Takeover

understand what skeletons they didn’t want the cops to dig up-how they broke into the apartment, why they murdered their wife. But never for so many hours at one stretch. Besides, none of their speculation seemed to help; they still wound up simply watching what the robbers did and then reacting as best they could.

“Okay.” Bobby’s voice startled them all. “We can deal on this. But we have some conditions.”

“Let’s talk about them.”

“I’m putting Lucas back on. He’s better at this.”

The two robbers changed places, careful as always not to be in sniper range at the same time.

“I don’t believe you, Chris,” he said without preamble. “I think you’re lying-”

“I’m not.”

“-but I know how important family is to Bobby. That’s all he ever talked about in therapy, so believe me, I know.”

Patrick glanced at Jason and raised his eyebrows. Irene made a note. The prison in Atlanta would have records of which programs the inmates attended. Perhaps this solved the mystery of where Bobby and Lucas had met-a group-therapy session, each revealing his secret dreams and goals.

Lucas, meanwhile, continued. “I’m willing to go along with this. You bring Bobby’s brother over here-and by you, I mean you, Chris, no one else-and he will lay down his arms and leave with you.”

“What about you?”

“I stay here. I’m happy for Bobby if this is the choice he wants, but I’m not giving up my freedom for it.”

“What about all those bank employees?”

“They stay with me.”

Patrick had not expected this, but it made sense. Lucas could respect his friend’s wishes without giving himself up. He’d still have the hostages and the money.

“That might work,” Cavanaugh said, though Jason frowned and shook his head. “However, I’ve been assuring your safety all this time-are you going to assure mine?”

“Why would I shoot you, Chris? Provided you’re telling us the truth and this really is Bobby’s brother.”

“He is. But this is a highly unusual undertaking. We don’t normally make piecemeal deals like this-”

“You’d be down one robber without any bloodshed. How is that bad for you?”

He was correct, of course-so correct that it made Patrick nervous. The man needed to get a large amount of money out of a city block filled with trigger-happy cops, and he seemed too cooperative about it.

Cavanaugh proceeded with caution. “I think this plan can work, and I’m willing to escort Eric Moyers across the street to talk to Bobby. But I’m concerned about the rest of the bank employees. That’s a lot of people for you to handle by yourself.”

“That almost sounds like a challenge, Chris. I’m not worried about it. I can always tie them up, like the guards.”

Jason continued to shake his head. “The guards are tied to the teller cages, the same place we think Lucas set the explosives. That’s got to be his exit strategy-he fills the cages with hostages and then walks out with the detonator. We let him go or they get blown up.”

Cavanaugh argued, “That would last for about sixty seconds before our team got in there and freed them all.”

“With the roads cleared he could be on I-90 in sixty seconds.”

The negotiator nodded, then pressed the “talk” button on the console. “I mean this would be a good time to cut some of them loose. As a show of good faith.”

“I won’t shoot you when you show up. That should be good enough faith for you.”

They haggled a while longer but finally settled on a plan. Cavanaugh and Eric Moyers would walk across the street and converse with Bobby Moyers outside the East Sixth Street entrance. If satisfied, Bobby would leave with them, along with four hostages of Lucas’s choosing. They had ten minutes.

28

3:14 P.M.

Theresa watched these negotiations closely while listening with half an ear to Jessica Ludlow. Like a child in class, the young woman took advantage of the lull in their captors’ attention. “At least I found a decent day-care situation for Ethan. Our neighbor recommended her, and she’s really good, feeds them lunch and everything, but she’s real firm on not taking any sick kids, so when he looked sniffly today, she said he couldn’t stay.”

Lucas and Bobby conferred over Cavanaugh’s offer. She expected Lucas to refuse it, but he had deferred to Bobby’s wishes. This didn’t make sense to her. Lucas had been so strong-minded all day… Had he lost his nerve with the end in sight, figured out that it would not, could not, end well for him? Or had he been deferring to Bobby all along?

“I wasn’t real big on working at all. I’d rather be home with him. I had a part-time job in Atlanta, and that was perfect-an hour or two three times a week, enough to get me out of the house and bring in a little extra money, but not enough for Ethan to really miss me.”

Bobby returned to the phone, then handed it over to Lucas. Now Theresa could hear every word, but they still did not make sense. Why would Lucas agree to this? Pulling off an escape with the two of them would have been extremely difficult; by himself, impossible.

Unless he had never intended to escape.

“But Mark insisted. He insisted on a lot of things. He assumed because I was born in Georgia that I was some sort of barefoot high school dropout.” She measured out a spoonful of cherry-fla-vored cough syrup for Ethan to take and rubbed his back. “It’s okay, honey. We’ll see Daddy again soon. Do you want another fruit roll?”

“I can’t believe this. He’s going to come here!” Theresa exclaimed softly.

“Who?” Jessica Ludlow asked.

“The hostage negotiator. He’s going to walk Bobby’s brother over here. I can’t believe that.”

“Why not?”

“They’re not supposed to get involved-the negotiators, I mean. They always stay on the phone. He’s not supposed to put anyone at risk, even himself, and definitely not a civilian like Bob-by’s brother.” According to his book’s table of contents, Cavanaugh had devoted an entire chapter to the topic of acceptable risk. Had he become desperate for a solution? Or did he know something she didn’t, such as when the explosives were due to go off-and that the answer was soon.

The younger woman pulled her child closer, letting him smear her sleeve with his thin sheet of strawberry gel. “Is something bad going to happen?”

Theresa tried to sound more positive for the girl’s sake. “No, it will work. Cavanaugh must believe it can save us or he wouldn’t do it.” The man had his record to think about.

“They’re going to give up?” Jessica asked.

“Only Bobby. Lucas isn’t the type to give up.” But he was the type to cut his losses. Perhaps he realized that he couldn’t fight Bobby and the cops both and so gave in to his partner’s wishes. “I wonder what they’ll do about the car.”

“What about it?”

“It’s Bobby’s car, and he made a pretty big deal about it. But Lucas will need it to escape.” She also wondered what they would do about the explosives.

“What did you say, Theresa?” Lucas’s voice cut through the air like a deadly missile. “I don’t like being discussed behind my back.”

“You said you’d release four people when Bobby leaves. Let Jessica and the baby be among them.”

“What about me?” Missy asked. “I have a baby, too.”

Lucas stood in front of Theresa, giving her the considering look she had learned to recognize. “Interesting,