Hand of Fate (32 page)

"Me?" Allison echoed in surprise. "Why me?"

"She says she liked you from when you interviewed her." Nicole's smile was rueful."I reminded her that I was there, too, but I guess you're the one Willow liked. So you're going to have to be our negotiator:'

It was suddenly hard for Allison to draw a breath. "But I don't have any training."

"I'll be right here so I can guide you," Leif said. "I'll be able to listen in on an earpiece. There's no other way to get Cassidy out, not if we don't persuade Willow. She's holding her in the station's control room." He pointed to the building's entrance. "There are cameras on the fron
t a
nd back doors so that whoever works at night can buzz people in. Unfortunately, they feed into the control room. We can't risk spooking her. We're working on breaching the windows, but again, we can't make any noise."

"Is there a window into the control room?" Allison asked. "Could you use a sniper?"

Leif shook his head. "No exterior windows. The only good shot would be if we could get someone inside, get them into the main studio, and have them shoot through the glass that separates it from the control room. That's if we could get them inside. Even then the board operator says the glass is four panes thick."

"What about using tear gas or some other kind of gas?" It would be an ironic twist.

Nicole answered, "The second Willow realized there was something in the air, we believe she would shoot Cassidy."

Leif held up a cell phone. "In a minute, I'll dial this for you. Your goal is to connect with her, just the way you must have done in the interview. We need you to slow things down and take out some of the tension. We don't need Willow to panic."

Allison felt like the panicky one. Her knees were trembling. "I can't do this!"

Nicole put an arm around her shoulders. "Look, Allison, it's just like choosing a jury. You need to build a rapport with her. Don't ask questions that can be answered with just a yes or a no. Get Willow talking. She must be tired of living a lie day after day. So give her the chance to vent. Repeat what she tells you so that she knows that you get it. But most of all, just keep her talking."

Leif said, "We need to take the pressure off her. Speak slowly. Give her a chance to think this through. Ask her if she's hungry, and if she is, ask her exactly what type of food she would like. Keep her focused o
n t
he details. That will help stretch things out and give us time to come up with a plan."

Allison touched the cross under her blouse. Dear God, she prayed, help me not to make any mistakes. Protect Cassidy and even Willow Don't let anyone get hurt.

Leif dialed the phone and handed it to her.

"Yeah."

If Allison hadn't known it was Willow, she didn't think she would have recognized her voice.

"This is Allison Pierce. How are you doing, Willow?"

"How do you think I'm doing?"

Allison decided not to reinforce Willow's panic by suggesting that she was panicked. Instead she said, "It's dinnertime. You must be hungry." She pitched her voice softer and lower than Willow's, subtly sending a signal of calm. "Would you like us to get you some pizza or something?"

"Right, and have the deliveryman jump me? No thanks."

So much for sending a signal of calm. "What would you like, then? You name it, and I'll see if I can get it."

Leif nodded and gave her a thumbs-up.

"What's the point?" Willow asked. "I killed Jim Fate. And now I'm a kidnapper. I'll be in jail until I'm old. I might as well be dead."

"Willow, it won't help anything if you die," Allison said quickly, worried that Willow was on verge of making decisions that couldn't be taken back. "It won't help your cause."

Except that maybe it actually could, she couldn't help thinking. The media paid more attention to dead bodies than it did to standoffs that ended peacefully.

"Just tell me what you want, and we'll figure out a way to get it to you."

Willow's voice strengthened. "Then bring me a car. With no tracking devices. And no one follows me. I'll take Cassidy with me. Once I'm sure no one is following, I'll let her go."

Or tumble her out of the car with a bullet in her head, Allison thought.

"Focus on the details," Leif whispered in her other ear. "Buy us some time."

"What kind of car do you want? Four doors? Two? A hybrid?" "I want your car."

"What?" Allison sputtered.

Even Leif was struck silent.

"I want your car. The one you came here in. Drive it over the sidewalk and up to the front door so that it's in full view of the camera. Back it up so that I can leave right away. Leave the keys in the ignition. And do it in the next three minutes, or I'll know you are messing with me. And I want everyone back thirty feet with their weapons holstered, or lying on the ground with their hands empty. If I see a single gun pointed at me, I'll shoot the hostage?'

The phone went dead.

"What should I do?" Allison begged. "What should I do?"

"It's a very, very bad sign that she is referring to Cassidy as 'the hostage," Nicole said, her voice grim. "She's depersonalizing her. I think you're going to have to do what she said. And you had better hurry."

A minute later, Allison backed her Volvo onto the sidewalk until it nearly touched the front door. Then she got out and joined the wide ring that waited for the door to open and the two women to come out.

The front door finally edged open. Willow had her left arm looped around Cassidy's neck, and her right hand held the gun pressed under her chin. The two of them were as close as conjoined twins, only wit
h o
ne dark and one fair head. Cassidy's eyes were wide, her mouth opened as if she wanted to scream, but she didn't make a sound.

One step. Two. Willow went to the passenger side door, opened it, and nudged Cassidy in with the barrel of her gun.

A grenade spun across the pavement and landed right at Willow's feet. A second later there was a huge flash of blinding light and a thunderous BANG! The concussive force of the blast sent Allison stumbling backward.

Her ears were ringing, but Allison thought she heard the sounds of a gun firing and a woman screaming. But she was still blind from the flash.

Chapter
43

Papa Haydn

Thursday, February 23

Three days later, Allison sat in the semidarkness of Papa Haydn, listening to the clink of silverware on china. The menu featured halibut cheeks, bison au jus, and pasta with wild boar, but the restaurant's real draw was the huge dessert case.

