Page 20 of Save Her Life

Bowen mumbled incoherently and said, “I can’t believe we’d offer this guy a deal.”

“It and the money are worth entertaining if it gets him and the hostages out safely.”

“Tick tock,” Bowen said and tapped a finger on his watch face and sat down at the table with a coffee. “The HT gave you an hour. I’d say we’ll know everyone’s fate at that time.”

Patrick wrapped up a phone call and spoke to everyone. “So I heard back from Simon. He got into the pharmacy system and found a few Gavins listed. I narrowed it down to one that fit Wilcox’s description. Gavin McConnell. Twenty-five years old, no criminal record, has an address in town. No phone number on record or noted in the pharmacy system.”

“No record is great news.” This suggested Gavin would be less likely to take things to the absolute extreme. It was probable he wasn’t prejudiced against law enforcement. Not that he’d given her any indication of that during their talks, aside from some fear the FBI was on scene.

“I’m not sure how much comfort I take in his clean record,” Patrick said. “Most law-abiding citizens don’t hold people at gunpoint for hours.”

“The sad part is, Patrick, we’re all capable if we’re pushed to our breaking point,” Sandra said. “What about any spouse or significant others?”

Patrick typed more. “He shares an address with Karen Bing…” More clicking away. “She’s the mother of a two-year-old, Cassandra. Both are also attached to Gavin’s account with the pharmacy. Simon can’t get into the prescription records side of things without another type of warrant though.”

“Likely no need to worry about it. Get an officer over there to talk to her,” Garrison told the intelligence officer. “Tell her what’s going on and have the officer find out what they can from her about Gavin. We’ve speculated he was recently fired from his workplace. See if the officer can find out the circumstancesand specifics, if that’s even the case. If not, then why the medical insurance was canceled. Also if the meds are needed urgently.”

“You bet.” Patrick got on the phone.

Sandra needed to have a frank and honest conversation about granting Gavin McConnell’s requests. That wasn’t going to happen with Bowen. He might not like what she had to do next, but she had a job to do and lives to save.

She stepped outside to call Assistant Director Rowe.

TEN

Sandra’s phone continued to count down the minutes in the background while she was on the phone with Elwood stating her case.

“So you think we should be prepared to hand this guy a hundredthousanddollars?” Elwood put emphasis on the amount. It was a lot from one perspective, but very little if it saved lives.

“I do. Besides, it’s not like we’d let him leave with it. It’s more a bait-and-lure type of situation.”

“Clearly.”

“And I’ll buy us more time by saying we need to gather the money together. If this all works out, we won’t even need to show him the cash.”

“Though we should have it in case he wants to see it.”

“Yes.”

“But the deal… You want that to hold up?”

“I do.” She wanted to keep her word to Gavin in this regard. She mentioned a lighter charge and wanted reassurance that would be the case.

“For any of the above to happen, McConnell needs to surrender peacefully and the rest of the hostages must walk away unharmed.”

“I’ll make sure he knows that.” Though she’d have to watch how she played this. She certainly couldn’t present the criteria to Gavin in case there were injuries she didn’t know about. Then he’d feel boxed in.

“There is the chance he’s not prepared to surrender just yet either, which if that is the case…”

“I know what to do.” She’d request another sign of good faith.

“Good. Keep me posted.”

“And you me. I need to know when the money will get here.”

Elwood was gone, and she got off to look at the timer. She had five minutes left and returned inside the command vehicle.

“And there she is,” Bowen said caustically. “No question of where you’ve been or what you’ve been up to.”

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