DI Jack Frost 02 - A Touch of Frost

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    “Quiet everyone,” called Allen. “I’m going to try and make contact.” He thumbed the switch and raised the loud hailer to his mouth. His amplified, metallic voice reverberated over the back gardens. “Eustace. This is Detective Inspector Allen. I’d like to talk to you.”
    From his vantage point in the opposite house, Ingram, squinting through the telescopic sight, saw movement inside the room. He clicked on his radio and reported to Allen. “He’s coming to the window, sir.”
    A terrified woman was pushed to the window. She turned her head away from the blinding glare of the lights. Eustace was well behind her, his arm crooking her neck, the shotgun in his free hand. Ingram shifted the sight slightly to the left and the crosspiece was dead centre of Eustace’s forehead. “There’s enough showing, sir. I think I can get him.”
    “No, Sergeant,” snapped Allen. “There will be no shooting. Confirm.”
    “Confirmed, sir. No shooting.” Ingram sounded disappointed.
    “Listen to me,” shouted Eustace in the darkness, his voice shaking. “I’m only going to say this once. You’ve got thirty minutes. I want a car with a full tank, I want it left outside, then you all piss off.”
    “Release the woman and the kids, Stan, then we can talk about it.”
    “No. They come with me. You’ve got thirty minutes.”
    Allen took a chance. He raised the loud hailer to his mouth and, as he talked, started to walk toward the house. He wanted to be able to talk without shouting. The loud hailer was forming a barrier between them. “Do you want any food, Stan? We can have it sent in. In fact . . .” A shot blasted out and pellets splattered high on the far wall. The woman screamed. The children inside the room started crying.
    “No farther, Mr. Allen. I’m cornered and I’m desperate and I’ve got nothing to lose. Just get me the car and stop ringing that bloody phone.”
    Allen retreated back to his old position. “Cut the phone,” he ordered.
    The woman was dragged away from the window.
    “What do you think?” Mullett asked.
    Allen scratched his head. “I don’t know, sir. My every instinct tells me to rush him. I’m sure he won’t harm the woman or the kids.”
    “He’d use the gun,” said Mullett. “If not on the hostages, then on our men, and I’m not having anyone hurt. We’ll sweat it out. Time is on our side. Hello, who is this?”
    A patrol car skidded up. PC Kenny and a woman got out.
    “It’s Sadie Eustace, Stan’s wife. I’m hoping she can talk some sense into her old man.”
    Sadie, an old coat flung hastily over a blue dress, almost ran over to Allen, her eyes crackling with anger at the sight of the armed men and the press and the spotlights. “What are you bastards doing to him?”
    “Now take it easy, Sadie,” soothed Allen. “He’s got a gun and he’s taken hostages.”
    Sadie turned her back on Allen and appealed directly to Mullett. “I’ll get him out. Let me go in there and talk to him.”
    Mullett looked over her shoulder to Allen, who firmly shook his head. “I’m sorry,” said Mullett. “I can’t let you go in there.”
    “Why not? He won’t harm me. I’m his wife.”
    “The point is, Sadie,” said Allen, ‘you might try to help him.”
    She spun around to face him.” For Pete’s-bloody-sake! I want to help him. That’s the whole point of the exercise.”
    Allen smiled his thin smile. “You might try and help him get away, Sadie. If you were with him, he’d have an extra hostage, extra bargaining . . . and you’d be a hostage we could never be sure was on our side.”
    “You’ve got to trust someone, Inspector.”
    “Forgive me, Sadie, if I can’t trust you. You can talk to him on the phone if you like. We’ve got a direct line through. Try and persuade him to release the hostages and then come out with his hands up.”
    She nodded her agreement. Allen clicked on the loud hailer. “Stan. Go down to the phone. Sadie’s here. She wants to talk to you.” Stan’s voice shouted out into the darkness. “Are you really there, Sadie?”
    “Yes, Stan,” she shouted back. “I want to talk.”
    She took the phone and waited for her husband to go down the stairs with the hostages. Allen stepped back, and when he was well out of earshot he raised the radio to his mouth and very quietly called Special Units 3 and 4. Once Eustace was distracted by the phone call, he wanted to try and sneak some men inside the house. When he had