the telephone rang inside, startlingly, and as daisy shook her head decisively at tom the subject of the stables, in fact all subjects, vanished into air. among the broken fragments of the last five minutes at table i remember the candles being lit again, pointlessly, and i was conscious of wanting to look squarely at every one, and yet to avoid all eyes. i couldn’t guess what daisy and tom were thinking, but i doubt if even miss baker, who seemed to have mastered a certain hardy skepticism, was able utterly to put this fifth guest’s shrill metallic urgency out of mind. to a certain temperament the situation might have seemed intriguing—my own instinct was to telephone immediately for the police.

the phone calls that tom receives during the dinner are an indicator

he is trying to prevent his marriage from failing.
he and daisy are not a happily married couple.
he would rather be in the city than on the island.
he has important business deals in the works