The call came on Friday morning, before she had finished her first coffee.
She did not recognize the number. She let it ring through to the message service, which was her default with unknown numbers, a habit built across years of work that had taught her that the calls worth taking were the ones where the caller was willing to leave a record of themselves. She set her phone face-up on the counter and waited.
The notification came forty seconds later.
She played it standing at the counter.
