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

Detective
Croyden.”
    “Humor us and tell it again,” Shahla said
munching on a chip.
    “No problem. I was at church.”
    “What church is that?” Tony asked, feeling
that he should be helping Shahla.
    “The Church of the Risen Lord.”
    “I’ve never heard of it.” And the fact that
Nathan didn’t look either of them in the eye made the story sound
suspect.
    “It’s northeast of the airport, about ten
miles from here.”
    “Is that where you live?” Shahla asked.
    “Near there. They have Thursday evening
services that sometimes go until pretty late. Eleven or so.”
    “And you have someone who can vouch for
you?”
    “Of course. I have a lot of friends
there.”
    “All right, you two can go,” Shahla said
still without smiling.
    “Thank you, Your Honor,” Kevin said, with a
little bow. “Come on, Nathan, let’s get out of here before they ask
us more questions.”
    “Shahla is tenacious, isn’t she?” Nathan
said. “I like that in a girl.”
    They went out the door together.
    Tony looked at Shahla and said, “What about
you?”
    “What about me?”
    “Didn’t you work the four-to-seven? Aren’t
you leaving?”
    “If you’d look at the time sheet, you’d know
that I’m working the seven-to-ten.”
    Tony hadn’t signed in on the time sheet yet.
He did so now and, sure enough, Shahla was signed in for the
seven-to-ten shift. She went into the listening room. He followed
her, noticing that she had her dark hair in a ponytail, fastened
with an elastic band he had recently learned was called a scrunchy,
for reasons unknown. He liked ponytails. He said, “I wasn’t sure
you were speaking to me.”
    Shahla sat down at the table by the window,
the one Tony liked, and said, “I shouldn’t be, but I need your
help.”
    Tony vowed to claim his seat first in the
future. He sat down at one of the other tables. “Did Detective
Croyden talk to you?”
    “Yes. He came to my house.”
    “How did you like him?”
    “He’s not as bad as I thought he would be.
He asked some good questions and he seemed to know what he was
doing.”
    “But you’re still conducting your own
investigation.”
    “That’s why I need your help.”
    Tony was checking the bulletin board to see
if there were any new notices. He spotted one from Gail. He read it
aloud to Shahla: “When you take a call from the Chameleon, be sure
to record everything he says. We particularly want information
about where he lives and where he works. Don’t hang up on him
unless his talk gets 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