That Friday morning, as the cops filed into our office to talk with my boss, I began to feel a little betrayed by my job.
I’m not good with people. Well, at least not face-to-face. Now, I can handle them over the phone because, hey, if the interaction goes wrong, I can always hang up, right? But when it comes to dealing with people personally… let’s just say it’s not my forte. Which is why I worked at the dispatch office in the first place. I mostly sat by myself all day and answered the phone, what could be better than that?
Until some prick had to go and ruin it.
As my boss came out to talk to the officers, I noticed that one of the cops – a young one, with a handlebar moustache and an aura of frigid indifference – surveyed all of us hapless dispatchers, chained to our desks by the promise of a paycheck. I followed his gaze around my coworkers, feeling a little like a snoop as my eyes fell on each person in turn.
Seated towards my left was Shannon. She was a few years younger than me, a pretty punk rocker sort of girl with short hair and heavy eyeliner. She always answered phones with an energetic kind of voice that bubbled up from some secret reserve inside her. I was a little jealous of her enthusiasm – I’d never had that in my life, if I’m being honest.
Next to her was Samantha. Samantha was basically Shannon’s opposite, with long blonde hair and bright blue eyes. She was good at her job, but she didn’t handle problem customers very well – every time someone screamed at her over the phone, she’d devolve into tears and one of us would have to comfort her. That job usually fell to me, which is hilarious in and of itself because I am terrible at empathizing with people.
어느 금요일 아침이었습니다.
경찰들이 사무실로 쳐들어와 저희 부장님이랑 얘기를 나누고 있었습니다.
약간 직업에 회의감이 들기 시작했어요.
저는 사람들이랑 있으면 좀 어색하고 그렇거든요.
근데 얼굴을 보지 않으면 괜찮은 편이예요.
전화로 사람을 대하는 일은 그래도 쉬워요.
만약 대화가 어색해지거나 하면 그냥 끊어버리면 그만이니까요.
근데 면대면으로 대할 때는 정말이지.. 어렵더라고요.
그래서 처음부터 전화 상담원일을 시작했어요.
하루종일 거의 혼자 앉아서 전화만 받으면 되니까 이보다 더 좋을 순 없잖아요.
근데 또라이들을 대하기가 정말 너무 힘이 듭니다.
부장님이 경찰들이랑 얘기하러 밖으로 나갔는데 그 중 냉랭한 인상을 가진 젊은 경찰 한 명이 사무실에 남아서 상담원들을 하나하나 조사를 하더라고요.
우리야 월급만 바라보고 책상에 묶여있는 신세일 뿐인데.
그 경찰의 시선을 따라 저도 덩달아 직원 한 명 한 명에게 눈이 가더라고요.
제 왼쪽에 있는 직원은 샤넌이에요. 저보다 몇 살 어리고, 짧은 머리에 짙은 아이라이너를 그려서 약간 불량스러운 느낌이 있어요.
언제나 힘찬 목소리로 전화 응대를 하는데 열정이 있어보여서 좀 질투가 날 때가 있어요.
저한테는 그런 면이 솔직히 없거든요.
그 옆에는 사만다가 일하는데, 샤넌이랑은 완전 정반대예요.
파란 눈에 긴 금발머리를 가졌어요.
일을 못하는 편은 아닌데 진상 고객은 잘 다루지 못하더라고요.
수화기 너머로 고성이 들려오면 눈물을 뚝뚝 흘려서 매번 달래줘야 해요.
보통은 제가 위로를 해주는데 이게 참 웃기는게 저는 공감 능력이 좀 떨어지거든요.
Then we have Eric. If I had to pick anyone that I liked in the office, it was him. He didn’t interact with people. I mean, if social protocol absolutely dictated it, then he might grunt a hello to us in the morning. Otherwise, he sat at his desk, answered calls, and pretended we weren’t there. That suited me just fine. If I could, I’d get rid of all social interaction that wasn’t absolutely necessary.
Finally, seated to my right was George. He’s a big, hulking sort of guy, which would be intimidating if he wasn’t such a giant teddy bear. He likes to hug me when I come in to work. To be honest, I don’t mind it as much as I should. If he was anyone – and I mean ANYONE – else, well, he’d be on my death list. But something about the way he laughs and his eyes sparkle… if I liked people, then I’d like him.
Officer Intimidating Moustache took in each of my coworkers in turn, pausing only for a moment on me. I guess I’m not overly noticeable. I don’t mind it. He paused a little when he got to Eric, I noticed, and I found myself nodding almost imperceptibly. I mean, if I had to pick a murderer, that’s probably who I’d choose.
Oh, right. The murders.
그리고 에릭이 있어요.
사무실에서 제일 좋아하는 사람을 고르라면 단연 에릭이예요.
직원들이랑 소통을 하는 편은 아니예요.
만약에 아침인사를 법으로 정해놓으면 분명 퉁명스럽게라도 인사를 하긴 할테지만..
그냥 책상에 앉아서 전화를 받고 다른 직원은 없는 취급을 해요.
저는 뭐 딱히 상관하진 않아요.
가능하면 저도 저렇게 살고 싶거든요.
마지막으로 제 오른편에는 고든이 일해요.
덩치도 크고 약간 헐크같이 생겼어요.
상냥한 성격이 아니었으면 진짜 무서웠을 거예요.
제가 출근을 하면 저를 꼭 껴안아주기도 해요.
솔직히 싫지는 않아요.
