The Ramsey account in DOI and the 911 call do not match. Here is the account in DOI: pg 11 - 12:
John runs down the main stairs and into the back hallway. I grasp my stomach and run after him. By the time I get to him, he is down on his hands and knees, staring at the sheets of paper spread out on the floor in front of him. He is examining the ransom note, under the ceiling lights of the back hall. ...
"What do we do?" I stammer.
He shouts, "Call the police!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. Call them!"
OK. So that explains why Patsy rather than John made the call. This is something that troubled the police. If Patsy is hysterical (or breathless at least) and John is the steady one in the circumstance why does Patsy make the call? Why didn't John make the call? It is a very good question.
The answer, according to the Ramseys, is that John was reading the (rather lengthy) ransom note. He has the note spread out on the floor in the back hall under the ceiling lights. Call the police! he says. So it was Patsy who called 911.
By her own account Patsy had not read the whole of the (rather lengthy) ransom note. She called for John before she read it all. He arrived, starting reading it, started assessing it, made the decision to immediately call 911.
But here is the problem:
In the 911 call the operator asks an unexpected question.
"Does it (RN) say who took her (JbR)?" asks 911.
Patsy is a bit taken aback - it is a question she wasn't expecting. "What!!?" she asks. The operator repeats: "Does it say who took her?"
And Patsy READS FROM THE NOTE. "SBTC. Victory!"
Is Patsy, then, holding the note? Isn't the note spread out on the floor where John is assessing it while Patsy rings 911? But pretty clearly Patsy reads from the note at this point in the call. Listen to the call again. She reads from the note (page 3) in response to the (unexpected) question from the 911 operator.
So, if she is holding the note and the note is not on the floor in the back hall, the question stands: Why is it Patsy and not John making the call?
The response that the home phone was Patsy's thing isn't very satisfactory in the circumstances.
What is John doing while Patsy calls 911? Answer: reading and assessing the note? If not, why is he letting the breathless Patsy make the call?
imo, their account and the 911 call are at odds. It seems Patsy made the call while holding the ransom note. (???) So what was John doing?
There is something phoney or not quite right about the call and I think this is it - Patsy's reaction to the unexpected question.