The Way My Heart Beats

Chapter 17

I see him reappear on the camera in the ER. He slips into one of the trauma rooms. It's dark and there's no camera in there. I press the com button, "Mitch! He slipped into trauma room 3."

I don't know who this guy is, but he clearly has a reason to think we are here for him. Everything goes silent as the officers make their way into the ER. Then a voice comes from the room. "If you come any closer I will slit her neck." Shit. He's got a hostage. I thought they cleared the ER and locked the doors. Why didn't this person follow the safety precautions? A hostage is the last thing we need to worry about right now.

"Mitch. I'm not sure who this guy is, but it's not Joe." I say over the com once more.

"What do you mean it's not Joe?" I can see the confused expression on his face.

"It's just not. I'll run facial recognition if you can get him to come out." Margaret chimes in.

Everyone is on high alert, ready to take action if needed. Mitch tries to deescalate the situation. "I don't know who you are or why you think we're after you, but if you'll put your weapon down and come out we can get this figured out. I think this might be a big misunderstanding."

"The name's Jay, and I'm not coming out." The guy says, sounding disgruntled.

"Alright, Jay. My name is Mitch Woodrow. I'm a detective with CPD. I don't want anybody getting hurt today. I just want to figure out why you think it's you we're after, and see if we can fix this."

"There's nothing to fix." The man says in an angered tone. "I screwed up a long time ago. I've bared the rejection, and I'm sick of it. Now people are going to pay."

"You're going to have to draw this guy out so we can get him on camera, Mitch," Margaret says through the com leading to his ear piece. "I need to get some background on this guy, so we can figure out what angle to use."

"Alright. I get it. I've screwed up, too, man. I've been rejected. It's led me down the wrong path before. How about we talk about this face to face, Jay?"

"You know I can't do that. I've already screwed up once again. You'll have to arrest me for this."

"Maybe we can figure something out. Just let the girl go, and then we can talk." Mitch says, using his words carefully.

"You know I can't do that either. She's my leverage. You'll either arrest me or shoot me." He calls out from the dark room.

"No. That will not happen. As soon as you let the girl go, we will put down our guns. But, we can't do that until the girl is safe." Mitch says cautiously.

"I'm not letting the girl go, but I'll come out and talk." He says, as a sigh of relief comes over me knowing that we will have a visual on not only the man but the hostage.

A shadow spreads across the floor as a tall skinny man with glasses steps out still holding a knife to the girls throat. The camera starts flickering from a black and white screen. I try to focus on the man's face. He looks familiar. "Shit." I slap the top of the monitor trying to get it back in focus, but it completely blacks out—not before my eyes land on the face of the female.

Amelia.

I stand up and kick my chair. "Damn. What the hell?" Margaret gives me a glare. She clearly didn't recognize Amelia as quickly as I did. "It's Amelia." She gives me a confused look. "The guy with the knife. He's got Amelia." I knew Mitch would recognize her, but he gave nothing away, putting all emotion aside, not wanting to give "Jay" any reason to use it against him.