Page 24 of Tommy Gabrini: All Fall Down
O’Malley looked at Chief Ronald Browne, the head of the Seattle PD. But Browne, a tall, wiry black man who was on the phone with the governor, shook his head. Then he placed his hand over his phone’s receiver. “Let her talk to him over the phone. But coach her. See how that goes.”
Grace was thankful for at least that as she and O’Malley walked over to the group of phones they had already set up.
But before O’Malley would make the call, he looked at Grace. “Just so you know who you’re dealing with: Eighteen people that we know of have already been declared dead and scores more are fighting for their lives at area hospitals.”
Grace thought she couldn’t be more shocked, but that news did it.
“And those are the ones we were able to get out of there,” O’Malley continued. “We don’t know how many are injured or worse in that classroom, and we don’t know if there are others injured or worse in other classrooms.”
“But how do you know my son did it? How can you be so certain it’s him?”
“We have eyewitnesses that survived and got out of there. They all point to Thomas Gabrini as the shooter. And besides that,” he added, “we’ve spoken to him.”
Grace stared at the deputy chief. “And you’re telling me that my son said he did it?”
“He did it, ma’am. That’s not up for debate okay? He did it. Let’s move past that and see how we can stop the bloodshed and get your son and those hostages out of there alive. That’s where you come in. Your job is to get him to give up. But don’t go too hard on him. You don’t want to trigger him.”
Grace couldn’t believe it. TJ never gottriggered, but they wouldn’t believe her if she said it. So she didn’t. “Okay,” she said.
And O’Malley nodded for one of the other plains clothes detectives to make the call.
“What?” It was TJ’s voice.
Grace grabbed the phone. “TJ, this is your mother.”
“Ma, go home. There’s nothing you can do now.”
“TJ, listen to me. Me and your father love you.”
“I know that, Ma.”
“Your sisters do too.”
“Ma don’t!”
“Just come on out and talk to me, okay? They’ll let you talk to me.”
She could hear him sniffling. He was crying. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this, Mommy.”
“What do you mean?”
When Chief Browne heard that, he ended the call with the governor and hurried over to Grace’s side.
“It was never supposed to be like this,” TJ continued.
Browne pressed the mute button on the phone. “Tell him to release those students.” Then he released the button.
“Baby,” said Grace, “why don’t you let those students come out? You can do that, can’t you, sweetheart?”
“No, I can’t! They see it and it’s over.”
“Who are they?”
Browne mouthed for Grace to asksee what.
“What will they see, TJ?” Grace asked him.
“Because it’ll happen.”
