Free Vanish by Tess Gerritsen

with her. I need to know who we’re dealing with, so
    I can choose the right approach when she starts talking to us.”
    “She hasn’t yet?”
    “No. We’ve isolated the three phone lines into the hospital wing where she’s barricaded, so we
    control all her outgoing communications. We’ve tried calling in half a dozen times, but she
    keeps hanging up on us. Eventually, though, she’s going to want to communicate. They almost
    always do.”
    “You seem to think she’s like every other hostage taker.”
    “People who do this tend to behave in similar ways.”
    “And how many hostage takers are women?”
    “It’s unusual, I have to admit.”
    “Have you ever dealt with a female hostage taker?”
    He hesitated. “The truth is,” he said, “this is a first for me. A first for all of us. We’re
    confronting the rare exception here. Women just don’t take hostages.”
    “This one did.”
    He nodded. “And until I know more, I have to approach it the way I would any other hostage
    crisis. Before I negotiate with her, I need to know as much about her as possible. Who she is,
    and why she’s doing this.”
    Maura shook her head. “I don’t know that I can help you with that.”
    “You’re the last person who had any contact with her. Tell me everything you can remember.
    Every word she spoke, every twitch.”
    “I was alone with her for such a short time. Only a few minutes.”
    “Did you two talk?”
    “I tried to.”
    “What did you say to her?”
    Maura felt her palms go slick again as she remembered that ride in the elevator. How the
    woman’s hand had trembled as she gripped the weapon. “I tried to calm her down, tried to
    reason with her. I told her I only wanted to help.”
    “How did she respond?”
    “She didn’t say anything. She was completely silent. That was the most frightening part.” She
    looked at Stillman. “Her absolute silence.”
    He frowned. “Did she react to your words in any way? Are you sure she could hear you?”
    “She’s not deaf. She reacted to sounds. I know she heard the police sirens.”
    “Yet she didn’t say a single word?” He shook his head. “This is bizarre. Are we dealing with a
    language barrier? This will make it tough to negotiate.”
    “She didn’t strike me as the negotiating type anyway.”
    “Start from the beginning, Dr. Isles. Everything she did, everything you did.”
    “I’ve gone over all this with Captain Hayder. Asking me the same questions again and again
    isn’t going to get you any more answers.”
    “I know you’re repeating yourself. But something you remember could be the vital detail. The
    one thing I can use.”
    “She was pointing a gun at my head. It was hard to focus on anything else but staying alive.”
    “You were with her. You know her most recent state of mind. Do you have any idea why she
    took these actions? Whether she’s likely to harm any hostages she’s holding?”
    “She’s already killed one man. Shouldn’t that tell you something?”
    “But we’ve heard no gunshots since then, so we’ve gotten past the critical first thirty minutes,
    which is the most dangerous period. The time when the shooter’s still scared and most likely to
    kill a captive. It’s been almost an hour now, and she’s made no other moves. Hurt no one else,
    as far as we know.”
    “Then what is she doing in there?”
    “We have no idea. We’re still scrambling for background information. The homicide unit is
    checking into how she ended up at the morgue, and we’ve lifted what we think are her
    fingerprints from the hospital room. As long as no one’s getting hurt, time is our friend. The
    longer this goes on, the more information we’ll have on her. And the more likely we’ll settle it
    without bloodshed, without heroics.” He glanced toward the hospital. “See those cops over
    there? They’re probably champing at the bit to rush the building. If it comes to that, then I’ve
    failed. My rule of thumb for hostage