만약에 저 덩치가 아니었으면.. 음.. 죽이고 싶었을지도..헿
근데 고든이 웃을 때라던지 눈이 반짝인다던지 하는 모습이 진짜 호감가는 편이예요.
제가 사람을 좋아하는 편이었으면 분명 고든을 좋아했을 거예요.
아까 그 젊은 경찰이 직원들을 한 명씩 돌아가면서 조사를 하고 이제 제 차례가 왔어요.
근데 제 앞에서 가만히 서있기만 하더라고요.
제가 딱히 눈에 띄는 편이 아닌가봐요.
저도 그 편이 좋고.
에릭한데 가더니 흠칫 하데요.
저도 모르게 고개가 끄덕여지더라고요.
범인을 고르라고 한다면 분명 저도 에릭을 골랐을 거 같거든요.
Two is a coincidence. Three is a trend. Four brings the cops. It was a strange case, and the cops looked a combination of awkward and bewildered as they stood there, questioning my stammering boss in the dim light of our office.
See, when you’re trying to catch a serial killer, you look for similarities, right? There’s usually something that connects the victims. Maybe they’re all young women. Maybe they all have blonde hair. Maybe they all work in the same neighborhood.
Well, all the victims over the past few months had our office number in their Recent Calls list.
I actually remember one of the victims, the fourth victim, the one that brought the cops to our door. He was a regular customer, I guess that’s why they finally decided to check us out. His name was Andrew and, fuck, he was a little prick. He was young, entitled, your basic millennial snot-nosed douche. He and his buddies had a bad habit of trashing whatever cabs we sent them, and he’d been warned several times about it. It seemed like I was always the one who got his calls, too. He liked to scream, that kid. He was always shouting at me. Unfortunately for him, all it really did was bore me. My boss liked to have the other dispatchers pass trouble calls to me because nothing riles me up. Perks of being… me, I guess.
두 번이면 우연이고, 세 번이면 유행이며, 네 번이면 경찰이 온다.
부장님에게 질문 공세를 하는 경찰들 표정이 심상치 않았어요.
연쇄 살인마를 잡을 때는 공통점을 찾잖아요, 그쵸?
피해자 간의 공통점이 분명 있으니까요.
아마도 이번엔 전부 젊은 여자였나봐요.
아니면 전부 다 금발이었을지도.
아니면 같은 동네에서 살고 있었나봐요.
근데 이번엔 모든 피해자 발신 목록에 저희 사무실 번호가 있더래요.
실제로 그 중 한 명은 저도 기억하고 있어요.
네번째 희생자인데, 사무실로 경찰까지 대동하고 온 적이 있어요.
저희 단골 고객인데 그래서 경찰들이 사무실을 조사하러 온 것 같아요.
그 사람 이름은 앤드류였고요.. 그리고.. 약간 또라이었어요.
After the cops had grilled my boss, they left, the moustached man eyeing Eric with suspicion. I don’t think he even noticed, he was too busy on a call looking exasperated. It wasn’t easy to tell when he was frustrated, but if you watched closely you’d see his eyebrow twitch and that’s when you’d know. His eyebrow was twitching furiously and I was glad I wasn’t on the other end of that call. Who knows, maybe that unlucky caller would be the next victim.
Once the cops were gone, our boss gave a little announcement. “The police will probably want to question you guys within the next few days,” he said, shifting awkwardly on his feet. “You’ll be compensated for your time, of course…” He stopped short then, as though he didn’t know what to say, and turned towards his office, but not before giving me an intense look. Ooh, so he thought I was the murderer? Interesting. I bet I’d be called first.
As soon as our boss was in his office and the door shut tight, Shannon and Samantha devolved into quiet gossip, ignoring their ringing phones in favor of hashing out who was the murderer in our midst. I sighed a little to myself, thinking that this was all just a little ridiculous. Of course, there was no murderer in our office. The police were grasping for straws. I mean, sure, maybe the calls to our company had something to do with it… but it seemed more likely to me that the culprit was a cabbie rather than a dispatcher. The cops would probably grill all the cabbies first. We’d have to wait our turn.
As I was musing over this, George picked up his phone next to me. I only noticed because immediately I heard the screaming over the phone and he sighed, pinching the skin between his eyebrows in irritation, holding the phone away from his ear so he wouldn’t go deaf. I could hear the man screeching expletives over the phone, so awful that I actually winced.
I gave George a sympathetic look and he snorted a little, amused that I was offering him pity. He was about to interrupt the screamer when, suddenly, the man’s voice seethed over the phone and George froze.
“I’m going to come on down to that office and beat the SHIT out of you, you hear me?”
Oh, George heard him. Everyone in the goddamn office heard him.
I saw something in George’s demeanor change as soon as those words were hanging in the air. See, it was the eyes. He had these bright, expressive blue eyes, but suddenly they were dead and flat. His face dropped, as though he had dropped some kind of a mask. I’d say he looked dead, but actually… Well. He looked like he’d never been alive in the first place.
He raised the phone back to his ear and spoke very, very quietly, so quietly that at first I wasn’t sure if he was even speaking.
“Sir, you’re at your residence at 942 Clippingham Drive, isn’t that right?”
“You’re goddamn right I am, and I ordered a cab fifteen fucking minutes ago…”
“Sir,” continued George, a deceptive calm flooding his voice, “I’d advise you to shut the fuck up you lazy piece of shit. And before you think of opening your shit-spewing mouth again, please remember…”
And then he paused and he looked at me, a strange sort of smile creeping over his face, pulling back to show the glimmering whites of his teeth just a little.
“…I know where you live.”
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