"So he's a head case," Dendy muttered. 'Just like I said all along."
Although Dendy's remark was unnecessarily cruel, Galloway couldn't entirely disagree with the connotation.
This incident from Ronnie's childhood dangerously paralleled the present circumstances. Cole Davison's story added another factor to the situation, and it wasn't a positive one. In fact, none of the factors had been positive since this standoff began. Not one.
He turned to Gully. "What about Ms. McCoy? Did you see any signs that suggest she's under duress? Is she trying to get across more than she's saying? Any double meanings to her words?"
"Not that I could tell. And I grilled Kip here real good."
The FBI agent turned to the video cameraman. "Everything was as they've told us? Nobody hurt?"
"No, sir. The FBI guy is tied up-taped, rather-but he's shooting off his mouth, so I guess he's all right." He glanced at Dendy apprehensively, as though remembering what happens to the bearers of bad news. "But the… the girl?"
"Sabra? What about her?"
"There were a lot of bloody disposable diapers around.
They were wadded up and pushed aside. But I remember seeing them and thinking, Jeez."
Dendy strangled on an anguished exclamation.
Galloway continued with Kip. "Did you notice anything in your co-worker's manner or delivery that was out of the ordinary?"
"Tiel was same as always. Well, except for looking like hell. She was cool as a cucumber, though."
Finally the senior agent turned to Dendy, who had skipped the trip outside and was openly drinking from a silver pocket flask. "You mentioned the possibility of Sabra sending you a secret message. Did you see or hear anything to suggest one?"
"How could I tell by seeing the tape only that one time?"
The fact that the tyrannical entrepreneur was uneasy and indirect with his answer was in itself telling. Dendy finally had been confronted with the ugly truth: His mishandling of the original predicament had prompted Sabra and Ronnie to take desperate measures, which had gone terribly awry.
"Rewind it," Galloway instructed the agent at the control panel. "Let's watch the tape again. Anybody notice anything, call out." The tape began again.
"Tiel picked that spot so we could see the people behind her," Gully remarked.
"That's the refrigerator where the door was shattered," one of the other agents said, pointing to a spot on the screen.
"Pause it there."
Leaning forward, Galloway focused not on the newswoman but on the group of people in the background.
"The woman leaning against the counter must be the cashier."
Sheriff Montez said, "That's Donna, all right. No mistaking that hairdo."
"And that's Agent Cain, right, Kip?" Galloway pointed to a pair of legs, which he could see only from the knees down.
"Right. He's sitting with his back to the counter."
"Silver duct tape sure shows up good against his black pants, doesn't it?"
Gully's sly gibe went unacknowledged. Galloway was studying the elderly couple sitting close together on the floor near Cain. "How about the old folks? Are they all right?"
"Wide-eyed and bushy-tailed from what I could tell."
"What about the other two men?"
"Mexican fellows. I heard one of them say something to the other in Spanish, but he was talking under his breath, and I wouldn't've understood it anyhow."