"911, what’s your emergency?" asks the police operator.

A woman speaks hesitatingly: "I’ve been robbed...he has a knife...he’s high on something..."

"Is he still there?" asks the operator.

"He just left," the woman, calling from a convenience store, answers in a whisper. She describes the robber as small, maybe 5’ 9" tall, 100 pounds with light brown hair, and pimples on his chin. She describes his clothing, even identifies him as "Ricky," then tells the operator where he lives.

Soon, two uniformed deputies and a detective are at the boy’s home. Ricky is curled up on a step outside the front door. He fits the description — including clothing and pimples — given by the woman on the 911 call.

There’s blood covering the bottoms of Ricky’s shoes. Officers find $60 stuffed in one pocket and in another pocket there’s a banana knife with damp blood all over the blade. The boy appears light headed. The cops think he’s high on something.

The detective bags the knife, the money, and the boy’s shoes. Then he’s loaded into the back of a patrol car and driven to the scene of the robbery. The store’s parking lot is bright with flashing blue and red lights. There are six police vehicles and two paramedics there.

The detective says to the Chief Deputy, "He’s in the back of the patrol car — I just want her to take a quick look to be sure he’s the right one."

"Can’t do that," says the Chief, "she’s dead."

The detective seems startled. He knows she was cut, but not how bad. "Chief," asks the detective, "was she the one that called in the description of the boy?"

"That’s exactly right," Chief says. "He grabbed the money, cut her throat with a banana knife, and took off. It looks like she knew she was a dead woman when she picked up the phone. She reported her own murder."