Hostage

by Robert Crais

  “Holy shit.”

  The television showed the L.A. County Sheriffs rolling through the dark streets of York Estates. Dennis watched a group of SWAT assholes trot through an oval of helicopter light as they deployed through the neighborhood. Snipers; stone-cold killers dressed in ninja suits with rifles equipped with night-vision scopes, laser sites, and—for all he knew—motherfucking death rays. Mars had been right; these bastards would drop them cold if they tried to drive away with the kids.

  “This is fucked. Look at all those cops.”

  Dennis peeked out the shutters again, but so many floodlights had been set up in the street that the glare was blinding; a thousand cops could be standing sixty feet away, and he wouldn’t know.

  “Fuck!”

  Everything had once more changed. One minute he had a great plan to slip away, but now all sides of the house were lit up like the sun and an army of cops were filling the streets. Overhead, the helicopters sounded as if they were about to land on the house. Sneaking through the adjoining neighbor’s yard would now be impossible. Dennis turned back to the television. Six patrol cars filled the cul-de-sac, washed in brilliant white light from the helicopters, as many as a dozen cops moving behind them.

  Dennis went to Walter Smith, and inspected his wound. The bruising had followed his eye socket under the eye to his right cheek, and moved across most of his forehead above the eye. The eye had swollen closed. Dennis wished now that he hadn’t hit the sonofabitch. He turned away and went to the door.

  “I’m going to check the windows again, okay? I gotta make sure Kevin isn’t falling asleep. Mars, you keep an eye on the TV. If anything happens, yell.”

  Mars, leaning against the wall with his face to the shutters, didn’t respond. Dennis wasn’t sure if Mars heard him or not, but he didn’t care. He trotted back to the family room to find Kevin.

  “What’s going on? Aren’t we leaving?”

  “The goddamned Sheriffs are here. They’re crawling all over the goddamned neighborhood. They got snipers out there!”

  Dennis was consumed with the sudden notion that he would be assassinated. These cops would want to pay back the bastard who had wounded one of their own, and that was him. If he passed a window or showed himself in the goddamned French doors, those sniper bastards would bust a cap and put one right through his head.

  Kevin, of course, made it worse by putting on the pussy face.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “I don’t know, Kevin! They got so many lights out there I can’t see a goddamned thing. Maybe I can see better on those televisions back there in the safety room.”

  Kevin suddenly turned toward the rear of the house.

  “Did you hear that?”

  Dennis listened, scared shitless that SWAT killers were even now slipping into the house like a tapeworm up a cat’s ass.

  “Hear what?”

  “I thought I heard a bump from back there.” Dennis held his breath to listen more closely, but there was nothing.

  “Asshole. Just let me know if Mars is coming. I might be with the money.”

  Dennis left Kevin at the mouth of the hall, then trotted back to the master bedroom, and into the safety room.

  He hadn’t checked the monitors since the sky was rimmed with red. Now he saw Mars standing by the shutters; the front entry with bullet holes in the door; and the girl tied to a chair in her upstairs room. He couldn’t see the boy, but didn’t think twice about it; Dennis searched the monitors for angles outside the house, but those views were shadowed and unreadable.

  “Shit!”

  He spun away from the monitors, frustrated and pissed. He jerked an armful of hangered jackets from the clothes rack and threw them at the far wall. If there was any way to get fucked, he could find it!

  Dennis turned back to the monitors. He considered the buttons and switches beneath the monitors. Nothing was labeled, but he didn’t have anything to lose. If it was up, he pushed it down; if it was out, he pushed it in. Suddenly a monitor that had shown nothing but shadows on the dark side of the house filled with a lighted view. He pushed a second button, and the pool area filled with light. A third, and the side of the house by the garage was lit. He saw the cops at the front of the house pointing at the lights that suddenly blazed at them.

  Dennis pushed more buttons, and the wall at the rear of the property beyond the pool was bathed in light. Two SWAT cops with rifles were climbing over the wall.

