Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1) (28 page)

“I’ll see you in a second,” I told Niki, and I hung up the
phone.

“He took my son!” Maddie cried.  “He’s got a gun . . . and he
shot Samuel . . . Oh, please God, don’t let him hurt him!”

Maddie needed to be sedated.  As bad as I was, she was a
thousand times worse. She broke down sobbing, and I caught her just as her legs
collapsed underneath her.  My arm felt like it was being ripped off my body as
I tried to shift her around to my good arm.   If one of the policemen hadn’t
stepped in to assist, we both would have ended up on the floor.

I looked at the panel of lights on the wall beside the
elevator.  Larry had taken the elevator to the observation deck.

“Come over here and sit down ma’am,” the officer was saying to
Maddie.  He was an older man, probably in his 60s. Maddie and Penny went with
the policeman and sat on a bench against the wall.  Six more officers were
running in our direction and I could hear sirens in the background.

“You need to get to a hospital,” one of the officers said. 
He’d sneaked up out of nowhere and scared me to death.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I said irritably.  I could see Niki
running down the steps.  “Actually, I’ll be right back,” I told the policeman,
and I went outside to meet Niki.

There was a huge crowd of people gathered outside.  I
recognized some of them as having been in the plaza when Larry took Oliver. 
Many of them were already giving statements to the police.

“What the fuck happened to you?” Niki exclaimed when he saw my
arm.  By then, my entire sleeve from shoulder to wrist was covered in blood and
it had spread over half of my chest.

“I don’t think it’s as bad as it looks,” I said.

“He shot you?”

I nodded my head without speaking.  Niki ran his hand through
his hair.  It was a gesture I’d seen him do a hundred times and always when
things were bad.   He had just realized how serious the situation was.

“Okay,” he said thinking.  I could tell he was going to take
control and I felt immensely better.  “You need to get that looked at,” he
said, sounding distracted.

“I will.”

“How’s Maddie?”

“Terrible.”

“Where did he go?”

“To the observation deck.”

Something caught my eye and I looked up.  The elevator was
coming back down.  It was a 90 second ride from the top to the bottom and one
by one, all heads turned up toward the sky watching the contraption come lower
and lower.  We walked back inside the lobby.  When the elevator finally landed,
a whole load of people came off, eyes wide and faces pale.

“There’s a man with a gun and a little boy up there!” they
exclaimed, all talking at once.  “He said to send the elevator back up empty or
he’ll kill the boy.”

“Send it back up!” Maddie screamed, and she went busting
through the crowd, making her way to the elevator.  She was shoving men out of
the way who were three times her size.  And when she finally reached the
elevator she shoved the last person out of the way, got in and pressed the
button for the observation deck, then stepped back outside the elevator,
blocking the opening until the doors were firmly closed behind her.

I tried to make my way over to her, but one of the policemen
stopped me.  “You can’t come in here.  You need to get to a hospital.”

“I’m with her,” I said, pointing to Maddie.

“Samuel,” Maddie called out, and she came running over to me. 
“Your arm!  Samuel you need to get a hospital!”

It did look bad.  “I will.”

“No.  Now.”  Maddie burst into another round of tears.  “Oh,
Samuel.  What am I going to do if he kills him?”

“That’s not going to happen,” I said adamantly.

“You need to see a doctor.”

“I will.”

I looked around and Niki was nowhere in sight.  It had been no
more than 15 or 20 minutes since the whole ordeal had begun, but I was totally
drained.  I needed to sit down.

“May I have a look at that?” someone said from behind me, and I
was actually relieved to see that it was a paramedic.

“Yeah.  I don’t think it’s as bad as it looks.”  I don’t know
why I kept saying that.  I guess because I was still walking around talking,
but the truth was, my arm was killing me.  If I’d been shot in a different
situation I’m sure I would have been freaking out, but as it was, Oliver’s
predicament was so much worse than mine that I felt like a bullet in the arm
was no big deal.

“Let’s get your shirt off,” he said, and he helped me unbutton
it, then peeled the soggy thing off of me.

