Chapter 19
NINETEEN
Sandra was mentally preparing herself to make a call to the boardroom.
With the hospital phone lines restored, she had a link directly to the person they’d pegged as the shot caller.
Her strategic position in the hospital seemed to confirm their earlier theory that she was in charge.
There were the lives of eleven board members in this woman’s hands, plus Beal’s assistant and presumably another employee taking minutes from the meeting.
It would be great to have eyes on that shot caller.
“Luis, what’s the ETA on the security video? ”
“I was just going to give you the good news. I got an email that I should have a backdoor link within the hour.”
“And that will give us the live feed and earlier video?” Sandra was curious if the footage would reveal whether the gunwoman approached Beal’s assistant directly or simply used her to get into the meeting. It also wouldn’t hurt to get some backstory on all the perps.
“It should offer both,” Luis told her.
“So we have a room full of these powerful people,” Neal began, “but we still don’t know if this is about a request or revenge. Or both, I suppose. Should I get officers out talking to assistants and family to see if there are any threats against them on file?”
“Let me see if I can get anywhere before we go dispensing manpower on that,” Sandra said. “I’m going to call the boardroom. I assume there’s a phone in there?” Sandra directed the question at Luis.
“There is.” Luis got her the direct number and handed it to Sandra on a piece of paper.
“Thanks,” she said as she put her headset on again.
Kreiger stood and left the vehicle without a word.
She imagined he was going to inform ERT about the armed woman being in the boardroom.
They’d no doubt study the hospital blueprints and strategize a breach.
They could technically use the stairwell to bypass the other levels where the gunmen were placed.
If they shut down the shot caller, her partners might surrender.
At least Sandra imagined that was Kreiger’s thinking.
It could backfire, though. With the shot caller taken out, one of the others might assume the lead and become more of a threat.
Sandra was thinking the man on the fourth wasn’t likely to roll over.
Not after he’d already shown independent thinking.
She wondered what the shot caller would think of that.
Sandra couldn’t imagine she’d be pleased with a rogue partner who could jeopardize the entire mission.
This didn’t stop her from putting the call through.
The line rang six times before it was answered.
“Leave us alone!” a woman barked. Definitely the woman from earlier over the walkie-talkie. Stick to the plan.
“Please. Let me help you.” Sandra used a calm, soothing voice. “I’m Sandra with the FBI.”
“I don’t need any help from you. And wait. You said Sandra? Aren’t you that lady who was on the walkie-talkie this morning? What do you want?”
“Honestly, I’d like this to end now.”
“Well, that’s not up to you.”
“You’re right. But you’ve been in there a while now. You must be hungry. Let me get you some food.” She passed Brice a side-glance, and he shook his head.
“We’re doing just fine in here.”
Sandra debated whether she should mention what Mickey had done, but decided it was potentially volatile and didn’t want to risk escalating things. Instead, she said, “Why don’t you tell me what I can do for you, then?”
“You called this number, so you know about the board meeting, don’t you?”
“I do. Are you looking to speak to someone in there?”
“What’s the point? No one’s listening.” This confession was hurled out, full of disappointment and tainted with confusion.
Sandra still wasn’t assured that taking a room full of hostages was simply about talking. She couldn’t rule out that the woman might murder someone to get her way. She couldn’t take the chance that the gun was purely a prop to encourage cooperation. “Listening to you about what?” Sandra mirrored.
“Why would we discuss this with you?” the woman said and hung up.
Monica finished typing the script of the conversation, while Gibson popped up and wrote the time of 1:15 PM and that contact with the shot caller was made.
If Sandra had any doubts before, they were gone with the woman’s use of the plural pronouns.
Her last statement should have easily been a first-person response.
Why would I discuss this with you? Her refusal to lay out any demands to Sandra suggested this woman expected someone inside that room to make things right or to deliver on something.
She saw her goal as something that Sandra and anyone out here could not help with.
Sandra removed her headset. “She wants someone in that room to do something for her and her accomplices.”
“I’m more concerned with what she’s prepared to do if she doesn’t get her way,” Neal put in.
“If we take her at her word everyone is doing fine in there,” Brice said, “it tells us a bit about her. She’s been in there for hours, and if she had intentions to shoot anyone, that would have happened by now.”
“You’re assuming it hasn’t. We don’t know this woman. There’s no trust there,” Neal said.
“I’m with you there,” Sandra said, siding with the team leader. “We can’t assume she didn’t shoot anyone or that she won’t. The fact is she went in there with a gun.”
“You’d think if she discharged her weapon, though, Janie would have mentioned hearing gunfire,” Gibson pointed out.
“That doesn’t mean this woman hasn’t hurt someone without discharging her weapon,” Sandra said. “I think we need to consider she believes someone in that room has the power to do what they want.”
“It’s also possible they want the hospital to do something that takes the approval of a committee, not just one person,” Brice said.
“Sure, but we have nothing but theories.” Sandra turned to Neal.
“I’m with you. I think it’s time we reach out to the assistants and family members of everyone in that room and see if any of them have had any threats made against them recently or if any complaints have been lodged against them. I’d put priority on Beal.”
