Read Online Hotline to Murder by Alan Cook - Free Book Online

“Well,
we’ve had a problem with that guy. He calls from a cell phone. We
checked it out, and the number belongs to a woman who couldn’t be
the Chameleon. She says she lost her phone and doesn’t know who’s
using it. She may be stonewalling, but we haven’t been able to
convince her to tell us anything more.”
    “So the number he gave Shahla…”
    “Even if he gave her the number he is using
it may not do us any good.” Croyden looked at Tony and said, “What
were you doing the night Joy was killed?’’
    The change of subject was so abrupt that
Tony was taken aback. He stared at Detective Croyden.
    “Routine question,” Croyden said. “For the
record.”
    “I-I went to a movie. Alone. But I kept the
ticket stub.” That demanded an explanation. “I keep all my ticket
stubs.”
    “What time was that?”
    “About eight to 10:30.”
    “Don’t lose the stub,” Croyden said, making
a note. He didn’t even say anything about how Tony could have
purchased the ticket to provide himself with an alibi.

    CHAPTER 8
    When Tony arrived at the Hotline office for
his Friday evening shift, he found the door unlocked. He entered
the office, wondering about this breach of the rules, and saw that
there were two people in the listening room, both males.
Apparently, they weren’t worried about outsiders getting in.
    As he entered his hours in the book, one of
them came out of the listening room. He was a teenager, tall, blond
and a little bit gawky, wearing a Bonita Beach High School T-shirt.
At the same time, Tony heard a voice behind him say, “Hey, Kevin,
we need to talk to you for a minute.”
    Tony turned and saw Shahla coming out of the
snack room carrying a plate of chips. What was she doing here? He
had been convinced that she would never speak to him again. Maybe
she had worked the four-to-seven shift with these guys and was just
finishing up. And who were “we”?
    Shahla continued, “Kevin, this is Tony.”
    They said hi and shook hands.
    “Kevin is a senior at Bonita Beach,” Shahla
said to Tony. “Tony is new here.”
    At least she was speaking to him.
    “What we need to know,” Shahla said to
Kevin, “is what you were doing the night Joy was killed.”
    “Aren’t you going to read me my rights?”
Kevin asked with mock indignation.
    “Your rights just went down the toilet,”
Shahla said. “Answer the question.”
    Tony had hoped Shahla was off this kick. At
least she had waited until he showed up. But she was being awfully
blunt about it.
    “All right, officer,” Kevin said, “I know
when I’m defeated. I was at lacrosse practice.”
    “Sure you were,” Shahla said. “At night and
before school started? A likely story. What were you really
doing?”
    “It happens to be true,” Kevin said. “We had
preseason practice. And since we have to share the field with the
football team and the soccer team and some of our players had
summer jobs, we practiced at night. It’s a good thing we got lights
on the field last year. The coach and all the other players can
vouch for me.”
    “What time did practice end?”
    “It was almost ten. And then we took
showers. We’ve got the same practice schedule tomorrow night. I’ll
tell you what, why don’t you come into our shower room at ten
tomorrow evening. We’re a friendly group. Then you can see for
yourself.”
    “No thanks.”
    “Watch out for these guys,” Kevin said to
the man who was just coming out of the listening room. “They’ll try
to pin Joy’s murder on you.”
    “Maybe they’re trying to cover up for
themselves,” the man, who Tony recognized as Nathan, said, with a
half-smile.
    Nathan was wearing the same sweatshirt he
had worn at his last Hotline session on Monday.
    “What we want to know,” Shahla said, without
smiling, “is what you were doing and where you were the night of
Joy’s murder.”
    Nathan said, “You don’t want much, do you?
But by the way, I’ve already told this story to