The 19th Christmas - James Patterson Page 0,60
already racing, red-lined. My ears rang, my focus narrowed, and the picture fully clarified.
This was a hostage situation.
The primary actor had stringy red hair and was wearing a faded cop uniform that, according to the patch on his shirt, had belonged to a cop in the Las Vegas PD.
Reportedly, Loman had pulled off a nine-million-dollar casino heist in Las Vegas, but the getaway van collided with a gas truck.
Judging from his shooting stance, the red-haired fake cop knew how to use a gun.
Was he Loman?
The other three fakers also wore LVPD uniforms. Two of them had choke holds on two real cops, while the third fake cop pointed his gun at one of the hostages’ heads.
I tightened my grip on my nine and spoke in a loud, I-am-not-shitting-you voice. “SFPD. Guns down. Hands up.”
A child cried out behind me, “Daddy.”
A man’s hoarse voice pleaded with the gunman, “In God’s name, let us go.”
Conklin was on his phone to Herz, saying, “They’re on the train.”
This was as dangerous as it got. We were outmanned, civilians were in the line of fire, a man was dying on the floor, and we’d just executed our only plan B.
The speaker on the platform screeched. The mechanical voice spoke. “Doors closing. Please hold on.”
I had a two-handed grip on my gun, and I knew who I was going to shoot first. In that long second, as the red-haired gunman and I stared each other down, a gloved hand holding an M4 with an EOTech sight came through the open door.
One shot was fired.
The red-haired fake cop’s blood and brains and skull fragments splattered on the wall behind him, and he dropped to the floor.
Had we gotten him?
Was Loman dead?
Chapter 76
Herz and four SWAT commandos in full tac gear came through the open doorway, and the fake cops dropped their weapons. They were thrown to the floor hard, then frisked and cuffed. Their guns were taken into safekeeping.
The automated voice came on: “Doors closing. Please hold on.”
Herz opened a compartment near the door and threw a switch. A faint electric hum I hadn’t noticed before went quiet. This train would not be going anywhere.
I knelt beside the victim on the floor.
“What’s your name?”
“Sandy.”
“Take it easy, Sandy. We’ll have an ambulance here fast. Who shot you?”
He took one of his bloody hands away from his side and gestured toward the crumpled body of the headless cop behind him. The injured man groaned and said, “Him.”
“Why did he shoot you?”
“I rushed him.”
“You’re military?”
He nodded. He was going pale, and there was a good chance he could bleed out. Conklin leaned down and told the injured man that he had called for EMTs.
“They’re in the terminal now, on their way up to you.”
While I took USMC sergeant Sanford Friedman’s contact information, Herz ID’d the phony cops, and the sobbing, shell-shocked passengers collapsed against one another.
Herz was holding the fake cops for Homeland Security. They were standing with their faces against the wall, and I noticed that one of them was trembling. He was a big, imposing monster of a guy, but he looked to be the weakest link.
After he’d puked, I told Herz, “I want this one.”
Conklin and I took the guy who was definitely not a cop to the far end of the train and I said, “Tell me about Loman.”
“I can’t.”
He didn’t say, “I don’t know who you’re talking about” or “You guys just killed him.” The fake cop said, “I can’t.”
Conklin and I kept him on the train as the flood of law enforcement cleared it. EMTs followed moments later and got the injured man onto a stretcher.
When Conklin and I were alone with the bulked-up dude, I said in a motherly tone, “I want to help you. I’m Sergeant Lindsay Boxer. What’s your name?”
Chapter 77
News of the dramatic airport closing and cancellation of hundreds of flights out of SFO had flashed across the country.
People were really frightened. They wanted answers.
About ten minutes had passed since we’d begun our witness interview inside an airport interrogation room. The large, trembling fake cop was white, twenty-eight years old, with a thin mustache, a buzzed haircut, and a few messy tats on his neck obscured by the collar of his uniform.
He said his name was Benjamin Wallace.
We had put Wallace under arrest for carrying an unlicensed gun and then read him his rights. I accessed our database with my phone and ran his name through the system. Benjamin R. Wallace was clean, and his DMV photo matched his mug.
He