Takeover - Lisa Black [91]
His face grew still again, hard, almost disappointed. “I disagree, Theresa. Real love is unbalanced, and you have to be willing to sacrifice everything and everyone for it.”
For the second time, she asked, “Is that what you’re doing this for? Love?”
“Sit down, Theresa.”
She sat.
CHAPTER 26
2:35 P.M.
“What did you do with the daughter?” Cavanaugh asked.
Patrick, Cavanaugh, and Jason sat at the librarian’s desk. Assistant Chief Viancourt perched on a folding chair, one ankle over the opposite knee. He seemed to have forgotten his irritation at Patrick—he’d never been the sort to hold a grudge—but he also seemed to have lost interest in the whole ordeal.
Patrick could not remember when he’d last felt this tired. He didn’t have the energy to light a cigarette, and his clothes, even his pants, clung to his sweat-soaked body. Yet the last active cell in his body rose up at Cavanaugh’s tone. “Rachael. Her name is Rachael.”
“Rachael, then. Where is she?”
“She’s watching the monitor in the map room.”
The hostage negotiator studied him. “If this goes bad—”
“She might witness her mother’s slaughter, yes, I know that. But what else could I do? Stick her in a closet and tell her to be quiet like a good girl? If it was my mother, I’d sure as hell want to see what was going on.”
“It will give her nightmares for the rest of her life. Why don’t you send her to the hospital to stay with the fiancé? Paul,” he added hastily, seeing the look on Patrick’s face. “He was almost her stepfather.”
Is going to be, Patrick thought, but he felt superstitious about insisting, felt afraid to acknowledge Cavanaugh’s use of the past tense when it came to Paul Cleary. “I thought of that. She didn’t ask much about him before, but I’ll have to tell her what kind of shape he’s in. I won’t make her go—I keep picturing Tess bleeding to death on the floor of the Federal Reserve building. Having to be here if that happens, yes, would traumatize Rachael for life. But knowing she might have had a chance to say good-bye if I hadn’t sent her off to Metro…well, she’d hate me forever.”
“So are you basing this decision on her feelings or yours?”
Patrick damned the man. That was probably what made him a good negotiator, the ability to cut through words to the crux of the matter. “That’s just it—it’s going to have to be her decision.”
Cavanaugh shrugged. “Whatever. Just keep her out of here.” He dialed the phone again. “He still isn’t answering. This is not good.”
It felt better to discuss anything besides himself or Theresa. “What’s his plan?”
“That’s just it, I don’t know. After the entrance, the exit is the most dangerous time, and it’s best to have every detail worked out. You think they were trigger-happy before…. They should be even more worried about it than I am. I don’t get it. Did we hear from the storage facility that had Bobby’s car?”
“Whoever left it there gave his name as Bobby Moyers. Surveillance tapes have since been recorded over, and the employee who assigned the unit got fired three months ago. Decatur PD is trying to track him down on the off chance he can give us a description.” He dialed again.
“Where’s the secretary of state now?” Patrick asked suddenly. “The luncheon should be over.”
“Yeah, it’s over,” Viancourt answered from the couch, a bitter edge to his words. He had probably hoped to attend at least part of it. “They’re bundling the secretary into a bulletproof limo as we speak. So I guess this had nothing to do with that after all. I’m glad I didn’t even suggest to the chief that we cancel it,” he added pointedly. He had been right and they wrong.
Patrick checked his Nextel, hoping the hospital would call him if Paul’s condition changed. “Maybe he was waiting for the traffic to clear.”
Cavanaugh asked what he meant.
“We’ve gotten the feeling all day that Lucas was stalling. First he refused to wait for this shipment, and then he changed his mind, even after going through the whole rigmarole of sending the Ludlow woman to rob the bank-loan department. Maybe he wanted to wait until the secretary departed,