
Delia explores two crucial eyewitness sightings on Moravia Street during the timeframe Mr. Jones was attacked. Her investigation digs deeper into allegations against someone close to the victim and a series of suspicious phone calls made to a local cab company directing someone to 905 Moravia Street just before Mr. Jones was discovered.
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Narrator
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Chris Paul
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Chris Paul
My granddad, he before every game he told me to go out and play my game, play my game. So it's gonna be hard after the game walking back out, not seeing him there.
Narrator
Around mid morning on Saturday a Pathologist for Wake Forest School of Medicine had conducted an autopsy and determined that Mr. Jones official cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia. He had a few superficial cuts and bruises on his head and hands that were believed to be defensive wounds, but it was ultimately his pre existing heart disease, enlarged heart and diabetes, that accounted for his death. Put simply, he died from stress brought on by the attack. Though it appeared whoever jumped him had maybe not intended for him to die, he died nonetheless, which made it a murder all the same. Pressure was on the Winston Salem Police Department to catch whoever killed Mr. Jones. Retired detective Chuck Byram, who was working the case, remembers just how loud the proverbial clock was ticking.
Chris Paul
It was a big deal from the start. Once it was learned that it was Chris Paul's grandfather pretty much took off from there. And I believe the whole city or the city as a whole realized that being Chris Paul's father, I mean grandfather rather that I guess you could say much more of an effort would be put into trying to solve that case.
Narrator
After the police department issued a news release on the night of the crime, tips flooded into the Criminal Investigations Division, where Chuck was one of many folks few fielding calls.
Chris Paul
Information is coming in through the phone, through our police communications, through informants on the street, through people who are just concerned who lived in the area.
Narrator
One of those concerned citizens who came forward was a woman named Ava Williams. Ava had known Mr. Jones for almost 25 years because she'd grown up with his daughters. She considered him a father figure and even referred to him as dad on occasion. That's how close they were. Ava was always in and around Moravia street because her mother lived on Oriole street, which sits directly behind where Mr. Jones lived. She told police in a taped interview back in 2002 that she usually drove by Mr. Jones house every evening sometime around 6:15 or 6:30pm Due to age, the audio of her recorded interview with investigators is difficult to understand, so I'll summarize it as succinctly as I can. Ava said she normally saw Mr. Jones when he was arriving home from work or standing in his yard. She'd tap her horn or wave and he'd toss a hand up in return. Sometimes she'd pull her car over and even visit for a few minutes. On Friday, November 15, though that wasn't the case. Between 6:15pm and 6:30pm as she made her usual trip past 905 Moravia Street. Ava noticed something unusual. Mr. Jones Lincoln Town Car was pulled into its normal spot in the Carport but he wasn't inside of it. Instead, she saw the figure of what she believed was a younger black man sitting in the driver's seat facing away from her. It was dusk, so just starting to get dark out. And she saw this from the driver's side window of her van as she was passing the address on her left. She couldn't see the person's face, but she immediately knew whoever it was was not Mr. Jones. The biggest clue that confirmed that for her was the fact that the guy had short hair, which she described as either a small afro or maybe a durag sitting on his head. Mr. Jones was fairly bald and Ava had never known him to wear a durag, so that felt off to her. The mystery figure also had a much smaller build than Mr. Jones, 5 foot 9, 239 pound frame, so Ava assumed it was a young man she was looking at. The brake lights of the Lincoln were going on and off like the guy was pumping them, which indicated to her that whoever was inside maybe wasn't aware how to operate the vehicle. At the same time, she noticed the scene in the carport. She happened to glance diagonally across the street to Tasha Coleman's house and briefly saw someone going inside that home's front door. In the moment, though, the flash of movement that caught her attention at Tasha's was just something Ava noticed. It wasn't a red flag like the guy in Mr. Jones car was nothing about seeing the mystery man set well with Ava. It was jarring because it was out of the norm. In fact, she told police that she seriously considered stopping and getting out to