Intercepted phone call

The caller said, “Mr. Merriman, you don’t know me, but I’ve got some information you might be interested in.”

I didn’t like to get calls like that. You never do at a newspaper, because, even though the information truly might be interesting, you know the caller will not disclose his name, and you will have to verify whatever he says while working blind.

I didn’t say any of that, though. As I said, the information might really be interesting. “Go on,” I said.

“Is there a man named **** who works at the newspaper?” I said there was. He named the publisher’s son. He asked, “And is there a woman named ****?” Again, yes.

The caller said he had monitored one side of a mobile phone call a couple of nights before. He and his son were watching Monday Night Football, and he had his police scanner nearby. (The man) had called (The woman), but the caller got only the man’s side of the conversation. It was 1992, and mobile phones were big clunky things that plugged into a car cigarette lighter. A mobile phone was a transmitter and sometimes conversations bled into scanner frequencies.

“(The man) told (The woman) he and his daughter were looking at Christmas lights,” the caller said. “His wife was at home.”

The man also told the woman when they were at work “she should pretend like nothing had happened” between them.

“Then he started talking about you,” the caller said. “He said they’re going to fire you after the first of the year.”

I said, “I sort of had that figured out, but it’s nice to have it verified.”

He said, “You’re a Vietnam veteran, aren’t you?”

“I am.”

“(The man) said you’ve got a steel plate in your head?”

“Something like that.” It’s a stainless steel, spring-loaded aneurysm clip, but if people want to believe a steel plate, that’s fine with me. It lends seriousness to those times when I take on dufuses.

The caller said, “I asked around, and people said you are one of the good guys.”

“I appreciate that.”

“I thought you might be able to use information that (The man) is having an affair with (The woman).”

“Thank you.”

I didn’t ask for his name. And, I was fired five weeks later. I didn’t say anything about the call. It wouldn’t have mattered.

It was nice to know, though, that there are people who know when a wrong is being done.