Conspiracy to Murder

by Heather Graham

  The four of them, along with the local law enforcement officials, had to work together to end the standoff with nobody else getting hurt—or worse.

  By the time he and the other agents boarded the plane, Hendrick had already sent them all an email with information about the school, along with blueprints of the building.

  The school had been established five years earlier by Regina Sandhurst, the CEO of a large tech company who had grown up in the area and wanted to give back. She believed the youth of the nation was a resource to nurture and foster.

  She also believed children from disadvantaged communities needed to be fostered, and therefore the year-round school offered full scholarships to underprivileged girls who made up the student body.

  The twenty-six students lived on the stately campus, and most were between the ages of nine and fourteen. Dr. Olivia Wright was the principal, and six teachers provided the daily curriculum. There was also a cleaning and cooking staff and six women who were live-in residents and looked after the students.

  Evan read carefully over the information. High risk negotiation was what he did, but the stakes were always higher when children were involved. And Annalise…

  Her name whispered through his head, but he shoved any thoughts of her away. He had a job to do, and it didn’t matter who was being held in the school; he intended to get everyone out alive and well.

  “According to Hendrick, nobody has learned what the hostage takers want.” Evan broke the silence that had overtaken everyone in the plane.

  “What would these people want to achieve by invading a school?” Nick asked.

  “I don’t have a clue,” Evan replied. “According to Hendrick’s notes, the school doesn’t hold large amounts of cash on-site.”

  “Maybe they are planning to ransom off the kids,” Daniel said.

  “To who?” Evan countered as he continued to read the brief. “It seems most of these kids come from impoverished households.” He looked up. “Let’s hope by the time we touch down the local authorities will have more information for us. This situation has already gone on for a full night.”

  They all fell silent once again. With each minute that ticked by, the tension in the plane increased. He knew all the agents were feeling the pressure of getting this right, but ultimately as the negotiator, the weight of this situation was on his shoulders.

  While there were a lot of tried and true ways to deal with a hostage taker, much of his strategy would ultimately come down to instinct as each situation was different. There was no way to prepare for what was ahead of him. He just had to be ready for anything and rely on his extensive training.

  By the time the plane landed, he was pumped and ready to get to the scene as quickly as possible. They loaded into a waiting van and took off for the scene of the crime.

  “Hendrick sent me some information about the Pearson chief of police,” Rowan said from the front seat.

  She was young for an agent, only in her early twenties. Rowan was skilled in dealing with all levels of police personnel. She was a real asset when it came to coordinating the team with local law enforcement and also skilled at clearing red tape for the agents.

  “Walter Cummings has been chief of police here for the past seven years. According to the locals, he’s a bit of a blowhard and showman but runs his department with an iron fist,” Rowan said.

  “I’m sure you’ll manage him just fine,” Evan said. “We’re going to need the support of all the local police.”

  He sat up straighter in his seat as he saw the two brick buildings in the distance. The larger one housed dorms for the residents. The smaller one held the classrooms the students attended every day—even on weekends for half days—and that was where the armed men had burst in and taken hostages.

  In front of the school was a wide paved driveway. The relatively small parking lot was filled with a fleet of first responder vehicles and personnel as well as what appeared to be a large onlooker presence. Too many civilians for Evan’s comfort level.

  “It looks like a cluster—” Davis started to say.

  The van came to a halt. “Let’s get this under control,” Evan said as they all exited the unmarked vehicle.

  It took Evan and Rowan several minutes to work their way through the crowd and finally locate Chief Walter Cummings. He was a squat, barrel-chested man with salt-and-pepper hair and broken blood vessels across his nose and cheeks.

  “Chief Cummings?” Rowan said, and held out her hand. “Rowan Cooper with the TCD. This is Special Agent Evan Duran, TCD’s top hostage negotiator.”

  He shook Rowan’s hand first, then Evan’s, using a hard, viselike grip that Evan assumed was meant to be intimidating. It didn’t work. “I’d say I’m glad to see you folks here, but I’ll be honest. This is a matter I thought we could handle. But you know the state boys were worried about regulations—”

  “The last thing we want to do is step on anyone’s toes,” Rowan replied smoothly. “We all have one goal in mind, right? We need to get the hostages out safe and sound and put the hostage takers behind bars.”

  “I’ll need details about the hostages inside the building,” Evan said, cutting to the chase.

  The chief rocked back on his heels. “The principal, two teachers and four students, along with a security guard.”

  “Do you know how many hostage takers are in there?” Evan asked.

  “No, I don’t,” he replied. “We’ve tried to call the main office, but nobody from the inside is talking to let us know what’s going on in there. We know the security guard is dead, but we aren’t sure who else might be.” The chief grimaced. “Bert Epstein was a personal friend of mine. His body is there in the front doorway.”

  “I’m sorry you lost your friend,” Evan replied, but did not have time for more than the cursory condolence. “You have a number for a phone inside the school?” Evan didn’t remember whether Hendrick had sent a phone number or not.

  Walter nodded and gave it to him. “It’s the only number I have. It rings in the office.”