investigate further. But she brushed off that instinct and kept driving. She convinced herself that the person in the car was probably just one of Mr. Jones grandsons. The icky feeling that had prompted her to take pause came and went. In a matter of seconds, she explained to detectives that she'd made plans that Friday evening to get her daughter, who was visiting from out of town, checked into a local hotel. She was also pressed for time to attend a high school football game that a lot of people in town were going to that night. At Parkland High School. I spoke with Ava earlier this year at her home and asked her if she'd be willing to do an interview with me, but she declined. She's spoken to a lot of different people over the years and her story has never changed, but she just didn't feel comfortable going on mic. The information she provided police back in 2002, though, is critical because it's widely believed that what she saw and when she saw it is connected to the attack on Mr. Jones. How closely connected, though, is something that's been debated for more than 20 years. When detectives took down her statement, it was considered a hot lead. But when you look at the case file like I have, you quickly realize it was just one of many hot leads coming into the police department at that time. There were teams of officers assigned to the case, and based on my review of their investigative reports, it doesn't appear many of them were communicating with one another about who they were talking to and what details they were gathering. So Ava's story, though important, was just part of a larger flood of information investigators were trying to process. Between Saturday, November 16, and Monday, November 18, investigators were all over the city chasing down different leads. For example, one officer went to the gas station. The painters, Claude and Gloria, said they placed several calls from trying to contact Mr. Jones. That officer got surveillance video from there to make sure their story could be corroborated, which it was. And then there was the physical evidence to digest. The department's crime scene tech had spent the early morning hours on Saturday collecting and labeling everything that he felt was vitally important. Between his work and the medical examiner's presence on scene, authorities had retrieved the tape used to bind and gag Mr. Jones. They'd also taken possession of blood samples from the carport, the broken wristwatch, the damaged screen door handle, the scattered pieces of mail, the tube of chapstick found on the carport's cement floor, and the bulbs from the carport's overhead light fixture that appeared to have been tampered with. In addition to all that stuff, the partial shoe prints on the Lincoln's hood were also photographed and covered with a cardboard box so that they would remain undisturbed while police towed the vehicle to their impound facility. WSPD's personnel wasn't trained on how to make lifts of those prints, so they had to wait for the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to send someone to help. Another important piece of evidence found at the crime scene was located on a small wooden staircase that led to a deck directly behind the carport. There's a photo of this part of the house in the blog post for this episode, so be sure to check that out if you need a visual. On that small staircase was a piece of black tape, which was similar to the tape used to bind Mr. Jones hands and mouth. It was stuck to one of the steps, and officers noted in their reports that it appeared to have been placed there recently because it wasn't weathered. After gathering that, WSPD spent Saturday afternoon canvassing Mr. Jones property and walking through his neighbors yards. In the backyard of Mr. Jones home they found a few more pieces of black tape and next door at 901 Moravia Street. They collected a clump of what looked like hair on the ground in Bellevue park, which was a recreation space that sat on the same side of the street as Mr. Jones home and down about 50 yards they collected a blue knit cap. They didn't know if any of these items were connected to the crime, but they seized them anyway, just as a precaution. Despite their best efforts, the police didn't find the one thing that was still missing, Mr. Jones wallet. The cops thought that since it was gone, someone might have tried to use his credit cards, but a quick check for transactions proved no one had used them. Investigators also inventoried everything in his briefcase, but again found nothing out of the ordinary. The large sum of cash inside was typical for him to carry home from his service station on a Friday afternoon. So the next place police turned to was a curious Crime Stoppers tip that had come in over the weekend. The caller claimed that a young boy who lived on Moravia street had seen someone running from Mr. Jones house on the evening of the crime.
