Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1)

by Trueman, Debra

  “What do you do?” he asked.

  “I’m a lawyer. We’re suing the guy who took the kid. That’s what all this is about.” It was such a simplistic explanation for what had just transpired.

  My phone rang again and when I answered, Landra was in tears.

  “I’m watching it on TV,” she said. “It’s Oliver isn’t it? He took Oliver?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well what are they doing to get him back?”

  “I don’t know. The SWAT team is here and the police are everywhere. Larry took him up to the observation deck.”

  “How’s Maddie?”

  “I’m not sure. Last time I saw her she was a mess.”

  “What do you mean, last time you saw her? Where are you?” she asked confused.

  I was embarrassed to tell her, but I didn’t have any choice. “Larry shot me in the arm and I’m getting it looked at.”

  “He shot you?” Landra exclaimed. “Oh my God. Are you all right? Where are you? I’m coming down there.”

  “No. Don’t come down. They won’t let you in anyway. The area is all blocked off. I’m fine,” I assured her. “The medics are right here.” I held the phone up to the guy on my left. “Tell her I’m fine,” I told him.

  “He’s going to be fine,” he said.

  “I’m fine,” I repeated. “What are they saying on the news? Do they know it’s Larry?”

  “They mentioned him by name. Hold on . . . here’s another report.” She held the phone up to the television and I listened.

  As we told you just moments ago, we have a breaking story unfolding at the Hemisfair Tower. Our crew is live at the scene, so we’re going to take you straight there. A nasal sounding woman came on. We’re here a block away from the Hemisfair Tower in downtown San Antonio where we’ve got a hostage situation going on. Apparently, about 30 minutes ago, a man named Larry Roeberts grabbed a 4-year-old little boy and took him from his mother at gunpoint. He has taken the child to the top of the Tower, to the observation deck. A local attorney . . . a Samuel Collins, was shot as he tried to negotiate with the man. We have no word as to the attorney’s condition, but we understand that he was conscious when seen last. We’ve discovered that Larry Roeberts had been fired from his job at Datacare earlier in the day, and that the boy’s mother at one time worked for the same company, so there’s speculation that this kidnapping may have stemmed from the working relationship between the two.

  “Did you hear that?” Landra asked.

  “Yeah. Landra, I need to go check on Maddie. Will you call my parents and tell them I’m okay?”

  “I’ll call them right now. Did Niki ever find you?”

  “He did. I’ve got to go, Landra.”

  “I know. I love you, Sam. Please be careful.”

  “I will. I’ll call you when I can.” I sat up on the gurney.

  “How do you feel?” one of the medics asked.

  “Better. How’s my blood pressure?”

  “It’s going back up. You’ll be okay for now, but you’re going to have to see a doctor before too long.”

  “When this is all over, that’s the first thing I’ll do,” I assured him. I was feeling immensely better. The trembling had stopped, but my arm was throbbing and it felt like it was on fire. I climbed out of the ambulance and started back towards the Tower, but two policemen stopped me. My bandaged arm was resting in a sling, and of course I was shirtless, so I guess it was obvious that I was the guy who had been shot.

  “I need to get back in there to the mother,” I told them. “I only left so they could fix this up,” I said, motioning to my arm.

  They looked at each other trying to decide what to do.

  “Look,” I told them. “She needs me in there with her. If you’d seen her, you’d know that.”

  “Come on. I’ll take you in,” the younger one said.

  One officer stayed behind and the other escorted me back into the Tower lobby. There was a group of policemen gathered around Maddie and Penny, who were seated on the bench by the elevator. Maddie stood up when she saw me.

  She came over to me and she leaned her head against my chest, crying. Her cheek was soft against my skin. I put my good arm around her and held her.

  “We’re going to get him back, Maddie. You have to believe that.”

  “Are you okay?” she asked. She lifted her face to look at me and I wiped at the tears on her cheeks.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Do you want my sweater?” she asked, and she went over and got it from the bench. “Here,” she said, helping me get my good arm into it. She draped the other end over my shoulder and buttoned one of the buttons across my chest. It would have been an oversized sweater on her so it actually fit me pretty well, except that it was black with little red flowers on it. I’m sure I looked like an idiot, but at that point, I didn’t care.

