I dial Beth on my way in to work. Just as soon as I’m out of the driveway, in fact.
I’m relieved when she answers on the second ring. “Howdy, friend.”
“I’m afraid we need to take action,” I caution. There’s no time for pleasantries. “It’s worse than I thought.”
“What happened?”
I step on the brake. “I don’t have time to go into it right now.”
She sighs, and I hear the exasperation in her voice before she even speaks. “Tom.”
“I’m late for work,” I huff. “Just trust me when I say, this has to escalate.”
A male voice says something in the background. She covers the speaker so that his voice becomes muffled. I realize it was probably a bad idea to call, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
I clear my throat. “Are you there?”
“Sorry,” she tells me. I flinch at the sound of
