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.