Armed robbery, for starters."
"I'm sure Ronnie is willing to accept responsibility for his actions."
"Let me talk to him." Ronnie took the receiver from her. "Listen, Mr. Galloway, I'm not a criminal. Not until today, that is. I've never even gotten a speeding ticket. But I'm not going to let Mr. Dendy dictate my baby girl's future.
From where I stood, I couldn't see any other way to get away from him."
"Tell him what we decided, Ronnie," Sabra called out.
He looked down at her where she lay with the newborn cradled in her arms, and his face took on a pained expression.
"Talk to Sabra's dad, Mr. Galloway. Persuade him to leave us alone. Then I'll release everybody."
He listened for a moment, then said, "I know they need to be in the hospital. The sooner the better. So you've got one hour to get back to me." Another pause. "Or what?" he said, obviously repeating Galloway's question. Ronnie glanced again at Sabra. She clutched her baby daughter tighter to her chest, and nodded. "I'll tell you in an hour."
He hung up abruptly.
Addressing his hostages, he said, "Okay, you all heard. I don't want to hurt anybody. I want all of us to walk out of here. So everybody just relax." He glanced up at the wall clock. "Sixty minutes, it could be over."
"What if her old man don't agree to let y'all alone?"
Donna asked. "What're you gonna do to us?"
"Why don't you sit down and be quiet?" Vern said querulously.
"Why don't you kiss my ass, old man?" she retorted.
"You're not the boss of me. I wanna know, am I gonna live or die? An hour from now, is he gonna start popping us?"
An uneasy silence descended over the group. All eyes turned to Ronnie, but he stubbornly refused to acknowledge the unspoken question in their eyes.
Agent Cain had either lapsed into unconsciousness again or was hanging his head in shame over his failure to bring the standoff to an end. In an event, his chin was resting on his chest.
Donna's elbows were subjected to more picking.
Vern and Gladys were showing signs of fatigue. Now that the excitement of the birth was over, their liveliness had waned. Gladys's head was resting on Vern's shoulder.
Tiel crouched down beside Doc, who was attending to Sabra again. Her eyes were closed. Baby Katherine was sleeping in her mother's arms. "How is she?"
"Too goddamn much bleeding, and her blood pressure's falling."
"What can you do?"
"I tried massaging the uterus, but rather than slowing the bleeding, it increased it." His brow was furrowed with consternation. "There is something else."
"What?"
"Nursing."
"Could she be lactating this soon?"
"No. Have you ever heard of oxytocin?"
"I assume it's a female thing."
"A hormone that helps eject breast milk. It also causes the uterus to contract, which reduces the bleeding. Sucking stimulates the release of the hormone."
"Oh. Then why haven't you-"