Takeover - Lisa Black [43]
He’s in the center! Paul screamed silently to the unseen police snipers who had to be stationed in the windows of the library across the street. One of them must be able to get a bead—Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!
But now Lucas could not be seen, not by the snipers and not by Paul.
“Did he shoot her?” the janitor asked. Missy sobbed. The security guys were all shouting, mostly obscenities, but Paul heard one say, “I can’t see.”
Brad moaned, “We have to get out of here. He’ll kill us all, one by one.”
“Are there offices behind the teller cages?” Paul asked Thompkins. “Other rooms back in there?”
“Three. Mine and—”
“I said shut up!” Bobby shouted at them as he backed up to the teller windows. “Lucas, you okay?”
“I’m fine. Be there in a sec.”
“If he killed that girl, then you’re both in very serious trouble,” Paul said to Bobby.
“Gee, like we weren’t before? You wanna act as my lawyer? Get me a deal?”
“You haven’t hurt anyone—yet. You should get out now, quit while you’re ahead.” Paul fought to keep his voice steady, reasonable, watching every minute for an opening. If Bobby would turn away, even for a second, Paul could fire, close the fifteen-foot gap between them before Lucas emerged, grab Bobby’s gun, and—
Bobby not only pointed the rifle at him, he raised it to his eye as if taking special aim. “You should shut up and quit while you’re ahead. I’ll hang with Lucas and kill all of you—”
Missy gasped.
“—but I ain’t never going to trust no cops. My whole family is dead because of them.”
Lucas reappeared behind him, with the backpack but without any sign of Cherise. “What’s going on?”
“This guy thinks I should give myself up.”
“Well”—Lucas dropped the now-stuffed backpack onto the floor—“a man’s entitled to his opinion. We have four hundred and eighty thousand and some-odd dollars, Bobby. I don’t think that’s enough.”
“Me neither.”
“Did you kill that girl?” the janitor asked again.
Lucas said, “Let’s just say we won’t be seeing Miss Cherise again soon. But right now we need to put our heads together. Where else in this building can we find some money?”
CHAPTER 13
11:36 A.M.
“Something just happened,” Theresa said. “Every person there just jumped a foot.”
“I wish we had sound,” Cavanaugh said.
Jason picked up the phone. “They have sound at the monitor station. I’ll ask.”
Theresa caught her breath as she saw Paul’s hand move to his side, going for his gun. It was an ingrained response, she knew. He wouldn’t even have time to think about it, wouldn’t even have time to stop himself, but Bobby Moyers would have time to pull the trigger on that submachine gun before Paul could get his Glock up and pointed.
She watched Bobby approach Paul. But the robber merely shouted something, and Paul’s hand stopped midmotion. He did not pull out his gun. “What the hell is going on?” she demanded.
“That young woman didn’t come back,” Cavanaugh pointed out.
“Shots fired,” Jason said. “It sounds like he killed that girl.”
Don’t move, Paul. Don’t do a thing.
Cavanaugh let loose a string of expletives. “Can security see behind the teller cages?” he asked Jason.
“Just the counter area at each window. There’s no camera coverage in the offices behind the cages. She went back there with Lucas, and only Lucas came out.”
“Can’t we see through the windows? The ones in the outer walls are clear.”
Jason knelt on the window seat, phone in one hand and a pair of binoculars in the other. Where did he get those? Theresa wondered, resisting the urge to rip them out of his hands. She moved to the telescope instead.
“I don’t see anyone,” the young man reported. “There’s cabinets stacked against a few of the windows. They must be behind those.”
“So she could be alive.”
“The other hostages are asking if she’s dead,” Jason went on. “He’s not denying it. They can’t make out much