Chapter 64
LAUREN
Lauren doesn’t use her radio. Time is of the essence when -circulating details of missing children, but it would be ill-advised to share details of an unaccompanied child when the broadcast could be overheard. Instead, she calls control room.
‘Nothing on the system, sorry.’ The control room operator dashes Lauren’s hopes that someone has already taken Maya to a muster point. ‘What’s she wearing?’
Lauren describes Maya’s shimmery costume, breath catching as she jogs in the opposite direction to the few stragglers still leaving the evacuation zone now. ‘Can you check with CCTV? See if she left the Civic Centre?’
If Maya isn’t lost in the crowds, she’s still inside. Both options turn Lauren cold.
Control room calls back as she nears the inner cordon. ‘They’ve picked up the teacher in the Christmas jumper leading a bunch of kids out of the Civic Centre. Maya Prasanna isn’t with them.’
‘Then she must still be inside.’ Lauren ducks under a line of police tape tied across the street.
‘Bomb disposal did a sweep – there’s no one there.’
‘If she didn’t come out, she’s still there!’ It’s an effort to keep her voice calm. ‘Ask them to look again.’
A pause. ‘Yes, ma’am.’
‘What’s the status with the IEDs?’
‘As soon as the premises have been made safe, we’ll let everyone know.’
Lauren ends the call. A hundred metres ahead, not far from the entrance of the Civic Centre, she sees DI Stratman. He’s wearing a ballistics vest and talking to two firearms officers with rifles slung across their chest. He frowns as she approaches.
‘You shouldn’t be here.’
‘Nadeeka Prasanna’s elder daughter is still in there.
’ Please let that be true, she thinks. Maya would have come out of the toilet to find that her classmates and teachers had already left.
Would she have tried to make her way to the evacuation point, or stayed in place?
The Civic Centre would have perhaps felt less scary than the noisy chaos of the evacuation.
‘She can’t be,’ Stratman says. ‘Bomb disposal—’
‘Did a sweep, I know.’ Lauren shakes her head impatiently. ‘But she’s in there. Get them to check again.’
‘I will.’ His eyes flick towards the Civic Centre. ‘But right now we have a developing situation—’
‘Yes, a missing child,’ Lauren says tautly.
Stratman glances at the firearms officer, who takes the cue and peels away. ‘Fraser is on the roof,’ Stratman says, when they’re alone.
Lauren feels winded. She looks up but a concrete parapet hides the top of the building. A helicopter circles overhead.
‘Picked up on thermal. We’ve got snipers across the street.’
‘Snipers?’ Lauren’s voice is unsteady.
‘He’s taken a hostage, Lauren.’
Black blurs the edges of her vision and for a moment she thinks she might fall. Is this really happening? Can Fraser really be doing this?
‘The hostage negotiator is on his way, but Lauren . . .’ -Stratman hesitates. ‘If firearms get a clean shot . . . they will take him down.’
‘No!’ It comes out before Lauren’s even thought it, an urgent, visceral appeal that even now roots itself deeper. ‘You can’t let them do that.’
‘What he’s done is evil, Lauren.’
‘Let me speak to him. I can make him see sense. Resolve this without anyone getting—’
‘Absolutely not.’ Stratman shakes his head. Starts walking away.
Lauren grabs his arm. ‘I know him better than anyone else. And I’m here. The negotiator’s, what, twenty minutes away?’ She can tell from the flicker in Stratman’s eyes that she’s right.
‘It’s against protocol.’
‘Fuck protocol!’ Lauren holds Stratman’s gaze, imploring him to trust her. ‘Please,’ she says quietly. ‘Just let me try.’