"So he's a head case," Dendy muttered. 'Just like I said all along."
Although Dendy's remark was unnecessarily cruel, Galloway couldn't entirely disagree with the connotation.
This incident from Ronnie's childhood dangerously paralleled the present circumstances. Cole Davison's story added another factor to the situation, and it wasn't a positive one. In fact, none of the factors had been positive since this standoff began. Not one.
He turned to Gully. "What about Ms. McCoy? Did you see any signs that suggest she's under duress? Is she trying to get across more than she's saying? Any double meanings to her words?"
"Not that I could tell. And I grilled Kip here real good."
The FBI agent turned to the video cameraman. "Everything was as they've told us? Nobody hurt?"
"No, sir. The FBI guy is tied up-taped, rather-but he's shooting off his mouth, so I guess he's all right." He glanced at Dendy apprehensively, as though remembering what happens to the bearers of bad news. "But the… the girl?"
"Sabra? What about her?"
"There were a lot of bloody disposable diapers around.
They were wadded up and pushed aside. But I remember seeing them and thinking, Jeez."
Dendy strangled on an anguished exclamation.
Galloway continued with Kip. "Did you notice anything in your co-worker's manner or delivery that was out of the ordinary?"
"Tiel was same as always. Well, except for looking like hell. She was cool as a cucumber, though."
Finally the senior agent turned to Dendy, who had skipped the trip outside and was openly drinking from a silver pocket flask. "You mentioned the possibility of Sabra sending you a secret message. Did you see or hear anything to suggest one?"
"How could I tell by seeing the tape only that one time?"
The fact that the tyrannical entrepreneur was uneasy and indirect with his answer was in itself telling. Dendy finally had been confronted with the ugly truth: His mishandling of the original predicament had prompted Sabra and Ronnie to take desperate measures, which had gone terribly awry.
"Rewind it," Galloway instructed the agent at the control panel. "Let's watch the tape again. Anybody notice anything, call out." The tape began again.
"Tiel picked that spot so we could see the people behind her," Gully remarked.
"That's the refrigerator where the door was shattered," one of the other agents said, pointing to a spot on the screen.
"Pause it there."
Leaning forward, Galloway focused not on the newswoman but on the group of people in the background.
"The woman leaning against the counter must be the cashier."
Sheriff Montez said, "That's Donna, all right. No mistaking that hairdo."
"And that's Agent Cain, right, Kip?" Galloway pointed to a pair of legs, which he could see only from the knees down.
"Right. He's sitting with his back to the counter."
"Silver duct tape sure shows up good against his black pants, doesn't it?"
Gully's sly gibe went unacknowledged. Galloway was studying the elderly couple sitting close together on the floor near Cain. "How about the old folks? Are they all right?"
"Wide-eyed and bushy-tailed from what I could tell."
"What about the other two men?"
"Mexican fellows. I heard one of them say something to the other in Spanish, but he was talking under his breath, and I wouldn't've understood it anyhow."
"Oh, Jesus." Galloway sprang far forward in his chair so quickly the casters sent it rolling from beneath him.
"What?"
The other agents, responding to their superior's apparent alarm, pushed the others aside and crowded around him. "This one." Galloway tapped the monitor screen.
"Take a good look and tell me if he looks familiar. Can you bring him in any closer?"
Using the technology available, the agent manning the controls isolated the Mexican man's face. He was able to enlarge the image, but doing so sacrificed quality and focus. The agents squinted at the grainy picture, then one of them snapped his head around and exclaimed, "Ah, shit!"
"What?" Dendy demanded.
Davison jumped in. "What's the matter?"
Galloway shoved them aside and began issuing orders to his subordinates. "Call the office. Get everyone mobilized.
Put out an APB-Montez, your men can help."
"Sure. But help what?" The sheriff raised his arms at his sides in a helpless shrug. "Yall have lost me."
"Round up all your deputies. Notify neighboring counties as well. Tell them to start looking for an abandoned truck. Railroad car. Moving van."
"Truck? Moving van? What the hell is going on?" Dendy had to shout to make himself heard above the confusion that Galloway's galvanizing orders had created in the cramped van. "What about my daughter?"
"Sabra, all of them, are in more danger than we thought."
As though to underscore Galloway's distressing words, they heard the unmistakable crack of gunfire.
Donna's blood-curdling scream brought Tiel to her feet. "What now?"
Ronnie was brandishing his pistol and shouting, "Get back! Get back! I'll shoot you!"
Two, the taller of the Mexicans, had charged him. Ronnie had halted him at gunpoint. "Where's the other one?" he shouted frantically. "Where's your buddy?"
Sabra screamed. "No! No!"
Tiel whirled around in time to see Juan snatch Katherine from Sabra's arms. He clutched the newborn tightly- too tightly-against his chest. The infant began squalling, but Sabra was shrieking as only a mother whose child is in danger can shriek. She was struggling to stand, clawing at Juan's pants legs, as though to climb them.
"Sabra!" Ronnie cried. "What's wrong?"
"He has the baby! Give me my baby! Don't hurt her!"
Tiel lunged forward, but Juan thrust out his hand and the heel of it caught her in the sternum, forcing her back.
She cried out in pain and fear for the newborn.
Doc shouted a wordless protest, but Tiel reasoned that he was afraid to charge Juan because of what he might do to the infant in retaliation.
"Tell him to give her the baby!" Ronnie was clutching the pistol in both hands, aiming it directly at Two's chest and yelling at the top of his lungs, as though volume could conquer the language barrier. "Tell your friend to give her the baby, or I'll kill you!"
Perhaps to see just how earnest Ronnie's threat was, Juan made the mistake of glancing toward the front of the store where the two were facing off.
Doc used that split second to make a lunge for him.
But the Mexican reacted instantly. He executed a practiced uppercut that made a significant dent in Doc's belly.
Doc bent in half at the waist, then collapsed to the floor in front of the freezer.
"Tell him to give her the baby!" Ronnie repeated in a shrill voice that splintered like thin ice.
Donna wailed, "We're all gonna die."
Tiel was begging Juan not to harm Katherine. "Don't hurt her. She's no threat to you. Give the baby to her mother. Please. Please, don't do this."
Sabra was practically helpless. Nevertheless, maternal instinct propelled her to her feet. She was so weak she could barely stand. Swaying slightly, hand outstretched, she implored the man to return her baby to her.
Juan and Two were shouting back and forth to one another, trying to communicate above the other voices, including those of Vern and Gladys, who was cursing a blue streak. Donna was caterwauling. Agent Cain was shouting accusations at Ronnie, saying that if he had surrendered earlier this wouldn't have happened, that if the standoff resulted in tragedy it was no one's fault but his own.
The gunshot rendered everyone speechless.
Tiel, who had been appealing to Juan, witnessed his gri mace when the bullet struck. Reflexively, he pitched forward and grabbed his thigh. He would have dropped Katherine if Tiel hadn't been there to catch her.