Emergency Dial

 

Jack had very particular habits. He was paranoid that someone was trying to kill him. As such he tried to take precautions that would keep him safe. He travelled around the United States for a while, not spending too much time in any one place. He thought someone might be tracking his movements, which was a little difficult in the years before cell phones became ubiquitous. He only stayed at hotels that were quiet and out of the way, so mostly frequented by locals. Ones where he could pick the room number himself and order his own food from different restaurants every day, under an assumed name.

He recently felt like the killer was getting too close and had just flown into the UK to find a new place to stay.

This week it was a hotel in the Cardiff area. There had been some work done earlier in the day, a number of things in each of the suites had been replaced – TVs, radios, remotes, coffee machines, microwaves, phones, lamps and such. The hotel had been closed for a number of weeks and that was the final bit of refurbishing before reopening.

In Jack’s mind that seemed perfect.

The rooms in the hotel would be identical. There was no way for the killer to know which room he, the lone American, would be in. Or so he thought.

Unfortunately for Jack, the killer was real and he was a step ahead of him.

He had heard a disturbance in the hallway as the local police were coming to a room near his to check on something. The first time he ignored it. When it happened again, a half hour later, he popped his head out and was told to go back to his room.

He turned on the TV. The picture was black for a few seconds then played an ominous message. “I know you’re in room 245,” which was indeed his room “and I’m coming to get you.”

He was about to dial the police, but remembered they were already there.

He left his room and tracked them down. The local authorities checked a few more rooms and found the all the TVs loaded with the same dark message, but customized to say their own number. They took Jack’s information down and were surprised to find he was American.

“You must be the target of the killer” the detective said plainly. “The phones have been tampered with, and you would have been the only one who would have likely set them off.”

“You were about to dial 911 right? It’s 999 here in the UK.”