He laughs a little. “I said you should’ve made these women make the same promise.Theykeep attackingme.”
Just let them go and that won’t happen anymore, Hope thinks. But before she can say it, he speaks again. “What does the promise have to do with Covey?”
“Because I’m going to bring Covey in there. It’s important you keep your promise and this goes smoothly, with no harm done to anyone—not me, not the hostages, and not you. Or the dog,” she adds.
“I would never hurt Covey,” he says.
“Well, then I need reassurance about hurting the humans.”
He exhales into the phone, his breath hissing across the line. “I won’t hurt any humans. And it’s just you? Coming in here with Covey? I don’t want no cops.”
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple. There have got to be some rules, or the people in charge will never allow this. You have to go by those rules, or this doesn’t happen.”
There is a pause before he says, resigned, “What are the rules?”
“First, before I can come in there, you need to put your gun down somewhere out of reach and visible through the glass. An armed SWAT officer will be coming in with me and will be watching everything that happens. If he sees you go anywhere near the gun, it’s game over. I’ll bring Covey in on a leash, and you will need to unlock the post office door to allow us to get in. Are you following all this?”
There is another pause. “How do I know that the SWAT dude isn’t going to overpower me the minute he gets in here? That you’re not setting me up and using Covey as bait?”
Hope hadn’t considered using the dog as bait. It hadn’t even crossed her mind. “Because I wouldn’t do that to you,” she says.
“Okay,” he says.
“One last detail. The SWAT team will accompany me into the vestibule just like the officers did with the pizza delivery. One of them will come into the actual post office with me, but the rest will stay in the vestibule area the entire time I am in the post office. Just to reiterate: You are not to pick up or move toward your gun at any point.”
She pauses but then continues, her words coming in a rush. “I’m taking a huge risk here, Tommy. It’s not normal for a negotiator to enter a barricade situation. Most of my colleagues out here think I’m crazy.” She softens her voice intentionally. “But Iknow that seeing Covey matters a lot to you. And I didn’t think just seeing him through the window would be the same.”
“It wouldn’t,” Tommy agrees.
“So promise me that you’re going to fully cooperate with everything I’ve said.”
“I already promised you,” he says, the whiny tone creeping back into his voice.
“That was a different promise,” she says.
“Fine,” he says. “I promise.”
“Where are you going to put your gun?” she asks.
“On the counter, I guess,” he says.
“When SWAT gets in there, they’re going to watch through the glass while you put the gun down and move away from it. They won’t allow me and the dog to enter the building until you’ve done so. Okay?” she says.
“Yeah,” he says, “I got it. But I’m going to put those women around me so no one can take a shot at me without going through them.”
Hope decides not to fight him on this but sees the irony of using his captives for his own protection. “Okay,” she says. “I’ll see you in a minute.”
After reviewing the plan one more time with the SWAT commander, she walks outside, where Covey is waiting with Tommy’s stepmother, Jane. Overhead, the sun has dropped a little. With any luck the hostages will be free before it gets fully dark. The dog will be the change agent they’ve needed all day. Though she never considered using Covey as bait, she is definitely using him as an emotional manipulator.
“I could take him in,” offers Jane, who grips Covey’s leash with a worried expression.
Hope reaches out for the leash and squeezes Jane’s shoulder.“We can’t let you do that,” she says. “Please don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”
Jane hands over Covey’s leash. “Take good care of him,” Jane calls as they begin making their way toward the building. She doesn’t know which “him” Jane means—Covey or Tommy. It doesn’t matter. Hope intends to take care of them all.
Chapter 34
Inside the post office, Tommy hangs up and strides boldly to the windows for the first time in hours. When the four women get up and join him there, he looks over at them with exasperation. “What are y’all doing? Go sit back down. This doesn’t involve you.”
