“What the hell are you talking about?” snapped Wingo. “I’m willing to come in if you let my son go.”
“That may have been your thinking, but it isn’t ours.”
“What then?” barked Wingo.
“Keep calm, Wingo. All you have to do is stand down. You do nothing. If you do that, you will see your son alive. If not, he’s dead.”
Wingo covered his face with his hands and took a deep breath. Michelle put a supportive hand on his shoulder.
“How do I know I can trust you?” said Wingo.
“How do we know we can trust you?”
“Even if I stand down, how will you know I am?”
“We’ll know, Wingo. We have assets in place. You talk to anyone, go anywhere, tell the FBI about your son, give anyone something that will help them on this, we’ll know. And then your son is no more. That is a guarantee.”
Sean pointed to the phone and then his ear. He mouthed the name, “Tyler.”
Wingo said, “I want to talk to my son. Right now. Or no deal.”
A few moments passed, and then Tyler’s voice came on the line.
“D-dad?”
“Tyler, are you all right?”
“I’m really scared. These people—”
There were sounds of a scuffle and Tyler’s voice broke off.
“Tyler? Tyler!” yelled Wingo into the phone.
The mechanical voice came back on. “Stand down, Wingo. Then you get him back.”
“What about Kathy Burnett?”
“Just stand down. And you get your son back.”
The line went dead.
Wingo slowly sat up.
Sean rubbed his jaw and said, “Okay, that was an unexpected development.”
Michelle was eyeing Wingo. “We’re going to get him back, Sam.”
“You have no way of knowing that,” said Wingo bitterly. “And it sounds like Kathy is dead.”
Michelle looked at Sean but said nothing. It did sound like Kathy Burnett was dead.
Wingo looked up. “So there’s nothing more to do. Except wait and hope to God they keep their word.”
“That’s you, not us, Sam,” said Sean. “We have to keep working this thing.”
“But it might put Tyler in danger.”
“He’s already in danger,” said Michelle. “And let’s be brutally honest here. I don’t see them voluntarily letting him go whether you stand down or not, do you?”