"Actually, Montez will probably be glad to land the problem in our lap. His chief concern is that there be no heroics. He wants to avoid bloodshed."
"Then he and I are on the same page. I think what
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we've got here is a couple of scared kids who've got themselves trapped in a situation and can't find a way out.
What, if anything, do you know about the hostages?"
She gave him the breakdown by gender. "One's been identified by Sheriff Montez as a local rancher. The cashier is a fixture at the convenience store. Everybody in
Rojo Flats knows her. And that Ms. McCoy who talked to
Sheriff Montez?"
"What about her?"
"She's a reporter for a TV station in Dallas."
"Tiel McCoy?"
"So you know her?"
He knew her and mentally formed an image: slender, short blond hair, light eyes. Blue, possibly green. She was on TV nearly every night. Galloway had also seen her outside the studio among reporters at the scenes of crimes he'd investigated. She was aggressive, but objective. Her reports were never unfairly inflammatory or exploitative.
She was a looker and utterly feminine, but her delivery merited credibility.
He wasn't thrilled to hear that a broadcast journalist of her caliber was at the epicenter of this crisis. It was a compounding factor he could easily have done without.
"Great. A reporter is already on the scene." He ran his hand around the back of his neck, where tension had begun to gather. It was going to be a long night. He predicted the previously unheard-of Rojo Flats would soon be swarmed by media, contributing to the mayhem.
The other agent asked, "Gut instinct, Galloway. Did that boy kidnap the Dendy girl?"
Beneath his breath, Galloway muttered, "I only wonder why it took her so long to run away."