  “And you have no idea who the armed men are or what they want?” Evan asked. This situation had already been going on for almost twenty-four hours, and Chief Cummings didn’t know anything? Was the man just that incompetent?

  Walter shrugged. “No clue.”

  Evan looked toward the other building on the property. “I understand that is where all the students live. I’m assuming you have armed guards at the door and the place is on lockdown?”

  “Affirmative,” the chief replied.

  “Who are all these people?” Evan asked, and swept one of his arms toward the onlookers. “There seems to be a lot of civilians just standing around.” They were people who not only contributed to the chaos of the active scene but also stood a chance of taking a bullet if things went sideways. They needed to be moved out of the area immediately.

  “Some of them are teachers who work at the school and are concerned for the people who are inside. They’re also townsfolk interested in what’s going on. We don’t usually have a situation like this,” Chief Cummings explained.

  “We need to move them all out of here as quickly as possible,” Evan said. He looked at Rowan. “Maybe you could help the chief get some of his men together to get any civilians safely off the premises.”

  “Are you sure you don’t need any of my input right now on how you’re going to handle this?” the chief asked.

  “Not at this moment,” Evan replied. Right now more than anything he hoped to make contact with somebody inside. He wouldn’t know how to negotiate the release of the hostages without gaining some kind of information about the people who were holding them. The most important thing was to find out why they were in the school and what they wanted in order to release the hostages unharmed.

  He stared at the school. How many people were actually dead inside? Was it possible Annalise was one of the them? He could see a man’s body lying prone in the front doorway. That would be the security gu
ard Chief Cummings had mentioned.

  His chest tightened. The stakes were high. If these men had already killed people, then they had nothing to lose and there was no assurance they wouldn’t kill more.

  IT HAD BEEN a night of hell. Throughout the long hours of darkness, men had been in and out of the room, peeking out the window and cursing. The girls had whimpered and cried, and Annalise had also heard the cries and moans of fellow teacher Belinda Baker and another student coming from the room across the hall.

  Finally the girls had all fallen into an exhausted sleep, and even Annalise had managed to catch an hour or two of dreamless sleep.

  But the day was upon them, a day of fear and uncertainty. “The girls need to use the restroom again,” she said to the burly man who seemed to be in charge of everything. She’d heard several of the other men call him Jacob.

  He whirled around from his position on a chair just to the side of the broken window and scowled at her, as if she were personally responsible for nature’s call.

  “Gretchen,” he bellowed.

  Annalise sat up straighter. Gretchen? There was a woman here with all the men? A tiny bit of hope surged inside her. Maybe she could talk a woman into letting the children go.

  A woman with grayish hair fashioned into two long braids strode into the room. She carried a pistol and smiled at Jacob. “Hey, baby, did you call for me?”

  “Yeah, they have to go to the bathroom. You want to take them?”

  “Sure,” she replied. She turned to Annalise and the children. “Up,” she said curtly. “Let’s go.”

  Gretchen was a thin older woman with light blue eyes and a careworn face. Whether she could reason with this woman was an unknown. Nonetheless, right now it felt good to get up and stretch after sitting for so long, but the situation also still felt volatile and dangerous.

  The restroom was right outside the classroom and to the left. Annalise wanted to check in on Belinda and whoever might be with the fellow teacher in the room across the way, but she got no opportunity as Gretchen led them directly to the girls’ restroom.

  She stood just outside the door as Annalise and the girls went inside. Alone with the girls, she wiped away tears and told them she would do whatever possible to keep them safe. “We all just have to be brave,” she said.

  As the girls were washing their hands, Annalise stepped out where Gretchen awaited. “Is there any way I can appeal to you to let the children go?” she said. “You’ll all still have me as a hostage, but this is no place for children.”

  Gretchen shrugged. “Sorry. My husband is in charge of this operation and he makes the rules.”

  “Your husband?”

  “Jacob.” Gretchen’s chin shot up in obvious pride. “He’s the leader of the Brotherhood of Jacob, and all of us who are here believe in the path he has us on.”

  “A path of crime and murder?” The words snapped out of Annalise with a hint of the anger that had been festering inside her since this all began.

  Gretchen stepped closer to Annalise and without warning slapped her hard. Annalise immediately raised her hand to her burning cheek as her eyes began to water. “Have some respect,” Gretchen snarled.

  Anger swelled up in Annalise, but she had to swallow hard against it as at that moment the girls came out of the bathroom. Besides, Gretchen had a gun and Annalise had no idea if the woman would actually use it or not. As they once again took their positions against the wall, Annalise’s cheek still burned.

  “Everything all right?” Jacob asked.

  “Everything is fine. I just had to give the teacher a lesson in respect,” Gretchen replied. The woman looked at Annalise with narrowed eyes. “Let’s hope she’s a fast study.”

  Moments later when Gretchen had left the room, Annalise glanced at the girls. Although Tanya and Emily continued to cry, it was Sadie who worried Annalise the most.

  Sadie’s background not only included poverty, she had also been physically and emotionally abused by her mother, a young drug addict hooked on heroin and bad men.