  “SHIT!!!”

  Dennis sprinted back through the house, shouting.

  “THEY’RE COMING!!! KEV, MARS!!! THEY’RE COMING!”

  Dennis raced to the French doors in the dark beyond the kitchen. He couldn’t see the cops past the blinding outside lights, but he knew they were there, and he knew they were coming.

  Dennis fired two shots into the darkness, not even thinking about it, just pulling the trigger, bam bam. Two glass panes in the French doors shattered.

  “The fuckin’ cops are comin’! Talley, that fuck! That lying fuck!”

  Dennis thought his world was about to explode: They would fire tear gas, then crash through the doors. They were probably rushing the house right now with battering rams.

  “Mars! Kev, we gotta get those kids!”

  Dennis ran for the stairs, Kevin shouting behind him.

  “What’re we gonna do with the kids?”

  Dennis didn’t answer. He hit the stairs three at a time, going up.

  THOMAS

  Three minutes before Dennis Rooney saw the SWAT officers and fired two rounds, Thomas lowered himself through the ceiling into the laundry room. It was so dark that he cupped his hand over the flashlight and risked turning on the light, using the dim red glow through his fingers to pick his footing. He let himself down onto the top of the hot-water heater, felt with his toe to find the washing machine, then slid to the floor.

  He held still, listening to Kevin and Dennis. The laundry room turned a corner where it opened into the kitchen; the pantry was off that little hall. He could hear them talking, though he couldn’t understand what they were saying, and then the voices stopped.

  Thomas crept through the laundry room to his father’s tiny hobby room at the end opposite the kitchen. Both rooms were at the rear of the garage, though you could only get to the garage through the laundry. That’s how everyone came into the house from their cars: through the laundry room and into the kitchen.

  When Thomas reached the hobby room, he eased the door closed, then once more turned on his flashlight. His father’s hobby was building plastic models of rocket ships from the early days of the space program. He bought the kits off eBay, built and painted them at a little workbench, then put them on shelves above the bench. His father also had a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol in a metal box on the top shelf. He had heard his mom and dad fighting about it: His dad used to keep it under the front seat of the Jaguar, but his mom raised such a stink that his father had taken it out of the car and put it in the box.

  On the top shelf.

  A long way up.

  His hand cupped over the bell of the flashlight, Thomas spread his fingers enough to let out a shaft of light. He figured that he could use the stool to climb onto the bench, and, from there, he could probably reach the box.

  He climbed. It was so quiet that every creak from the bench sounded like an earthquake. He turned on the flashlight again for a moment to fix the box in his mind’s eye, then reached for it, but the box was too high. He stretched up onto his toes. His fingers grazed the box just enough for him to work it toward the edge of the shelf.

  That’s when he heard Dennis.

  “THEY’RE COMING!!! KEV, MARS!!! THEY’RE COMING!”

  Thomas didn’t waste a moment thinking about the gun; he had come so close, but now he didn’t have time. His only thought was to get back to his room before they discovered him. He jumped down from the bench and ran to the laundry as two fast gunshots exploded in the house, so loud that they made his ears ring.

&n
bsp; He wasn’t thinking about Jennifer’s purse. It was on the folding table by the door to the garage, that convenient place where everyone in the family dropped their stuff when they came in from the garage. Jennifer’s purse was there, a Kate Spade like every other girl in her high school owned. Thomas grabbed it.

  He scrambled up onto the washing machine, from there to the top of the hot-water heater, then through the access hatch into the crawl space. The last thing that he heard before closing the hatch was Dennis shouting that they had to get the kids.

  TALLEY

  Handing off the role of primary negotiator was never easy. Talley had already forged a bond with Rooney, and now would pull away, replacing himself with Maddox. Rooney might resist, but the subject was never given a choice. Having a choice was having power, and the subject was never given power.

