He now held the bullhorn in his hand, although he stood behind a patrol car in case more bullets flew out the window and he needed to take cover.
He had considered turning off the electricity to the building to make things more uncomfortable for the hostage takers, but ultimately had decided against it considering there were children involved. They had kept the water on for the same reason.
Right now he was angry—beyond angry—that apparently somebody had been calling the school’s office over and over again and that somebody had not been him, nor had they been working under his direct orders. He had a sneaking suspicion who it had been.
He turned to Nick, who was standing beside him. “Do me a favor. Find the chief of police and bring him to me.”
“On it.” Nick left and Evan turned his attention back at the school. The first thing he wanted to address with the hostage takers was the wounded and dead. But he hadn’t had a chance to do anything before shots had been fired out of the window, along with the dire warning about throwing out bodies.
Regina Sandhurst had been out of town when this all went down, but she was expected to arrive sometime late this afternoon. Hopefully she would have some useful information for them.
“You wanted to see me?” The police chief’s voice boomed from behind Evan.
He turned to face him. The chief was definitely beginning to look worse for wear. Lines of exhaustion were etched across his broad forehead, and his uniform was a wrinkled mess. He had a stain on the front of his shirt and what appeared to be crumbs from a pastry on his fingers. Rowan stood just behind him, obviously ready to smooth any ruffled feathers that might—would—occur.
Rowan knew Evan very well. He didn’t suffer fools gladly and he often didn’t mince words, especially when lives were on the line.
“Have you been the one calling the school phone over and over again?” Evan asked.
“Yes. I was hoping to open up a line of conversation,” he replied.
“They just threatened to throw out a dead child if the ringing doesn’t stop,” Evan replied, and tried to tamp down his anger. “You were working at cross-purposes with me. We can’t do that. Do not interfere without talking to my team first. There can only be one lead in this situation, and right now I’m it.”
The chief frowned, and it was obvious he didn’t like what Evan had to say. “I’m still the chief of police around here,” he began.
Rowan placed a hand on the chief’s shoulder. “We certainly respect your position,” she said smoothly. “Our goal is like yours...to get the hostages out safe and sound and the killers behind bars. Agent Duran is highly trained in negotiation, and we need to give him a chance to do his job.”
The chief grunted and then raked a hand through his hair. “If you’re sure you’ve got this for now, I believe I’ll take off. I’ll go home. It was a long night.”
It was the man’s way of acquiescing to Evan without losing face. “Hopefully when you get back this will all be over and the hostages will be safe,” Evan replied. Things would definitely go smoother if the chief was off-site and Evan didn’t have to worry about him mucking things up.
To that end Evan raised the bullhorn to his mouth once again. “I’m talking to the men in the school. Will you tell me who I’m speaking with?”
“You’re speaking to the man in charge.” A deep voice boomed out one of the broken windows.
Evan squinted in an effort to get a visual of the person speaking, but the man kept his body just out of sight. Daniel was a skilled sniper, and Evan knew he was already looking for a place to set up where he would have a kill shot if necessary.
“Give me your name,” Evan yelled back.
“I’ll tell you when you need to know who I am,” the man yelled back.
“Okay. Look, I’m sure you didn’t plan on or want to be in the situation you’re in right now. I’d like to understand your position better. Could you tell me why you’re here?”
“I’m not ready to have a conversation right now.”
“I’m sure we can work something out here as long as none of the hostages are harmed. Right now I’d like for you to release anyone who needs medical help.” Evan not only wanted anyone who was hurt to be released, but once that was done he needed to get the deceased out of that building.
“Why don’t you back up all your officers as a show of good faith?” the gruff voice yelled from the window.
“I’d like to do that for you, but before I do could you let us get to the wounded?” Evan asked.
“We have nothing to talk about.” Gunfire punctuated the man’s sentence.
Evan cursed and ducked back behind the patrol car. “At least you got somebody talking to you,” Davis said as he crouched next to Evan.
“It didn’t do much to move things forward, but it did break the ice.” Evan sighed in frustration. “I really wish we could get a name of the leader inside. With a little information on him, I might know what buttons to push. As it is, I’m working completely blind.”
Davis clapped him on the back. “You’ll get this right, Evan. You’ve gotten it right a hundred times before.”
Evan nodded even as his frustration grew. There just wasn’t enough information. The FBI had five negotiation techniques that had more often than not worked for Evan in past situations.
The first step was to listen to their side of things and make them aware he was listening. Unfortunately, so far they weren’t really talking to Evan.
The next step was to show empathy, to let them know Evan had an understanding of where they were coming from and
