Nick recited like a good student, numbering people off on his fingers. "Marla Simms, station secretary. She's elderly. She won't be much help. Brad Stephens, foot patrol. He's got six years on the job."
Wagner asked Frank, "Can we count on him?"
Frank seemed surprised she had addressed the question to him. "He's a solid beat cop."
Lena felt the need to add, "He's kind of shaky under stress."
They all turned to look at her. Frank seemed angry, but Lena did not regret warning the negotiator about Brad. "I rode in a squad car with him last year. He's not steady under pressure."
Wagner gave her a look of appraisal. "You've been a detective for how long?"
Lena felt a lump in her throat, and all her resolve disappeared with that one question. "I took some time off this year for personal -"
"How lovely for you," Wagner said, turning back to Nick. "Who else?"
Nick continued walking and they followed. "Sara Linton, town pediatrician and coroner."
Her lip curled in a smile. "That's novel."
"She was married to our Chief of Police," Nick said. "Jeffrey Tolliver."
"Just give me the names of the living."
He stopped at the open cleaners' door, where Hemming and her fellow patrolman still stood guard. "There's three kids in there, around ten years old and freaked the fuck out."
"The pediatrician's probably helping. How many children were killed?"
"None," Nick answered. "One of them's in the hospital, might lose his foot. School's in the process of tracking down parents. A lot of them commute to Macon for work, but we've identified all the kids." He paused to regroup. "There's another officer inside. Barry Fordham. He was shot pretty bad from what Frank could see."
"We have to assume he's dead," Wagner said matter-of-factly as she walked into the cleaners. Inside, the crowd of officers and agents cleared a path for her. Wagner glanced around the room, her gaze assessing everyone from the four GBI agents Nick had brought to Molly Stoddard, Sara's nurse. She finally turned her sights back on Lena, saying, "Would you get me some coffee, dear? Black, two sugars."
Lena felt a flicker of anger, but she walked over to the coffeemaker to do as she was told. Pat Morris tried to catch her eye, but she ignored him.
Wagner leaned against the edge of the folding table, addressing the group. "First is the initial assault. You've got – what – five bodies in there?"
Lena bit back her pride and provided, "There's another patrol cop missing," as she dumped two packs of sugar into a paper cup.
"Six bodies, then," Wagner said. "The whole town's lit up with this. There's only one reason he's not checking in."
"Marilyn," Nick corrected. "The missing cop is a woman."
"That's the two extra shots you heard. They're going to take out the ones most likely to resist. The uniforms will be big bull's-eyes. Perhaps your shaky one" – she walked over to Lena and poured the coffee herself – "doesn't seem threatening enough. That's saved your Brad his life. For now."
Wagner checked her watch before asking, "Do we have a ventilation plan for the station?"
Frank said, "All the plans are at the town hall. We've already got two people searching."
"That's our priority." Wagner told one of her men, "James, be so kind as to go with Nicky to help speed the search along." Before they could leave, she added, "Let's see about cutting the water while you're at it."
Frank asked, "What's the next step?"
Wagner sipped her coffee before answering. "They'll secure the area. Put all the prisoners in one place so they can control them. Step three, they make sure no one can get in. They'll barricade the doors, and since the shooter who is obviously in charge was smart enough to bring a friend, one will always stay on point to make sure no surprises come through the front door."
She took another sip of coffee as she seemed to calculate variables in her head. "They've had ample time to do all of this, which means they'll soon be moving on to step four, which is to make their demands. That's where the negotiations come in. First, they're going to want the water and power back, then food. What we want is a chance to get inside that place." She saw Lena open her mouth to volunteer and Wagner held up a finger, saying, "We'll get to that when we come to it."
Frank said, "We got parents want to talk to their kids."
"That won't happen," Wagner told him. "The goal from our end is to keep as much emotion out of this as possible. We're not going to have crying parents pleading for their children's lives. Our shooters already know how valuable the hostages are without us reinforcing the fact."
"What else?" Lena asked. "What happens next?"
"They'll get hungry or want to see themselves on TV. Eventually, we'll get to the point where we've traded everything we can and they'll want out of there. We need to anticipate what they'll want at that point besides money. They always want money – unmarked and small denominations." She paused. "We need to find their car. They didn't sprout wings and fly here, and they're certainly not planning on leaving that way."
Lena said, "There's a lake behind the college."
"Private?"
"Semi," she said. "It's hard to get a boat in without people seeing, but you can if you want to badly enough."
Wagner picked out one of Nick's people. "That'll be you, okay? Take a couple of men and search the shore for boats. We're talking walking distance from the scene. They didn't plan a leisurely hike as part of their getaway." She asked Frank, "I suppose any reports filed on missing boats in the last week are inside the station?"
"Yeah."
"You've rerouted 9-1-1 calls?"
"Yeah," Frank repeated. "To the fire station up the street."
"Could you please see if anyone reported a missing boat this morning?"
Frank picked up one of the telephones on the counter to make the call.
Wagner looked at the two remaining men on her team. "We'll get the children out first for food and water." She asked Lena, "Is there a water cooler in there?"
"In the back by the jails."
"How many toilets?"
Lena did not understand the question, but she answered, "One."
She saw Lena's confusion and explained, "Drinking water. There's around a gallon and a half of water in the tank. They'll use that between themselves."
Frank hung up the phone. "No missing boats," he said. "I put out a feeler on the radio to see if anyone remembers taking a report."
"Good man," Wagner said. Then, to her team, "We'll try to get the old woman or the patrolman out after the children. They won't care about hanging onto them; the cop is still iffy and they'll see the old woman as dead weight. My guess is they'll want to keep the pediatrician." She asked Frank and Lena, "She's attractive?"
Lena began, "I wouldn't say -" just as Frank answered, "Yes."
"I imagine she's fairly confident," Wagner said. "Women don't get through medical school being demure." She frowned. "They won't like that."
Molly said, "I'm her nurse at the clinic. Sara's the most levelheaded person I know. She wouldn't do anything to compromise the situation, especially with children there."
Wagner looked at her crew. "What do you think, boys?"
The one who held the cell phone to his ear said, "No doubt they'll have a problem with her."
The other added, "They'll need to get rid of that adrenaline soon." He started to nod. "I'll go with them keeping the woman."
"I concur," Wagner said, and Lena felt her blood run cold.
Molly said, "You don't think they'll…"
Wagner's incredulous tone was sharp as a tack. "They've killed four police officers and shot at children, severely wounding one of them. Do you think they'll draw the line at sexual assault?" She turned her attention toward Frank. "You were in there, Detective. What did they come for? What else will they want?"
He shrugged, and Lena could feel his anger and confusion. "I don't know."
Wagner started to interrogate him. "What's the first thing they did?"