Burke Devore’s call to Garrett Roger Blackstone’s home turns a planned killing into a temporary reprieve. Burke has been watching the house while considering Blackstone a rival for a job at Arcadia; when Blackstone’s wife tells him her husband is happily employed elsewhere, Burke’s anger gives way to relief. The reversal does not resolve Burke’s larger crisis: as he drives home, the weight returns, and his final words, “Two to go,” leave the threat beyond this encounter hanging over the scene.

Background and Reason for the Call

About three miles before the turnoff to Scantic River Road, still in Connecticut, Burke stops at a gas station with an outside pay phone. He is pleased to find that it has the same telephone exchange as Blackstone’s home, because local calls are less conspicuous. The setting serves his immediate purpose: he can ask after the man he has been watching without approaching the house or identifying himself in person.

The call follows a revelation Burke had the previous night. He has spent two days watching Blackstone’s home without seeing him, and begins to question whether the absence means that Blackstone and his wife have separated, or whether Blackstone has taken an interim job that keeps him away during the day. These possibilities matter because they undermine the assumptions behind Burke’s surveillance: he needs to know where Blackstone is, and whether his absence signals that the hoped-for employment rivalry has changed. Burke’s thoughts connect the possibility of marital breakdown among people affected by downsizing to his own troubled marriage with Marjorie Devore, but his practical concern quickly takes over. He decides to call.

The Call and the News

At nine-forty, before Blackstone’s wife has left for her walk, Burke dials the number listed on Blackstone’s résumé. She answers on the second ring with “Blackstone residence.” Her efficient, impersonal manner makes Burke imagine a household run like an office, rather than a warm welcome. He asks for Garrett Roger Blackstone and presents himself as an old friend from their paper-mill days, then asks whether he can reach him.

Blackstone’s wife explains that her husband is at work. Her hesitation makes Burke press for the workplace, but she cautions that he has only just started there and may not want outside calls. When Burke asks whether it is a job he likes, her reserve abruptly disappears. She calls it a wonderful job and says it is just the job he wanted. Her enthusiasm is the decisive information: Blackstone is employed, and the work has made him happy. Burke’s question has produced more than confirmation that Blackstone is away from home; it reveals that his absence has an ordinary explanation and that he has found a position he values.

The Misreading and Reversal

For a moment, Burke interprets the news as catastrophe. He thinks of Arcadia and assumes Blackstone has obtained the job Burke wanted. His imagined response escalates instantly into a plan to kill him that day, perhaps within the hour. The thought is accompanied by a physical grip on the phone so tight that his hand cramps. That bodily detail makes plain how abruptly the employment question has become, for Burke, a question of life and death.

Burke does not act on the assumption. Instead, he asks whether the job is at another paper mill. Blackstone’s wife names Willis and Kendall, then recognizes the tin-can-label business. The clarification breaks the link Burke had made between Blackstone’s new position and Arcadia. Burke’s relief is immense: he feels as if five hundred pounds have fallen away from him. He tells her to give her husband his strongest congratulations and insists that he is delighted. Unlike his earlier cover story, this response is sincere. Blackstone has not taken the position that Burke feared losing to him, so the immediate reason for killing him disappears.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

Burke hangs up before Blackstone’s wife can establish who is calling. He returns to Burke’s Voyager buoyant, saying that he could not be happier if he had a job himself—though he qualifies the thought as only almost true. His relief is directed not simply at Blackstone’s success, but at the fact that the other man is working, has a position, and is where he wants to be. Burke concludes explicitly that he does not have to kill him.

The reversal is narrow rather than redemptive. Burke makes a U-turn and grins as he drives away, but the relief ebbs over the miles toward home; the weight settles back on him. His closing “Two to go” contrasts with the apparent reprieve and signals that other intended killings remain in his reckoning, without identifying them here. The scene therefore changes the status of one target without ending Burke’s campaign. Its suspense comes from the gap between a mundane employment update and the murderous decision Burke has attached to it: a job at the wrong company would have meant death, while the correct explanation briefly allows both men to continue on separate paths.