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Narrator
Around 11pm on Saturday, November 16th. So just over 24 hours into the murder investigation, the lead detective in the case Learned that a 10 year old boy playing hide and seek with some friends in Bellevue park on the evening of Friday, November 15 had seen a dark clothed man wearing gloves sprinting from the back of Mr. Jones house and cut through his front yard. Now what's wild is that according to police reports, that tip wasn't followed up on until two days later on the evening of Monday, November 18th. Why? Well, if you read the case file, the police department took a day off on Sunday, November 17th. They generated no paperwork related to the case on that day. One detective referred to the status of the investigation at that point as, quote, temporarily suspended, will resume on Monday, end quote. And hey, I get it. Everyone needs a day off. But not when you're a homicide detective and you have a pending murder investigation that has real and substantial leads coming in. It's wild to me that this happened, but it did. I'm sure Winston Salem isn't the first police department to do something like this, nor will they be the last. When detectives did finally get on the ball, though, they learned the young witness's name was Arnaldi Lowry, who went by the nickname bj. BJ told police that while he was playing with his friends in Bellevue park around dusk on Friday evening, he saw a man jump over a fence behind Mr. Jones house at 905 Moravia street and then the guy ran right next to a big rock in Mr. Jones front yard. The guy then jumped another fence in the front yard of 901 Moravia St. And ran to a picnic table in the park. BJ said he noticed the man pause at the table for a few minutes before taking off out of the area. According to bj, the running man was tall, skinny, wore a black shirt, black pants and black shoes and had on gloves. When investigators asked him what ethnicity he thought the man was, he said the guy looked Hispanic and was probably in his 20s or 30s. When detectives pressed BJ to give them a more specific timeframe of when he saw the man, he told them it was probably shortly after 6:00 because the lights at the recreation center building were off when he spotted the guy. BJ said the manager of the rec center always turned the park lights off at 6pm every day. Police documented their conversation with BJ and filed it away with the rest of the leads they were chasing, but they didn't exclusively focus on it. Instead, they turned their attention to re interviewing Mr. Jones family members. Detectives spoke with his daughters for a second time and they also had a sit down interview with Terrence, his nephew. It was hard for anyone in the family to think of someone who would want to hurt Mr. Jones. The only name that came to mind was Reginald Jones, one of Mr. Jones younger brothers who was 52 years old at the time. In their documented statements to police, family members said that Reginald had worked at the service station on and off for a few years. Not long before the murder, he'd left on bad terms, but Mr. Jones ended up rehiring him despite the fact that the family and Mr. Jones himself suspected Reginald was involved in a prior break in and larceny at the shop. On November 15, though, a man who regularly hung out at the service station saw Reginald working all the way up until Mr. Jones closed the shop and left with Terrence at 5:30. What's super strange to me though is that there's no record police ever interviewed Reginald in 2002 to corroborate this information. The police never investigated when exactly he clocked out for the day or where he was at 6:15 or 6:30 Friday evening. They briefly interviewed Reginald's son, Reggie Jr. But there's no transcript of investigators actually sitting down with Reginald himself. Weird, right? Made even weirder when I did a deeper dive on Reginald and discovered that he'd been arrested in Forsyth county in 1996 and 1997 for crimes related to assault with a firearm, being a terror to people, breaking and entering, and attempting to possess cocaine. I requested police reports to figure out if authorities had ever investigated a break in or larceny at the service station. You know, the incident Mr. Jones family told detectives they believed Reginald was involved in. And I found quite a few reports. Twice in 1999, once in 2000 and once in 2001, Mr. Jones had called the police to report that someone had either broken into his store or stolen from his customers vehicles. There were also numerous reports customers themselves had filed about their cars getting broken into or vandalized. When I asked the city attorney who handles requests for police records for copies of each incident to figure out which one Reginald was said to be involved in.
Lori Sykes
Hi, this is Lori Sykes with the Winston Salem Police Department in North Carolina.
Narrator
Yeah, hey Lori, thanks for calling. I ran into a problem.
Lori Sykes
They will list the type of call, the date and the nature of it. Those items of information that are public that we could give you would be like the time, date, nature of the alleged violation of law, whether anybody was arrested, the circumstances surrounding the arrest, any property that was taken, you know, on the. That was seized on arrest and those type of items. Our Open Records act here in North Carolina prohibits us from releasing a full report, including the officer's narrative without a court order.
Narrator
So it looked like I wasn't going to get my hands on the details. I needed to figure out which incident at Mr. Jones shop allegedly involved Reginald. Because none of the information on the documents I was allowed to see lists Reginald as an arrestee. One assumption is that Mr. Jones may have just never filed formal charges against his brother. Which kind of makes sense because when it comes to things like this with family, drama usually fizzles out, especially when you take into account that Mr. Jones ended up rehiring Reginald to work in his shop. Maybe they just buried the hatchet. I don't know for sure. Another assumption could be that the family's suspicions about Reginald being involved in a prior crime at the service station just weren't accurate to begin with. Reginald and I spoke on the phone this past year. He was friendly, but declined to comment on his brother's murder or why his family members told police to investigate him. I also reached out to Mr. Jones other brothers, some of whom worked at the Service Station in 2002 with Reginald and who are still living. But I didn't get calls back. Going down this investigative avenue wasn't a total bust, though I did establish a very important line of communication with the city attorney.
