Robert Crais - Hostage

“It’s what I said before, where’s it going to land? I can’t give you a helicopter. That’s not going to happen.”

“Then a car. I want a car to take me to Mexico, a car and an escort and a free pass south of the border.”

“We’ve been through that.”

Rooney seemed to be working himself up to something. He waved his arm in a flash of anger.

“Then what fuckin’ good are you?”

“I’m trying to save your life.”

Dennis glanced back into the house. Talley watched him, thinking that Rooney showed the day’s strain. Finally, Rooney faced him again and lowered his voice still more.

“Are you a rich man?”

Talley didn’t answer. He didn’t know where Rooney was taking this. He had learned to let them get wherever they were going on their own.

Rooney patted his pocket.

“Can I reach in here, show you something?”

Talley nodded.

Rooney stepped closer. Talley couldn’t make out what Rooney took from his pocket at first, but then he saw that it was money. Rooney seemed to be trying to shield it so that only Talley could see.

“That’s fifty one-hundred-dollar bills, Chief. Five thousand dollars. I got a whole suitcase of this stuff in the house.”

Rooney pushed the bills back into his pocket.

“How much would it be worth to you, getting me out of here? A hundred thousand dollars? You could drive me down to Mexico, just me and you, no one the wiser, just tell the others that was the deal we made without mentioning any money. I wouldn’t tell. They got money in this house, Chief. More money than you’ve ever seen in your life. We could carve it up.”

Talley shook his head.

“You picked a bad house to hole up in, Dennis.”

“Two hundred thousand, cash, hundred-dollar bills, right in your pocket, no one needs to know.”

Talley didn’t answer. He wondered about Smith, what he did here in the middle of nowhere, here in the safe, anonymous community of Bristo Camino, with so much cash and information in his house that this kid was willing to die for it and the men in the car were willing to kill for it. Do you ever really know your neighbors?

“Give up, Dennis.”

Rooney wet his lips. His eyes flicked past Talley again, then back.

“You tryin’ to drive up the price? Okay, three hundred. Three hundred thousand dollars. Could you ever earn that much? You can have Mars and Kevin. Fuckin’ bust them . Make that part of the deal.”

“You don’t know what you’re dealing with. You can’t buy your way out of this.”

“Everybody wants money! Everybody! I’m not giving this up!”

Talley stared at him, wondering how far to go. If Rooney quit now, Amanda and Jane might pay for it. But if Rooney quit now, walked out right now, Talley would have the disks. Once the Watchman’s people arrived, Talley might not have the chance.

“This house isn’t what you think it is. You believe some guy has this kind of cash just laying around in his house?”

“There’s a million bucks in there, maybe two million! I’ll give you half!”

“The man you sent to the hospital, Walter Smith, he’s a criminal. That money belongs to him.”

Rooney laughed.

“You’re lying. What a crock of shit.”

“He has partners, Dennis. This is their house, and they want it. The way I’m offering is the only way out for you.”

Rooney stared at him, then rubbed at his face.

“Fuck you, Talley. Just fuck you. You think I’m an idiot.”

“I’m telling you the truth. Give up. Work with me here, and at least you’ll have your life.”

Rooney sighed, and Talley could see the sadness settle over him like a cloak.

“And what’s that worth?”

“Whatever you make of it.”

“I’ll go back in now. I’ll think about it and give you my answer tomorrow.”

Talley knew that Dennis was lying. Talley had a sense for when they would give up and when they wouldn’t, and Rooney had hold of something he couldn’t turn loose.

“Please, Dennis.”

“Fuck off.”

Rooney backed to the door, then stepped inside and pulled it closed. The darkness inside swallowed him like dirty water.

Talley turned back to the officers lining the wall and walked away, praying that Thomas had the disks and was safe. Rooney wasn’t the only one holding on to something he couldn’t turn loose.

Saturday, 12:04 A.M.

THOMAS

Thomas dripped with sweat. His knees were cut from the rafters, and, where streaks of sweat washed the cuts, they burned. Thomas didn’t care. He was excited and happy-dude, he was pumped!; this was the best sneak ever, better than any he’d made with Duane Fergus!

With the power off, Thomas didn’t have to worry about being seen on the monitors. He pushed through the hatch into his closet, and crossed the room to his computer. He took the computer apart and lugged it to the floor at the foot of his bed so that he wouldn’t be seen by the camera when the power returned. His hands were so sweaty that he almost dropped the screen and caught it on his knee.

The lights came on without warning. Thomas worried that the turds would probably come upstairs to check on him, so he hurried to load the first disk.

The file icon that appeared was unnamed. He double-clicked on the icon to open it. A list of corporate names appeared that Thomas didn’t know anything about. He opened a random file, but saw only tables and numbers. Thomas felt a stab of fear that he had snatched the wrong disks even though these were the only disks. Nothing that he saw made sense to him, but these were the disks Chief Talley wanted, so maybe the Chief would understand.

Thomas stopped in his work to listen for squeaks. The hall was quiet.

Thomas turned on his phone again, but this time the power indicator showed that less than half the power remained. He was down to barely a quarter of a charge.

Thomas pushed his redial button to call Chief Talley.

TALLEY

Talley climbed back over the wall where Martin and Hicks were waiting for him. Martin was angry.

“That was really dumb. What do you think you accomplished?”

Talley hurried away without answering her. He didn’t want her around when Thomas called. He radioed Maddox to recount his conversation with Rooney as he walked around the side of the neighbor’s house, and kept it short. He left out that Rooney had told him about the enormous store of cash in the house, as that would raise too many questions, and felt terrible about it. Talley was a negotiator. Another negotiator was depending on him, and Talley was lying by omission. Maybe that was why he kept the call short; he couldn’t stand himself for doing it.

His phone rang as he reached the cul-de-sac. He hurried into a neighboring drive, out of sight of the house, and stood by himself.

“I got’m!”

Talley forced himself to stay calm. He didn’t have anything yet.

“Good work, son. You’re back in your room now, right? You’re safe?”

“That big guy, Mars, he almost caught me, but I hid. What was that thing you blew up in the backyard? That was so cool!”

“Thomas, when we’re done with this, I’ll let you blow up one of those things yourself, you want. But not now, okay? I need to know what’s on those disks.”

“Numbers. I think it’s somebody’s taxes.”

“You’ve opened them?”

“I told you I could.”

Martin and Hicks came out of the neighboring drive and joined the other officers behind the police vehicles that filled the cul-de-sac, Martin working her way to Maddox. Talley moved farther away.

“You sure did, Thomas. Are those disks labeled?”