Chapter 29
TWENTY-NINE
“We’ve got Edward Hanson with a bullet still lodged in his chest. A young boy struggling to breathe. Vos, it might be time we just move in.” Kreiger peacocked himself at the end of the vehicle.
His response came after the team filled him in on Sandra’s latest call with Ryan.
She was finding it hard to resist Kreiger’s reasoning because she didn’t want Edward’s death to haunt her.
Or the boy’s, for that matter. But moving in posed a risk to the entire family.
Four souls, five, counting Ryan. Not to mention the officers breaching the home.
But she didn’t miss how Kreiger’s regular fire to move in had cooled.
He normally didn’t use words like it might be time…
He usually spoke as if it were a done deal.
Their talk might have had a beneficial effect on him, after all.
“Please just give me a bit more time,” Sandra said.
“I think our best option for resolving this peacefully is moving forward with the reporter ruse. But I’ll need to finesse the revised terms into the conversation.
He will be concerned about snipers with it being held outside.
I’m also not sure what his reaction will be to only one news station coming. ”
“Just get him on the phone and tell him how it’s going to be,” Kreiger said.
“It doesn’t exactly work that way.” Rather, telling a hostage taker anything usually met with a detrimental outcome.
“What do you want me to say, Sandra? Convince him you’re on his side and have his back. You can even be in the undercover officers’ ears, so they say the right thing and respond accordingly to him.”
Yet another risk… “And how do you think Ryan would react to seeing the ERT guy wearing an earbud?”
“Just FYI, it’s a woman we’re sending in as the reporter. A male officer will pose as her cameraman. But the earbud is easy enough to explain away. She needs it to hear the network for her cues.”
“And if he doesn’t buy that?” Neal asked. “I’m with Sandra. I don’t like any of this.”
“Well, we can’t just sit around and do nothing. Get him to agree to do this, Vos, or I won’t have a choice but to move things along with force.” Kreiger presented the ultimatum, and it had Sandra cringing.
That’s the Kreiger I’m familiar with… Sandra detested being pressed into a corner, but she could see Kreiger’s side. “If we’re doing this, we need to remember Ryan can see everything from inside. The undercover officers will need to appear like they just arrived on scene.”
“Already considered and accounted for,” Kreiger responded. “They’ve left to get changed and grab some props and will return. We’ll make a show of their arrival.” He wrapped the latter word in finger quotes.
Sandra nodded and put her headset on. “Let me try reaching him again.” As the line rang, she prepared her mind for how she was going to make Ryan see the new stipulations as a necessary compromise and not her breaking her word.
Once everyone in the vehicle was ready, she got on the phone.
“Are the reporters here? We’re ready to do this? You are ready, right? I told you not to call back until things were ready to go.”
Ryan’s words came out as a steady stream without giving her a chance to respond. Only after a few seconds did she speak in a slow and measured manner. “A reporter and her cameraman are on standby.”
“What do you mean? Just one station?”
“Yes. That’s all we could get, but this network is ready to go ahead, as I said.”
A few beats, then, “I never saw anyone arrive.”
“They’ll be here soon,” Sandra backpedaled and glanced at Kreiger. It was good he’d thought of all that.
“Fine. I’ll release the gate and let them come in once they arrive. But only the reporter and her cameraman.”
Sandra repeated his terms and added, “I understand, Ryan. But there is one thing I need to bring up. Would it be possible to move this outside?” Sandra treated this as if it were a slight change without consequence.
Served on the backside of giving him one thing he’d requested should help soften the change of plans.
“Outside where snipers can shoot me? No, no way.”
His response was just as she’d expected. “It’s just that the reporter and her cameraman are scared, Ryan. You can understand that, surely?”
“What I understand is you’re trying to back out of our deal. I can’t trust you.”
Sandra pinched her eyes shut. Her fear was coming to life. “You can trust me, Ryan. I’ve been going to bat for you this entire time. I’ve spoken with the reporter, tried to convince her she will be safe in there, that you mean her and her cameraman no harm, but—”
“Who did you get? What reporter?”
“Her name’s Emilia Rose. She’s a hot up-and-comer.” Sandra told him she was with a top-rated news channel in the DC area. “Her cameraman is Tyler Carson.” She was making up names as she went along.
“I’ve never heard of her.”
