“If Wayne catches you pulling central office switch logs while you’re on administrative suspension, he’ll see to it you never sit at a console in Illinois again,” Ruth said.

“The suspension covers my shifts in the building, not what’s in my head,” Claire said.

She picked up her yellow ballpoint and pointed to a column of seven-digit timestamps printed on thermal paper.

“Check line fourteen,” Claire said.

“The emergency call connected at nine fourteen and twenty-two seconds.”

Ruth slid her reading glasses down off her forehead and bent over the page.

“The phone company’s record shows an automatic line break three seconds after that.”