I clicked on the message and opened the video.
I put the cursor over the “play” icon and clicked.
“Hey. Can you talk? Yeah, I’m alone… okay, so I hope your wrists are okay… yeah, wear long sleeves until the marks go away… you were wondering about next time… can do Wednesday, maybe, if that works for you? But I have to tell you, I’ve got to get more for… expenses and-hang on, I’ve got another call, okay, later-Hello?”
I clicked the “stop” icon. I was pretty sure I knew now what this was all about. Ann was talking to George about the handcuffs. I dragged the “play” indicator back to the beginning and started the video again, but this time I let it go past “Hello?”
Ann Slocum said, “Why are you calling this… my cell’s off… not a good time… kid’s got someone sleeping… Yeah, he is… but look, you know the arrangement. You pay and… something in return… mark us… down for a new deal if you’ve got something else to offer.”
And then, abruptly, the image blurred and went dark. It was at this point that Kelly evidently had put away her phone.
I went back to the beginning to play it again, thinking, I should send this on to Detective Wedmore, for what it’s worth, and that didn’t seem to be much. Maybe, if Kelly had recorded the entire call, where Ann talked about putting a bullet in someone’s brain, it might have provided some useful information.
But I was still intrigued by what little there was, particularly when Ann took the other call. Was this the person who’d asked Ann for a meeting? Was this why she had gone out that night?
I listened.
“Why are you calling this… my cell’s off… not a good time.”
Ann was saying things in the gaps that weren’t audible. I turned up the volume on the computer, then blew up the image full-screen, thinking maybe I could read Ann’s lips.
“Why are you calling this… my cell’s off-”
Stopped, went back. I was pretty sure, in that first gap, Ann said “phone” and another word or two.
Played it again. Listened, watched Ann’s mouth. It was there. “Phone.” And I thought I could make out the other words. She was saying, “Why are you calling this phone, oh yeah my cell’s off.”
I grabbed a pen and a sheet of paper and wrote down what I believed the conversation to be.
Listening over and over again to small snippets, I started filling in the gaps.
“Why are you calling this phone? Oh yeah, my cell’s off. This is not a good time. My kid’s got someone sleeping…”
I couldn’t get the next word, but assumed it was “over.” Went back, started again.
“Why are you calling this phone? Oh yeah, my cell’s off. This is not a good time. My kid’s got someone sleeping over.” And then there was a six- or seven-second gap here where Ann said nothing, was listening to her caller. Then, “Yeah, he is, in the kitchen. No, but look, you know the arrangement. You pay and get something in return.”
It must have taken me the better part of twenty minutes to piece that much together. I continued on.
“… mark us… down for a new deal if you have something else to offer.”
There was something very short in that gap.
I played it again, watched Ann’s mouth. Lips open, then closing. Looked like an “m” sound.
Played it again.
And again.
I was pretty sure I had it. Ann had said, “I’m.”
Which means she’d said, “… mark us I’m down for a new deal if you have something else to offer.”
That didn’t make any sense at all. I read it aloud to myself.
“Mark us I’m down for a new deal if you have-”
Holy shit.
Not “mark us.”
Marcus.
Ann had said, “Marcus, I’m down for a new deal if you have something else to offer.”
I had to get Kelly.
FIFTY-SIX
“Are you sure you’re okay if I go out?” Fiona asked her granddaughter. She’d been sitting on the couch in front of the coffee table, doing her best to comfort the child, sipping some white wine.
“Yup,” Kelly said.
“Because I know you’ve had some very upsetting news. That’s a terrible thing about Emily’s father.”
“I’m okay.”
“It’s just that we’re really low on everything, and since your father says he’s not coming to get you until this evening, we need something for dinner because we are absolutely not ordering in pizza or anything like that.”
Then, with something of a flourish, she set her wineglass on the table and got up.
“We’ll have a great time,” Marcus said, and rubbed his hand on top of the girl’s head. “Won’t we, sweetheart?”
Kelly glanced up at him and smiled. “Sure. What do you want to do?”
“We could watch a movie or something,” he said.
“I don’t really feel like a movie.”
“I’m sure you two will think of something,” Fiona said.
“Why don’t we go for a walk?” Marcus said.
“I guess,” Kelly said without enthusiasm.
Fiona grabbed her purse and dug out her car keys. “I shouldn’t be too long,” she said. “An hour or so.”
“Sure,” Marcus said.
The moment she was out the door, Kelly noticed Fiona had forgotten her cell phone. It was sitting on the table in the hall, hooked up to the charger.
“Don’t worry about it,” Marcus said. “She’s not going to be gone that long.” He invited Kelly to come sit with him on the back deck. It looked out on the well-manicured backyard, and beyond that, Long Island Sound.
“So, going home today,” he said.
“I guess,” Kelly said, sitting on one of the wicker chairs and swinging her legs back and forth.
“I think this is the first time just the two of us have had a chance to talk since you got here.”
“I guess.”
“Your grandmother told me the news. Sounds like things have settled down at home. Everything your father was worried about is taken care of. That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
Kelly nodded. She wished her father could pick her up right now. She’d rather have dinner with her dad. Being with Grandma and Marcus once in a while was okay, but living with them was pretty boring. Fiona was always reading books or fancy magazines about homes where famous people lived, and Marcus watched television. That would have been okay if he watched anything interesting, but he always had it on the news. Kelly knew for sure she wouldn’t want to live and go to school here and be away from her dad all week. Grandma and Marcus were, well, they were old. Her dad was old, too, but not this old. Fiona would do things with her some of the time, but then she’d tell her to go find something to do, something quiet. And she really hated the way Marcus smiled all the time. It was one of those old people smiles where they really don’t mean it.
Kind of like the way he was smiling now.
“This has been a crazy time for you,” Marcus said. “Starting with that sleepover at your friend’s house.”
“Yeah,” Kelly said.
“Fiona-Grandma-when she was asking you all those questions about what happened, when you were hiding in the mother’s closet, I could tell that made you pretty uncomfortable.”
Kelly nodded. “It did kinda.”
“Of course it would.”
“I really wasn’t supposed to talk about it. I mean, Emily’s mom said that, and Dad didn’t want me talking
