by Hill, Casey
‘You think the charades are for their benefit to protect the illusion?’
‘According the profile, he may have a natural affinity towards women.’
‘His wife was killed in a car crash,’ said Jacobs.
‘That may well be crucial, the trigger for the creation of this elaborate fantasy, but I’m not sure if this alone would make him withdraw from the world. I wonder if he’s got a deeper rooted reason for shunning modern society.’
‘I think it’s simply his way of keeping dangerous influences away from the children,’ Chris said.
‘So that means no TV, no radio, no computers, nothing that would let them have any contact with the outside world,’ said Jacobs.
Reilly nodded. ‘There was nothing like that at the lake house – the only modern thing I’ve seen is the CCTV system he had to monitor the fence line and the gates, and that was locked in his study – away from little eyes.’
‘But he’s plucking those kids from the real world, so they know those things exist,’ reasoned Jacobs. He thought for a moment, then turned to Chris. ‘What else can you tell me about the boy, Conn?’
‘Apart from the fact that he would go back there in a heartbeat?’
‘Yeah, that’s interesting, isn’t it?’ The negotiator eased back in his chair.
‘The way he spoke… if you didn’t know otherwise you would think that in Tir Na Nog he had a happy, loving family,’ Chris said.
‘So McAllister’s created what the boy wants, a surrogate family.’ Jacobs gazed at the ceiling absentmindedly. ‘He plays upon the power of a child’s imagination. Kids grow up in a world that’s half reality, half fantasy. Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy. For them they are as real as Mum and Dad, aunts and uncles … What McAllister has done is taken that natural affinity of children – their inclination to believe in magical, fantastical places – and turned that to his advantage. He has created a mythical world, and the kids have bought into it.’
‘Our profiler is in agreement,’ Reilly said. ‘He used the analogy of the Catholic Church and how it exerts control by fear of mortal sin and damnation.’
‘Look, all this is very well but how does it help us to get him to come out?’ Kennedy asked impatiently.
‘That’s the question, isn’t it, what does McAllister believe? When he lies in bed at night, is he David McAllister, child kidnapper? Or is he Setanta, spiritual guide of Tír na nÓg?’
Reilly raised an eyebrow. ‘You make it sound almost charming.’
Jacobs leaned forward, his face full of fire. ‘It is, Reilly, it is, at least to McAllister and those kids. In his mind he has created something wonderful, something precious. We have to figure out how to get him to give that up.’
‘We could play on that fantasy,’ Chris suggested.
‘The Celtic mythology?’
‘Yes, the Children of Lir is a complicated story, full of jealousy and double crossing, but I think the crucial part is whether McAllister chooses to believe this is the end of one of those periods, or the absolute end. In the story, when the kids were finally released from the curse, they withered and died.’
‘Well, we need to coax him along to believe that this is not the end, and certainly not the place the children should spend the next period of their lives,’ Jacobs said. ‘Something about the effects of keeping the children there, that they have to leave eventually, and what happens to them then. We know that the boy Conn was rebellious or too difficult to control as he got older like all maturing males – why else would he cast him out? And we can only assume that the other two—’
‘Sarah and possibly Jennifer, we haven’t been able to confirm her identity yet.’
‘Right. We have to consider that they too were rebellious, that they had a hankering for greener pastures. Why else leave?’
‘Sarah was pregnant of course,’ Reilly reminded him.
He nodded. ‘Guess it was first hormones, and then maternal protection that kicked in there.’
Kennedy stood up, eager to get going. ‘So how are we going to play this?’
Jacobs looked around the room at each one of them. ‘Look, you all know what I do. I try and talk people out when they’re dug in like fleas on a hound. I’m not always successful, but most of the time I can get people to walk out without bloodshed.’ He paused. ‘But one of the reasons I am successful is that I use whatever help I can get – and unless any of you have any thoughts to the contrary, I think the biggest asset we have right now is Reilly.’ He turned to face her. ‘You’re the only one who’s actually been up close and personal with this guy.’
