Donna pulled herself off the floor, sat next to the police officer.
Rose opened the book. The two women started to read.
They didn’t move.
‘Oh my God… ’ Rose was stunned.
Donna said nothing. There was nothing more to say. They read on.
70
‘Just put the gun down,’ said Phil. ‘Don’t do anything stupid.’ He looked down at the prone figure of the psychologist, wanted to amend his words:
‘Too late for that,’ said the gunman. ‘Much too late.’
Phil realised just how terrified the gunman was. And a man carrying a gun with that level of fear was a perfect recipe for disaster.
‘Come on,’ he said, edging forward incrementally, his voice low and reasonable. ‘Just put it down. Let’s talk.’
Phil became conscious of Anni at his side. The one team member trained in hostage negotiation. He stepped back, allowing her to move forward. Looked at her, gave an imperceptible nod. She returned it, acknowledged it with her eyes.
‘What’s your name?’ she said, edging nearer to the gunman.
The man looked confused, head turning from one of them to the other, then back to the child, screaming in the bed.
‘I’m Anni,’ she said. ‘Tell me your name and we can talk.’
The man opened his mouth as if to speak, jaws working, lips moving, but no sound emerged.
Phil watched as a rivulet of sweat formed on the man’s forehead and ran over his eyebrow, down the side of his face. He shook his head, clearly irritated by it, waving his gun as he did so. Phil’s fingers curled to a fist, opened once more. His body tensed, ready to grab the man.
And then his phone rang.
The man swung the gun on him. Phil stared down the barrel as it shook.
‘I’m turning it off,’ he said, taking the phone from his pocket, making a clear show of pressing the button. ‘See,’ he said, dropping it back into his pocket. ‘It’s off.’
Anni stared at him. He moved back.
‘Come on,’ said Anni, eyes never leaving the man, voice never wavering. ‘Just tell me your name, then we can get all this sorted out.’
His mouth moved again. Phil was reminded of a cow chewing the cud.
‘S-s-s… Samuel… ’
Anni summoned up a smile. ‘OK, Samuel.’ She slowly took the lapels of her jacket between finger and thumb, opened it slowly. ‘I’m unarmed, Samuel, look. No gun.’ She let the jacket drop back into place. ‘And my colleague’ – she nodded towards Phil – ‘he’s not armed either. Just his phone. So you put your gun down, OK? Then we can talk.’
All the time edging closer, closer… ‘I’m… I’m finished,’ said Samuel, more sweat springing from his features. ‘Whatever happens, I’m finished… ’
‘It’s not that bad,’ said Anni. ‘Not yet. We can still salvage the situation.’ Edging closer, closer… ‘Come on, Samuel… ’
‘No,’ he said. ‘You don’t understand… I have to do this. If I… if I don’t do this, I’ve lost everything. I’m finished. Either way, I’m finished… ’
‘Why, Samuel? Why are you finished? You don’t need to do this.’
‘I do!’ Shouted. ‘I’ve got to… got to… ’ Tears sprang from his eyes, mingled on his cheeks with the sweat.
Phil risked a look at the boy on the bed. He had stopped screaming, was staring, wide-eyed, between the adults in the room. Phil kept focused, kept his attention on the gunman.
‘Who says you have to do this, Samuel?’ Anni was asking. ‘Who? Taking the boy isn’t your idea, I can see that. So whose is it? Who’s told you to take him?’
‘The… the Elders… ’
‘The Elders?’ said Anni. ‘Why do they want the boy?’
‘They… they need him for the… the… sacrifice… Oh God… ’ Fresh tears came, along with sobs.
His gun arm wavered. Phil edged ever closer.
Suddenly the gunman looked round, saw what Phil was doing. Swung his gun wildly in his direction. ‘Get back! Get back! Don’t make me shoot you too… please… ’
‘Just keep calm, Samuel,’ said Anni, trying not to let the tension show in her voice. ‘Keep calm. Everything will be fine if you keep calm… ’
He swung back towards her. ‘No it won’t, no it won’t… it’ll never be fine again. Nothing will ever be fine again, don’t you see? Nothing… ’
Anni was still moving forward. ‘Come on, Samuel, give it up now and we can get some damage limitation in place. Come on… ’ She edged closer, closer…
There was a commotion at the door behind them. Glass came running in, saw what was happening. Phil turned to him, mouth open, ready to shout at him to stay back, but the DCI ran forward.
‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ he shouted at Phil, grabbing him by the lapels, trying to wrestle him out of the room. ‘I thought I told you to leave… ’
Phil, stunned by his superior officer’s reaction, couldn’t immediately fight back. He allowed his legs to be taken away, fell sideways to the floor, Glass still hanging on to him.
Anni, trying not to be distracted by what was happening, kept her attention on the gunman and the child. Samuel, staring wildly at what was going on before him, didn’t know what to do. He raised his hand, pointed the gun at Anni.
Phil looked up, over Glass’s shoulder, saw what was going to happen. Tried to call out.
Too late. The gun went off.
Anni spun round, a bright crimson flower bursting from her upper chest.
‘No!’ screamed Phil, trying to throw Glass off him. The DCI wouldn’t move.
‘Oh my God… ’ Samuel stared at the gun in his hand, at Anni lying on the floor pumping blood, at the boy in the bed. ‘What have I done? No… ’ More tears began to well. A look of resignation came into his eyes. He turned to the boy, grabbed him from the bed. ‘Come on, you’re coming with me… ’ Pulled him along with him, tubes and needles snapping off as he did so, the boy screaming.
Samuel made it out of the door and away down the corridor.
Phil managed to throw off Glass, stood up. He looked down at Anni, who was still breathing, looked to the empty bed. A hand grabbed his ankle.
‘No you don’t… ’
Phil turned round, aimed a kick at Glass’s head.
‘Fuck off,’ he shouted.
Glass fell backwards, hand to the side of his head. Phil looked again at Anni. She had her right hand over the wound, was squeezing hard to staunch the blood. Phil knelt down beside her.
‘Go… ’ she managed to say. ‘Go and get the boy… ’
Phil nodded, stood up.
On the floor behind him, Glass’s phone began to ring. Phil ignored it.
He ran out of the room and down the corridor.
71