“As I said, she’s new, but she has a following.” There was some concern Ryan would expect a reporter he recognized, but it was on her to sell him on what they had.
“Okay.”
“Does that mean you’ll come to the front of the house to speak with her?”
There was a stretch of silence, then, “What is happening in the investigation into my mother’s murder?”
“A detective is still actively investigating the case, Ryan, I promise you.”
“What else has he found out?”
The last update from Eric on the accident had come a while ago but was damning. “Your mother’s car was ordered destroyed the same day of the crash.”
“Then, he knows that something’s not right.”
“He’s still gathering evidence together, Ryan, and building a case.” That was the truth of it.
“Good, because this family deserves to pay for what Timothy Hanson did. The public deserves the truth, and my mother deserves justice.”
As long as he stays focused more on justice, and less on revenge… Though his actions weren’t reassuring. “This will happen, Ryan. Will you meet the reporter and her cameraman outside at the gate?”
“I’ll need to think about it.”
“Okay, I can respect that. It’s a big decision, but you know you can trust me, right?”
“Yes.”
“So, please, just tell me this, Ryan. My bosses are really on my case about Edward and how he’s doing. Can I assure them he is—”
“He’s fine. I told you.”
“I need a fucking doctor!” Edward yelled.
“Shut up, or I swear I’ll—”
“Ryan,” Sandra said quickly. “Please, listen to me. You’re the one calling the shots here. Everyone knows that. Just let me speak with him again. I’ll help him see that too. Will you let me do that?”
A brief hesitation before Ryan spat, “Fine. Here he is, but I’m putting you on speaker.”
She took a steadying breath. She’d have to censor what she was going to say. That meant no direct mention of the prenup and the survival clause. “Edward, this is Agent Vos. Can he hear me?”
“Yes.”
“We’re working to get you help, but until then, I need you to do whatever Ryan wants, cooperate with him.”
Deep breaths traveled over the line. “You want me to… ah… roll over to a bully with a gun?”
“It sounds like the wise thing to do.” Considering you already have one hole in your chest…
“And if he asks something of you, answer him honestly. All Ryan wants is for the truth to come out. Do you understand?” She hoped that was enough to get across the point that they knew about the prenup and the repercussions.
Though for him to pick up on that, it meant he’d need to be aware of them.
And if he did, Edward would need to watch how he admitted to a sudden clarity.
They didn’t need Ryan thinking Edward had been dishonest all this time.
After a few seconds, she prompted Edward, “Can you do that?” Tell him you just remembered something…
She held her breath waiting for him to respond. Is he still drawing breath?
“Fine.”
“Okay then.” She wished she could promise help would be coming soon, but that would be a lie, and with Ryan listening in, it would also be presumptuous.
“There. You talked to him. Now, it’s just me. I’ll get back to you on what I decide about the whole reporter thing.” Ryan terminated the call again.
Sandra took her headset off.
“He has that move down,” Donny said.
“That he does.” Not that she was surprised. It was the move of a shot caller trying to cling to their power and control over a situation.
Gibson wrote the time of the conversation on the markerboard, with his phone to his ear, and added, HT considering moving press release outside to the main gate.
It was insane to think it was already past three fifty in the afternoon from one perspective. From another, time stretched when lives were on the line. Her mind drifted for a second to her dinner plans for that night at Davenport Manor. It was hard to say if she’d even be able to make it.
“Thanks.” Gibson pocketed his phone and addressed the team. “I’ve got a name. Timothy’s security guy is Dale Kramer.”
Monica started typing on her computer.
Gibson added, “I guess he’s been with Hanson Property Development for over forty years.”
Monica held up her hand to signal to everyone she had something to share. “Guy is sixty-three, has a grown daughter in her thirties, no criminal record.”
“Thank you for that, Monica.” Gibson’s voice was dry, like he wasn’t thrilled by the interjection. “Kramer still works for the company.”
“At sixty-three?” Neal said. “I hope I’m long retired from the force by then.”
“Big surprise.” Kreiger gave an eye roll.
“As if you’ll be hanging on that long,” Neal kicked back.
Gibson cleared his throat. “If you two are finished… His current position with the company is head of security.”
Sandra had a strong feeling Dale Kramer held Timothy Hanson’s secrets. But would he be willing to part with them?