  Talley brought Maddox and Ellison into the cul-de-sac where they hunkered behind their car. Talley wanted to go over his earlier conversations with Rooney in greater detail so that Maddox would have something with which to work, but they didn’t have time. The gunshots from the house cracked through the summer air like a car backfiring in a distant canyon: poppop.

  Almost instantly, a storm of transmissions crackled over their radios:

  “Shots fired! Shots fired! We are under fire from the house, west rear at the wall! Advise on response!”

  All three of them knew what had happened the instant they heard the calls.

  “Damnit, she moved in too close! Rooney thinks he’s being breached!”

  Ellison said, “We’re fucked.”

  Talley felt sick; this is the way it went bad, this is how people got dead, just this fast.

  Maddox clawed for his radio as other voices checked off positions and status. The tinny voice of Carl Hicks, the tactical supervisor, came back, calm over the strained voices of his men.

  “Will advise, stand by while we assess.”

  Talley didn’t wait; he dialed the tactical team’s frequency into his own transceiver.

  “Pull back, pull back, pull back! Do NOT return fire!”

  Martin’s voice cut over his, short and clipped.

  “Who is this?”

  “Talley. I told you to respect that perimeter!”

  “Talley, get off the freq.”

  Maddox finally had his radio, cursing as he keyed the mike.

  “One, Maddox. Listen to him, Captain. Do not breach that house. Pull back or we’re going to have a mess!”

  “Clear the frequency! Those people are in danger.”

  “Do not breach that house! I can talk to him!”

  Talley had his cell phone out. He punched redial to call the house, praying that Rooney would answer, then ran to Jorgenson’s car, still there in the street, and turned on the public address system.

  THOMAS

  Thomas scrambled across the joists like a spider. He slammed his head into the low-hanging rafters so hard that his teeth snapped together, but he didn’t stop or even think about the noise he was making. He scurried through the long straight tunnel of the crawl space past Jennifer’s room, under her window, past her bathroom, past his, and then to the access hatch in his closet. He didn’t pause to see if they were in his room, but scrambled through the hatch and ran to his bed. He wanted to retie himself; to pretend that he hadn’t moved. He pulled the ropes back over his ankles, working frantically, his hands slick with sweat, as shouts and footsteps pounded toward him through the hall.

  He looped the ropes and slipped his hands through, realized in a flash of fear that he had forgotten the tape that had covered his mouth, but then it was too late.

  DENNIS

  Dennis threw open the door. He saw that the boy had damn near untied himself, but he didn’t care.

  “C’mon, fat boy!”

  “Get away from me!”

  Dennis jammed his pistol into his waist, then pinned the fat boy with a knee to untie him. Outside, Talley’s voice echoed over his P.A., but Dennis couldn’t make out the words. He pulled the fat boy from his bed, hooked an arm around his neck, and dragged him back toward the stairs. If the cops crashed through the front door, he would hold his gun to the kid’s head and threaten to kill him. He would hide behind the kid and make the cops back down. He had a chance. He had hope.

  “Hurry up, Kevin! Jesus! Bring the girl!”

  Dennis dragged the fat boy down the stairs and into the office where Mars was waiting by the window. Mars looked totally calm, as if he was killing time in a bar before going to work. He tipped his head when he saw Dennis, that stupid tiny smile on his calm face.

  “They’re not doing anything. They’re just sitting there.”

  Dennis dragged the kid to the shutters. Mars opened the shutters enough for Dennis to see. The cops weren’t storming the house. They were hunkered behind their cars.

  Dennis realized that the phone was ringing just as Talley’s voice came over the P.A. again.

  “Answer the phone, Dennis. It’s me, Talley. Answer the phone so I can tell you what happened.”

  Dennis scooped up the phone.

  TALLEY

  Martin and Hicks ran into the cul-de-sac without waiting for a cover vehicle, Martin hitting the ground beside Talley so hard that she almost bowled him over, shouting, “What in hell do you think you’re doing, interfering with my deployment?”