"Here you go," the waitress said, setting down a plate. "One serving of our chocolate torte, and forks for everyone." Four glorious layers of chocolate buttermilk cake separated by espresso ganache and glazed with milk chocolate ganache lay in front of them.

"I shouldn't," Nicole said, picking up her fork.

"Maybe just a couple of bites," Allison said, cutting off a sliver.

"Delicious," Cassidy mumbled through an already full mouth.

As she looked at her two friends, Allison could feel her heart expand in her chest. They had come so close to losing Cassidy. "I still don't understand, Nicole, why you didn't tell me you were going to use that, that ..."

"Stun grenade," Nicole said. "Otherwise known as a flashbang, for obvious reasons. The flash blinds you. The bang and the percussive wave mess with your ears and your balance. It buys you a little bit of time. In this case, just enough to disarm Willow and grab Cassidy."

"And I thank you for that." Cassidy lifted her glass of wine. "Although when Willow's gun went off, I was sure I was dead. Thank God she didn't hit anyone. But if you had let her drive me away, I would have been dead for sure."

Nicole said, "And the reason we didn't tell you, Allison, is that it's standard operating procedure not to tell the negotiator if a rescue attempt is being planned. Willow was listening to you, watching you get out of your car. We couldn't risk you giving things away through your words, your tone of voice, or even your body language."

"But where did Willow get the fentanyl to kill Jim?" Cassidy asked.

"It wasn't fentanyl," Allison explained. "She had a friend who worked for a large animal vet, and he stole this drug called Carfentanil for her."

Nicole said, "Carfentanil is an analog of fentanyl, which is why the lab thought it had turned up in Jim Fate's blood, only somehow concentrated. It's an animal tranquilizer that's a hundred times stronger than fentanyl. It was used in the Moscow theater hostage crisis, the one where hundreds of people died when the Russian military pumped in gas."

"Maybe it was really fast then," Cassidy said. "I sure hope so." She looked at each of them. "There's something else I have to tell you guys. One of the last things Jim ever told me was that when you're on the radio, you should pretend you're talking to your best friend. He said you should imagine that they are right there in the studio with you. Well, when Willow forced me to help with her so-called manifesto, all I could think of was you two. All the time I was talking, I was thinking of you."

A rare smile pulled at the corners of Nicole's lips. "How are you doing, anyway? Are you sleeping worse now because of this? Are you keeping away from the Somulex?"

"Last night I slept for over six hours. Without drugs. It sounds crazy after everything that's happened, but it's true."

"I'm so glad." Allison leaned forward and patted Cassidy's shoulder. "Good for you. How are you doing it?"

"It's like they say in NA: one day at a time. It's totally boring, but I've been going to bed at the same time every night. Even on the weekend. I'm committed to going to yoga three times a week and NA meetings five times a week."

Nicole took a deep breath. "Since it's true confession time, I have one for you guys. That man who broke into my house didn't just pick us out randomly. About ten years ago, someone slipped something into my drink .. ." Her words came slower and slower. "And I was ... was raped."

Cassidy and Allison froze.

Allison did the math. "So Makayla?" she said after a long moment. Nicole nodded.

Cassidy put down her fork. "Does she know?"

"She didn't. Now she knows a little. But she knows the important thing. That I'm her mother and that I love her."

"What happened to the guy?" Cassidy asked.

"He was on parole, but now he's back in jail. He was supposed to be on electronic monitoring, but you can just cut those bracelets off with scissors. I guess it makes sense--you wouldn't want someone to get caught on a piece of machinery or something. It does send an automatic alarm when it's cut, so they knew he was loose. They notified the victims--but they didn't think to notify me, since I wasn't one of the people who had testified against him. Not very many people knew that I was carrying his baby, but he did."

Allison shivered. "How did he find you?"

"He was slick. He called my little brother and pretended to be fro
m a
delivery service with a package for me. He said someone had spilled coffee on it and smeared the address. My brother thought he was doing me a favor by helping this guy. One good thing is that Miller's willing to plead guilty. I don't want Makayla to go through a trial. At least she didn't really shoot him." Nicole pressed her lips together, and her eyes got wide.

If Allison hadn't known her better, she would have said that Nicole was fighting off tears. But Nic never cried.

"We found all these stuffed animals and dolls in his car. Actually things that were more suited for a younger girl. I think he really had some fantasy about being her father."

"Everyone dreams about being a parent," Cassidy said with what Allison thought might just be a wistful smile. She looked at Allison."Has the doctor said whether you and Marshall can have another baby?"

Nicole lightly slapped her arm. "Girl--it is too soon to ask her that. Just let her be."

"No, it's okay," Allison said. "She said we could start trying again in a few months. But part of me gets worried about going back to that place when we were trying to get pregnant and couldn't, month after month. Everything that's happened recently has brought Marshall and me closer. Even my finding that little girl on the day that Jim Fate died. Yesterday, I brought a few things over to Estella's family. They're barely scraping by."

"Doesn't it bother you that they're illegal?" Cassidy asked.

"It would bother me more if I knew they were hungry and cold, especially a little child who didn't have any say in where she was born. Jesus said, 'I was hungry, and you fed me.' He didn't say, 'I was illegal, and you deported me. "

"Good point," Nicole said, surprising Allison. Usually any God-talk was met with a skeptical silence.

"If Jim were here, I'd bet he could come up with a half-dozen argu-

ments against what you just said," Cassidy said. "But he's not." Sh
e s
ighed. "You know, I miss him more than I would have ever guessed." "To Jim," Allison said, raising her glass of wine.

"To Jim," the other two women echoed, leaning forward to clink their glasses together.