In Sickness and In Health

Chapter Thirty Five

Chapter Thirty Five

"Get him on facial recognition, run it until you get a name, then I want his life story, chapter and verse," Jamie told his team. "The second we get an address, get a unit over there, break the door down if you have to. Check calendars, computers, and appointment cards, see if he has anything planned after today. Check and see if there is food in the fridge, if there's evidence of a pet, is it in the house, or is there a claim tag for a boarding facility?"

"Why would we..." began one of the uniforms.

"A lot of these hostage situations are just elaborate suicide attempts," Jack replied, making Jamie very proud of him. "He's trying to get into is head, see if this is that or just a robbery gone wrong."

Jamie nodded, "Get on that now! I'm going to try to make contact."

The ringing was incessant. "Answer it Jeremy," Joey encouraged. "I know you don't trust cops, but the guys out there, on HNT, they really do care. Since my Dad took over, we all really had a lot of training on how to help people not just punish them."

Suddenly a voice came over the bullhorn, "This is Police Commissioner Reagan. I would really like for us to talk things out. Please pick up the phone and I promise that we can talk about this. No one else will be on the line but you and I."

"That's my Dad, Jeremy," Joey stated the obvious. "He's a good guy, he's really fair and I know he'll be able to help. I know he'll listen. Pick up the phone and just give him a chance."

When the phone rang again, Jeremy reached out and answered it. "You wanted me to answer, so now what!"

Jamie sighed in relief, "Tell me how you are doing?" Jamie asked. "Are you okay in there? Is everyone okay?"

"The old man and the girl are okay, pissing their pants, the cop's bleeding," Jeremy replied. "Yeah, I shot your son, you still want to be nice to me!"

"Of course I do," Jamie replied keeping his voice even though the rage was building. "I know how it can get. Sometimes life is just unbelievably hard."

"What the Hell do you know? I've seen you in the papers, you're handsome, your wife loves you, you have a family, you have a job, you have everything..."

"No one has everything...What's your name?" Jamie asked. "I'm Jamie...you can call me Jamie. What do I call you?"

"Jeremy" came the stiff reply.

"Jeremy..." Jamie replied. "My wife and I thought of that name when she was having our second baby. We always knew we wanted to call our first son Joseph after my brother. He passed away at 32 years old, he was probably my best friend in the world."

The talk continued while Jamie's team worked to get a full name on the perp. Finally it came up, Jeremy Johnson Peters. Two teams of uniforms sped to Jeremy's apartment to investigate per Jamie's orders. "It's pretty crowded out here," Jamie said. "Lots of people can hear us, that's probably why you don't want to talk to me. So I'll tell you what let's do...let me move some of these cars out of here, give us a little more space, and you let the old man and the young lady..."

"Stan and Lauren..." Jeremy corrected him much to Jamie's delight. He was identifying with his hostages as people."

"Stan and Lauren, you let them go...then you, me, and Joey we can all talk together. Do you think that would be a good idea?"

Jack watched in awe as Jamie ordered six of the ten RMPs to disburse to locations out of sight. Still, Jeremy didn't not release his other hostages. Stan looked like he might have a heart attack. Lauren had cried so hard her face was raw. Joey had to try something.