fine with the edit, but you might be alright. Gina will send it shortly.’
‘Right, right, right, OK, right, I’ll just, yeah…’ Bernie took a breath and gathered himself. ‘I can do that. It’ll go out at six.’
Rick cancelled the call with a delighted smile. ‘Right. Let’s get on that, shall we? Send them the stuff.’
‘You know we could have done it live, they’d have let it go out in real time, no delay,’ Ashley said.
‘I know, I’m not stupid,’ Rick said defensively. ‘But you can’t… If things go out live, if something happened… I just wanna make sure people see exactly what they need to, OK?’
Gina nodded. She knew precisely what he meant. But no point saying it. ‘Before we send it, I gotta shoot a sign off,’ Ashley said. ‘If you want it to look professional.’
Rick shrugged. ‘Crack on, then.’
Ashley turned to Gina. ‘Do you mind?’ she asked. Gina nodded and raised the camera. The red light appeared. Ashley saw Rick slide himself into the background of the shot, holding the gun, puffing his chest out. She ignored him as best she could, saying into the camera, ‘Things here at Jimmy’s Pizza are tense but stable. No one has been hurt, and we’re hoping to keep it that way. But whatever happens, I’ll be covering the situation until we can reach a hopefully peaceful resolution. This is Ashley Quick for KTN. And cut.’
The red light went off, and Gina took the camera off her shoulder, setting straight to work, getting the footage sent over to KTN. Ashley watched her tensely while Rick watched Ashley, and the hostages watched all of them. As Gina tapped buttons on the camera, Ashley wondered if this might be her final broadcast.
Twelve
After Gina had sent everything she’d shot today over to KTN, her main method of distraction was gone, and she was forced to think about where she was. She couldn’t believe what she’d just witnessed. Ashley Quick, doing an interview with a gun pointed at her by the sociopath she happened to be interviewing. If Ashley had been scared, the fear had stayed out of her voice. She sounded as cool as ever, downright breezy. Gina wondered if maybe she was missing that part of the brain that tells you to leg it when danger is coming.
But then she saw Ashley’s hands trembling all over the place as she was trying to get her phone out of her pocket and the ruse was up. Ashley was freaked. Gina should have known. As tough as Ashley could be, there was a person underneath there somewhere. She’d seen it.
‘Right, that was great, now I want you two to get in a cupboard, if you don’t mind,’ Rick said, checking his watch.
‘What? Why?’ Gina asked, swapping a confused look with Ashley.
Rick gave her a hard stare. ‘The man with the gun doesn’t have to explain anything, yeah?’
Gina nodded. ‘Fair enough.’
He gestured at the end of the kitchen, past the hostages - other hostages, Gina reminded herself. She was an initiate in this dreadful club now - toward a battered door. ‘Go on. In you get,’ he said.
Gina glanced at Ashley to see if she might argue, but she was already walking, headed straight for the cupboard. Gina followed her.
Ashley gripped the door handle to open it, and Rick said, ‘Oh, hang about, I want your phones and the camera.’
Gina put down the camera on a prep station and placed her phone next to it. Ashley’s joined it.
‘Right. Good. Can’t have you two shooting what you like, can we?’ Rick said. ‘I mean, I’ve got to look good. If I’ve got to slap a hostage - I mean if I absolutely have to - I can’t have that on tape.’
Gina didn’t like the sound of that. Especially if she was the one that got the slap.
‘Go on then, get in now,’ Rick said sharply.
Ashley pushed through the door, Gina behind her. The door swung shut behind them, and they were in pitch blackness. ‘Is there a light in here?’ Gina asked.
‘I’m just trying to find the switch,’ Ashley said, rustling about on the wall. ‘You check the other wall.’
Gina didn’t actually know which side was the other wall from Ashley, so she took a punt and put her hands out. But what she found wasn’t a light switch. ‘What’s this?’ she asked as the light came on, courtesy of Ashley. In the harsh light of the bare bulb, Gina realised what she had hold of. Ashley’s breasts.