Mystery in the Hampton House

My husband had an unexpected promotion to the Pentagon leaving me in Hampton with the children in school and the house to sell. The first few weeks went well as expected. Then a strange thing began to happen although it started so innocently.

One afternoon about 5 PM a phone call which was a wrong number. The woman had asked to speak to George. The following afternoon she called again and we went thought the same dialog. We checked the number and she was dialing our number. Still, why would I think anything of this? Just a mistake on her part, right?

I couldn't have been more wrong. Only a few days went by before the same woman would call AGAIN. This time, she took a different tone when I asked her why she was calling back. She became rude, irritated and demanding,"I KNOW he is there and you tell him to come to the phone and talk to me.

""Look, I don't know what more I can tell you but George doesn't live here. What's your problem?"

"You're lying, you tell him I know he is there....." she insisted.

"Sorry, I don't even know a George. He gave you the wrong number." and hung up.

The phone rang right back and she told me not to hang up on her and repeated "I know he is there WITH YOU....."

"I don't know why you can't understand there isn't a George living here, so please don't call again, " I told strongly informed her.

Now I was irritated and being alone with the children, it sort of unnerved me a little too, to have a confrontation of sorts with a stranger, but no calls came in for a full week. That was good, however, when the next call came, it set me reeling.

This next call she came on strongly. Her words were quick and to the point. She said she was calling to tell me she knew where I live and that if George didn't call her, she was coming over and would kill me when I answered the door.

A detective responded to my official complaint by coming to the house, which they do when a death threat has been made. I explained to him I was fairly sure she didn't know who I was or where I lived and/but I can't imagine why she would continue calling.

We discussed a phone tracer I agreed to immediately. On my part I had to agree to bring charges when the person was located AND I could tell NO ONE at all that the phone was tapped for a trace. Not even my husband.

They put the tracer on the phone immediately. I was to keep records of all calls to pin point a call from this wacky woman.

Interestingly, she stopped calling. Two full weeks went by. I kept my phone log. Nothing happened. How did she know, I thought? It was sort of embarrassing to me. I kept thinking...HOW DID SHE KNOW NOT to call? That truly puzzled and concerned me.

The house sold and now a move out date was imminent. I called and talked with the detective. It was decided the tracer would be removed the day before we left the house.

The last night we were to be in the Hampton House was a night to remember. My husband was there, of course. Everything was in order. The tracer was off the phone and the movers would be there at 8 AM...and the phone to be disconnected and we would leave the next day. We would be off to your next adventure. We had all gone to bed that night and all was quite.

It was almost midnight when the ringing phone broke the silent darkness of the our pretty little Hampton house. I reach for it in the dark.saying 'hello'....I was greeted by the unforgettable voice of the mystery woman caller.

This time, she was different. She had a soft sadness to her voice as she said softly, "Mrs (real name)",
I bolted upright ~ She had called me by my NAME My heart seem to skip...as now I knew she really KNEW who she was talking to all this time.
She continues, "I know George is there with you tonight," she was calm and sounded so, so sad. "Would you please tell him that if he won't talk to me, I am going to put my head in the oven and end it all."

I was sitting up hand over heart...my mind racing. SHE KNEW MY NAME...SHE DID KNOW WHERE I LIVED....I had truly been in the wake of a psycho. "Who are you?" was all I could think to say.

In the saddest tone that made me believe her ... she said, "Good Bye."

I sat there looked into the buzzing dial tone. My husband had no sympathy. He said, "Maybe she will carry out her threat and end the world of one whacko woman."

Sleep didn't come to me the last night I spent in the Hampton House.

June