  “Thanks. What are they doing?” I asked.

  “They’re trying to get Larry on his cell phone, but he’s not answering. I think they’ve sent the SWAT team up the stairwell or up in another elevator.”

  I debated on telling her about Niki being there because I wasn’t sure how she’d react, but the question was answered when my phone rang.

  “It’s me,” he said.

  “Where are you?” I asked.

  “I’m above the observation deck. He’s got Oliver tied up with duct tape, but he hasn’t hurt him.”

  I was so relieved that my face must have given something away because Maddie knew instantly that something was up.

  “Who is that?” she asked.

  I pulled her to the side and said under my breath, “It’s Niki. He’s up there, and he can see Oliver. He’s okay. He’s not hurt.”

  A whole new river of tears started pouring out her eyes. She lowered her voice. “I want to talk to him,” she said, and she grabbed the phone out of my hand.

  “Niki?” she said frantically. “You’ve got to get him back for me, Niki. You’ve got to get him back!” She seemed like she was on the verge of hysterics. I took the phone back.

  “What should I do?” I asked him. “Do you want me to tell the police you’re up there?”

  “Yeah. I guess you probably should.”

  “What do you mean when you say you’re above the observation deck?”

  “I’m on the roof.”

  “You’re on the roof?” I repeated.

  “Yeah. Let me talk to whoever’s in charge.”

  I sought out the officer who looked like he was in charge and I introduced myself. “I’ve got Niki Lautrec of Lautrec Investigations on the phone. He’s on the roof above the observation deck and he’s got the kidnapper and the hostage in sight. He wants to talk to you.”

  The officer looked at me like he wasn’t sure whether to believe me, then he looked at the phone the same way before he put it to his ear. “This is Captain Martinez. Who am I speaking to?”

  He was quiet for the next few minutes, looking shocked by what he was hearing, and when he hung up and gave my phone back, he charged out of the lobby like he was on a mission.

  I took Maddie’s hand and we went to another bench and sat down by ourselves. We were discussing what we thought Niki might try to get Oliver away from Larry, when the policeman who had taken Niki’s call came up to us grim-faced and nervous.

  “We’ve had a call from the kidnapper,” he said. “He’s asking that you two be sent up in the elevator.”

  “Let’s go,” I said without a second’s thought. Maddie and I started towards the elevator but the officer pulled me back.

  “We’re not authorized to send you up there. At this point, the man has one hostage. If you two go up there, he’s got three. He’ll have even more leverage.”

  “That’s my son up there,” Maddie said. “And if that lunatic is asking that I go up there, I’ll be damned if anyone is going to stop me. If I don’t go and he kills my little boy because of that . . . you might as well just kill me right now. Because I couldn’t
live if that happened.”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am.”

  “I am too,” she said, and in one swift motion she had unsnapped the strap on the Captain’s holster and removed his pistol. Maddie was pointing the gun at the stunned policeman, apologizing profusely, but not relenting in the slightest.

  “Now, Samuel and I are going to get on the elevator,” she said calmly, “and we’re going to go up and get my son. Excuse us, please,” she said, and a sea of blue uniforms parted as we walked to the elevator.

  I was stunned into silence and merely followed her dutifully. In truth, I wouldn’t have known what to say anyway. I was completely amazed and incredibly impressed with Maddie’s stunt. If we got out of this alive, I was going to have to do some fast talking to get Maddie out of this one.

  We got in the elevator and Maddie pushed the button for the observation deck. “That’s my baby up there,” she told the officers. Maddie slid the gun out on the lobby floor just as the doors closed. I took a deep breath and the elevator started its ascent.

  “I can’t believe you just did that,” I told Maddie.

  “I didn’t have any choice.”

  “No. I can’t believe you gave the gun back. We could have used it.”

