A Maidens Grave

and looked more like a girl.”
    Angie asked delicately, “Has anyone touched any of you?”
    Shannon said that they had. But Kielle waved her hand and signed, “Not the way you mean. But Bear looks a lot.”
    So, Potter reflected, Bonner’s a discrete threat, separate from Handy. And probably more dangerous. Lust-driven criminals always are.
    “Who picked you to be released?” Angie asked Shannon.
    “Him.” She pointed at Handy.
    “The one Melanie calls Brutus, right?”
    Shannon nodded. “We call him Mr. Sinister. Or Magneto.”
    “Why did he pick you, do you think? Was there any reason?”
    “Because Bear”—Shannon pointed at Bonner’s picture—“told him to.” Frances looked at Angie and said, “Shannon kicked him and he was mad.”
    “I didn’t mean to kick him. I just didn’t think . . . . And then I got really scared. I thought it was my fault he was going to burn us up.”
    “Burn you up? Why’d you think that?”
    Shannon told them about the gas can rigged right above their heads.
    Frances’s face went pale. “He wouldn’t.”
    “Oh, yes he would,” Angie said. “Fire. His new toy.”
    “Damn,” Potter muttered. This virtually eliminated the possibility of an HRT rescue. Henry LeBow’s concession to the horror was to pause before he typed a description of the device.
    Potter walked to the doorway of the van, called Budd out, and then motioned Dean Stillwell over. The negotiator said to them both, “We’ve got a hot trap inside—”
    “Hot?” Budd asked.
    “Armed,” Potter continued. “We can’t give him the least excuse to trip it. There’s to be absolutely no action that could be construed as offensive. Double-check—all weapons unchambered.”
    “Yessir,” Stillwell said.
    Potter then asked Shannon if there was anything else she could remember about the men and what they did inside.
    “They watch TV,” Frances translated. “They walk around. Eat. Talk. They’re pretty relaxed.”
    Relaxed. Jocylyn had said the same. Well, this was a first for a barricade.
    “You saw the tools they have?”
    Shannon nodded.
    “Have they used them?”
    “No.”
    “Do you remember what tools they had?”
    She shook her head no.
    “Can you tell what they talk about?” Potter asked.
    “No,” Frances explained. “Neither of them can lip-read.”
    “They watch you all the time?” Angie asked.
    “Pretty much. He’s scary. Him.” Shannon was pointing at Handy. Kielle reached forward viciously and grabbed the picture. She tore it up and signed violently.
    “She says she hates Melanie. She could have killed him. And now he’s alive to kill more people. She says shewouldn’t have minded dying. But Melanie’s a coward and she hates her.”
    As he had done with Jocylyn, Potter warmly shook the girls’ hands and thanked them. Shannon smiled; Kielle did not but it was with a strong, self-assured grip that the little girl grasped the agent’s hand. Then he sent the two girls off with a trooper, to meet their parents at the motel in Crow Ridge. He conferred with Angie for a few minutes then climbed into the van. She followed him.
    The negotiator rubbed his eyes and leaned back and took the cup of the dreadful coffee Derek set beside him. “I don’t get it,” he said to no one in particular.
    “What?” Budd asked.
    “A hostage escaped and he’s angry. That part I understand. But he doesn’t seem angry because he lost a bargaining chip. He’s angry for some other reason.” He looked across the van. “Angie? Our resident psychologist? Have any ideas?”
    She organized her thoughts, then said, “I think Handy’s big issue is control. He says he’s killed people because they didn’t do what he wanted. I’ve heard that before. A convenience store clerk didn’t put the money in the robber’s bag as fast as he wanted so she’s the one guilty of an offense, not him. That gave him, in effect, permission to kill her.”
    “Is that why he killed Susan?” Budd asked.
    Potter rose and paced. “Ah, a very good question, Charlie.”
    “I agree,” Angie said. “A key question.”
    “Why her?” Potter continued.
    “Well, what I actually meant,” Budd said, “was why did he kill her? Why go to that extreme?”
    “Oh, when somebody breaks his rules, however slightly,” Angie said, “any punishment’s fair. Death, torture, rape. In Handy’s world, even misdemeanors are capital offenses. But let’s ask Arthur’s question. Why her? Why Susan Phillips?