Chapter 33
Outside in the NOC, Hope is standing her ground as the county team argues with her about her proposal to take the dog, Covey,
inside the post office, to enter the fray, as it were. She struggles to make them understand her conviction that this is the
only way to do this. To parade the dog in front of the windows and let Tommy merely see him isn’t enough to make an impact.
To try to coax Tommy to come outside and engage with the dog in person with armed men all around will be a hard sell. She
feels it in her gut: To assume the risk on her part and go in with the dog will change everything.
“What if something bad happens?” says Adam.
“It won’t,” she says.
“But you can’t guarantee that,” he counters.
“You’re right,” she says. “I can’t.”
“You need a team around you,” says Chris.
Hope thinks, but does not say, that she hasn’t had a team around her in eight months. Instead, she says, “I’ll be with those
women in there. The ones who’ve attacked him and yelled at him and manipulated him, the ones I’ve spoken to personally and
worked to free for hours.” Hope stands a little taller, looks from Chris to Adam. “They’ll be my team.”
Chris and Adam exchange glances. Though they are uncertain, Hope is not.
She knows that taking Covey into the post office is the way to end this thing.
She feels it in her core, in the same place where all the things that matter reside, the things that remain.
This is the instinct her mentor spoke about often.
But it is one thing to feel it inside; it is another to act on it.
She used to have a quote by Joan Baez hanging on her locker door back at the station in Philly that said, “Action is the antidote to despair.” This has been a day of despair. Action is required.
She looks to Bo, who gives her a nod. She can’t tell whether he thinks this is a bad idea or a good one. He probably thinks
this is too big a risk like everyone else does, but he is keeping his thoughts to himself. The others have said plenty about
how crazy they think this is.
The SWAT commander speaks up. “I can’t let you go in there on your own. My team will all go in the building with you. They can stay in the vestibule and monitor from out there since that room’s so small, but one of my guys will go in with you. That’s the only way we can let you assume this risk.”
Hope thinks about it. It’s not ideal. It’s not what she envisioned. But she can tell that this is as far as she’s going to
get. She will have to acquiesce on this one point. She nods her assent.
“And he has to put his gun on the counter in plain sight the whole time. If he so much as flinches in its direction, we will
all go in.”
Hope knows Tommy will balk at this. But it’s the only way he will get time with his beloved dog. She thinks she can sell him
on it. “Okay,” she says. “Let’s do it.” She goes to the phone before they can change their minds.
Tommy answers immediately, and with just one word, “Hello,” she can hear it: The fight is almost out of him.
He is weary, both physically and emotionally.
The conversation about his father only wrung him out further.
The intel says he’s standing far away from the hostages now, keeping his distance with his back turned to them, which is a change.
He wants out, but he doesn’t know how to get out.
That’s what she’s here for. It is what she intends to facilitate when she gets inside.
This is what she and Bo had talked about earlier in the day, the point of surrender.
You just have to wait for them to be ready to give up.
Everyone gets there eventually, she thinks. Even negotiators.
“Hi, Tommy,” Hope says. “Covey is here. Are you ready to see him?”
“Yes,” he says. “But how?”
“Before I tell you, I want you to reassure me of something,” she says.
He sighs. “What?”
“That you remember the promise you made to me.”
He sighs again. “I do.”
“Then remind me what it is,” she says.
“No one will be harmed today,” he says, then mumbles something she can’t make out.
“What’d you say?” she asks.
“Nothing,” he says.
“Tell me what you said, Tommy, or I don’t tell you about Covey.”
He laughs a little. “I said you should’ve made these women make the same promise. They keep attacking me.”
Just let them go and that won’t happen anymore, Hope thinks. But before she can say it, he speaks again. “What does the promise have to do with Covey?”
“Because I’m going to bring Covey in there. It’s important you keep your promise and this goes smoothly, with no harm done
to anyone—not me, not the hostages, and not you. Or the dog,” she adds.
“I would never hurt Covey,” he says.
“Well, then I need reassurance about hurting the humans.”
He exhales into the phone, his breath hissing across the line. “I won’t hurt any humans. And it’s just you? Coming in here
with Covey? I don’t want no cops.”
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple. There have got to be some rules, or the people in charge will never allow this. You have
to go by those rules, or this doesn’t happen.”
There is a pause before he says, resigned, “What are the rules?”
“First, before I can come in there, you need to put your gun down somewhere out of reach and visible through the glass. An
armed SWAT officer will be coming in with me and will be watching everything that happens. If he sees you go anywhere near
the gun, it’s game over. I’ll bring Covey in on a leash, and you will need to unlock the post office door to allow us to get
in. Are you following all this?”
There is another pause. “How do I know that the SWAT dude isn’t going to overpower me the minute he gets in here? That you’re
not setting me up and using Covey as bait?”
Hope hadn’t considered using the dog as bait. It hadn’t even crossed her mind. “Because I wouldn’t do that to you,” she says.
“Okay,” he says.
“One last detail. The SWAT team will accompany me into the vestibule just like the officers did with the pizza delivery. One
of them will come into the actual post office with me, but the rest will stay in the vestibule area the entire time I am in
the post office. Just to reiterate: You are not to pick up or move toward your gun at any point.”
She pauses but then continues, her words coming in a rush.
“I’m taking a huge risk here, Tommy. It’s not normal for a negotiator to enter a barricade situation.
Most of my colleagues out here think I’m crazy.
” She softens her voice intentionally. “But I know that seeing Covey matters a lot to you. And I didn’t think just seeing him through the window would be the same. ”
“It wouldn’t,” Tommy agrees.
“So promise me that you’re going to fully cooperate with everything I’ve said.”
“I already promised you,” he says, the whiny tone creeping back into his voice.
“That was a different promise,” she says.
“Fine,” he says. “I promise.”
“Where are you going to put your gun?” she asks.
“On the counter, I guess,” he says.
“When SWAT gets in there, they’re going to watch through the glass while you put the gun down and move away from it. They
won’t allow me and the dog to enter the building until you’ve done so. Okay?” she says.
“Yeah,” he says, “I got it. But I’m going to put those women around me so no one can take a shot at me without going through
them.”
Hope decides not to fight him on this but sees the irony of using his captives for his own protection. “Okay,” she says. “I’ll
see you in a minute.”
After reviewing the plan one more time with the SWAT commander, she walks outside, where Covey is waiting with Tommy’s stepmother,
Jane. Overhead, the sun has dropped a little. With any luck the hostages will be free before it gets fully dark. The dog will
be the change agent they’ve needed all day. Though she never considered using Covey as bait, she is definitely using him as
an emotional manipulator.
“I could take him in,” offers Jane, who grips Covey’s leash with a worried expression.
Hope reaches out for the leash and squeezes Jane’s shoulder. “We can’t let you do that,” she says. “Please don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”
Jane hands over Covey’s leash. “Take good care of him,” Jane calls as they begin making their way toward the building. She
doesn’t know which “him” Jane means—Covey or Tommy. It doesn’t matter. Hope intends to take care of them all.