whose reaction was startling

Robbie rubbed both hands and said, "Okay, Keith, here's what we have to do. We have to meet Boyette and ask him a lot of questions, and if that goes well, then we'll prepare an affidavit for him to sign and file it with a petition. We have time, but not much." Carlos handed Samantha a photo of Boyette he'd just printed out from a Web site for the Kansas Department of Corrections. She pointed at his face and whispered, "Get him on the phone." Robbie nodded and said, "Keith, I'd like to talk to Boyette. Can you put him on?" Keith lowered his cell phone and said, "Travis, this is the lawyer. He wants to talk to you." "I don't think so," Boyette said. "Why not? We're driving to Texas to talk to the man, here he is." "Nope. I'll talk when we get there." Boyette's voice was clear on the speakerphone. Robbie and the rest were relieved to know that Keith actually had someone else in the car with him. Maybe he wasn't some nut playing games at the eleventh hour. Robbie pressed on. "If we can talk to him now, we can start to work on his affidavit. That'll save some time, and we don't have much of it." Keith relayed this to Boyette, whose reaction was startling. His upper body pitched forward violently as he grabbed his head with both hands. He tried to suppress a scream, but a very loud "Aghhhhh!" escaped, followed by deep guttural lurches that made the man sound as if he were dying in horrendous pain. "What was that?" Robbie asked. Keith was driving, talking on the phone, and suddenly distracted by another seizure. "I'll call you back," he said and put the phone down.