Lori Sykes
And I just have to say, too, I'm a huge fan. Y'all do amazing, amazing work. I've been listening for years.
Narrator
Well, thanks. I appreciate it. So, yeah, anytime I can work well with folks, it makes my job a little bit easier and everybody's job a little bit easier.
Lori Sykes
So, yes, absolutely.
Narrator
All right, well, I'll get this out.
Lori Sykes
See you now. Okay, thank you.
Narrator
Bye. Bye. Bye.
Healthcare Provider
Bye.
Narrator
By the morning of Tuesday, November 19, four days after the crime, Mr. Jones funeral was planned and scheduled to take place later that same day. A friend had posted a $1,000 reward for information, and the newspapers had printed multiple stories about the jarring crime. More than ever, the Winston Salem Police Department was feeling the pressure to make headway. Even though they'd gathered a lot of useful information up until that point, I definitely got the sense from reading their paperwork that the volume of information coming into the department was kind of like drinking from a fire hose. Each officer working the case was carrying their own respective bucket of water from that hose. And things just naturally got siloed, including a very important tidbit of information from a local cab company that, just like the info from Ava Williams and BJ Lowry, should have been a huge lead for investigators to follow.
Chris Paul
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Narrator
In 2002, before ride sharing apps were a thing, cab companies were king. And if Winston Salem was anyone's kingdom, it was Willard Cab Company. The business had a large fleet of taxis that were branded with the phone number 725-2227, which when punched into a telephone's keypad, spelled a genius marketing slogan.
Cab Driver
If you saw us out of the cab, it would say 725 cabs.
Narrator
That's Miranda Ramirez. She worked for Willard Cab Company on the evening of Friday, November 15, 2002, taking calls from customers who needed rides.
Cab Driver
My main thing was to answer the phone and take the calls and check the drivers in and out. Friday, Saturday night were basically the busiest.
Narrator
Nights of the week because of the business's high call volume. Miranda was one of three dispatchers slash cashiers on duty that night. Her colleagues were two men named Darrell Wilkins and Kenneth Gary. Darrell was the designated dispatcher who coordinated over the radio with drivers sprawled across the city, and Kenneth was another call taker like Miranda. Between 6:45pm and 7pm Kenneth answered at least four calls in a matter of 15 to 20 minutes that all originated from the same man. The caller had grown more and more flustered each time he spoke with Kenneth and just kept demanding the same thing. Send a cab to 905 Moravia Street. The guy didn't provide his name or number, and Kenneth ended up getting so annoyed with him that the next time he rang in at around 7:10pm Miranda Ramirez took the call.
Cab Driver
You know, it raised red flags like, well, why is this person? I was like, what? Wild. Harrison got up his bubble. Why in such a hurry?
Narrator
For the voice on the other end of the line asked Miranda the same thing he'd asked Kenneth, please send a driver to 905 Moravia St. Stad. Shortly after 7:10pm the guy called again, even more agitated and requested the same Thing a cab was already en route to the address in question, though a fact Kenneth had tried to emphasize to the caller when he'd spoken to him the first four times. A few minutes later, the driver of the taxi that was dispatched radioed into Willard's headquarters that they'd arrived. But they had some perplexing news.
Cab Driver
No one came out, didn't know what was going on. But when the driver, you know, dispatched back to us, hey, there's nobody here. It's dark. Figured, you know, what happened. They called both cab companies. The other company got there before we did.
Narrator
Miranda told me that type of scenario was referred to as a deadhead. And after waiting, the driver would have just left and radioed that the customer was a no show. It was an annoying part of the job, but not the end of the world.
Cab Driver
So there wasn't nothing in the moment giving us like, hey, something's going on that shouldn't be going on, or something has happened.