A swat team had gathered below the steps by the fountains and
the police were cordoning off an area around the Tower.  Several media vans had
pulled up and their crews were raising their antennas to start live
broadcasting as the scene unfolded.  I felt like I’d been thrust into a movie
scene.  The paramedic was telling me something, but I was having a hard time
focusing on what he was saying.

“He’s going into shock,” I heard him say, and I snapped back to
reality.  There was a second paramedic and he had wrapped a blanket around me.

“Lie down,” he said.  They had produced a gurney from somewhere
and they were trying to get me onto the damn thing.

“No.  I can’t leave,” I protested.  I tried to shake the
feeling that had taken over me, but I was disoriented and I couldn’t stop
shaking.

I was laying on the gurney and one of the guys strapped an
oxygen mask to my face.  There were loading me into an ambulance.

“I can’t leave.  Can you treat me here?” I asked.   Now that I
was horizontal, I was feeling a bit better.

“You know the kid who was taken?” the guy asked me.

I wished I could say we were related in some way.  Saying that
Oliver was my neighbor could never convey the way I felt for him.

“He’s my next-door neighbor,” I said, “but he’s the closest
thing I have to a son.”

The medic smiled.  “We’ll see what we can do.”  He wrapped a
blood pressure band around my good arm and pumped it up.  “You seem like you’re
doing better.  You’re getting some color back.”

The other medic was bandaging my arm, winding a gauze strip
around and around.  The bleeding was under control if not completely stopped,
and by the time he got it all wrapped up, there was no blood coming through the
bandage.

“What do you do?” he asked.

“I’m a lawyer.  We’re suing the guy who took the kid.  That’s
what all this is about.”  It was such a simplistic explanation for what had
just transpired.

My phone rang again and when I answered, Landra was in tears.

“I’m watching it on TV,” she said.  “It’s Oliver isn’t it?  He
took Oliver?”

“Yeah.”

“Well what are they doing to get him back?”

“I don’t know.  The SWAT team is here and the police are
everywhere.  Larry took him up to the observation deck.”

“How’s Maddie?”

“I’m not sure.  Last time I saw her she was a mess.”

“What do you mean,
last time you saw her
?  Where are
you?” she asked confused.

I was embarrassed to tell her, but I didn’t have any choice. 
“Larry shot me in the arm and I’m getting it looked at.”

“He shot you?” Landra exclaimed.  “Oh my God.  Are you all
right?  Where are you?  I’m coming down there.”

“No.  Don’t come down.  They won’t let you in anyway.  The area
is all blocked off.  I’m fine,” I assured her.  “The medics are right here.”  I
held the phone up to the guy on my left.  “Tell her I’m fine,” I told him.

“He’s going to be fine,” he said.

“I’m fine,” I repeated.   “What are they saying on the news? 
Do they know it’s Larry?”

“They mentioned him by name.  Hold on . . . here’s another
report.”  She held the phone up to the television and I listened.

As we told you just moments ago, we have a breaking story
unfolding at the Hemisfair Tower.  Our crew is live at the scene, so we’re
going to take you straight there. 
A nasal sounding woman came on.
 
We’re here a block away from the Hemisfair Tower in downtown San Antonio where
we’ve got a hostage situation going on.  Apparently, about 30 minutes ago, a
man named Larry Roeberts grabbed a 4-year-old little boy and took him from his
mother at gunpoint.  He has taken the child to the top of the Tower, to the
observation deck.  A local attorney . . . a Samuel Collins, was shot as he
tried to negotiate with the man.  We have no word as to the attorney’s
condition, but we understand that he was conscious when seen last.  We’ve
discovered that Larry Roeberts had been fired from his job at Datacare earlier
in the day, and that the boy’s mother at one time worked for the same company,
so there’s speculation that this kidnapping may have stemmed from the working relationship
between the two.

“Did you hear that?” Landra asked.

“Yeah.  Landra, I need to go check on Maddie.  Will you call my
parents and tell them I’m okay?”

“I’ll call them right now.  Did Niki ever find you?”

“He did.  I’ve got to go, Landra.”

“I know.  I love you, Sam.  Please be careful.”

“I will.  I’ll call you when I can.” I sat up on the gurney.

“How do you feel?” one of the medics asked.

“Better.  How’s my blood pressure?”

