Calls From The Dead - The Black Phone

The Missing Sister

It's cheesy and totally cliche, but none of my friends make fun of me for it. I cut my hair to be just above my shoulders in the dim light of the hospital bathroom. The majority of it, I tie back in a messy half-pony, and some of it stays back thanks to my mother's black and white bandanna, but I have to say, I'm vibing with it.

Matilda brings me a black and white style baseball shirt along with a pair of jean shorts from my backpack and I get my black Converse back. This pair isn't graffitied on, but I don't mind. I tie the laces around my ankles and stand from the chair in the corner, running my fingers through my hair as I do.

Matilda smirks. "You look good." She comments. "Loving the hair."

Gwen and Finn smile at me as they come out of the bathroom, where they were analyzing the cracked mirror.

"It suits you," Gwen says.

"It does," Finn adds, "but can we get out of here? I hate hospitals."

I give him a half-smile. "I'm about sick of them myself," I say. I nod toward the door, and we leave. After checking out, we all pile into Matilda's car.

"So where are we headed?" She asks.

"The police station," I say, holding up the business card Detective Wright gave me. Mat looks at me as if I'm crazy, but she drives anyway.

Even though it's only early morning, the station is packed. Men and women in uniform walk in every direction, frantically talking and looking like they haven't slept in days. The woman at the front desk looks up as me and Finn approach. We agreed only the two of us would go, being the two oldest.

"Can I help you?" She asks in an irritated tone.

"We're here to see Detective Wright," I say. She groans, standing up and gesturing for us to follow her.

"That was easier than I thought," Finn mutters in my ear. I nod in agreement, as the officer leads us to a full desk in the back.

"Detective, your kids are here." She says, before walking away, mumbling, "I hate this job." Detective Wright looks up at us, slightly smiles, and looks around suspiciously.

"Come on." He stands, nodding for us to follow again. We do, and he leads us into an office further in the station.

On the desk in the center of the office are a box and a few folders. "That's all the evidence from your case." Detective Wright says, leaning against the edge of the desk as Finn opens the box. "If you tell anyone I showed you this, I could lose my job, so don't." He warns in a strict tone. I nod in understanding.

He shakes his head, handing Finn and me a pair of gloves each so we can start digging around without contaminating the evidence. The box contains a variety of things, deflated black balloons, the wire I pulled from the crack in the wall, and scariest to me, The Black Phone.

I pick it up in its plastic bag. It can't be. It's the same phone I saw yesterday and three years ago, only it's here now. The cord is still cut, and judging by the dirt and dust cased on it, it's not been moved in a very long time. Plus, the seal of the bag hasn't been damaged.

"It can't be..." I whisper.

Finn looks at me. "What?"

"I had it yesterday," I say, my throat going dry as I hold the bagged phone.

"No, you didn't, remember? We found you, and you were just passed out. The room was empty." Finn explains.

"Then how did I hear Parker Santiago's voice?" I ask. Finn just shrugs, continuing to sift through the box while I move on to the five folders on the desk.

"What are these?" I ask, turning to Detective Wright, who now stands with his back against the wall next to the door.

"Your files." He explains. "Yours, the Cooper sisters, and the Shaw brothers. Dates of birth and death, marital status, dependent information, Social Security numbers, immigration status, national origin, race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, and criminal history. All of it."

I nod, opening Albert's file first. It's the one I'm most interested in. I flip through it. Birth and death certificates, I already know; marital status, never married; don't care; don't care; don't care; don't care; white; male; atheist or whatever religion murder falls under; gross; criminal history, just what I'm interested in.

I scan the document containing my uncle's criminal history, but the worst thing on there besides kidnap and murder, is driving while intoxicated.

"This can't be right I say, flipping the paper over to see if there's a back. "No aggravated assault, no possession of drugs, no nothing."

"Not until we learned he was the Grabber." Detective Wright says as Finn takes the file from my hand. "Then he was already dead. Until then, his record was almost clean. No wife, no kids, just one mentally ill brother."

My shoulders sag as I look back at the table and grab my father's file. I scan through it but find nothing useful other than the fact that he was a substance abuser, but I already knew that. I'm not bothered to look through my own file because I already know nothing useful is in it. Finally, I reach the last two folders, they are labeled Ruth and Winnie Cooper.

"My mom had a sister?" I ask no one in particular. Finn looks at me and so does Detective Wright.

He nods. "Yep, the Cooper sisters. They were quite a pair. Their father was a personal friend of mine."

I nod, flipping through my mother's folder first. Apparently, she was born in North Dakota. She died in 1969 at the young age of twenty-two. She must have been really young when she had me, probably just turned 18. Married to my father for a few years.

Finn takes the folder from my hands when I start to cry. He pats my shoulder, and I try my best to dry my tears as I pick up the last folder.

Ruth Cooper was born in 1950, she's still alive, so she must be in her early thirties. She isn't married and she has no children. The further I look into the folder, the more I want to cry and the more I want to meet her.

I have so many questions. "Do you know where she lives?" I sniffle, tuning to Detective Wright.

He scratches his chin, looking up as he thinks.
"Somewhere in Colorado Springs, I believe." He says after a long moment. "I can get you an address."

Finn and I exchange a look. He stares at me, grins, and shrugs. "That's only an hour away. You should go." He says.

"What good would that do in helping us find Parker Santiago?" I ask. It hurts to say it, but I know my first priority should be finding Parker before he gets killed.

Again Finn shrugs. "Remember what Gwen said. This has all happened already. Now, in 1981. Back in '78, and what if it happened before that?" He says, piecing his theory together as he talks. "The Grabber said he killed your mother, and you know how we believe this is a cycle; four boys, then a girl?"

"Yeah?" I say. "Where are you going with this?"

"What if this did happen before?" He asks. "Back in the sixties, when your mom died but everyone thought she went missing. The Grabber did kill your mother, so what if she was the fifth victim?"

"But why her?" I ask. "And if so, who were the other boys? If this is a cycle, why are there so many time skips?"

"I don't know," Finn says, closing the files and the box of evidence. "But maybe Ruth does. Maybe she knows more of this."

"I don't know," I say, crossing my arms. "We should talk to Gwen and Mat." Finn nods, and we both turn to face Detective Wright.

He stares at us and we stare back at him. "You two should consider careers as detectives." He comments. "So, you want the address or not?"