“Housecleaners are off today, and the cook isn’t scheduled until tomorrow,” Gibson told her.
Small mercies that cut down the hostage count…“Is there any reason to believe this isn’t about money?”
Donny pressed his lips. “Nothing that’s come up about that so far, though it seems likely considering where we are.”
Sandra had to agree. “Let’s see if I can find out his demands.” She picked the workstation next to Donny, set her messenger bag at her feet, and put on her headset.
FOUR
11:01 AM
Sandra had run into similar hostage takers before. The type who spoke bold from the start and took the initiative. It was a play to position themselves as the shot caller or one in control. The good news was they often had a clear goal in mind. The bad news was their agenda could be illogical. And while the ruse the HT had adopted to gain entry seemed opportunistic, it could be a grave mistake to assume that’s all it was. The HT had at least followed the news to request her. Did that show forethought and planning, or did the HT simply follow the news?
“I see you don’t miss a beat,” Donny said, turning to her. “You remember how everything works?”
“I do.” She glanced down at the numeric keypad on the desk. Whenever she made a call or received one over the system, the others patched in through their headsets with muted mics.
“Great. That’s the number there.” Donny pointed at a handwritten scribble on a notepad, which he pushed toward her. “You can just take that if you want, and here’s a pen.” He grabbed one from a cup on his desk.
Sandra gave a quick glance at Kreiger. The only way to douse his instinct to rush ahead was to give him reason not to. She took a few seconds to collect her breath, her thoughts, her emotions.When she put the call through, this was no longer about her, or any tensions out here. It wasn’t even about the hostages. It was about immersing herself in the hostage taker’s mindset. It wasn’t enough to simply see his side. She had to take on his concerns as if they were her own. “Here goes.” Sandra nodded at the team, punched in the digits, and waited. And waited…
The line rang six times before it was answered.
“This better be who I asked for.”
That is one way of answering the phone…It was the move of someone who wanted control and lacked confidence, which supported her earlier thinking. With the video still working for him, he would have seen her arrive. Unless he was distracted. “I was the lead negotiator for the Founders Hospital incident. My name is Special Agent Sandra Vos with the FBI.” She offered her given name to insert some humanity and the title to establish her authority. It was best he viewed her as an equal and got the sense that’s how she saw him. “Who am I talking to?”
“We’ll get to that, Sandra, but there are more important things to cover first. I?—”
Screams erupted in the background from a woman and teenage girl.Ashley and Sophie…
“Shut up! Just shut up!” the hostage taker yelled. A few seconds later, he spoke to Sandra, calm and composed. “I need you to listen closely.”
It was best she ignore the cries for help, as well as overlook the shift in his temperament. “Yes, of course. I’m listening. But if, for any reason, we get disconnected, you can always call me at this number. Do you see the caller ID on your phone?”
“I do.”
“Good, I’m here to help. You can talk to me…” She left space for his name just in case he changed his mind.
“You will reopen the Susan Crawford case.”
Gibson’s fingers started clacking on his keyboard.
“Is Susan Crawford someone close to you?” Sandra asked the HT.
“We’re about to find out how good you are. Just reopen that case, and you can tell me who I am. But the truth must come out.”
“All right, I heard your request and I’ll go to my boss about this for you, but I’ll need you to do something for me.”
“No, that’s not how this works. You reopen it, or I will shoot one of the Hansons, starting with the youngest.”
More screams.
Donny wrote in a fresh notepad and pushed it under Sandra’s nose.Inclined to utter threats. Follow through?
“Okay, I’ll do everything within my power. Will you at least confirm that everyone in there is okay? That no one is hurt.”
“Everyone is fine.”
