Page 25 of Captive Hearts
Ashley wondered if that urine was finally going to make its appearance down her leg. ‘Me?’
‘Yes. I spotted you parked out on the road, and I knew you’d be the ticket. See, the thing is, what those coppers out there want is todome.’
‘They want to… have sex with you?’ Gina asked, baffled.
Ashley sighed and shook her head. ‘Gina, please don’t speak during the interview-’
‘For fuck’s sake, not that kind of “do”,’ Rick interjected irritably. ‘They want to put abulletin my head, don’t they? First chance they get.’
‘They’ve only tried to talk to you,’ Ashley pointed out. ‘What makes you think-’
‘They can’t riskinnocentlives, looks bad,’ Rick explained impatiently. ‘But the second they get the last hostage, I’m fucking dead. They won’t even wait until then if they get a chance.’
‘Rick, you committed a crime,’ Ashley said gently. ‘But you haven’t killed anyone. They don’t want bloodshed. If you tell DI Conway that you want to surrender, walk out with your hands up…’
‘It’ll be me last breath, I’m telling ya,’ Rick snapped at Ashley. ‘Don’t act like you know what will happen, with your cosy little job, reporting on graffiti? You don’t knowanything.’
Ashley had to concede, she was utterly out of her depth right now. ‘So how can we help?’
‘You’re my protection. ‘Cos you see, the police, they’re like any other murderer. They won’t do anything while people are actually watching.’
‘So you want us to what?’ Gina said, from behind the camera. It annoyed Ashley, but she decided not to express it this time. Because this wasn’t exactly the moment to train up the newb on dos and don’ts, was it? Gina had a right to speak, considering how she’d stuck her neck out for Ashley.
‘I want you to shoot everything that happens, and I want it on the telly, ASA fuckin’ P,’ Rick said proudly. ‘They need to know they’ve got eyes on ‘em.’
‘And then what?’ Ashley asked.
Rick’s grinned slipped. ‘I’m still working on that. I just need to think. I’ll come up with something.’
‘Rick, if you just want us to film you handing yourself over to the police, we can go and do that right now,’ Ashley told him hopefully. ‘I can make sure they just put you in the back of the squad car, no guns fired.’
Rick chuckled. ‘Oh, yeah, right. You think I’m handing myself over for armed robbery? With my record, I’ll get twenty years. No way.’
So, that was the real problem. Rick wasn’t just trying to save his own life. It was so much dumber than that. ‘Are you saying you want toescape?’ Ashley asked incredulously.
‘Why not?’ Rick said. ‘I’ve got a gun, a camera crew, hostages. And that car park would fit a private plane. I’ve googled the countries they can’t get you back from, what you call it, non-extra-whatever. I might go to Azerbaijan,’ he said, pronouncing it with no accuracy whatsoever, but with enough confidence that Ashley briefly wondered if she was the one who had it wrong. ‘Sounds exotic,’ Rick smiled.
Ashley tried to look as though she didn’t think Rick was completely stupid. ‘Rick, I don’t think that’s gonna happen. In fact, if you try to get away, that’s a lot riskier for you.’
Rick gave her a look that said he definitely thought Ashley was completely stupid and he didn’t mind letting her know it. ‘Look, either way, I’m fucked. I die, or I go to prison. So I might as well go for the gold here, you get what I’m saying?’
Ashley had no further case to plead. Because Rick cared about his own life so much that he was willing to risk the lives of strangers to keep it, yet not enough to do the simplest, safest thing and hand himself over. He was a dreadful mix of stupidity, selfishness, bravado, and pig-headedness. Ashley couldn’t begin to counter it.
Her phone rang. She gasped, grabbing it from her pocket. ‘Sorry, sorry.’
‘Who is it?’ Rick snapped. ‘You can switch the camera off now, by the way,’ he said to Gina. The recording light went off, and Gina dropped the camera down by her side. Ashley, meanwhile, had finally gotten the bloody phone out of her pocket to see a work number. ‘It’s the station.’
Rick’s irritation gave way to delight. ‘Answer ‘em! They need to know they’ve got tonight’s big story, don’t they?! Put ‘em on speaker.’
Ashley swallowed a big lump in her throat and took the call she’d been avoiding all afternoon, switching it to speaker. ‘Hello?’
‘Ashley!’ Bernie’s voice exploded from the tinny speaker. ‘Where in the purplefuckhave you been? You’re hours late, I’ve had that vicar on the phone tearing me a new arsehole, and we’ve got a gap in tonight’s show!’ screamed Bernie.
‘Bernie, just give me a second, and I’ll explain-’ Ashley began, trying to remain cool.
‘Explain what? I’ve been trying to ring you and Gina all afternoon with no answer. I thought maybe Gina might have come out of left field and been the one to snap and push you off a tall building-’
Ashley gave Gina a quick look. She could have sworn there was the ghost of a smile on her lips. ‘Bernie… I’m in a hostage situation.’
