Hostage

Jennifer's father held up a single finger as if to show them that one tiny finger could do them no harm, then used it to slide open the drawer. He nodded toward the drawer, as if to show Dennis that nothing would hurt him. Her father took out a thick booklet.

'This is a list of every criminal lawyer in California. If you give up right now, I'll help you get the best lawyer in the state.'

Dennis slapped the book aside.

'Fuck you! We just killed a cop! We killed that Chinaman! We'll get the fuckin' death penalty!'

'I'm telling you that you won't, not if you let me help you. But if you stay in this house, I can promise you this: You'll die.'

'Shut up!'

Dennis swung his gun hard and hit her father in the temple with a wet thud. He fell sideways like a sack that had been dropped to the floor.

'No!'

Jennifer lunged forward. She pushed Dennis before she realized what she was doing.

'Leave him alone!'

She shoved Dennis back, then dropped to her knees beside her father. The gun had cut an ugly gouge behind his right eye at the hairline. The gouge pulsed blood, and was already swelling.

'Daddy? Daddy, wake up!'

He didn't respond.

'Daddy, please!'

Her father's eyes danced insanely beneath the lids as his body trembled.

'Daddy!'

Tears blurred her eyes as unseen hands lifted her away.

The nightmare had begun.

CHAPTER 3

Friday, 3:51 P.M.

TALLEY

Talley wanted to stay with Welch, but he didn't have the time. He had to stabilize the scene and find out what was going on inside the house. He requested a second ambulance to stand by in case there were more casualties, then climbed back into his car and once more drove into the cul-de-sac. He brought his unit so close to Anders's vehicle that the bumpers crunched. He slipped out and hunkered behind the wheel again, calling over to Anders and Jorgenson.

'Larry, Jorgy, listen up.'

They were young guys. Men who would work as carpenters or salesmen if they weren't working as suburban policemen. They had never seen anything like what was now developing on Castle Way, and neither had any of Talley's other men. They had never pulled their guns. They had never made a felony arrest.

'We've got to evacuate these houses and seal the neighborhood. I want all the streets coming in here blocked.'

Anders nodded vigorously, excited and scared.

'Just the cul-de-sac?'

'All the streets coming into the neighborhood. Use Welch's unit to get back to the corner, then go from house to house here on the cul-de-sac through the backyards. Climb the walls if you have to, and move everyone out the same way. Don't expose yourself or anyone else to this house.'

'What if they won't leave?'

'They'll do what you say. But don't let anyone come out the front of their homes. Start with the house directly behind us. Someone could be wounded in there.'

'Right, Chief.'

'Find out who lives here. We need to know.'

'Okay.'

'One more thing. We might have one or more perps still on the loose. Have the other guys start a house-to-house. Warn everyone in the neighborhood to be on the lookout.'

Anders duckwalked to Welch's unit, the first car in the line, then swung it around in a tight turn and accelerated out of the cul-de-sac.

The first few minutes of any crisis situation were always the worst. In the beginning, you rarely knew what you were dealing with, and the unknown could kill you. Talley needed to find out who he was dealing with, and who was at risk in the house. Maybe all three perpetrators were in the house, but he had no way of knowing. They might have split up. They might have already murdered everyone inside. They might have killed the occupants, shot up the street, then committed suicide. Jeff Talley might be staring at a lifeless house.

Talley keyed his mike to talk to his other cars.

'This is Talley. Clear the freq and listen. Jorgenson and I are currently in front of the house at one-eight Castle Way in York Estates. Anders is evacuating the residents of the surrounding houses. Dreyer and Mikkelson are at the rear of the property on Flanders Road near a red Nissan pickup. We believe that one or more of the people who shot Junior Kim and Mike Welch are in the house. They are armed. We need an ID. Did Welch run the plates on that truck?'

Mikkelson came back.

'Chief, two.'

'Go, two.'

'The truck is registered to Dennis James Rooney, white male, age twenty-two. He has an Agua Dulce address.'

Talley pulled out his pad and scratched down Rooney's name. In another life he would dispatch a unit to Rooney's address, but he didn't have the manpower for that now.

His radio popped again.

'Chief, Anders.'

'Go, Larry.'

'I'm with one of the neighbors. She says the people in the house are named Smith, Walter and Pamela Smith. They've got two kids. A girl and a boy. Hang on. Okay, it's Jennifer and Thomas. She says the girl is about fifteen and the boy is younger.'

'Does she know if they're in the house?'

Talley could hear Anders talking with the neighbor. Anders was so anxious that he was keying his mike before he was ready. Talley told him to slow down.