  “I did think about that, but I decided I don’t want to make Larry mad. I don’t want to give him a reason to hurt Oliver.”

  “You’re probably right,” I acknowledged. “I heard on the news that Datacare fired Larry today. I guess that’s what set him off.”

  Maddie nodded, but didn’t say anything.

  “When we get up there, I want you to stay behind me as much as possible,” I told her. I wasn’t in much of a position to protect her, but at least I could try to shield her from a bullet. “I wish we knew what Niki and that policeman worked out,” I said.

  No response.

  Maddie’s silence was making me nervous. After her performance in the lobby, I was worried to think what she might do out on the observation deck. At that moment she seemed as crazy as Niki lying up there on the damn roof. She had stopped crying and seemed completely calm as the elevator climbed higher and higher. The people below looked like ants. There were police cars with lights flashing for a mile in every direction beneath us, and every news station in the city must have had a van parked down there.

  After what seemed like ages, the elevator stopped. The doors opened and Larry was standing there with his gun pointed at us. Oliver was nowhere in sight. Larry frisked us both, then motioned for us to go outside to the observation deck. He was walking behind us with his gun pointed at our backs and I stepped in behind Maddie so that we were walking single file.

  “Get beside her, not behind her!” Larry ordered.

  Maddie moved next to me and looked at me with a worried expression. She was still dry-eyed, which was a shocker. After all the times I’d seen her cry for the most frivolous of reasons, there she was in the midst of the crisis of her life without a teardrop in sight. It was like she had gone into some zone of will or determination and there wasn’t room for emotion.

  We must have walked halfway around the Tower before I saw Oliver lying against the side of the building in a lump. He was bound at his ankles with duct tape and his arms were bound behind his back. He was laying on his side in the fetal position, and he hadn’t seen us. Larry’s backpack was on the ground next to him.

  “Hi, Oliver,” Maddie called out, and Oliver’s face lit up through his tears as he tried to sit up.

  “Mommy!” he cried.

  “Did I say you could talk to him?” Larry thundered.

  “I’m sorry. I was just saying hi,” Maddie said, without turning around.

  “Well from now on, you don’t do anything, you don’t say anything, unless I tell you to! We’re going to play ‘Simon Says’ except in this case its called ‘Larry Says.’” He directed his voice to Oliver. “Do you know how to play Larry Says, kid?”

  Oliver shook his head no, terrified.

  “When I ask you a question, you answer me boy!” Larry boomed.

  Oliver shook his head more vigorously. “No,” he whimpered.

  “Well it’s just like Simon Says except we’re substituting Larry for Simon,” he said.

  “I don’t know how to play Simon Says,” Oliver said. He shot Maddie a quick look, then turned his eyes back to Larry.

  Larry touched Maddie’s shoulder with his pistol and physically steered her around. “You’re kid doesn’t know how to play Simon Says?” he asked in disbelief.

  “He’s not even four,” Maddie said.

  Larry smacked the gun against Maddie’s arm. “Tell him how to play,” he ordered.

  Maddie calmly explained the rules of the game while Oliver tried to concentrate, but as far as I could tell, the kid wasn’t taking it in. I could only imagine what Larry intended to do to us if we did something that Simon, or Larry, didn’t say. He could have been using the game to make a point that we were not to do anything we weren’t told to do, but I was afraid that he was literally going to make us play. I’d never been good at Simon Says, and I could just see him putting a bullet in my good arm, or in a kneecap, every time I screwed up. I had no idea what he’d do to Oliver if he got something wrong. As for Maddie, I figured she was the Simon Says queen when she was a kid. She’d never screw up, especially in the mind-set she was in at the moment.

  “Get over there beside the kid,” Larry ordered, and neither Maddie nor I flinched. “Larry says, get over there beside the kid,” he said, and Maddie and I went over beside Oliver, and stood there waiting for our next order.

