Short-story writer David Sumner is woken at dead of night by the phone ringing, and hears his daughter's voice saying, slowly, deliberately, almost gravely, 'This is important. I did not call the police. It was your family that called the police.' Then she hung up.
At length he finds that it is not his daughter after all, but his mind is still in shock, and full of questions: Who made the call? Who was the call meant for? Who called the police,...