Free Guilty by Karen Robards

sheriff's departments that weren't already on the premises.
    All he had to do was keep Kate White alive long enough for the real professionals at this kind of thing to arrive and take over.
    If she wasn't already dead.
    The thought made him grimace.
    Brriing.
    "Pick up the damned phone," Davis said aloud, echoing what all of them were thinking. They were all getting wound tighter than a Roger Clemens fastball, but letting their emotions take control would not help the woman they were trying to save.
    His hand gripping the receiver so hard his knuckles showed white, Tom frowned Davis down.
    Brriing.
    The courtroom was chaotic, teeming with cops and medical personnel and civilians and even reporters who had happened to be in the courthouse when the shooting had started and who had immediately converged on the scene. Blood and gore were everywhere. Victims were being treated where they lay. First-aid carts rattled around the room and emergency triage was being attempted by people with no training for it, and over in a corner a defibrillator let loose with its distinctive zap. Women cried hysterically. There were a few shrieks, which Tom deliberately closed his ears to, as loved ones discovered victims. From outside, dozens of sirens, only faintly muffled by the pounding rain and distance, screamed through the broken-out window.
    Reinforcements were coming. Soon there would be somebody more qualified than he to take over.
    Brriing.
    An attempt was being made to cordon off the courtroom; another attempt was being made to clear the room of nonessential personnel. The Criminal Justice Center was being evacuated, except for those who needed to be on the premises, but it wasn't happening fast. Nothing was happening fast. There were too many nooks and corners, too many people, too many prisoners, too many arrangements to coordinate, too much confusion.
    So far, the necessary organization to accomplish what needed to be accomplished wasn't happening. Everybody was too shocked, too unprepared for this horror that had so unexpectedly exploded in their lives.
    His job, because right now he was the senior cop on the scene, because he knew Rodriguez from having arrested him before, because he wasn't willing to entrust it to anyone else until the trained hostage negotiator who was coming was actually present, was to keep Rodriguez talking, keep him believing he was going to get what he wanted, keep him from killing Kate White.
    For as long as he could.
    Her eyes, clinging to his as if she actually thought he could save her, haunted him. So did her voice, cracking with fear as she told him she was a single mother.
    He refused to let himself think about her kid.
    Brri...
    The sound broke off. Somebody was picking up.
    He tensed.
    The others must have been able to see that something was going down from his expression or body language, because they all leaned in a little closer, their eyes on his face.
    On the other end of the line, nobody said anything. But Tom was sure—almost sure—he could hear somebody breathing.
    "Rodriguez?" Tom hazarded a guess. His voice was grim. The sleazeball was a hardcore criminal with a felony record as long as Tom's arm. Killing his hostage wouldn't cause him to bat an eyelash.
    "No." It was Kate White. He recognized her voice instantly. It was low-pitched and shaky, but the good news was she was alive. Only then, when relief loosened the death grip fear had on his senses, did he become aware of the roaring in his ears, and only because it started to subside.
    He had been hideously afraid that she was dead.
    "You doing all right?" he asked, as the tense group around him, obviously able to either hear her voice or tell that she was alive from his reaction, let out a collective breath.
    "Yes."
    Her breathing was ragged, and he sure couldn't blame her for that. All things considered, she was hanging tough, being very calm, very aware, acting as a functioning participant in the attempt to keep her alive, and he