  Larry smiled like he was enjoying his game. It was windy as hell up there and Maddie’s hair was blowing sideways in my face, but I didn’t dare move an inch. Her hair whipped into my eye and I turned my head involuntarily and blinked, looking out into space, as my eye started tearing up. That’s when I noticed the instrument protruding down a couple of inches from the overhang of the roof. It looked like a high-tech version of a dentist’s mirror, and I realized that Niki had to be on the roof directly above us. How he’d managed to get up there, I’d never know, but it didn’t surprise me. The guy was like Spiderman.

  “Stand up, kid,” Larry ordered, and my heart sank.

  But Oliver didn’t move. Larry smiled, “That’s good, kid. You catch on fast. Now go ahead and get up.”

  I was mentally willing Oliver to stay put, but I could feel him moving to get up. He wriggled to his feet and as soon as he was standing, Larry swooped in and picked him up.

  “I didn’t say Larry says!” Larry yelled at the top of his lungs. He crammed the gun into his waistband and held Oliver high over his head like a sacrificial lamb.

  Oliver and Maddie both started screaming as Larry carried Oliver towards the railing. “Do you know what happens to kids that don’t play right?” Larry yelled.

  Maddie and I watched in horror as Larry spun Oliver around over his head, taking him closer and closer to the railing. Both of us were fixed to our positions, scared that if we dared to move, Oliver’s fate would be even worse. Even if I’d decided to try to tackle Larry, there wasn’t much I could do in the condition I was in. My left arm had become dead weight, and I wasn’t sure that I could even lift it on my own.

  “Put him down, Larry!” I shouted. “He’s just a kid.”

  I had a sudden flashback to my childhood days as a bully and to a particular line I’d heard a thousand times, but in the opposite context, as I tended to pick on bigger kids who would invariably kick my ass. It seemed nostalgically appropriate for the present circumstance.

  “Pick on someone your own size!” I yelled.

  And just like that, Larry set Oliver down and fixed his eyes on me. He gave me a sinister smile that told me I was in big trouble, but I welcomed the challenge. Better me than Oliver. Oliver wriggled like a worm to the inside wall of the observation deck, trying to get as far away from Larry as possible.

  Larry crossed the distance between us in three large steps and before I r
ealized what was happening, he had rammed the barrel of the gun right into my sore arm. The movement brought me to my knees and I’m pretty sure I yelled like a girl. From there, things only got worse.

  I could hear Maddie screaming in the background as Larry pistol-whipped me in the head, neck and face before I finally got my shit together and attempted to fight back. I assumed that Maddie would make a run for it while I had Larry occupied, but my face was buried in Larry’s chest so I couldn’t tell what she was doing. Larry rammed the gun into my arm again and pain radiated all the way down into my little finger. If he’d shot me again, it couldn’t have hurt worse that it already did. I reached up and grabbed his wrist in an attempt to get the gun away from him, but my grip was useless. With all the fights I’d been in, now, when it counted the most, I couldn’t do anything. I was fighting like a sissy.

  Larry easily broke free of my grip and I guess he decided he’d had enough, because he cocked the gun and held it to my forehead.

  “You fucked with the wrong person,” Larry said.

  “Obviously,” I said, trying to catch my breath.

  I was looking past Larry and I noticed that Maddie was there but Oliver was nowhere in sight. And then I heard the ding of the elevator. Larry heard it too, but just as he turned to look, a body came swinging down from the overhang of the roof. It was the perfect Hollywood stunt, except this wasn’t a movie and it wasn’t a stunt man. He came in feet-first and he knocked Larry so hard against the inside wall of the Tower that Larry crumpled to the ground in a heap, out cold. Niki was lying on the deck with a harness strapped to his torso.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  I was so stunned that all I could do was nod, then I lay down carefully on my back. “Thanks,” I managed to say.

  “Don’t mention it.” Niki reached over and took Larry’s gun and stuck it in his waistband, then started unhooking himself from the harness. “You okay Maddie?” he asked.

  “I’m fine,” she said. She came running over and knelt down beside me. “Oh my God! Look at him, Niki!” she said, and she burst out crying. She ran her fingers gently over my face on the different places Larry had belted me.