  When Sadie had first come to the school, she had been a solemn, closed-off child who flinched each time she made a mistake. Over the past few months, Sadie had shared a lot of feelings and emotions with Annalise, creating a special bond between teacher and student.

  It had been Annalise’s greatest joy to watch the little girl blossom and become a precocious, giggling nine-year-old who loved hugs and reveled in her own accomplishments. Despite being the youngest, she was the brightest of the three, but at the moment none of that beautiful light shone from her eyes.

  Now, she was stone-faced, her big blue eyes holding a blankness that broke Annalise’s heart. What damage was this doing to her? To all the girls?

  “Please let the children go,” she said to Jacob. “You’ll still have me as a hostage. Just let the children go.”

  “That’s not going to happen so just shut up about it,” he replied, and raked a hand through his black hair.

  “What’s the Brotherhood of Jacob?” she asked. She was aware that her cell phone was plugged into an outlet behind the desk and on a shelf half-hidden by puzzle books. Thankfully the ringer and notifications were turned off. So far she hadn’t had a chance to get to it, but if she did get a chance she would call out and at least be able to tell the police who these people were and what they wanted. All she needed was to find out exactly why they were here and what they did want.

  “We are the Brotherhood of Jacob,” Jacob replied. “We have a plan, and we intend to see it through to the end.”

  “Surely your plan didn’t include being trapped inside this building that by now is surrounded by squads of law enforcement officers. What is it you want? Why did you come here in the first place?”

  “You don’t need to know anything, so just shut your trap and don’t bother me.” He turned back toward the window.

  In the relative quiet of the building, she could hear low moans coming from across the hallway and a phone ringing. The phone had to be the one in the main office as that was the only phone in the building.

  The moans worried her. She was sure it had to be Belinda, and she had to be hurt to be moaning so much. Was anything being done to help her? Who else was in that classroom with her?

  Jacob turned to look at her once again. “Is there any food in this place?”

  “The only thing is a snack closet in the hallway. Would you please see to it that these girls get something to eat? I’m sure they’re all hungry.”

  The snack closet was supplied with relatively healthy food like fruit chews and prepackaged apple slices and baked goods. Granola bars were usually replenished daily. There were also some juice packs, bags of chips and candy bars.

  In this situation if the girls had pretzels for breakfast, she didn’t care, as long as they got something to eat.

  “I thought this was all a really bad dream,” Tanya whispered.

  “Me, too,” Emily replied.

  “We’re all okay. Mr. Jacob has said he’ll give you something to eat in just a little while,” Annalise said softly. “What about you, Sadie? Are you hungry?”

  Sadie grabbed the ends of her long blond hair and began to twirl them, a gesture Annalise recognized as an old, self-soothing action. Her blue eyes stared at Annalise as she shook her head negatively.

  “Jacob, won’t you please let the girls go?”

  “They aren’t going anywhere. What do you think is keeping the cops from storming this building right now? These girls are our golden ticket out of here.”

  Gretchen came back into the room “People are complaining about being hungry.”

  Jacob told her about the food closet. “See to it that you throw something to these girls, too.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Jacob,” Sadie said, surprising Annalise. Apparently Sadie was paying far more attention to what was going on around her than Annalise had initially believed.

  Jacob grunted. Minutes later Gretchen returned with three packages of minimuffins. Sh
e tossed one to each of the girls. “What about Miss Annalise?” Sadie asked.

  “She’ll be fine,” Gretchen said, her blue eyes cold as she gazed at Annalise.

  Sadie frowned and looked at Annalise. “I’ll share with you, Miss Annalise.”

  “It’s okay, honey. You go ahead and eat it. I’m not hungry right now.” Annalise only wanted these sweet, wonderful girls out of here. She’d do anything to get them to safety.

  The morning hours crept by slowly. What did these people, these Brotherhood of Jacob members, want and how did they believe they would ever be able to somehow walk away from all this? According to what she’d heard, there were already three dead people. All she could hope for was that the girls who depended on her would get out of this safely.

  The tall, thin man, named Thomas, came into the room. He’d been in and out several times throughout the night. “Jacob, some of our people are still complaining about that ringing phone,” he said.

  Jacob released a breath that was clearly exasperation. “Sounds like I’ve got a lot of whiners and complainers with me. Next thing you know you’ll all be screaming like a bunch of pathetic women, and you know how much I hate pathetic women.”

  “Jacob, we all agreed to your original plan, but none of us signed up to get trapped inside this building for an endless amount of time,” Thomas replied.

  “Do you doubt our mission?” Jacob’s voice thundered, and his eyes filled with a fiery glint. “Do you doubt that we are the chosen ones to follow through on this mission? Do you all doubt me?”

  “Of course not.” Thomas took a couple of steps backward, as if moved there by the sheer force of Jacob’s voice and fierceness. “We all believe in this…we believe in you, but how long before you start negotiating our way out of this mess?”

  Jacob rose from his chair, his features twisted with anger. “I’ll negotiate when I think the time is right.” He turned around and shot off his gun through the window. The three short blasts caused Annalise to jump and the girls to scream.