“It’s going back up.  You’ll be okay for now, but you’re going
to have to see a doctor before too long.”

“When this is all over, that’s the first thing I’ll do,” I
assured him.  I was feeling immensely better.  The trembling had stopped, but
my arm was throbbing and it felt like it was on fire.  I climbed out of the
ambulance and started back towards the Tower, but two policemen stopped me.  My
bandaged arm was resting in a sling, and of course I was shirtless, so I guess
it was obvious that I was the guy who had been shot.

“I need to get back in there to the mother,” I told them.  “I
only left so they could fix this up,” I said, motioning to my arm.

They looked at each other trying to decide what to do.

“Look,” I told them.  “She needs me in there with her.  If
you’d seen her, you’d know that.”

“Come on.  I’ll take you in,” the younger one said.

One officer stayed behind and the other escorted me back into
the Tower lobby.  There was a group of policemen gathered around Maddie and
Penny, who were seated on the bench by the elevator.  Maddie stood up when she
saw me.

She came over to me and she leaned her head against my chest,
crying.  Her cheek was soft against my skin.  I put my good arm around her and
held her.

“We’re going to get him back, Maddie.  You have to believe
that.”

“Are you okay?” she asked.  She lifted her face to look at me
and I wiped at the tears on her cheeks.

“I’m fine.”

“Do you want my sweater?” she asked, and she went over and got
it from the bench.  “Here,” she said, helping me get my good arm into it.  She
draped the other end over my shoulder and buttoned one of the buttons across my
chest.  It would have been an oversized sweater on her so it actually fit me
pretty well, except that it was black with little red flowers on it.  I’m sure
I looked like an idiot, but at that point, I didn’t care.

“Thanks.  What are they doing?” I asked.

“They’re trying to get Larry on his cell phone, but he’s not
answering.  I think they’ve sent the SWAT team up the stairwell or up in
another elevator.”

I debated on telling her about Niki being there because I
wasn’t sure how she’d react, but the question was answered when my phone rang.

“It’s me,” he said.

“Where are you?” I asked.

“I’m above the observation deck.  He’s got Oliver tied up with
duct tape, but he hasn’t hurt him.”

I was so relieved that my face must have given something away
because Maddie knew instantly that something was up.

“Who is that?” she asked.

I pulled her to the side and said under my breath, “It’s Niki. 
He’s up there, and he can see Oliver.  He’s okay.  He’s not hurt.”

A whole new river of tears started pouring out her eyes.  She
lowered her voice.  “I want to talk to him,” she said, and she grabbed the
phone out of my hand.

“Niki?” she said frantically.  “You’ve got to get him back for
me, Niki.  You’ve got to get him back!”  She seemed like she was on the verge
of hysterics.  I took the phone back.

“What should I do?” I asked him.  “Do you want me to tell the
police you’re up there?”

“Yeah.  I guess you probably should.”

“What do you mean when you say you’re above the observation
deck?”

“I’m on the roof.”

“You’re on the roof?” I repeated.

“Yeah.  Let me talk to whoever’s in charge.”

I sought out the officer who looked like he was in charge and I
introduced myself.  “I’ve got Niki Lautrec of Lautrec Investigations on the
phone.  He’s on the roof above the observation deck and he’s got the kidnapper
and the hostage in sight.  He wants to talk to you.”

The officer looked at me like he wasn’t sure whether to believe
me, then he looked at the phone the same way before he put it to his ear. 
“This is Captain Martinez. Who am I speaking to?”

He was quiet for the next few minutes, looking shocked by what
he was hearing, and when he hung up and gave my phone back, he charged out of
the lobby like he was on a mission.

I took Maddie’s hand and we went to another bench and sat down
by ourselves.  We were discussing what we thought Niki might try to get Oliver
away from Larry, when the policeman who had taken Niki’s call came up to us
grim-faced and nervous.

“We’ve had a call from the kidnapper,” he said.  “He’s asking
that you two be sent up in the elevator.”

“Let’s go,” I said without a second’s thought.  Maddie and I
started towards the elevator but the officer pulled me back.

“We’re not authorized to send you up there.  At this point, the
man has one hostage.  If you two go up there, he’s got three.  He’ll have even
more leverage.”