“Aw, you’re not too old,” says Nadine.
Sylvie shakes her head but says nothing. Her skin is thinner now than it was then. She has age spots and bruises easily. She’s not sure putting needles and dye in the mix would be the best thing at this point in her life. But if she could go back and do it over, she would.
“What were you going to get?” asks Blythe. “If you’d gotten one?”
Sylvie pauses, her eyes moving as she thinks about her answer before they widen with a look of surprise. She looks from woman to woman. “I can’t remember!” They all crack up laughing, less because it’s that funny and more because, for a moment, it is a relief just to laugh. But then the ringing phone cuts through the sound of their laughter.
Chapter 33
Outside in the NOC, Hope is standing her ground as the county team argues with her about her proposal to take the dog, Covey, inside the post office, to enter the fray, as it were. She struggles to make them understand her conviction that this is the only way to do this. To parade the dog in front of the windows and let Tommy merely see him isn’t enough to make an impact. To try to coax Tommy to come outside and engage with the dog in person with armed men all around will be a hard sell. She feels it in her gut: To assume the risk on her part and go in with the dog will change everything.
“What if something bad happens?” says Adam.
“It won’t,” she says.
“But you can’t guarantee that,” he counters.
“You’re right,” she says. “I can’t.”
“You need a team around you,” says Chris.
Hope thinks, but does not say, that she hasn’t had a team around her in eight months. Instead, she says, “I’ll be with those women in there. The ones who’ve attacked him and yelled at him and manipulated him, the ones I’ve spoken to personally and worked to free for hours.” Hope stands a little taller, looks from Chris to Adam. “They’ll be my team.”
Chris and Adam exchange glances. Though they are uncertain,Hope is not. She knows that taking Covey into the post office is the way to end this thing. She feels it in her core, in the same place where all the things that matter reside, the things that remain. This is the instinct her mentor spoke about often. But it is one thing to feel it inside; it is another to act on it. She used to have a quote by Joan Baez hanging on her locker door back at the station in Philly that said, “Action is the antidote to despair.” This has been a day of despair. Action is required.
She looks to Bo, who gives her a nod. She can’t tell whether he thinks this is a bad idea or a good one. He probably thinks this is too big a risk like everyone else does, but he is keeping his thoughts to himself. The others have said plenty about how crazy they think this is.
The SWAT commander speaks up. “I can’t let you go in there on your own. My team will all go in the building with you. They can stay in the vestibule and monitor from out there since that room’s so small, butone of my guyswillgo in with you. That’s the only way we can let you assume this risk.”
Hope thinks about it. It’s not ideal. It’s not what she envisioned. But she can tell that this is as far as she’s going to get. She will have to acquiesce on this one point. She nods her assent.
“And he has to put his gun on the counter in plain sight the whole time. If he so much as flinches in its direction, we will all go in.”
Hope knows Tommy will balk at this. But it’s the only way he will get time with his beloved dog. She thinks she can sell him on it. “Okay,” she says. “Let’s do it.” She goes to the phone before they can change their minds.
Tommy answers immediately, and with just one word, “Hello,” she can hear it: The fight is almost out of him. He is weary, both physically and emotionally. The conversation about his fatheronly wrung him out further. The intel says he’s standing far away from the hostages now, keeping his distance with his back turned to them, which is a change. He wants out, but he doesn’t know how to get out. That’s what she’s here for. It is what she intends to facilitate when she gets inside. This is what she and Bo had talked about earlier in the day, the point of surrender. You just have to wait for them to be ready to give up.Everyone gets there eventually, she thinks.Even negotiators.
“Hi, Tommy,” Hope says. “Covey is here. Are you ready to see him?”
“Yes,” he says. “But how?”
“Before I tell you, I want you to reassure me of something,” she says.
He sighs. “What?”
“That you remember the promise you made to me.”
He sighs again. “I do.”
“Then remind me what it is,” she says.
“No one will be harmed today,” he says, then mumbles something she can’t make out.
“What’d you say?” she asks.
“Nothing,” he says.
“Tell me what you said, Tommy, or I don’t tell you about Covey.”
