Page 11 of Save Her Life (Sandra Vos #1)

TEN

Sandra’s phone continued to count down the minutes in the background while she was on the phone with Elwood stating her case.

“So you think we should be prepared to hand this guy a hundred thousand dollars?” Elwood put emphasis on the amount. It was a lot from one perspective, but very little if it saved lives.

“I do. Besides, it’s not like we’d let him leave with it. It’s more a bait-and-lure type of situation.”

“Clearly.”

“And I’ll buy us more time by saying we need to gather the money together. If this all works out, we won’t even need to show him the cash.”

“Though we should have it in case he wants to see it.”

“Yes.”

“But the deal… You want that to hold up?”

“I do.” She wanted to keep her word to Gavin in this regard. She mentioned a lighter charge and wanted reassurance that would be the case.

“For any of the above to happen, McConnell needs to surrender peacefully and the rest of the hostages must walk away unharmed.”

“I’ll make sure he knows that.” Though she’d have to watch how she played this. She certainly couldn’t present the criteria to Gavin in case there were injuries she didn’t know about. Then he’d feel boxed in.

“There is the chance he’s not prepared to surrender just yet either, which if that is the case…”

“I know what to do.” She’d request another sign of good faith.

“Good. Keep me posted.”

“And you me. I need to know when the money will get here.”

Elwood was gone, and she got off to look at the timer. She had five minutes left and returned inside the command vehicle.

“And there she is,” Bowen said caustically. “No question of where you’ve been or what you’ve been up to.”

“Guess as long as you know, I don’t need to bring you up to speed.” She walked past him, ignoring his sneer, and some of the team whose mouths gaped open. She sat at her post and turned to Ray beside her. She had forty seconds left on the clock but called.

Gavin answered but didn’t say a word.

“I’ve spoken to my boss, Mr. McConnell.” She could feel Bowen listening to her every word.

“Huh. So you found out who I am.”

“Well, a colleague of mine did. You don’t have a record, Gavin. What do you say we end this peacefully now?”

“Right after a hundred grand goes to my girl and my freedom is assured. Those are my terms.”

“And as I said, I have spoken to my boss. We’re going to need a little more time to get the money together.”

“Bullshit. You’re the FBI. You have money.”

“That’s why we’re able to get it together, but these things take time. And…” She paused for dramatic effect. “My boss is being a stickler, truth be told. He wants your word that you’re prepared to surrender first.”

Silence.

Ray wrote, It feels like he’s not ready.

Sandra nodded, concluding the same. “I know that you want to leave so you can get to your daughter, Gavin, and I want to help you do that. How is your daughter? If she needs the meds urgently, let me get them to her.”

“No.”

“That’s fine. If you’re not ready to surrender just yet, give us a sign of good faith.”

“What do you want?”

“My boss would love the rest of those names, Gavin.” She waited out an ensuing silence.

Eventually, Gavin started to rattle off names and numbers. Richie was writing them down furiously. They had about five names when a phone rang in the background on Gavin’s end.

“Oh, shit! What the— No, I don’t want to talk to her.”

She had to guess it was someone calling his personal cellphone given how he’d responded. But Patrick told them Gavin didn’t have a number on his file. Though it was possible he had a prepaid phone, which weren’t catalogued the same. “Gavin, talk to me. Who is calling you?”

“It’s Karen. What the— Did you put her up to this? Did you tell her what I’m doing?”

The girlfriend calling held no advantage. Rather the opposite. He’d feel exposed as a failure to someone he’d likely rather impress. “You don’t need to talk to her, Gavin. Just don’t answer the?—”

“I’m doing this for our daughter!” Gavin roared.

There was gunfire. Then the line cut off.

“Shit, I knew it.” Bowen’s cheeks were a bright red as he shot to his feet. “We should have moved in hours ago. I’ve tried playing by your rules, Vos, letting you talk everything out, but that ends now. I’m going to get SWAT to move in.”

She was stunned . “Don’t do that.”

Bowen, who had taken steps toward the door, turned back around. “Why shouldn’t I? Are you going to contact your boss at the FBI again? Tattle on me?”

“This isn’t about us, LT. It’s about Gavin and his hostages,” Garrison put in.

“To hell, it isn’t.”

Sandra stood and walked over to the team coordinator. “I’m here because I was called in to help, but I report to the assistant director?—”

“La de da. And here to help?” Bowen spat. “We’re hours further along in this mess, and there’s a backslide. His fucking girlfriend calls on a phone that we didn’t even know existed.”

Garrison stood. “I think we should all take two steps back.” He turned to Patrick. “I need to know everything that took place during that conversation between the officer and the girlfriend.”

Patrick glanced at Bowen but responded to the team leader, “I’ll find out the exact details of their conversation, sir,” and picked up his phone.

