His tone was clipped. "Not long."
"She good?" Lena prodded.
"She's a machine," Nick said, but it did not sound like a compliment.
They were silent as he led them past the shops on Main Street. They reached the hospital in under five minutes, but with the heat and anxiety, it seemed like hours. Lena did not know what she had been expecting when they reached the hospital, but it was not the elegantly dressed woman who threw open the back exit door and walked toward them with a purposeful stride. Behind her were three burly men dressed in the requisite shirts and chinos of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. They wore huge Glocks on their sides and walked like they had brass balls. The woman leading them was small, around five three with a slight build, but she walked toward Nick with the same swagger.
"Glad you could get here," Nick said, a tone of resignation in his voice. He made introductions, telling Frank and Lena, "This is Dr. Amanda Wagner. She's the GBI's chief negotiator. She's been doing this longer than anybody in the state."
Wagner barely acknowledged them as she shook Nick's hand. She did not bother to introduce the three men she'd brought with her, and none of them seemed too upset about it. Up close, she was older than Lena had first thought, probably in her fifties. She had clear polish on her fingernails and little makeup. A simple diamond ring was all the jewelry she wore, and her hair was cut in one of those flyaway styles that took forever to fix. There was something calming about her presence, though, and Lena thought that whatever had gone on between the negotiator and Nick must have been personal. Despite what Frank had said, there was nothing hesitant about Amanda Wagner. She seemed more than ready to jump into the fray.
Wagner spoke in a cultured drawl, asking Nick, "We've got two adult male shooters, heavily armed, with six hostages, three of them children?"
"That's correct," Nick said. "Phones and utilities are controlled. We're monitoring for cell transmissions, but nothing's come out yet."
"This way?" she asked. Nick nodded and they walked back toward the cleaners as she questioned him. "Car been found?"
"We're working on it."
"Entrances and exits?"
"Secured."
"Sharpshooters?"
"Standard six-point formation."
"Minicams?"
"We'll need them from you."
She glanced behind her, and one of the men got on his cell phone. She continued, "The jail population?"
"Evacuated to Macon."
Overhead, the helicopter that had brought them here took off. Wagner waited for the roar of the blades to die down before asking, "Have you established contact?"
"I got one of my men on the phone. They haven't picked up yet."
"Is he trained in negotiation?" Wagner asked, though surely she knew the answer. Nick shook his head, and she said, "Let's hope they don't answer, Nicky. The first contact is generally the primary negotiator throughout the entire siege. I thought you'd learned that lesson." She paused a moment, but when Nick did not respond, she suggested, "Perhaps you could stop him and get me the number?"
Nick took his radio off his belt. He walked ahead of them, relaying the order. When he called out the station's phone number, one of the men from Wagner's team dialed it into a cell phone and held it to his ear.
"Who've we got inside?" she asked as they started walking again. "Run it down for me one more time."
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."