Page 27 of Every Last One

The door to the vehicle swung open and Kreiger stepped inside. “Good news, everyone. The jammer’s been knocked out. Bad news. There are so many calls flooding nine-one-one, they’re overloading the system. But there’s one woman currently on the line about to be patched through to here. She says she’s on the fourth floor, and there was a gunshot.”

Where they knew one gunman was positioned. But no one had heard gunfire. The concrete and steel of the structure must have prevented the sound from reaching them out here.

The vehicle’s phone rang, and Gibson answered. “Yes, I understand.” Gibson spun his chair around. “I have the woman from inside, a Gail Chapman, on a shared line with the nine-one-one dispatcher. You can pick it up there.” Gibson pointed at the headset dangling on a hook in Sandra’s workstation.

Sandra wasted no time putting it on her head. “Gail Chapman? This is FBI Special Agent Sandra Vos. Are you somewhere safe and hidden?”

“Yes, in my daughter’s room. But, please, do something. He has a gun.” Her breaths were fast and jagged, and if Sandra didn’t help calm her down, she’d go into a full-blown panic attack.

“You’ve got the door locked and the blinds closed?” As much as Sandra wanted details, the women’s safety was the priority.

“Yes.”

“And it’s just you and your daughter in the room?”

“And Nurse Torres is here.” Gail’s inhales were hungry gasps for air. If she kept going like this, she might pass out.

“Gail, you need to do something for me. Okay?”

“Okay.” Tentative.

“Just take a few deep breaths.”

“I am…” She panted. “Breathing.”

“Just deep, calm breaths,” Sandra reiterated in her soothing late-night DJ voice.

When Gail’s breathing slowed, Sandra spoke again. “There. Are you feeling better?”

“A bit, but he has a gun.”

At least this time when she doled out the situation recap, she was much calmer than before. “How many men are there with guns?”

“Just the one that I know of.”

“So you never saw or heard this man talking to anyone else? An accomplice?”

“He was talking to people. I think they’re with the hospital, though, and he…he…”

“You’re safe, Gail. Talk to me. He what?” Sandra remembered Kreiger said this woman heard gunfire, but she wasn’t going to rush her.

“I went out there… in the hall. The sounds came from the nurse break room.”

Sandra looked over at Brice, who had picked up his headset and was listening in too. “What did you hear?” she asked Gail.

“There was a bunch of talking. Men’s voices, two or three. I think one was the gunman. Then there was what sounded like a scuffle, the gun went off, and there was screaming.” Her breathing deepened. “I think that he…that hemight have shot one of the men. One screamed, and that’s also when I heard a woman cry.”

Sandra sensed the energy shift inside the vehicle. Injuries changed things and would have ERT wanting to move in, but there was nothing standard about today’s incident. “Do you know if anyone was seriously hurt?”

“A man was shot.”

“There was a gunshot,” another woman said in the background, presumably Nurse Torres. “That’s all you know for sure.”

“You weren’t there,” Gail said. “You didn’t hear the screams or crying.”

“Ms. Chapman, did you hear anything else after the gun was fired?” Sandra asked calmly, taking back the reins of the conversation.

“No, but someone could be dead.”