver and said, “Whew.”
    “Welcome to the club,” Shahla said. She had returned to the listening room with more chips. “You’re not a virgin anymore.”
    “I guess not.” He wondered whether she was a female masturbator. Or perhaps it was a crank call. He finished filling out the call report and said, “Where were we?”
    “We were talking about motives the other day. I was trying to think of someone who might have a motive to kill Joy.”
    “And did you come up with anyone?”
    “I’ve got a possibility. Her name is Martha, and she’s a listener on the Hotline.”
    “You think the killer might be a female?”
    “Detective Croyden said that was a possibility. And Martha is big enough and strong enough to do it.”
    “Tell me about Martha.”
    “She’s a senior at Bonita Beach, and she’s on the volleyball team.”
    “Joy was on the volleyball team.”
    “Joy was the star of the volleyball team. Because of her and several others, the team was expected to win the league championship.”
    “How has the team been doing without her?”
    “They’ve only played two games so far. They’ve split.”
    “Sounds like they miss Joy.”
    “Definitely.”
    The phone rang, and Shahla answered it. Tony could tell from what she said that the caller was a harmless repeat who called almost every day. She would be tied up with him for fifteen minutes. Tony wondered why she thought that this girl Martha might have killed Joy. Maybe Shahla didn’t like Martha. Was she so anxious to find a killer that she was guilty of wishful thinking? Tony had to admit that she was right