The rear rig was boobytrapped and set with an alarm. It would take time she wasn't sure she had to bypass and defuse.
Work with what you've got, she reminded herself.
"Tactical needs to see the three hostages, Jerry. They've got me blocked; they won't let me through until they seem them." Movement. Three females... moving toward the front.
She got the nod, stepped out from cover. In the swampy heat, her flesh goosebumped with ice. "I'm here, Jerry. First part of the deal. Now your part. Let them go."
"I don't see you."
"If I come any closer, Tactical's going to swarm me and push me back. I'm at the southwest of the building. I can see the display window, and make out one-no, two people standing just to the right of it."
"Stupid to wear a vest, Phoebe, when I'd put one in your head."
The awful amusement in his voice stripped all the moisture from her throat. "I know, but rules are rules. Let them out, Jerry."
"I want to see the diary."
She kept her hand behind her back. "I kept my word, time to keep yours. Then it'll be my turn again."
The locks clicked, the door flew open. People ran or stumbled out, weeping, shouting, "Don't shoot!" Cops in body armor rushed to pull and drag them to cover.
Out of the corner of her eye, Phoebe saw Ma Bee, and sent up a quick prayer of thanks.
Duncan's mother was safe.
"My girl's still in there," Ma shouted. "He's hiding behind her, hiding behind the others. He's got the detonators. He's got two of them." The prayer died in her throat. She watched a wild-eyed woman come forward and shut the door again.
"That's three. Show me the book."
"All right, Jerry. Tactical needs to clear the civilians out of the inner perimeter. That's a clear." She brought the book from behind her back. "I have Angela's diary."
"Open it. Open it and read. That could be any damn thing."
"I need three more hostages." And though it went against her heart, she followed training. "I need the injured man with this group, Jerry."
"Fuck him. He stays, just like the rest. Want to see him, Phoebe?" She saw the movement, and Arnie stumbling forward as if he'd been shoved. His face was gray, the blood on it dried to black. As Roy's had been, his torso was imprisoned with the bomb.
Through the barred glass, his bruised eyes met Phoebe's.
"You read, or I blow him. Going to take a few other people out and bring serious hurt to the others. But what the hell, I'll blow the big one, too, and that takes it all. You read now or it's done. No more negotiating." She opened the book, stared at the blank pages. Women in love, she thought, spoke the same language. So she read from her own heart.
"I know what love is now. How could I have thought I knew before him? Everything before is pale and soft and foolish. Now, now that I know love, the world's bright and strong and real. He makes me real." She closed the book. "Send three people out, Jerry, and I'll read more."
"No more out! No more. You read what she wrote. I want the cameras on you while you read what she wrote."
"Jerry-"
"Fuck you!" He screamed it out so all his rage seemed to fill Phoebe's head. "You read what she wrote, then you're going to give the statement. You do it now, you start it now, or I pick one and take her out."
Phoebe stepped a little closer, got the sharp order through her earpiece to stop. Looking past Arnie, she could see part of the line of hostages. And she saw Loo. So tall, Phoebe thought. All that gorgeous hair. Such a good shield.
"I'll read it, Jerry."
"I want to see the rose, the rose she put in it." He was weeping. He was lost. "Ask for a goddamn hostage, I do one. You understand me? Ask for another, I pick one and put one in the back of their head. You show it, you read it, you tell the goddamn world how you killed my angel. Then it's done. Then this is done."
Death, his longing for it as much as his lover, vibrated in his voice. And he would take, she knew, fourteen people with him.
With her gaze steady, she turned the book, flipped pages. "She saved your rose."
"I can't see it."
"I'm holding it up. I'm doing what you want. I can't come closer, they're holding me back."
"Two steps forward.