Excerpt: The Hotline

There was undeniably something about the Golden Gate Bridge. It was often cited the number one location for suicides in the world, and Mike supposed that as the mystique persisted, it only continued to grow. Certainly when a jumper was reported in the news, there was a spike in hotline traffic, or at least a spike in anxiety among a lot of callers. The bridge hotline got a few more calls than usual as well. Mike first learned about this phenomenon when, on his second or third shift out of training, his partner had walked in and plopped the Chronicle down on Mike’s desk, pointing to a story about a jumper the previous day.

“Watch out,” the guy had said. “Here they come.”

Some of them just wanted to discuss it, as suicidal topics seemed to be their hobby. Some were truly upset by it. On very rare occasions someone even got unhinged over it, usually one of their persistents, who were a very sensitive lot as a rule.

But this was nothing compared to what happened that October.