The Negotiator

“You are doing something worthwhile—all the time—but especially right now. You’re holding this thing together, Jennifer, and you really are doing a great job.”

For just a second, she almost felt she was somewhere else, in a different time and place. The warmth of his praise eased her fear. “Thanks.”

His raspy voice went serious. “So now…you have to help me some more. The truck’s finally on the way. Put Howard on the phone so I can tell him.”

“I’ll try.”

Jennifer turned and looked in Howard’s direction. He was staring into the distance, his mind obviously not in the present. “Howard?” she asked gently. “Howard? Please come talk to the officer.”

He didn’t respond at all. She rested the phone’s receiver on a shelf and walked to where he stood. Her stomach in knots, she ignored her fright and spoke firmly, as if talking to one of the children. “Howard, you need to come talk to Officer Winters. He’s on the phone and he has something to tell you.”

“You tell me.”

“No. You need to hear this yourself.”

To her total surprise, he nodded once, then lumbered across the room and picked up the phone. She hurried behind him. He held the receiver to his ear but didn’t say anything.

A moment later, he turned and handed her the phone.

Jennifer spoke. “Yes?”

“I told him the truck’s on the way. In the meantime, you’re going to have to do something else, too.”

“What?”

Instead of answering, he waited a moment, the seconds ticking by almost audibly. Once again, Jennifer found herself imaging the man behind the voice. His words carried the same timbre of authority her father’s always had—academies taught you how to do that, she suspected, military or police, it made no difference—but absent from Beck Winters’s tones was the overlay of cruelty her father’s voice had always possessed. Winters had children of his own, she decided, and was a good father. Patient. Kind. Loving. Emotions and actions that had been empty words to her father. With a start, she realized she was connecting with Beck Winters, this stranger, on a level she seldom did with men.

“You have to get him to stand by the window. I won’t bring the truck down the street until that point.”

She felt a flicker of unease. “Why?”

“Because that’s how we do things. These are negotiations, and he gets nothing for free. When he sees the truck, then he has to talk to me and release another child. You’ve got to get him to do this.”

Her mouth went dry. “I understand but…”

Beck’s voice dropped, and she felt as if he were standing right beside her, his warm eyes on hers. “Jennifer…how else can he see the truck? This is the only way.”

Her chest eased a tad and she took a deep breath. He was right, of course.

“It’s going to be fine, Jennifer. He trusts you, and I know you can get him to that window. Once he’s there, then…then we’ll start to talk and I can influence him.” He fell silent. “I have to be able to talk directly to this guy, Jennifer. The most dangerous hostage takers are the ones who won’t talk to me. If I can’t get some kind of conversation going with him, this is going to end badly. I can almost guarantee that, especially with Howard’s history.”

“His history? What do you mean? He’s never done anything like this before.”

The officer answered quickly. “He’s male, he’s urban, he has below average intelligence. These are people who turn to violence as an answer. It’s not the boss at the steel plant, it’s not the manager at the oil company. It’s the worker, Jennifer. The poor slob at the bottom who has no control over his life.” He paused. “He has nothing to lose. He thinks it’s hopeless anyway.”

“I understand how you could read it that way, but you don’t know him the way I do—”

“And you don’t know everything I know.” He bit off the words, as if he’d said more than he’d planned. “Just help me out, okay? Are the kids still at the back of the room?”

“Yes.”

“It’s imperative you keep them back there. I’ll bring the truck down the street as soon as I see Howard at the window. You just get him over there.”

“Okay.”

She started to hang up, but before she could put the receiver down, she heard his voice say her name. She brought the phone back to her ear. “Yes?”

Static rippled over the line, faint and barely discernable. The noise made her wonder if they were being recorded. “Be careful, Jennifer. Just…be careful.”

She started to answer, then realized he was gone. Hanging up the phone, she looked over at Howard and said a silent prayer.

BECK WIPED HIS FACE and looked over at Lena. “Is the truck here yet?”

“There’s a traffic tie-up on Highway 98. One Q-Tip rammed another. Surprise, surprise. The road’s blocked in both directions, but Dispatch said they’d have it moving in just a few minutes. It should get here anytime.”

Beck shook his head. Everyone on the force called the older local residents “Q-Tips” because they all had white hair and wore tennis shoes to match. Florida had its share of elderly drivers, but Beck wasn’t sure they were any worse than the tourists who drank too much then got on the road. At least the older people drove slowly.

Lena ducked her head toward the building. “How are they doing? The teacher holding up?”

“She’s the only reason there hasn’t been gunfire yet. She’s keeping French appeased and the kids quiet.”

He stared out the window of the motor home into the dusk. They’d cut the electricity to the school and the building had fallen into darkness as soon as the summer sun had dipped behind them, rimming the school in gold. Occasionally he saw the beam of a flashlight near the rear of the room. Beck wasn’t surprised to see the teacher was prepared. Classrooms were supposed to have emergency supplies in case of hurricanes, but people forgot, and batteries went bad. Not in Miss Barclay’s class, though. He’d bet money she had the correct number of bandages and aspirin as well.

Lena sank into a chair by his side, her fingers going to the shuffle of papers beside the phone. She picked out Jennifer’s photo, studying it intently. Without looking at him, she spoke. “She’s pretty.”

“I hadn’t noticed.”

Lena’s head came up. “Right.”

He flicked his eyes toward the picture, but immediately returned his gaze to the school. He didn’t need the fuzzy image anymore—Jennifer’s face was planted firmly in his brain. Too firmly, in fact. It’d be a while before he was able to get those brown eyes out of his mind, no matter how this all ended. They sat without talking for a few minutes, then Lena spoke once more. “Did you tell her to get him to the window?”

“Yeah.”

“What’d she say?”

He turned and looked at her. “I didn’t explain why—”

“Of course not.”

He turned back. “She’ll do it.”

Lena leaned forward and put her hand on his arm. “Beck, listen. I know you don’t agree, but we can’t let this go on forever—”

Lena had taken off her headset and had been using a radio. It came to life with garbled speech. She pushed the button on the side and barked, “What is it?”

“The truck’s here.” Lincoln Hood, one of the entry men, spoke, the noise of the crowd behind him filtering into the radio’s microphone along with his voice. “I’m switching places with the driver right now, then I’ll bring it down the street when you’re ready.”

“Go slow, Linc,” Tamirisa said immediately. “Less than five miles an hour, okay?”