Neal was nodding. “I’ll get officers dispatched to the offices and homes of these people ASAP.”
“Dr. Beal’s husband might be harder to pin down.” Brice pointed at the screen of his laptop, where he had the background pulled on a Wyatt Beal, along with his driver’s license photo. “He’s a high-profile defense lawyer with a downtown firm.”
He was a handsome man too, judging by what Sandra was seeing. And the only reason he probably hadn’t called in was because his work was keeping him busy and away from the news.
“Someone will track him down and have a chat,” Neal said and took out his phone.
The door to the vehicle opened, and Kreiger came inside. “ERT has eyes on the boardroom windows, but all the blinds are shut. Snipers are on standby until we give our word.”
What he meant was when he gave his word. The true lingo of a shot caller shining through.
“Vos got in touch with the armed woman from the eighth floor,” Monica said.
Kreiger leveled his gaze at Sandra. “Did she agree to surrender?”
“She’s talking,” Sandra responded.
“That’s a no to surrendering then.” If Kreiger was going to say more, he was interrupted by the phone ringing at Gibson’s workstation.
Kreiger walked over to Gibson just as the intelligence officer spun. The back of his chair banged against the lieutenant’s side.
“Son of a— Watch what you’re doing,” Kreiger cussed.
Gibson snapped his mouth shut, grimaced, waited a few beats before speaking.
“I just received a call from the on-duty supervisor with nine-one-one dispatch. We already knew that calls have been flooding in, but they’ve gathered some conclusive information.
By piecing together all accounts, there are four assailants with one positioned on floors two, four, six, and eight. Two are men, and two are women.”
“So why not every floor?” Brice asked, looking at Sandra.
It was a valid question, and without the ability to read minds it was impossible to know the answer. “I don’t know. It could be they wanted to be spread out, but didn’t have enough people to cover each floor.”
“Or there’s something special about those floors.” Brice narrowed his eyes as he asked this question, and then turned to Luis. “We know about the fourth and sixth.”
Critical heart and brain patients on the fourth. The server room for the hospital system on the sixth…
“The second is orthopedics, spine and pain center, rehabilitation, and maternity,” Luis said. “I already told you what’s on the eighth.”
“They picked these locations strategically,” she concluded. “The eighth for the board meeting, the sixth for shutting down communication, and the second and fourth to use influence over us. With critical patients and newborns within reach, they’d feel untouchable.”
“There was definitely a lot of planning put into today,” Neal said. “Video surveillance was the only thing they seemed to have overlooked. They must not have known it was serviced outside of the hospital, or figured with the system virus, it would be knocked out.”
Sandra could think of another reason. “Or they’re not afraid of having their faces on camera.”
“They don’t have criminal records,” Brice said, rounding out her thought. “They wouldn’t be in any facial recognition database.”
“Exactly,” Sandra agreed. “I’d like to add that despite what they’ve done here, I don’t think we’re looking at professionals.
There would be someone on each floor, maybe more than one in that case.
It would guarantee full coverage. Honestly, I think the gunmen on the other floors are nothing but a distraction or insurance that the shot caller gets left alone in the boardroom. ”
“That could make sense,” Monica piped up from her desk.
Sandra turned to look at her. “Then her cohorts raise the alarm after she’s in that boardroom.”
“All right, let’s say all this is the case, how does any of this help us?” Kreiger added.
Faced with that direct question, Sandra had an immediate answer.
“It tells me that the woman hostage taker in that boardroom isn’t just the shot caller, but she’s the most invested and has the most at stake.
She’s not letting anyone else take care of the main job. That makes the others more vulnerable.”
“That guy you spoke to on the fourth didn’t sound vulnerable to me.” Kreiger perched his hands on his hips.
“Give me some time to see what I can do,” Sandra said. “In fact, my plan is to get him on the phone again, and with any luck, talking.”
“You sure you don’t want to rethink that?” Neal raised his eyebrows. “He made it pretty clear the last time what he’d do if you called again.”
“But he’s not calling the shots here,” she said.
Kreiger pressed his lips. “He kind of is.”
“Um, excuse me.” Luis held up a finger and continued speaking when everyone looked at him. “I’ve got access to live footage now.”
“Great, show us the nurses’ station on the fourth,” Sandra requested.
“Coming right up. Huh. No one’s around.”
“Chapman mentioned the gunman was in the nurse break room,” she said.
“And that’s it right there.” Luis pointed at his screen, indicating a door close to the nurses’ station.
There wasn’t anything to be gained from looking at a closed door. “Can you bring up old footage?”
“Anything you want. I have access to all of it,” Luis said.
“Bring up the footage at that station starting at one o’clock.” That was the time she’d spoken with Mickey.
“One minute.” Luis pushed some buttons on his laptop.
Seconds later, the gunman from the fourth floor was on the screen.
He was of average looks and size. What concerned her the most was his relaxed body posture.
He had supposedly shot someone, had threatened a man’s life, and he was slumped in a chair behind the desk and slowly swiveling while he was on the phone with her.
It wasn’t the image of a man full of remorse.
It was that of a man without a conscience.