Page 6 of Save Her Life (Sandra Vos #1)

FIVE

“‘They wouldn’t give them to me.’” Sandra repeated Gavin’s words, after listening to the playback of the call. “He’s desperate. For whatever reason, he needs those drugs.”

“Only thing is he’s screwed the pooch on this,” Garrison said. “No way he can expect to just walk away free and clear. I know that’s what you’re promising, but even a village idiot would know he needs to account for what he’s done.”

“I’m not promising that at all. The point is to minimize the punishment, diminish his fears about the outcome of surrendering,” she said.

“Fair enough,” Garrison said. “But I suppose my point is he had to know he couldn’t just walk out of the store with his pills, even if he limited his force to the pharmacist and the clerk there. The store security guard would have stopped him.”

“The store has one?”

“Yep. Norman Brady,” Patrick said, weighing in on the conversation. He’d already filled them in that the assistant manager couldn’t log in to the pharmacy system, so he’d reached out to Lakisha. No ETA there. Patrick flipped through his paperwork. “Brady’s a direct employee of the store, not an outside firm.”

“It could be where Gavin got his gun. That’s if Brady was armed,” Sandra said.

“He was. A Smith & Wesson M&P. I got that information from the assistant manager.”

It might have been nice to have had this information earlier, though it was impossible to know if Gavin had managed to get the gun off the security guard or if he turned up with one of his own. But the main point was Gavin was armed, which she’d been informed about when she arrived.

“The HT could have lied to Agent Vos,” Ray began. “It’s only logical a physical altercation must have taken place between him and the guard. Whether that be during a play to take the guard’s weapon or to have him relinquish it. Someone might be hurt in there.”

“Could be.” The admission was bitter. Just the possibility of it chipped at the early camaraderie she had going with Gavin. He’d most likely lied to her already.

“On another note, was anyone else freaked out by how quiet it was in the background?” Richie asked.

She nodded and turned to Patrick. “What do we know about the lunchroom? Does it lock from the outside?” It was only a theory that’s where the hostages were being held, but she’d treat it as a fact for now.

Patrick shook his head. “No, but the assistant manager said there are two doors and they both have long pull handles. The HT could have slipped something through them to prevent people getting out.”

“Which would allow him to wander the store as he wished,” she said.

“I suppose so. Heck, he could be watching us. There’s video surveillance in the upstairs office.”

That wasn’t a heartwarming thought, and she wouldn’t have minded that piece of intel before.

The door swung open, and Bowen stepped inside with another man who was dressed impeccably in suit and tie. The flaps of his long dress coat were open, and he carried himself with an air of authority and had a pleasant resting face. Considering the circumstances, that demonstrated impressive emotional restraint and earned Sandra’s immediate respect.

“Special Agent Vos,” Bowen said, “this is Police Chief Buchanan with the PWCPD.”

“Either Jeff or Buchanan is fine,” he told her as he shook her hand.

“Sandra.”

“I’ve been told this situation has been ongoing for hours. Lieutenant Bowen thinks it might be a good time to end this by force.” Jeff pried her with intelligent eyes and clearly wanted her take on this.

“Gavin, that’s the hostage taker, is talking, and I believe I can bring this situation to a peaceful resolution.” She provided his name to humanize the HT to the police chief. There was hope he’d take that reminder and be less eager to have SWAT rush in there and do what they would.

“A pipe dream,” Bowen scoffed, pulling his phone from his pocket when it chimed. “You’ve been in contact a couple of times and the last was over an hour ago. An hour of silence.”

“Which is nothing in the grand scheme of things.” Lulls in communication were common during crisis negotiation, and one hour was nothing. Gavin would be questioning what was going on outside and becoming more worn down by the minute. To an exhausted hostage taker, the thought of surrender started to look appealing.

“Chief, Agent Vos gave him the opportunity to surrender peacefully. He ended the call. He’s not even willing to discuss it,” Bowen said, vying for favoritism from the chief.

Sandra had noticed Garrison on his phone earlier. He must have updated Bowen.

Jeff looked at her. “Is that true?”

“I’m sure you have experience with hostage situations,” she began. “Rarely does the HT give up right away. Based on what he keeps saying, he felt backed into this situation.” She passed a glance at Ray since she’d used the wording from his note. The theory didn’t explain why or how he escalated to this point though. But even if he arrived armed, it didn’t mean he’d meant for all this to happen.

“Hmm.” Jeff narrowed his eyes, clasped his hands in front of himself, and angled his head. “What do you think the chances are this will end peacefully?”

“Honestly? There’s no way to know for sure, but I’ve been trained by the finest at the Bureau and will use that education and my experience to do all I can with that end goal in mind.” Negotiation training lasted for two intense weeks covering the process, abnormal psychology, and case study review. The coursework was put into practice with role-playing exercises.

“Speaking of end goals, what does the hostage taker want?” Jeff asked. “Do we know yet?”

She shook her head. “Just what set him off. He was refused medication.” As she recapped this, it sank in that it was more likely Gavin hadn’t arrived armed with the plan to hold hostages. She could hear his voice in her head, and he’d sounded genuinely shocked when he couldn’t get the drugs.

“The HT is clearly unstable and unpredictable,” Bowen said. “What impulsive decision is he going to make next? Personally, I don’t think we should be standing around waiting to find out.”

“As you’ve made your stance very clear several times,” Jeff said coolly.

