Chapter 4
FOUR
Sandra had run into similar hostage takers before.
The type who spoke bold from the start and took the initiative.
It was a play to position themselves as the shot caller or one in control.
The good news was they often had a clear goal in mind.
The bad news was their agenda could be illogical.
And while the ruse the HT had adopted to gain entry seemed opportunistic, it could be a grave mistake to assume that’s all it was.
The HT had at least followed the news to request her.
Did that show forethought and planning, or did the HT simply follow the news?
“I see you don’t miss a beat,” Donny said, turning to her. “You remember how everything works?”
“I do.” She glanced down at the numeric keypad on the desk. Whenever she made a call or received one over the system, the others patched in through their headsets with muted mics.
“Great. That’s the number there.” Donny pointed at a handwritten scribble on a notepad, which he pushed toward her. “You can just take that if you want, and here’s a pen.” He grabbed one from a cup on his desk.
Sandra gave a quick glance at Kreiger. The only way to douse his instinct to rush ahead was to give him reason not to.
She took a few seconds to collect her breath, her thoughts, her emotions.
When she put the call through, this was no longer about her, or any tensions out here.
It wasn’t even about the hostages. It was about immersing herself in the hostage taker’s mindset.
It wasn’t enough to simply see his side.
She had to take on his concerns as if they were her own.
“Here goes.” Sandra nodded at the team, punched in the digits, and waited. And waited…
The line rang six times before it was answered.
“This better be who I asked for.”
That is one way of answering the phone… It was the move of someone who wanted control and lacked confidence, which supported her earlier thinking.
With the video still working for him, he would have seen her arrive.
Unless he was distracted. “I was the lead negotiator for the Founders Hospital incident. My name is Special Agent Sandra Vos with the FBI.” She offered her given name to insert some humanity and the title to establish her authority.
It was best he viewed her as an equal and got the sense that’s how she saw him. “Who am I talking to?”
“We’ll get to that, Sandra, but there are more important things to cover first. I—”
Screams erupted in the background from a woman and teenage girl. Ashley and Sophie…
“Shut up! Just shut up!” the hostage taker yelled. A few seconds later, he spoke to Sandra, calm and composed. “I need you to listen closely.”
It was best she ignore the cries for help, as well as overlook the shift in his temperament. “Yes, of course. I’m listening. But if, for any reason, we get disconnected, you can always call me at this number. Do you see the caller ID on your phone?”
“I do.”
“Good, I’m here to help. You can talk to me…” She left space for his name just in case he changed his mind.
“You will reopen the Susan Crawford case.”
Gibson’s fingers started clacking on his keyboard.
“Is Susan Crawford someone close to you?” Sandra asked the HT.
“We’re about to find out how good you are. Just reopen that case, and you can tell me who I am. But the truth must come out.”
“All right, I heard your request and I’ll go to my boss about this for you, but I’ll need you to do something for me.”
“No, that’s not how this works. You reopen it, or I will shoot one of the Hansons, starting with the youngest.”
More screams.
Donny wrote in a fresh notepad and pushed it under Sandra’s nose. Inclined to utter threats. Follow through?
“Okay, I’ll do everything within my power. Will you at least confirm that everyone in there is okay? That no one is hurt.”
“Everyone is fine.”
She wanted to ask to speak with each of the hostages, but negotiating was also about reading what wasn’t being said. Making such a request this early in their relationship would be pushing things too far. “That’s great to hear. I’ll talk to my boss, as I said. You have my word.”
After a few beats of silence, he said, “Thanks,” and then the line cut out.
“Thanks?” Donny parroted while taking off his headset. “That’s a new one.”
“It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s a clear sign the HT isn’t a criminal mastermind.” In her fourteen-year career as a negotiator with the Crisis Negotiation Unit, she found the split was down the middle between violent offenders and desperate people without a record.
“Yet he found a way inside Fort Knox. Guards inside and out,” Kreiger said.
“Not by force though. He talked his way in.” She wanted to emphasize that point for Kreiger, let him see the power words could have.
Also that the HT hadn’t used violence yet.
Though she wanted to touch on Donny’s note, despite fearing it might incite Kreiger.
“We need to assume he has the capability of carrying through on his threats though. Failing to do so would be reckless.”
“I agree, and that doesn’t exactly put me at ease here, Vos.
You heard the guy. All those screams, and nothing.
He acts like he doesn’t even care about what he’s putting them through.
I’m going to follow up on the blueprints and chat with ERT.
” Kreiger heaved himself up from where he had been sitting at the table and left.
She understood Kreiger’s position. His job was tactical, and he needed to be prepared for several contingencies.
What concerned her was whether she could trust him not to let his personal feelings interfere.
They hadn’t worked together long enough to support such faith in him.
Turning to the team, she said, “Anyone else notice the change in the HT’s temperament? ”
“Oh, yeah,” Monica said, pausing from typing up her notes. “His mood swung back and forth. Yelling at the hostages like a madman, and then talking to you like he was having a lighthearted conversation. It was unsettling.”
Sandra nodded. “Then there was the thank you. Hostage takers are more prone to thank a negotiator when they feel heard, but also when the stakes are personal.”
“If that’s the case, this might have nothing to do with money,” Donny said.
Sandra shook her head. “It’s early yet to go there, but one would think if it was, that would have been his first demand.”
Donny leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands over his flat stomach. “So who is Susan Crawford, and what is her connection to him and the Hansons? It must be something powerful for him to go to these extremes to get an investigation reopened.”
“He wants our compliance, and he knows this will get our attention. He’s shown his hand though.
If we figure out the innerworkings here, we’ll get his identity.
” Just like he expects… Sandra pulled her laptop from her bag and logged on to the system, prepared to pull a background check on Susan Crawford.
Though it seemed Gibson was already all over this.
“Gibson?” Neal prompted.
“I have Crawford’s background coming up…
Okay, so I’m not sure what everyone expected.
A murder or someone who was wrongfully convicted and rotting in prison?
But there’s only one report attached to that name in the system.
Susan Crawford, thirty-two, died on scene in a fatal car crash thirty-three years ago. ”
Neal’s brow pinched. “Are we sure we heard the name right?”
“We all heard it,” Monica put in. “Give me a second, and I’ll play the audio recording.”
Gibson gestured to his computer. “And I can only go by what the records say. Not that this makes any sense. Dorsey described our HT as being in his late thirties. That would make him five or six years old that many years ago. Why would he care about Susan?”
The pieces weren’t clicking together yet, but Sandra was confident they would before this was over. It would be ideal if that was sooner than later.
Monica stopped typing at her computer, the summarized script finished and removed her headset. “Here’s the audio.”
The playback poured through the speakers in the vehicle.
“Pause it right there, please,” Sandra said a few seconds in.
“It was Susan Crawford. No question about it,” Neal said.
“No, but when I asked for his name,” Sandra began, “he said there were more important things to cover, also that he wanted me to figure it out. After that he went straight to requesting that I reopen the Susan Crawford case. As I mentioned before, there’s definitely something personal motivating him.
How this involves the Hanson family, it’s unclear, but I’d guess there’s some tie between them. ”
“Or we’re assuming there must be,” Donny said. “The Hansons are an influential family. Going for them is like going for the president. People are going to pay attention and comply.”
“Well, I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say, I sure as hell don’t know yet,” Neal said. “I’m not leaping to any conclusions.”
“Me either.” We can’t afford to…
“Gibson, gather everything you can on this Susan Crawford.”
“On it, boss.” Sarcasm coated each word, but Gibson got to work, his fingers flying over his keyboard.
Sandra did the same. Curiosities needed satisfying.