T he phone rang at three-thirty the next morning. I didn’t want the phone to be ringing at three-thirty. But there it was.
I reached for the receiver and knocked the whole thing onto the floor. Then I got up to turn on the light and hit my toe on the steel footing of the nightstand. I cursed appropriately and picked up the receiver. The voice at the other end was breathy, but one I didn’t recognize.
“Mr. Kelly?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Is this Mr. Kelly?”
I answered who else would it be, and wondered about the face attached to the voice.
“Mr. Kelly, this is Lisa Bange calling from Channel 6 Action News.”
Three questions buzzed through the early morning fog I call my brain: What kind of woman has a last name of Bange? Why was Channel 6 Action News calling me at three-thirty in the morning? And what kind of woman has a last name of Bange?
“Hi, Lisa Bange,” I said. “What can I do for you?”
“We are calling to get a comment-”
Lisa stopped and I heard some voices argue at the other end of the line.
“Mr. Kelly?”
“Still here,” I said.
A bated Bange breath.
“Sorry,” she said.
“So, Lisa. Here we are. Just you, me, and three-thirty in the morning.”
“Yes, Mr. Kelly. I’m calling to see if you have any comment on the shooting death of a Mr. John Gibbons.”
I keep a copy of the Iliad in the original Greek on the dresser next to my bed. Beside it is Richard Lattimore’s translation. The only translation worth owning as far as I can see. Behind these volumes sits a nine-millimeter Beretta in a holster. Lattimore might not appreciate the subtlety; Odysseus certainly would. I checked the clip on the Beretta, then the safety. Lisa kept talking.
“He was shot twice. In the stomach, I think. Down by Navy Pier. But not in the water. Mr. Kelly?”
“Yes, Lisa.”
“Well, your business card was found on his person. And so we just thought…”
“Where you located, Lisa?”
She seemed surprised. Like everyone in the city of Chicago knew where Channel 6 Action News was.
“Three hundred North McClurg Court.”
“Do you have footage of the crime scene?” I said.
“B-roll? Sure.”
“I’ll give you a statement, and you let me look at what you have. Deal?”
Lisa was in over her head. But I knew the voices were there. After a moment she came back on the line.
“Deal.”
“See you, Lisa.”
I hung up the phone and got dressed.