Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #2: Books 5-8 (A Dead Cold Box Set) Blake Banner (read out loud books txt) 📖

Detective Stone. You were right. This is all my fault. It is all because of my stupidity.” Then she turned to Ahmed. “Take me as your hostage.”

Mary cried out, “Mom! No!”

I shook my head. “Sylvie, don’t do this.”

She bent and embraced Paul, enveloping him in her large, shapeless woolen cardigan. She kissed him on the lips and stood. “Take me.” She said to Ahmed. “They won’t let any harm come to me.”

And she moved and stood in front of him.

Twenty Five

Ahmed clamped his left forearm around her throat and placed the gun to her head. She closed her eyes and shuddered. I pulled my automatic from my waistband and aimed at his head. He swallowed. He was shaking badly.

“Now, I want a car. Tell them I want a car.”

As he said it, the message was repeated on the bullhorn outside.

“Ahmed Abadi! We know you are in there! Put down your weapons and come outside with your hands in the air!”

“Tell them I want a car!”

Dehan curled her lip. “Screw you.”

“I will kill her!”

I said, “And then what? Touch one hair on her head and we will pepper you so full of holes they’ll be able to sieve spaghetti with you.”

His face flushed and he shrieked, “I will hurt her! I will shoot off her toes! Her foot! I will shoot off her fingers! You think I won’t? You want me to prove?”

I raised my voice. “Take it easy, jackass! I believe you. I’m reaching for my phone, Okay?”

I put my automatic away and pulled my phone from my pocket. I showed it to him and dialed the captain’s number. It rang once and he answered.

“Stone! What the hell…”

“Listen to me, Captain. We are short of time. We have a hostage situation here.”

“What?!”

“Ahmed Abadi is demanding a car to take him and his hostage, Sylvie Martin, away from here. Are you authorized to negotiate with him?”

I watched Sylvie’s face while he answered, wondering what was going on inside her head. Her eyes were closed, her arms tucked inside her sleeves like a Chinese mandarin, and she looked like she was praying. The captain was saying, “Of course I am authorized! What kind of damned fool question is that? Hand me over to him and let me talk to him.”

“That’s what I thought. I’ll explain the situation to him and get back to you.”

I hung up. I had switched off the ring tones earlier. That suited me fine.

“He has to call in an NYPD negotiator. If they deem you a terrorist, it may have to go to the FBI. Either way, he is not authorized to negotiate with you.”

His knees were trembling and he had big beads of sweat on his forehead. He pointed the gun down at Sylvie’s right foot, but his hand was shaking so much, if he’d pulled the trigger, he’d probably have blown his own foot off.

“Call him back. Tell him. If I don’t have a car in ten minutes, I start to amputate bits of this whore! Do it!”

I grabbed my phone again. The captain was trying to call me. I looked at the screen like I was about to dial, then stopped and stared into Ahmed’s face.

“And then what? So you get your car. Where are you going to go? You got two choices. Canada or Mexico. Mexico, pal, they are not going to let you in. That simple. They do not give a shit. You drive over the line and they will riddle you, Sylvie, and your car so full of lead, there won’t be any flesh and bones left.” He swallowed. I gave him a moment to think, then went on. “So what? Canada? You know what is going to happen there? You will have an escort of Feds all the way there, choppers, cars, and SUVs all the way. Because you will be officially ISIS. You understand that, right? And they will apply anti-terrorist rules to you. And when you get to the border, you will be surrounded on every side. You will have nowhere to go, Ahmed.”

“Just do it! I swear…”

I laughed an ugly laugh. “And how are you going to pay for gas anyway? What are you going to eat, even if you do get out of the country?”

“Stupid American dog. I want a car, and I want one hundred thousand dollars…” He shook his head. “No, two hundred—two hundred and fifty thousand dollars! You make all police go back. If I see one police, I shoot off one finger. I see two police, I shoot two finger. This is Allah’s justice! Eye for an eye. Make it happen!”

I called the captain.

“Stone! Did you hang up on me?”

“I explained to Ahmed that you are not authorized to negotiate, sir. But he says that unless his demands are met, he will not kill the hostage, but shoot off her toes one by one, and then her fingers. However, I am persuaded that he is willing to use deadly force as a final resort.”

“Jesus! You had better let me talk to him, Stone!”

“That is what I explained to him, but he is not willing to accept it. He says his demands must be met in ten minutes or he will start amputating parts of her body.”

“Stone! What is wrong with you? Let me talk to him right now!”

“Yes, sir, he wants a car with a full gas tank and two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in cash.”

“Stone! This is a direct order. Let me speak to this man!”

“Yes sir, I’ll tell him.”

I hung up.

“He’s talking to his superiors right now. You have to understand, Ahmed, the captain has not got access to that kind of money. Even if he wanted to agree to your terms, he couldn’t any more