Page 11 of Captive Hearts
‘My name Is Detective Inspector Conway. I’d like to talk to you. But I’d rather not do it like this. Can you please plug the landline back in and we can have a chat?’
One of the blinds flickered on the door of the restaurant, and a male voice, muffled through the glass, yelled, ‘FUCK OFF!’
DI Conway lowered her megaphone and turned to her colleague, muttering something. She put the megaphone back to her mouth. ‘OK, sir, I guess we’ll have to talk like this then, if you don’t mind. Before we go forward, I’d really like it if you could let me know if anyone in there with you needs medical help?’
There was no answer.
‘Sir, it’s really important that you answer that question. Because if we don’t know if people are hurt, we might decide we have to come in there before you’re ready to come out. I know you don’t want that. I don’t want that either.’
There was a pause, and then the guy yelled resentfully, ‘Everyone’s fine.’
‘I’m really happy to hear that,’ DI Conway said. ‘Do you think you might want to let some people out now?’
A humourless laugh issued through the window. ‘You must think I’m fuckin’ thick!’
‘I don’t think you’re thick at all,’ DI Conway assured him. ‘But we’d consider it an act of good faith if you start sending people out now. Even just a couple.’
There was no response.
‘Sir? Sir, are you still there?’
Nothing.
Once Ashley was sure the action was over, she turned to Gina. ‘You get all that?’
Gina nodded from behind the camera.
‘How much battery you got?’
‘The one in here’s got half charge, and I’ve got a fully charged one in the bag.’
‘How much can you shoot in terms of storage?’
‘Several terabytes.’
Ashley paused. She’d never really paid much attention to the technical side of the job. ‘Is that a lot?’
‘Translated: hours and hours. Long as you don’t need it in 4K.’
‘And you can send footage from that thing, right? Wirelessly?’
‘Yes. I mean, I’ve never had to use that function because it’s not really useful for shooting movies. It’d take too long to transfer the footage that way. But my baby can do it.’ She gave the camera an affectionate pat. Ashley wanted to hate it, but she found it slightly endearing.
‘Great,’ Ashley said. Probably silly to be asking these questions. The situation might be over in two minutes. But if it wasn’t, if things kept developing, she needed to know she could get it all. ‘So-’
‘Are you going to call the station?’ Gina asked.
Ashley frowned. ‘No.’
‘You’re not going to update them?’
‘Not… right… now,’ Ashley said, watching out of her window.
‘You’re not supposed to do stuff like this, are you?’ Gina sighed.
‘Stuff like thishas never happened,’ Ashley sputtered. ‘So technically, I don’t know if I’m supposed to do it or not.’ She gave a semi-hysterical laugh. ‘I might get in trouble if Idon’tkeep following this story.’
‘If you even slightly believed that, you’d call to check in,’ Gina said nonchalantly.
