The Phone Call from Hell (Part Three)

The thoughts running through my head at this point weren’t good.


Obviously, what had happened here was that someone - some criminal - had found out who he was. The other voices I could hear were from one of the criminal gangs he investigates. Possibly the Mafia. Yes, that's it. The Mafia jumped from behind and he was now being tortured.  Or worse. That meant I was now a witness in a federal crime.
I told the two women I was with that I could now hear other voices, but I still couldn’t work out what they were saying.  One of the voices then sounded like it briefly came very close to the phone, so I took the opportunity to start yelling.

“HELLO!! HELLO, IS ANYONE THERE?”

Nothing.

Lynley tried to keep Robyn talking in an effort to keep her calm but also to get more details out of her. She’d said that he was at home when she rang him, they’d been chatting for a while, and then there was a noise and he just started screaming.

“HELLO, CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME?”

Nothing.

Because I was yelling, some of the staff out on the production floor came to the office to find out what the commotion was all about. Steve (Ops) and Steve (Big boss) came back from lunch together around then too, and so we soon had quite the audience of eager onlookers.

The muffled voices got louder again after a few minutes, which to me sounded like there was someone close by the phone. So, I yelled again. This time, however, someone heard me and picked up the phone.

“Is someone there?” they asked. A rough voice, from a guy aged 50, maybe 55. A voice that had seen and done unspeakable horrors to Robyn’s boyfriend and countless others. The Mafia Boss. And here I was about to enter into a conversation with him.

“Yes yes, I’m here."

With that, Robyn shot to attention. She almost snatched the phone from my hands, but I didn’t let her. After sitting through listening to this guy scream for what was an hour by now, I wanted to be first to find out what happened. I deserved that much, damnit.

“Can you please tell us what’s going on? I have the guy’s girlfriend here next to me, they were chatting on the phone and something happened to him and she’s freaking out. What happened?”

I still remember his response like it was yesterday, even though it’s now 20 years later.

“I hope you’re sitting down,” he said.