She frowned. ‘I’m not sure what you mean …’
‘I wouldn’t be fooled by that spiel in Avoca earlier.You recognized McAllister, but he may have known exactly who you were too, possibly saw you in the CCTV cameras at the gates last time.’
She closed her eyes, cursing herself for how stupid she’d been in not considering the possibility that McAllister had made her.
‘So chances are, he knows we’re coming and he’ll be ready. However,’ Jacobs continued, ‘the fact that he conversed with Reilly and didn’t attempt to harm her is a good thing. From what I’ve read about him from the files and the profile, he seems reasonably well disposed towards females.’
‘So what’s the plan then, Jacobs?’ Chris asked.
‘I’ll want Reilly on hand to start with. You’re the only one he has spoken with, maybe you can introduce me and see where we go from there.’
‘How do you think it will play out?’
He grimaced. ‘I hope to be able to speak with McAllister myself to get some kind of real feel for the situation,’ he said, ‘but I have little doubt that we’ll have to tread softly with this one. Get him spooked, show any force, and we’ll lose him again. We already know he has issues with reality. Who knows what he’s liable to do?’
Chapter 34
Back in Avoca, a command post had been set up amongst the trees near the perimeter of the outbuildings, but well out of the visibility of the occupants.
On the journey back to the village, Jacobs riding up front alongside Kennedy, Reilly could feel the tension radiating off Chris, which she wasn’t entirely sure was justified. They needed an expert this time, especially when things had gone so easily out of control before despite their own team’s best efforts.
The quiet country lane had been transformed by the time they got back. Unfortunately, it wasn’t just the presence of emergency services vehicles; once again, the press had got wind of the story.
Since the initial lurid headlines about the Angel had appeared, the media had resorted to speculating wildly due to the lack of further detail, or any more bodies. A story was only news when something was actually happening – but now the reporters had the taste of fresh blood, and were circling like a pack of hungry hyenas.
Reilly and Jacobs had to run the gauntlet of TV vans and parked cars lining the narrow lane, while the detectives headed to the CC command post. They arrived just in time to see O’Brien addressing the gathered reporters.
Reilly groaned as she saw the media scrum ahead of them. ‘How did they find out?’
‘How does anyone ever find out anything,’ Jacobs replied quickly. ‘It’s human nature – a secret is only really interesting if you can share it with someone who shouldn’t know about it. There has got to be at least a hundred people who know about this – that’s a hundred people with the chance to make a buck and feel important.’
They climbed slowly out of the car, grateful that O’Brien was garnering all the attention. ‘Are you going to have to say something?’ Reilly asked him.
Jacobs grinned, and shook his head. ‘Not in the contract. My name isn’t mentioned, and I don’t do press interviews.’ He was wearing a Gore-Tex rain jacket –he pulled the hood up tight around his head, and grabbed Reilly’s arm. ‘Let’s leave O’Brien to do what’s in his contract…’
Reilly followed his lead, and they skirted around O’Bri
en and the media, sticking to the grass verge, mostly hidden by the line of parked vehicles.
They reached the police cordon, and flashed their IDs to get past. Jacobs paused a moment. He turned back to the officers blocking the road. ‘Who’s in charge on the ground here?’
They nodded up the road to a tall cop talking into a radio. ‘Stokes.’
Jacobs nodded and they strode over to the man. He saw them approaching and gave Reilly a nod of recognition – their paths had crossed previously. He finished speaking on the radio and turned to them. ‘Reilly, nice to see you again.’
She smiled. Daniel Forrest had taught her to always go out of the way to be polite and friendly to people whose help you need – secretaries, maintenance workers, the often unrecognized people who make things happen. She had added uniformed officers to her list when she’d started in police work. ‘Hello, Sergeant Stokes. Good to see you too. How are you?.’
