that point — peacefully.”
“But we know why they are doing this,” Cecilia began. “And we—”
“And you are going to be arrested if you try to interfere in any way. I won’t hesitate. Do you understand?”
He waited.
“We understand,” Bradshaw said. “I told you what would happen. Let’s go.”
He got angry looks from all of them. Cook and Matthews stomped off. Cecilia moved slowly, helping Bradshaw, both of them clearly as angry as the others. He didn’t care. They were a distraction he didn’t need. Only Bea Harriman stayed behind with Pete, Rachel, and Jack.
Cassidy walked back to the negotiator’s post.
“Any word?” he asked.
“No,” Freeman said. “But the drawings arrived.”
Cassidy looked back at the group. Pete Baird was walking away now.
“SWAT have copies of these, too?”
“Yes, sir.”
Cassidy unrolled the building plans, then turned to stare at Pete Baird’s retreating back. “Hank,” he said, “I want someone to watch those people. Baird included.”
“Someone is watching them, sir. We have guards—”
“No. I want our people to keep an eye on them, even if they’ve left the area. Especially if they’ve left the area.”
38
THEY PULLED INTO THE UNDERGROUND parking garage and waited.
“Excellent, Cecilia,” Nathan Cook said after a moment.
She didn’t smile until Gus said, “You’re a hell of a driver. I don’t think I could have shaken them that fast myself.”
“We might not be in the clear yet,” Bear said.
“You old hen,” Gus said. “Of course we are.”
“Having second thoughts?” Nat asked her.
“Shut up, Cookie,” Gus growled. “Don’t try to work that shit on anybody.”
“I wasn’t trying to talk her out of it, Gus,” Nat said. “I’m as determined as any of you are.”
“I doubt that,” Bear said. “Now hurry up. Who knows what they’re doing to the boy while you shoot your fancy yap off.”
“He’s not a boy,” Nat said.
Cecilia popped open the trunk, stepped out of the car. “Let’s get this over with,” she said.
The others got out. Gus walked around a little. “All clear,” he said.
Nat started to unbutton his shirt, paused when he saw she was staring at him. “Would you please look the other way?”
“No,” she said. “I won’t. I don’t have an injured leg, and I don’t feel as sorry for you as Gus does.”
“I don’t feel sorry for the bastard,” Gus said to her.
Nat shrugged, continued to undress. “Whatever. If you feel you must guard me, fine. But I haven’t fought any of you on any of this. And I don’t know what I’ve ever done to harm you, Cecilia.”
“You let me believe you were someone you weren’t. Hurry up and strip.”
39
I TOOK THE FLASHLIGHT and key and crawled up the ladder. Hoping to God it wasn’t what Bret had called an “armed” door, I unlocked the access door. Gingerly I pushed it open. Nothing happened.
I listened for a moment before continuing to climb through the access. I heard the sound of the helicopter passing overhead. Nothing else. I moved through the opening and looked around.
I was in a space between the roof of the building and the “house” and stage below, an area called the catwalk: part of a large grid of suspended, narrow metal walkways — also called catwalks and used for access to lights and other equipment above the house and stage. The term came back to me from a great distance — I had briefly dated a stage manager in my freshman year of college. We split up when he discovered I wasn’t ready to go directly from the overture to the third act with him. An interesting man, but even with a bonus prize of free matinee tickets, he wasn’t worth it.
The stage manager had believed in ghosts and was convinced that all old theaters were haunted. Looking along the Starlight’s catwalk with nothing more than a flashlight in my hand, I was convinced he was right about that. Although almost everything up here seemed fairly new, one misstep on the newest of catwalks would lead to a long fall. I crept along, passing lighting fixtures and electrical cords. I heard a gear turn and froze.
Eventually working up enough courage to shine the flashlight in the direction the sound came from, I saw that it was a videocamera. I couldn’t see the lens end, which extended into the wall and was surrounded by rubber.
Moving cautiously, shining the flashlight along the walls of the building, I saw that there were four cameras up here, one in each corner of the catwalk. There might be others in the part of the theater nearest the alley, which wasn’t accessible from the catwalk. I sat still for a time, considering my options. The cameras were undoubtedly being used by Hocus to monitor what went on outside the building, the movements of the police. Although there might be other cameras elsewhere in the building, if I disabled these, I might give Cassidy a much needed advantage. On the other hand, if Hocus saw their monitors start to blink out, their first reaction would probably be to come up here and find out what was going on. If Bret came looking for me, I might be all right, even if he was