Narrator
It wasn't until Kenneth watched a local TV station story about Mr. Jones murder that he realized Mr. Jones addressed 905 Moravia street was the same address the repeat caller who'd made those frantic series of phone calls to Willard Cab Company on Friday night had asked a taxi to come to. Kenneth knew deep down that that seemed like more than a coincidence and was probably something the police wanted to know about. So he did what I think we should all do in a situation like this. He took it upon himself to contact investigators. A detective followed up and drove out to Willard Cab Company to interview Kenneth and Miranda. They told him what they knew and specified that the guy who'd called sounded like a young black man. The detective took down the info because it was noteworthy that the back to back calls to the cab company had been placed well before anyone knew that Mr. Jones was dead at his home. To refresh your memory, because I know timelines can be hard to follow, police believed Mr. Jones was attacked sometime between 6:20 and 6:30pm the calls to Willard Cab Company came in between 6:45pm and 7:10pm Calvin Scriven and Claude Walker didn't discover Mr. Jones though, and call 911 until 740ish. So the timeframe of those cab calls seemed to be really important. Miranda Ramirez certainly thinks so, even this many years later.
Cab Driver
They obviously had information and knew something was going on or something had happened. You know, you had regret as soon as it happened and this is your way of trying to get them help. Because you would imagine if somebody pulled up and saw somebody laying on the ground needing help. They didn't go get out the car and help them. Whether they were a part of it or not, they knew what happened and what was going on. And they may have information that could actually be important to the case.
Narrator
It's a natural thought, and one that Winston Salem police detectives seem to have, too. Which might explain why, by the morning of Tuesday, November 19, a judge had signed off on subpoenas for Mr. Jones home, cell and work records, as well as the phone records for Willard Cab Company. The police wanted to find out if any of Mr. Jones phones had been used to dial the cab company or if an outside number had been used to place those suspicious calls. It was going to take some time, though, for that data to be turned around. Remember, this is 2002, before the age of digitized record keeping. The phone company, Bell south, had to retrieve their files and then send hard copies to the police department. Because law enforcement didn't learn about the suspicious series of calls until several days after the crime, they missed out on a crucial opportunity to interview perhaps the most important witness in that saga of events. The cab driver. This person would have been the one who went to 905 Moravia street, pulled up to the curb, honked the horn and never saw anyone come out. That person's identity was hard to nail down even in 2002. And that might be because, according to the cab company's practice at the time, manifest sheets, which designated which cab drivers went on what trips only stuck around for 24 hours before they were discarded. In no show situations, drivers would oftentimes not even log a deadhead ride on their clipboards at all. On top of that, there were dozens of drivers on duty across the city on the evening of November 15th. Unfortunately, what this all meant was that no one for Willard Cab Co. Could tell police who drove the cab that went to Mr. Jones home. But another reason the taxi driver's identity has remained a mystery might also be because police stopped pursuing it. And that's because their attention got directed elsewhere forever. A neighbor says that someone had spotted five juveniles walking away from Mr. Jones house at a very fast pace, as if they had done something wrong.
Chris Paul
I got a phone call from a mother who said that her son wasn't acting right.
Narrator
Mother trying to do the right thing for her son that derailed.
Chris Paul
Everything happened so fast. All I remember is being questioned.
Cab Driver
The following is a tape statement reference.
Chris Paul
To iron number 252704.
Cab Driver
Today's date is 11 1902.
Chris Paul
No matter what I said, they just wanted me to implicate me and my friends.
Cab Driver
This is a tape statement with Christopher.
Chris Paul
Levon Bryant, Darrell Quayshon Braybourne, Nathaniel Arnold Kalpen, Rayshawn Banner.
Cab Driver
Rayshawn called me and Ra'shawn said, mama.
Chris Paul
The police is out here asking us questions about Mr. Jones murder.
Narrator
We gotta get someone. Now we have someone. And so now we just have to build a case against them. It's all coming up in the next episode of counterclock. Episode 3 Juveniles listen, right now it's.
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CounterClock Episode 2: "Jarring" Summary
Release Date: November 15, 2024
Host: audiochuck
In the gripping second episode of CounterClock, investigative journalist Delia D'Ambra delves into the perplexing murder of Nathaniel Jones, a case that has left the Forsyth County and Winston Salem communities reeling. Entitled "Jarring," this episode explores the intricate details of the investigation, the emotional toll on those affected, and the critical leads that both propelled and hindered the pursuit of justice.