“If I may,” Sandra intercepted, looking at Jeff as she spoke. “Working as a negotiator for fourteen years, I have learned to read certain signs. Gavin gives me no indication that he planned this today, and I don’t read off him that he has a death wish either. I can work with both those things. We’re on the path to getting his full identity too. Once we have that, we’ll be able to form a broader picture of the man who is holding hostages. It’s necessary to think like him if we’re to bring this to a good ending.”

“We know where Bowen stands, but what do you think, Garrison? You’re team leader, from what I understand,” Jeff said.

Garrison passed a timid look at Bowen. “Agent Vos has the HT talking. We’ve been at this for hours already. What’s a bit longer if everyone walks away?”

“Those are my thoughts on the matter.” Jeff’s brow knitted with deep thought, as Sandra imagined him weighing real life cost against budget constraints. Eventually, he added, “All right, I say you keep on it, but if things change… By that I mean if hostages get hurt, or it’s confirmed someone has been, I want to be informed.” The police chief started off talking to her but clearly directed that latter bit to Bowen. He then left the vehicle with Bowen tailing him. If he intended to change the chief’s mind, she wished him luck. Jeff Buchanan seemed like a man who knew his mind, and once he’d made it up it would be tough to change.

Garrison turned to the intelligence officer. “Tell me, Patrick, any advancement on getting into the pharmacy system?”

Patrick’s phone had been pinging throughout the conversation. “Lakisha said she has a colleague helping her with it. She gave me his number too. It’s a Simon… Somebody. Sound familiar?” He looked at Sandra.

“Simon Pratt. He’s good. I’m sure we’ll be somewhere soon with that. In the meantime…” She got up and returned to her post, and that alone signaled Ray and Richie to theirs. “I’m going to try to reach Gavin again.”

Gavin answered before the second ring.

“I’m sorry I keep hanging up on you. It’s just that…”

The silence had worked to make Gavin think on his actions. He also sounded more tired than before. All of this was good. “You must be processing a lot in there, Gavin. How are you doing?”

“I’m tired. I… I didn’t want to do this, but I didn’t have a choice.”

From the sound of it, the passing time poked his conscience too. Another positive takeaway. She still wasn’t going to let her guard down and assume he was weakening though. In fact, his repeated claim was striking her as disingenuous and had her wondering if he had hurt someone. “You didn’t have a choice about what, Gavin?”

“I just wanted the meds.” He sniffled.

His avoidance was reassuring. There was most definitely more that he wasn’t telling her, but calling him out would be counterproductive. “You sound like you never meant for things to get to this point.”

“I told you that. They refused to give me my meds.”

“Help me understand. Why did they turn you away?”

“It was my insurance. It should have covered them still, but they said it was canceled. They must be lying, but I don’t have the money to pay out of pock?—”

Ray passed her a note that read, Lost his job?

There was scuffling in the background, and the sounds of a tussle.

Sandra looked at Ray. “Gavin, can you tell me what’s going on?”

The line cut out.

She slapped her headset down.

The door to the command vehicle opened, and Bowen walked in. His gaze traveled from her workspace to her eyes. “I take it things aren’t going well on the negotiation front?”

He had an uncanny ability of showing up at the most inopportune time. “It’s the long game,” she said.

“Uh-huh. Just how long do we have to sit around?”

Bowen was clearly bitter about the chief siding with her, and the team coordinator was really reminding her of her ex, Olivia’s father. Nolan Copeland worked with the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, or HRT, and that unit was mission-based, full-time, and focused on counterterrorism. They were the brawn to the CNU’s diplomatic approach. While the CNU’s motto boiled down to resolution through dialogue, the HRT’s was simply to save lives. It sounded noble and could be, but in saving lives, there were often casualties. Nolan didn’t like being overruled either. “As long as it takes.”

“Hmph.”

Bowen snapped his mouth shut, and turned to leave. He opened the door with such force the vehicle rocked.

She had to shake the negative energy from that man, and the best way to accomplish that was focusing on the job. She turned to the board where Patrick had written Canceled insurance. “As Ray pointed out to me, Gavin may have lost his job recently. But he could have paid cash for the drugs…”

“Not if he didn’t have enough money. The medication might be more expensive than he can afford,” Richie pointed out.

“Or that. Could I see the transcript of the conversation?” she asked Richie, and he handed it to her. She scanned down to the part she was looking for. “‘They must be lying.’ He was surprised that he didn’t have coverage.”

“That doesn’t reconcile with him losing a job,” Patrick said. “He’d know his insurance would be canceled.”

“Which he did,” she said. “But Gavin’s words were the meds should be covered still . So he wasn’t surprised the coverage was coming to an end, but that it already had.”

“That’s rough,” Richie put in, “losing your job a couple months after Christmas. Who knows if he got himself into debt for the holiday and now has no way of paying it off?”

“Which would only compound his feelings of failure.” From a psychological standpoint it was simply known as an inadequate personality. “We need to paint this guy a rosy future, or this thing could blow up in our faces. Unfortunately, I have a feeling if he doesn’t start cooperating soon, my hands may be tied. Let’s give this another go.” She turned to Ray, and she put the call through.

Gavin answered quickly, screaming into the phone, “I didn’t want to do that!”

Adrenaline flooded her system, and she rode it to a place of flow and acceptance. “It’s all right, Gavin. We can work through this, whatever it is. Just tell me what happened, and I’ll do what I can to help.” She intentionally phrased it so her words couldn’t be twisted and seen as her shifting blame to him. Even if he was responsible.

“I hurt someone!” His voice raised. “There’s… there’s a lot of blood.”