I passed a red handle and pulled it. A fire alarm. Loud bells overpowered the whistling sound. The fire curtain plummeted, slowing slightly when it was about eight feet above the stage floor, blocking the house lights. I saw Samuel cross beneath it just as the stage, cut off from the house now, was enveloped in darkness once again.
I turned on the flashlight and ran.
40
“CAMERAS, SIR.”
Cassidy took his eyes from the binoculars and looked at Hank Freeman.
“SWAT said she’s disabling the cameras,” Hank clarified. “That’s what was dropping off the building. The rubber pieces were some sort of weatherproofing. The cameras have followed. She’s dropped all but one.”
“I’ll be damned,” Cassidy said, listening to the endless ringing of the phone line connected to his headset. Under his breath he said, “Pick up the phone, Bret.”
Freeman was frowning now, listening over his own headset. “One of them is chasing her.”
They heard the pop of gunfire.
Cassidy picked up a hand radio. “Hold on.”
Hank Freeman heard Bredloe ordering everyone to hold their fire. Bredloe’s voice was less calm, he thought. He never knew how Cassidy managed this part of it. The worse it got for everybody else, the calmer Cassidy would be. The helicopter pilot was talking now, and Freeman listened over the headset.
“She’s still moving,” Hank said. “They’re farther apart.”
Into the radio Cassidy said, “You copy that, Captain?”
Bredloe said he did.
“Pick up the phone,” Cassidy said into the headset again.
As if Bret had heard Cassidy willing him to do so, the answer came.
“Detective Cassidy?”
“Yes, Bret,” Cassidy answered, smiling. “I’m here.”
“Was that your gunfire?”
“No, Bret, that was yours.”
“Samuel?”
“I think so. He apparently took a shot at Irene.”
There was a long silence.
“What’s he shooting with?” Cassidy asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. Did he…?”
Cassidy waited.
“Is she all right?” Bret asked.
“I can’t tell you, Bret.”
“Why not?” he asked. “That part of the building isn’t shielded.”
“What part of the building?”
“All of it. All of it except the room I’m in can be seen on your thermal sensors. Where is she?”
Cassidy didn’t answer.
“I don’t want to hurt her!”
“I know you don’t,” Cassidy said easily. “You and Samuel are different in that way, I suppose.”
“Yes. We are. He’ll kill her! Where is she?”
But before Cassidy could reply, he heard the sound of breaking glass. Bret shouted, “No, don’t! Don’t! Oh, God! Oh, God!”
There was a high whistling sound in the background.
“Ignore that alarm,” Bret said to Cassidy in a weak voice, and hung up.
“Hank, tell the tactical folks to ignore all—”
They heard the loud ringing of a fire alarm.
Cassidy picked up a hand radio. “Ignore it. False alarm.”
He heard Bredloe repeating the order.
They listened as the bells rang.
41
SAMUEL RAN ACROSS the loading dock to the basement door. He used a key to shut off the fire alarm. His ears were still ringing from the damned thing. Fucking asshole intruder. How did he sneak in? That was worrisome. He would take care of the intruder later. If he was lucky, the jerk would blow himself to kingdom come.
He entered another code, and the whistling sound ceased. Jesus, what next? Things weren’t going right. He unlocked another panel and turned on a screen that allowed him to view the basement room.
Bret was lying on the floor. Frank Harriman was bending over him.