‘Great, thanks. That being said, I always know things are going to be, how shall I say…interesting when you’re around,’ he replied with a grin.
‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’ She turned to Jacobs. ‘This is Steve Jacobs, our hostage negotiator. He’s going to be working with us to try and resolve this and get those kids back safely.’
‘What can we do to assist, Mr Jacobs?’ Stokes asked.
Jacobs looked around. ‘Press are out in force here. Is the perimeter sealed? I gather it’s quite a big site.’
‘It’s good and tight. The fact that it backs onto the old quarry and is surrounded by the old slag piles means there no getting in or out from the west or north end of the site.’ He pointed in each direction. ‘The rest is bordered by the fence and we have a cordon set up at each end.’
‘Excellent. How close are your men to the gateway?’
‘As per request, we’ve tried to keep the men at least seventy yards away, and behind any natural cover,’ Stokes informed them.
‘Great. Just one more question – who’s my liaison?’
‘Sergeant Lee should be inside waiting for you.’ He indicated a small white trailer nearby.
Jacobs led the way to the trailer. Several uniforms were inside, drinking tea and chatting. One of them jumped up when they entered.
‘Which of you is Sergeant Lee?’ Jacobs asked.
The liaison officer was clean shaven, with dark hair graying slightly at the temples.
‘Tell me what we’ve got.’
‘This guy is going to take some convincing,’ Lee said, looking toward the building. ‘We’ve been talking options, and feel it would be best to try and get him a radio. We’ve a short wave rig – the base is here, we can give McAllister a handset. You too.’
Reilly looked – there was a bank of radio handsets plugged in and charging on a counter at the back of the trailer.
‘We’ve also got a handful of mobile phones,’ Lee continued.
‘They all call into the same number?’
Lee nodded. ‘That’s the only number they can call. Everything else is blocked.’
Jacobs looked at Reilly and raised his eyebrows. ‘Will we load up?’
Lee started busying himself grabbing phones and radio receivers. ‘There’s also some more vital equipment here,’ he informed them, pointing to a kettle and some tea bags. ‘Could be a long night.’
Chapter 35
‘Are you ready?’ Reilly nodded as she and Jacobs started to move closer to the gateway, picking their way through the puddles.
‘So you walk just in front of me, and let him see you first,’ he said.
She swallowed hard, her throat dry at the realization that what she was doing was fraught with danger. One wrong move and she could mess up everything. ‘What do I tell him?’
‘Tell him that your bosses are insisting that you talk to the kids, just to check on them. Don’t give him any deadlines, no pressure. We want him to think, not panic.’
‘What about you?’
‘Don’t say anything. He’ll ask.’
Reilly looked up at the negotiator’s face. He looked calm and relaxed, as though they were a couple out walking the dog in the country on a weekend afternoon. ‘Will you tell him why you’re here?’
He nodded. ‘If he asks. Never lie to people, they always find out. We have to establish trust – build on the familiarity he already has with you and try and extend that to me.’
Reilly let out a sharp breath. ‘OK, let’s do it.’
He smiled at her. ‘Trust me. You’ll be just fine.’
They reached the gateway. Reilly stood before the gates with Jacobs slightly off to one side – simply having him with her gave her confidence. He was one of those people who exuded positive energy.
‘How long do we stand here?’
He stayed focused on the gates. ‘As long as it takes.’
‘Do you think he’s watching us?’
‘We have no way of knowing, but my hunch is, yes. He’s a smart guy, I’m sure he’ll want to check us out a little before he shows.’ They had now been waiting for around ten minutes. ‘Either he’s testing us, waiting to see if we persist or...’
‘Or?’
‘Or he’s trying to decide what to do.’
Any further speculation was cut short by the sound of footsteps approaching on the gravel.
‘Here we go,’ whispered Jacobs. ‘Showtime.’