On November 15, 2002, Nathaniel Jones, a 61-year-old beloved community member, was violently attacked in his home at 905 Moravia Street. The assailants tied, robbed, and ultimately caused his death by inducing a fatal cardiac arrhythmia through stress, as determined by the Wake Forest School of Medicine pathologist. Despite evidence of defensive wounds—superficial cuts and bruises on his head and hands—Jones's pre-existing heart conditions were the direct cause of death.
Key Insights:
The tragedy profoundly affected those who knew Nathaniel Jones, particularly his family. His grandson, Chris Paul, a rising high school basketball star, struggled to maintain his performance on the court amidst the grief of losing his grandfather. The community's shock was palpable, given Jones's role as a supportive and cheerful presence in his familial relations.
Notable Quote:
Immediately following the murder, the Winston Salem Police Department (WSPD) faced immense pressure to solve the case. The high-profile nature of the crime, especially given Jones's popularity, intensified public scrutiny and the influx of tips into the Criminal Investigations Division.
Ava Williams, a long-time acquaintance of Jones, provided a critical eyewitness account. On the evening of the murder, between 6:15 PM and 6:30 PM, Williams observed an unusual figure in Jones's Lincoln Town Car. The individual was a younger black man with short hair or a durag, differing significantly from Jones's appearance. Additionally, Williams noticed suspicious activity across the street but chose not to investigate further, considering the person might be one of Jones's grandsons.
Notable Description:
Despite numerous leads, the investigation suffered from poor internal communication. Investigative teams lacked cohesive coordination, leading to fragmented efforts and overlooked connections between various pieces of evidence.
Notable Quote:
A significant oversight occurred when suspicious calls requesting taxis to 905 Moravia Street were not promptly followed up. Miranda Ramirez, a dispatcher at Willard Cab Company, recounted multiple frantic calls from an unidentified young man seeking rides to the crime scene. These calls predated the discovery of Jones's body and could have been pivotal in identifying potential witnesses or suspects.
Notable Developments:
Family suspicions naturally fell on Reginald Jones, Nathaniel’s 52-year-old brother, who had a troubled history with prior arrests for assault, breaking and entering, and attempted cocaine possession. Although Reginald had been rehired at the service station shortly before the murder, there was no substantial evidence linking him directly to Nathaniel's death. Efforts to investigate Reginald were hampered by the police department's lack of formal interviews and inaccessible records due to North Carolina's Open Records Act.
Notable Findings:
As the investigation progressed, further leads emerged, including sightings of juveniles near the crime scene and an incomplete tape statement from Chris Paul implicating himself and his friends under police pressure. These developments shifted the focus away from initial leads like the cab calls, highlighting the complexities and red herrings that often plague homicide investigations.
Notable Quote:
By November 19, four days post-murder, the pressure on WSPD had intensified with Nathaniel Jones's funeral underway and a $1,000 reward for information. The episode concludes with the revelation that despite numerous leads and critical evidence, the investigation remained stalled due to systemic issues within the police department and the mishandling of key information. Delia sets the stage for the next episode, promising further exploration into the muddled investigation and the quest to uncover the truth behind Nathaniel Jones's untimely death.
Cliffhanger:
Chris Paul [02:35]: "My granddad, before every game he told me to go out and play my game, play my game. So it's gonna be hard after the game walking back out, not seeing him there."
Chris Paul [03:39]: "Once it was learned that it was Chris Paul's grandfather pretty much took off from there. And I believe the whole city or the city as a whole realized that being Chris Paul's father, I mean grandfather rather that I guess you could say much more of an effort would be put into trying to solve that case."
Chris Paul [30:05]: "Everything happened so fast. All I remember is being questioned."
"Jarring" masterfully illustrates the challenges faced by law enforcement in solving complex homicide cases, especially when intertwined with personal connections and systemic inefficiencies. Delia D'Ambra's meticulous investigation sheds light on the crucial yet often overlooked aspects of the Nathaniel Jones case, setting a compelling narrative for listeners to follow in the ensuing episodes of CounterClock.