“Make sure someone goes and sits with her too,” Bowen wedged in. “I don’t want this screwup happening again.”

“Yes, LT,” Patrick told him.

Sandra was watching all this unfold, feeling the situation fall through her fingers. She typically would have cautioned about this exact thing when telling Patrick to get an officer over to talk to the girlfriend, but as far as they knew Gavin didn’t have a phone. Leaving the hostage situation to the negotiator was what worked.

She turned to Bowen. “We don’t know exactly where Gavin is currently holed up. It’s likely near the hostages, but there were times I spoke to him there was silence in the background. You want to secure Gavin, without hurting anyone, we can’t afford to go in blind.”

“Likely near? He’s probably not wasting a bullet on the ceiling,” Bowen protested.

“There’s no way to know. Let me try contacting Gavin again and see if I can find out what’s going on in there.”

Garrison looked at Bowen, who waved his hand. “Give it a go, Vos,” Garrison said.

Sandra put the call through, and the line rang repeatedly. She sat back.

“Let me guess. No answer?” Bowen said. “Surprise, surprise, he’s not talking now. He knows he just screwed up his chances of getting out of there.”

After the long day and night Sandra had, this guy was testing her last nerve. “You can’t know exactly what he’s thinking.”

“I can’t, but you apparently can,” Bowen kicked back. “And we can’t just ignore the fact that a gun was fired.” He drilled Sandra with a glare.

“No one is,” she said.

Patrick cleared his throat and cut in. “I spoke to the officer who talked with the girlfriend. He never saw her call but said she excused herself to use the washroom in the back of the house.”

“Did he get McConnell’s number?” Garrison asked.

“Yeah, and I’ll make sure the service is cut.”

“What else?” Sandra asked Patrick. “He must have learned something from her we can use.”

“McConnell doesn’t have any savings. In fact, the opposite, he’s in debt for twenty grand. He was let go from his factory job Monday of last week,” Patrick said, referring to his notepad. “Replaced by AI.”

“It’s going to replace all of us one day,” Richie put in. “The rise of the machines is more real than you might think.”

She wasn’t touching that comment and no one else seemed to want to either. “And the health insurance? Did the officer ask the girlfriend about that?” she asked Patrick.

“Oh, yeah. The girl became blue swearing. She said Gavin told her they’d have medical insurance until the end of the month. Guess she kicked him out last week, but he asked for a chance to make things right. The girl’s got a chest infection that’s in danger of turning into pneumonia. He told his girlfriend to stay with the girl while he got the meds.”

None of this was good. No job, canceled insurance, a broken relationship, one chance to prove himself a good father and it blows up in his face… Receiving a call from Karen would have been the cherry on top. It would have emphasized his feelings of hopelessness, reducing the chances of ending this peacefully. “Patrick, could you reach out to Gavin’s former employer?”

“It’s the middle of the night,” Bowen chimed in.

“Does that matter right now, because I don’t think it does,” she countered. She picked up speaking to Patrick. “I’d like to know what happened with the insurance.”

Patrick glanced at Garrison, who nodded, then he got on the phone.

“Please, just a bit longer,” she said, appealing to Bowen. “Let me see if I can establish contact with Gavin again.” She didn’t wait for a response but put the call through. Answer, answer , she mentally coached. If she didn’t get through to Gavin, she wasn’t sure she could stop the powers that be from tromping in there.

Gavin answered. He said nothing, but he was breathing heavily.

“Gavin, I need you to talk to me. Tell me, is anyone hurt?” She balanced diplomacy with the goal of her job, toeing that fine line of being the shot caller and Gavin respecting her enough to relent to her position.

“No one is?—”

A woman cried out, and from the sound of it, she was in extreme agony. Sandra shut down her imagination and focused. Cool, calm, collected. “Who is that, Gavin? Tell me what’s going on so I can help you.”

“It’s nothing. It’s just that…”

Sandra let the silence ride out for several beats, then said, “I need to know that everyone is okay, including you.”

“I… I’m fine.”

The woman cried out again. Whatever was the cause, it sounded like the pain was excruciating. “Was someone shot, Gavin? If so, just let me know and we’ll work on this together to move forward. No one else needs to get hurt.”

“No one was shot. I just got mad. My girlfriend… she thinks I’m a loser. But she’s right. They would be better off without me.”

The girlfriend and the daughter… “Gavin, I can appreciate how you might feel that way. You haven’t had a good couple of weeks. I can see why opting for a way out might be appealing, but just hang in with me for a bit longer, please.” This aspect of negotiation ran contrary to what those uneducated in the craft might deem the right move. But in cases where an HT brought up suicide, talking about it wasn’t planting the thought in their heads. That was already there. Speaking about it demonstrated that the negotiator understood them, further ingratiating them with the HT.