McAllister slowly walked into view with a grim look on his face, and much to Reilly’s horror, a shotgun nestled in the crook of his arm. He stopped a few yards from them, gate inbetween like a safety barrier. ‘Your friends may think they’re being very clever out there, hiding behind the trees and bushes,’ he began, ‘but they stand out like blood on snow.’
‘They are there to keep people out, not you in,’ Reilly replied shakily.
He looked puzzled. ‘People? What people?’
‘The press.’
The scowl on his face deepened. He thought for a minute. ‘Tell them they can stay – but don’t get any closer.’
‘I’ll let them know.’
He peered at Jacobs. ‘Who’s that?’
‘My name is Steve Jacobs.’
‘I don’t give a damn what your name is, what are you doing here?’ he growled.
Jacobs stayed quiet, forcing McAllister to dictate the encounter. As long as he was still there talking to them, Reilly thought, they were making progress.
He glared at Jacobs, then back at Reilly. ‘You lied to me, you said you were checking soil and rocks, you said you wanted to protect the beauty of this earth from men.’
Reilly hesitated a moment. ‘That was no lie. I’ve dedicated my whole life to protecting the beautiful things from the evil you and I know this world contains.’ She was thinking on her feet, trying to appeal to his way of thinking.
He didn’t respond, and she thought he looked tired, weary from trying to protect his crumbling fairytale. ‘I would like to see the children,’ she continued. ‘My boss says I need to see them, make sure they are OK.’
‘They’ve been “OK” for years without your help,’ he snapped, ‘so why do you need to see them now?’
‘Ms Steel is simply doing her job,’ Jacobs quickly replied.
He turned his attention back to the negotiator. ‘What did you say you were doing here?’
‘I’m just here to talk, to help.’
‘Ah …’ McAllister gave a bitter smile. ‘So I’m the crazy guy holed up with a bunch of prisoners, and you’re here to talk me out of it, is that it?’
Reilly held her breath, wondering how Jacobs would reply.
‘You’re the one holding the gun,’ he pointed out calmly.
‘What do you expect?’ McAllister snapped. ‘There’s an army of people harrying me for simply doing the right thing, and they are just waiting for me to relax my guard.’
‘Who do you think they are more likely to shoot?’ responded Jacobs. ‘An unarmed man, or one pointing a gun at two officers?’
McAllister consi
dered this for a moment.
‘Why don’t you just place the gun on the ground at your feet?’ suggested Jacobs, ‘so that we can have a polite conversation.’
‘Show me you’re not armed.’
Jacobs slowly unzipped his rain jacket, held it out above him, turned a slow circle in front of McAllister. ‘I’m not a policeman. I just talk to people.’
He looked past Reilly and Jacobs, nervous glances darting in every direction. Finally he seemed to relax. ‘No tricks?’
‘No tricks,’ Jacobs reassured him in a steady voice. ‘You have my word.’
McAllister gave a last suspicious glance around them, then slowly set the shotgun down at his feet. ‘Now what do you want?’
‘Now we talk,’ replied Jacobs. ‘We talk about whether we can see the kids.’
‘And if I say no?’
‘Let’s cross that bridge if we come to it.’ McAllister was focusing his attention on Jacobs now. Reilly was impressed at how the negotiator had used her to bring McAllister out, then deftly taken the focus away from her. ‘If we wanted to use force, we could have done so already. We could have ordered up a sniper to shoot you the second you pointed that gun at us, or sent in a team in the early hours of the morning to overwhelm you … that’s not what we want.’
‘So what do you want?’ He was still suspicious, but Jacobs had got him thinking.
‘To talk,’ Jacobs answered. ‘To check on the kids and reassure the boss that everyone is safe.’
For a moment Reilly thought McAllister was about to agree, then suddenly he bent and picked up his shotgun. ‘I need to think about it.’
Jacobs nodded, his face a picture of understanding. ‘Of course. It’s a big step for you.’
He glanced back towards the buildings. ‘I need to go and see how the children are. They have been through a lot this last few weeks. They miss me when I’m gone.’
