Behold the Child by Harry Shannon

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    Then he distinctly heard the giggles of children and the harsh breathing of someone near the phone. I was right; it is a bunch of kids. But where the hell are they from?
    "Listen, children. You'd better knock this off before I decide to trace the calls and tell your parents."
    Giggling . One of them must be doing the 'dirty old man' breathing. He faced the wall, but glanced out the window out of the corner of his eye, thinking: They knew when he'd walked away from the desk. Were they right outside at the pay phone?
    Kenzie whirled around. He could see the pay phone because it sat directly beneath the street light. The telephone was off the hook with the instrument swaying gently in the evening breeze. Kenzie grabbed his jacket and club and raced outside. He jogged across the street, his boots loud on the icy pavement. When he got to the pay phone and looked down each of the connecting streets, he was disappointed. He saw nothing out of the ordinary. He started to replace the phone in its cradle; and then, purely on impulse, he listened instead. The odd, rattling sound came again.
    And then a grown man's scratchy voice.
    "Bora Bora," he said, or words to that effect. The connection was terrible. Kenzie clenched the receiver tight. "What? What did you say?" He thought he might know the voice and wanted to hear it again.
    But the man had already disconnected.

15.

    "Talbot, is that you?"
    A low, throaty chuckle. "All the way from Hollyweird. I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you, man. I've been meaning to check up on your sorry ass for months, but you called me first. How's life in the wild west?"
    Jesus, Kenzie thought sadly, he's drunk at eight o'clock in the morning . Talbot likely hadn't even been to bed. Maybe he was back to working vice crimes. And that meant he'd probably gotten Kramer pissed or was about to be up on charges.
    "Like you guys got nothing else to do, right? Thanks for calling me back."
    "No problemo, cowboy. What do you need?"
    "Before I get to that, why are you at Hollywood station? What happened, Jack, did they kick you downstairs?"
    "Ah, Sam, you know how it goes. You're solid for a while then you're just some asshole off the street."
    "Ain't that the truth."
    "So what is it you wanted, Sam?"
    "Hang on a second."
    Laura had slept in. Kenzie was already dressed and wearing his official jacket. He switched to the portable phone, grabbed his coffee mug and strolled out onto the wooden porch. It had snowed heavily during the night and there was a rolling, glittering blanket of white on the frozen ground. The coffee steam puffed sideways after a moaning gust of wind. Kenzie shivered, although he wasn't sure if it was the weather or the bleak despair in his old friend's tone.
    "Look, you remember those child killings that went down before I left?"
    "Sure. The local papers still recycle that one every chance they get."
    "Wasn't there something in that case file about some weird telephone calls to the neighbors? This was probably back when it all got started."
    "Maybe. I'd have to look it up get back to you." Talbot sounded flat somehow, hollowed out.
    "Would you do that? It might be important."
    "Sure." Kenzie could hear him writing it down.
    "Thanks. Now, what's wrong, Jack? What happened?"
    "Sam, I really was meaning to call you anyway because I want to ask you something," Talbot said, ignoring the question. "Is it true they got no state tax in Nevada?"
    Kenzie leaned on the railing. The wood was cold against his buttocks. He sipped some coffee before answering. "Yeah, that's true."
    "That's a good thing, Sam. I like that. I'm thinking maybe I'll leave the job early and buy myself a bar. Could be I'll check out Nevada, you like it so much."
    "Leave the job, Talbot? Why?"
    Talbot cut him off. "Did you know you're still kind of famous in the department, Kenzie? Sam Kenzie the cowboy cop. Did a fucking amazing job, they say. Set an example for everybody and Parker Center shafted him."
    "That's