“My life sucks!”

The woman continued crying out in the background. Another person yelled, “She needs a doctor!”

“Gavin, you have the opportunity to be the hero right now and turn things around. I have faith in you.” She tapped into her inner calm. She couldn’t let the chaos in the background affect this interchange.

“ Pfft . I don’t. How could you? You don’t even know me!” he spat.

“I’m good at reading people, Gavin, and I can tell that you’re an amazing dad who would do anything for his daughter.” She would dredge up every redeemable quality, no matter how minuscule, to wield in her arsenal if it could resolve this situation without any more injuries or casualties.

“I love Cassie. She’s my everything, my world.”

“I don’t blame you. She’s a beautiful little girl with a bright future. And, Gavin, you can be a part of it.”

“No, I’m not coming out there. I’ll be shot.”

“You have my word. You will be safe.”

“No. I just can’t. Not yet.”

Sandra breathed easier with that concession. Gavin had clearly entertained the idea of surrendering. He was likely getting tired and worn down. “But Cassie needs her medication. I know you want to get that to her.”

“I do, but I…” He started crying. “I had no choice, and now…”

“Is everyone okay?” she asked again and then added a twist, “Would you let me speak with the hostages?” They still didn’t have all their names. He’d been interrupted when he’d tried to hand them all over. When he didn’t respond, she said, “I’m sure there’s something you’d like right now. Coffee, maybe? Do they have coffee in there?” The unrelated diversion would shake up his thoughts, throw him off.

A few beats, then, “Just crap stuff.”

“Great, let me get you coffee. How do you like it?”

More crying came through in the background.

“Two sugars and cream.”

“You got it. We’ll round one up, some good stuff, and get it to you. But I do need to speak to the hostages first.”

“What about my getting out of here and my hundred K?”

Just when she thought those demands were put aside… “Let me speak with the hostages, and once I know everyone is okay in there, I’ll speak with my boss again, follow up on the money. Will you do that, Gavin?” She hadn’t even disclosed a deal was possible yet, and she wouldn’t unless it became necessary.

“Okay,” he mumbled.

“I want to talk with that woman who is crying first. Who is she?”

He didn’t respond, and she heard shuffling on the other end. The crying became louder and dampened to a hiccupped sob. Then a woman’s voice cut across the line. “Get me out of here!”

“I’m working on that. I’m FBI Special Agent Sandra Vos. Who am I speaking to?” All of this was spoken calmly to soothe the hostage.

“Megan”—she howled and hissed in pain—“Cobb. Please, help me. I’m in labor.”

A month early… “Megan, I will do what I can to get you out of there. How far apart are the contractions?”

“I don’t—” She winced loudly.

More rustling on the other end, then, “This is Gina Andrews. I’m a nurse, and her baby is coming. Her contractions are strong and every five minutes. She needs urgent medical attention.”

Patrick kicked into motion, once again riffling through reports he’d pulled.

“Okay, Gina. Thank you. I’m Special Agent Sandra Vos. You’re by her side, and he’s letting you help her?”

“Best I can.”

Patrick gave her the printout on Gina Andrews. Thirty-five, resident of Woodbridge. Her photo showed a redhead with a freckly face. “Is everyone in the upstairs lunchroom, including the man holding you?”

“Yes.”

Sandra made eye contact with Garrison, and he nodded. They had a second confirmation on where the hostages were being held. “Was anyone shot when the gun was fired?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s enough.” Gavin was back on the line. “You spoke with Megan and her friend. Both are fine.”

“Megan’s not fine, Gavin. She is going into labor a month before she’s due. She needs urgent medical attention.”

“Her water just broke!” Gina yelled in the background.

“Come on, Gavin,” Sandra said. “You must be terrified, but you let her go and that will go a long way to helping me help you.”

“She’ll be fine. I just heard this woman say she’s a nurse.”

“Gina, yes. But just because she’s a nurse, it doesn’t mean she’s able to deliver the baby safely there. As I said, Megan is in premature labor. You’re a good father, Gavin, and you must see the dangers. Infection… complications?”

Silence for a few seconds. “My freedom and a hundred and fifty K for Cassie and everyone walks.”

His price went up… “I’m going to tell you right up front, Gavin, because we have this friendship now, this trust between us, but I don’t see my boss going for that.”

“Get him to go for it, or she’ll be having her baby right here!” He ended the call.

Ray swiveled his chair to face her. “Never saw that coming.”

“Makes two of us.” In fact, it was the last thing she expected, and it made her uneasy. Gavin’s emotional state was all over the place. One minute, he was caring about Megan Cobb, and the next sounded prepared to kill her. Sandra needed to find some way of making Gavin see that he needed to start cooperating with her, for everyone’s sakes. Including his own.