  “He’s shooting at your people because he thinks they’re assaulting the house, Martin. You’re violating my agreement with him.”

  “This scene now belongs to me. You handed off control.”

  “Pull back your people, Martin. Just relax. Nothing is going on in there.”

  Talley keyed the P.A. mike again.

  “Dennis, take it easy in there. Please. Just pick up the phone.”

  “Hicks!”

  Hicks leaned into the car past Talley and jerked the mike plug from its jack.

  Talley’s head was throbbing. He felt caught in a vise.

  “Let me talk to him, Captain. Order your people to stand down, and let me talk to him. If it’s too far gone you can breach, but right now let me try. Tell her, Maddox.”

  Martin glared at Maddox, who nodded at her. He looked embarrassed.

  “He’s right, Captain. Let’s not get too aggressive here. If Talley made a deal, we have to honor it or this guy isn’t going to trust me any further than a cat can shit a walnut.”

  Martin glared at him so hard that she seemed to be trying to cook him with her eyes. She glanced at Hicks, then bit out the words.

  “Pull back.”

  Hicks, looking uncomfortable, plugged the P.A. plug back into its jack, then mumbled orders into his tactical mike.

  Talley turned back to the house.

  “Pick up the phone, Dennis. We made a screwup out here, but we are not coming into that house. Check it out. The perimeter is pulling back. Check it out and talk to me.”

  Talley held the cell phone to his ear, counting the rings. It rang fourteen times, fifteen …

  Finally, Rooney answered, screaming.

  “You fuck! You fuckin’ lied to me! I’ve got a fuckin’ gun to this kid’s head right here! We’ve got these people! We’ll fuckin’ kill’m, you fuck!”

  Talley spoke over him, his voice loud and forceful so that Rooney would hear him, but not strident. It was important to appear in control even when you weren’t.

  “They’re pulling back. They are pulling back, Dennis. Look. You see the officers pulling back?”

  The sounds of movement came over the phone. Talley guessed that Rooney had a cordless and was watching the tactical team at the rear of the property.

  “Yeah. I guess. They’re going back over the wall.”

  “I didn’t lie to you, Dennis. It’s over now, okay? Don’t hurt anyone.”

  “We’ll burn this fuckin’ place down, you try to come in here. We’ve got gasoline all good to go, Talley. You try to come in and this place is going to burn.”

  Talley locked eyes with Maddox. Rooney booby-
trapping the house with gasoline was a bad turn; if he was creating a situation dangerous to the hostages, it could justify a preemptive breach of the house.

  “Don’t do anything to endanger yourself or those children, Dennis. For your own sake and for the sake of the innocents in there. This kind of thing can create problems.”

  “Then stay on the other side of that wall. You assholes try to come get us and this place is gonna burn.”

  Talley muted the phone while Dennis answered to warn Maddox about the gasoline. Maddox relayed the information to the tactical team. If Rooney was telling the truth about the gasoline, firing tear gas or flash-bang grenades into the house could ignite an inferno.

  “No one is coming in. We screwed up, is all. Some new guys came out and we got our wires crossed, but I didn’t lie to you. I wouldn’t do that.”

  “You fuckin’ well did screw up, dude! Jesus!”

  The tension lessened in Rooney’s voice, and, with it, Talley felt the vise ease its grip. If Rooney was talking, he wouldn’t shoot.

  “What’s the status in there, Dennis? You didn’t hurt anyone, did you?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Those shots you fired, they were out of the house?”

  “I’m not saying I fired anything. You’re saying that, not me. I know you’re recording this.”

  “No one needs a doctor?”

  “You’re gonna need a doctor, you try this shit again.”

  Talley took a deep breath. It was done; they were past the crisis. Talley glanced at Martin. She looked irritated, but attentive.

  Talley muted the receiver again.

  “He’s calming down. I think now would be a good time for the handoff.”