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“We’re doing everything we can, Ed, but it’s going to take time.” Sam lowered the bullhorn. “At least we know what we’re dealing with. If the man isn’t crazy, he’s making a good show of it.”
“Sam, we’ve got one option,” Cooper said. “Jess is a former FBI hostage negotiator. We’re trying to locate her now.”
“Jess? A hostage negotiator?”
“That’s true, Sam,” Grace said. “I don’t know the whole story, but she was with the FBI for years. She’s our best chance of getting those children back without a fight.”
“I’ve got dispatch trying to track her down,” Buck said. “Since she was involved with the family, we’re hoping she might show up here.”
“And what about Ruth?”
“She took the girls and went to her sister’s. But Ed would be able to find them there. According to what Jess told dispatch, the lawyer promised to find them a safe place.”
“And the boy? What was he doing in the house?”
“You know Ruth,” Buck said. “She’s a good mother. She wanted him to stay in school, and she needed somebody to look after the house until she could come home. But she would never have left him if she’d known Ed would be released so quickly.”
Sam muttered an oath. “So we couldn’t produce her even if we wanted to.”
“Not unless she gets worried about Skip and comes on her own—that, or unless Jess knows how to reach her.”
“So right now, all we can do is wait,” Sam said.
Buck nodded. “That’s it. Wait and pray.”
* * *
Christmas lights blurred in Jess’s vision as she followed the police van through Branding Iron. The traffic had slowed their progress, but the siren was still blasting, urging people and vehicles to let them pass.
When the van passed through town and took the road south, Jess knew that her worst fears had come to pass. There was only one place the police could be headed and only one reason they could be going there.
By now, the sun was low in the sky. In the west, sooty clouds were flowing along the horizon, threatening another storm. The night would be dark and cold and long.
As the van swung onto the turnoff road, the siren’s wail ceased, but the red light atop the vehicle continued to blink. Jess knew where the team was going but she still didn’t know what to expect. She only knew that it would be bad.
At last the McCoy place came into view. Jess could see three vehicles out front. The sheriff’s SUV was here as expected. And the sight of Sam’s pickup wasn’t really a surprise. But what was Cooper’s Jeep doing here?
Buck waved the van to a parking place. Jess parked some distance behind the other vehicles, giving them plenty of room to back out. Cooper was first to see her climb out of her car. He strode toward her, his face a mask of distress. His hands caught her shoulders, as if bracing her, but he made no attempt to pull her close.
“What is it? What’s happening?” she asked.
He told her, in a voice ragged with strain. “Ed McCoy’s in the house. He’s got Skip and Trevor and Maggie. He’s got at least one gun, and he’s threatening to dynamite the house and everyone in it if his wife doesn’t show up with their little girls.”
Jess willed her limp knees to support her. She could see Grace standing behind the open door of the pickup. The SWAT team, already in their gear, was climbing out of the van. Sam appeared to be briefing them.
Buck had spotted her. Leaving the others, he sprinted to where she stood with Cooper. “Thank God you’re here, Jess,” he said. “We need you.”
Her surprise was no more than a flash. Of course they would know about her—Buck and Sam and Grace. Cooper would have told them. With precious lives at stake, how could he not have told them?
A tremor, as real and as physical as an electric shock, passed through her. It was as if a set of gears connecting her mind and her body had meshed and begun to turn—familiar gears, still working smoothly after all this time. This was what she did, Jess told herself. It was who she was.
But never before, in all the years at her old job, had a situation been as personal as this one.
Her gaze met Cooper’s. Their contact was brief, but she saw the hope in his eyes, the trust mingled with fear and uncertainty. She couldn’t say more to him now. If she did, she would break.
Jess turned to Buck. “I’ll do everything I can. But I’ll need help.”
“You’ve got it,” Buck said. “Sam’s the one in charge—thank heaven for that. He’s already planning on you.”
