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Bowen stopped for a moment, shook his head at his colleague, and left the command vehicle.
Sandra sat at the table to make a call to Assistant Director Rowe. It rang a few times before he answered.
“Have any good news for me?”
“Wish I did. It’s the opposite. Things are escalating. He wants more money, and the pregnant woman I told you about is in labor.Prematurelabor.”
“You need to find a way to get McConnell to let her go.”
“You don’t think I’ve been trying?” She massaged her temple and had an idea. It was a tiny offering but could warm Gavin intoa more cooperative mood. “A while ago, he said he’d love a good coffee.”
“He’s shutting down and you want to reward that behavior?”
“I know this is going to come across contradictory to the rule of negotiating, but I feel if we show a small kindness to him, it will go a long way. He did release Vern Wilcox without anything in return. This would show that I remember, and that the small act mattered.”
“You better hope it’s a miracle brew, and he suddenly feels super cooperative. But if you feel good about this, then I trust you. But, if this doesn’t work out, it might be time to cut our losses and let SWAT move in.”
“Not you too.” Her shoulders sagged, and at her words the others in the command vehicle looked at her but quickly turned away again.
“Even you can’t win them all.”
“I still feel I can talk him out.”
“And you would because you can be… How to put this delicately?”
“Why start now?”
“Stubborn. Hard-headed.”
“I like to think of myself as determined and focused.”
“Well, whatever it is, use it.”
“And the ETA on the money?”
Elwood grumbled incoherently and hung up.
She returned to her chair and steeled herself to call Gavin when Patrick spoke.
“I got a hold of Gavin’s former employer. Guy’s name is Michael Underwood. He said that Human Resources was supposed to cancel the health insurance at the end of the month. He apologized if they made an error and said he’d reinstate it for another month if it would help.”
“Might be a matter of too little, too late,” she said but called Gavin.
He answered with, “I’m not letting her go.”
A woman screamed in the background, “You bastard!” It sounded like Megan Cobb.
Sandra’s proposition would wait. “This is Megan’s first child, Gavin. She’s scared, and I don’t blame her. The baby will be a month premature. There can be a lot of complications with that for the mother and child. As a father yourself, I can’t imagine you’d want that baby to be hurt.”
Silence, which she took as him waging war with his conscience.
“Gavin, you said you would never hurt her,” she said, piercing the quiet and reminding him of the words he’d spoken hours ago.
“I wouldn’t.”
“Good. Think of your daughter, and your future together. You have the chance to save a mother and her child. Cassie would respect that. You could even decide to walk away right now and have tomorrow.”
There was a lot of crying and panicked talking in the background. Sandra could make out that it was Gina reassuring Megan. This played out for some time and were the only sounds coming across the phone line.