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"It's for you again," Steffie said, holding out the phone with her hand over the mouthpiece. "He said he'd only talk to you." "Can't you tell him I'm not here?" Elaine asked, uncomfortable to be the object of his attentions. Steffie shook her head. "He said he talked to you an hour ago and he knows the shift doesn't end until eleven." Elaine closed her eyes, sighed, and took the phone from Steffie. "Hotline, Elaine speaking." A three second measured pause. "How can I help you?" "Hello, Elaine," his low, rich voice drawled. "It's Richard." "Hello, Richard, it's you again," she said, trying to keep the disgust out of her voice. "How have you been since we talked earlier?" "Better, now that I'm talking to you, Elaine." A little shiver went up Elaine's spine. Richard was one of the creepiest guys that called the hotline, and Elaine was his latest crush. Every time she talked to him, she was a little more careful to make sure the doorway was clear when she left for the night. There was something about him that definitely gave her the creeps. "What is it you'd like to talk about, Richard?" This was what he wanted, so she might as well give it to him and get it over with. "I'd like to talk about you, Elaine." "You know I won't do that, Richard. If you want to talk about your problems or how you're feeling fine. Otherwise, I'll have to clear the line so that someone else can get through." He probably knew the scripts better than she did. "Oh, alright, Elaine. Let's talk about me then." His voice had become oily, unctuous. "I'm not feeling suicidal, so that saves you from having to ask 'the question.'" He definitely knew the drill. But this also gave her an out. If another phone rang, she could legitimately end her call with him to keep one line clear for emergencies. Elaine had originally volunteered here to help people. But some nights, all she talked to were weirdos and perverts, self-absorbed hypochondriacs and lonely souls just looking for a little human contact. It was wearing on her, and she was getting discouraged. "So what's on your mind, Richard?" She was losing patience with him, and it was telling in her voice. She began to repeat "non-judgmental" like a mantra, willing herself to just roll with it. "You mean, besides you?" he chuckled lowly, then continued. "I'll behave, Elaine. It was just a joke." "Um," Elaine grunted affirmatively. "Non-judgmental," she thought again. "It's about the daughter of my next door neighbor," Richard started, and Elaine had a really bad feeling about where it was going. "What about her, Richard?" she asked. If this conversation was going to go bad, she wanted to know about it sooner rather than later. Steffie looked at her, pantomiming a yawn. Elaine grinned back at her, glad for the comic relief. "She keeps taunting me," Richard said in a sarcastic tone. "Teasing me. She's sixteen now, you know, and she keeps undressing in front of her bedroom window. Only she waits until I go to bed so that she can do it in front of me." "What keeps you from pulling down the shades, Richard?" Elaine asked him. He really needed to get some new material. His Don Juan fantasies were getting a bit old. "Oh, but I like it, Elaine." He laughed that sick little chuckle again. "She reminds me of you." Elaine was quickly losing her sense of humor. "Maybe we should talk about why you're attracted to underaged girls, Richard." She tried to keep her voice reasonable, neutral. "Do you have difficulty attracting or relating to women your own age?" There! She said it without seeming judgmental or sarcastic. Still, it had stung him, as she'd intended it to. "I don't have any problems with women of any age, Elaine." Richard's suave facade was cracking, his voice along with it. He couldn't hide his anger, and it gratified Elaine to hear it. "I see," Elaine said, her neutrality back in place. "So about the girl next door. What to you intend to do about it?" "For now, nothing." His composure was back in place now. "But she reminds me of a girl I killed about ten years ago in Ohio." Elaine instantly snapped to attention. Richard had never seemed overtly violent before. Perverted and obsessed, yes. A stalker, maybe. But never violent. "What girl did you kill, Richard?" She worked to keep her voice calm, and signalled wildly to Steffie for a pen and a piece of paper. Steffie's face showed alarm as she scrambled to find the items Elaine asked for. Steffie was listening intently to Elaine's side of the conversation now. "You say you killed a girl in Ohio ten years ago. Why are you telling me this?" Elaine asked, stalling for time and not sure what she should do. "Why, Elaine, I'm surprised at you!" Richard's voice was back to its normal oily tones. "You know why I'm telling you. You can't do anything about it." "Bastard!" Elaine thought. Yes, Richard knew enough about the hotline's policies to know that they all vowed when they volunteered to uphold the hotline's policies -- no matter what a caller told them. They had to guarantee the callers anonyminity and confidentiality. Otherwise, they were afraid that truly desperate and suicidal people would be afraid to use the service. "How did it happen, Richard?" Elaine asked. Her voice sounded dull in her ears. She wanted to reach through the telephone and slap him, but had to make sure he didn't know that. "Oh, it started with behavior very much like what my young neighbor has started. She began flirting with me, teasing me, pretending that she knew what she was so obviously asking for. But when I couldn't hold back any longer, when I tried to give her what she wanted, she started to fight me. And to make a long story short, things escalated, and I strangled her." "How did you get away with it?" Elaine asked, more to keep the conversation going than because she really wanted to know the answer. Her mind raced as she wondered what she could do to find out whether or not Richard was telling the truth. Richard chuckled again. "You don't mean to tell me that you seriously believe everyone who commits a crime gets caught, do you? How naive, Elaine! No, in fact, the police never even questioned me. It took them six months to find the body, and by that time, there wasn't much left. Certainly nothing that could lead them to me." Elaine was startled when the other phone rang, and Steffie ran to answer it. "Hotline, Steffie speaking," Elaine heard in the background, her own pulse pounding in her ears. "How did you feel about killing her?" Elaine wondered if he'd give her anything else to go on. "I was angry, at first, then sad," Richard replied after a brief pause. "I hadn't planned to do it. But when it was over, it was kind of exhilerating in a way, too. And she was so beautiful. I could do anything I wanted to do with her. And I did." He chuckled. "Was that what you wanted to know, Elaine? Or were you hoping I'd give you something you could use to get me caught? You're so transparent, you know." "You said it yourself, Richard," Elaine said coldly. "I can't turn you in. I made a vow when I started, and I have too much integrity to go back on that, no matter how much I might want to." "Hoisted by your own petard, as it were." His voice was glib, and Elaine felt another intense wave of disgust for him. "No, you'll lose sleep about it for a few nights, maybe more. But eventually, you'll decide to let it go. And you'll be able to excuse yourself from the responsibility you feel by telling yourself you couldn't go back on your word. And really, Elaine, what good would it do you to tell? It wouldn't bring her back again, and her parents are both dead. The only thing you telling would accomplish would be to give you a weapon against me. Do you feel comfortable with a weapon, Elaine?" She thought about it for a minute, and realized he was right. Pursuing this discussion wouldn't help anything, least of all her. "Well, Richard, I need to free up this line." There. She'd surrendered. Another one of the hotline rules was that the caller should always be the one to hang up. Screw it. Screw him. "Goodbye, Richard," she said, and hung up the phone. Props to the CHPercolator List for the prompt |
