Dempster opened the drawer. "There are a lot of keys in here, Doug. One's gotta be for the safe. I imagine some of these others are for those safe deposit boxes there, right? I don't know what these others are for, though. Spares for the rooms or something, maybe? Whatever. Come over here, Doug. Get the keys for the safe."

Gardner, hands held up, crossed the room over to the desk. He pulled out the key to the safe, then at Dempster's insistence removed both sets of keys for the safe deposit boxes. One of the two sets was in the bottom drawer, which had to be unlocked with a different key.

"Now open the safe," Clark told him.

"You'll never get away with this," Andy said, his calm disposition dwindling.

"That's the most contrived statement I've ever heard, Andy," Evan said. He advanced on the guard, grabbed him by the collar and shoved his pistol into the man's face.

"Chill out," Dempster told him.

Evan reluctantly backed off. It was then that Dempster noticed a bulge tucked under the back of Evan's belt. What the hell was that?

"Go on and open the safe," Clark told Gardner again.

Gardner moved in, shaking as much as the guards. He inserted the key and turned it, then looked at Clark as though at a loss for what to do.

"Do the combination, Doug."

"I don't know the combination," Gardner said.

"Bullshit."

"I swear I don't!"

"Doug," Dempster said calmly. "Do you know Andy and Justin?"

"Of course I know them."

"Do you like them?"

The look he gave was one of utter confusion. "Yes."

"Okay, we'll have to play a little hardball. Get to work on that combination or we're gonna have to blow out Justin's kneecaps."

"Jesus Christ," Andy said.

Justin started shaking so bad it looked like he was having an epileptic fit. His face was as pale as snow and as wet as a river.

Evan smiled.

Gardner looked at Justin, then at Clark, then at Evan, and finally at Dempster. He turned around and began working the combination. The sweat in his thin hair reflected the light.

When the safe opened Dempster announced that he was leaving Doug, Justin, and Andy in capable hands. He left the room and joined Jimmy out in the lobby.

"I thought some kid was supposed to be here with him," Jimmy whispered.

"He's up helping a guest with his TV. Nothing we can do about it but keep a sharp lookout for him."

"Everything under control in there?"

"So far so good. Cameras are off. Safe's open. I dunno what's in it but it's a start."

"I can't help it," Jimmy said. "I'm a little freaked. I hope we get this over and done with soon."

"Just keep your wits about you," Dempster told him. "Everything will be fine."

Jimmy started to say something else. Something that seemed like it might have been important. Then he bit his tongue. Before Dempster could ask what was getting him Jimmy motioned over to the side. To the stairway. The stairway up to the computers.

There was a shadow. Dempster motioned for Jimmy to get behind the front desk then moved over to the side of the stairway.

Came the sound of descending footsteps. A woman cleared her throat. Did Gardner know she was up there? Maybe she'd been there for hours. It didn't matter now because a woman was coming down the stairs.

She was middle-aged. She had blue pants and a blue shirt and her hair was brown and she was studying a small stack of papers in her hands. She looked up to tell the people behind the front desk goodnight and saw Jimmy pointing a gun at her. No one needed to tell her to freeze.

"Get behind the desk," Dempster said, surprising her because she hadn't yet known there was more than one. She joined Jimmy, Dempster following. "Lie down on your face and keep your head down. Don't try to see what's going on."

Overcome with shock, overwhelmed by a situation she didn't really comprehend, she didn't react, just did as she was told.

"What's your name?"

"Marie."

"Is there anyone else up there, Marie? Anyone else up there at the computers?"

"Yes," Marie said. "There are a couple of people."

"Are you sure? I don't believe you."

"There is. One of them is a cop."

"You're very funny, Marie," Jimmy told her.

"What's funny about it?"

"It's funny because you don't quite understand the situation you're dealing with."

"I know that I'm lying face down behind the front desk of a hotel and I have two guns pointed at my back."

"But you also want to take a chance and see if we'll run off if we think there are others up there," Dempster told her. "We're already outnumbered and haven't had a problem yet. No one's been hurt so far but that could change. It could change very quickly, Marie." He paused here to let the information settle in her mind. "Now, is there anyone else up there?"

She sighed. It was a frightened sigh. "No."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. I'm just afraid."

"Don't be afraid, Marie. This will all be over soon and you can go back to your room. Just lie there and keep still. Can you do that, Marie?"

"Yes, Ia"I think so."

"Good." Dempster rose and moved swiftly over to the back room and looked in. Other than some papers, the safe was now empty. Evan had his gun on Gardner, who was tying up Justin and Andy's feet with their belts. Their hands were cuffed behind them. Justin was shaking a little less now. Clark had begun work on the safe deposit boxes.

"How's it going in here?"

"Just peachy," Evan said.

He heard Jimmy and Marie talking behind him. He turned back and looked at them. Then from the back room he heard Evan tell Gardner to stand there and not move. His attention flickered briefly, but he kept it on Jimmy and Marie.

"So what is that small stack of papers you got tucked under you?" Jimmy asked. From the tone of his voice he sounded genuinely interested.

"My son," Marie told him. "He wrote a short story."

"Where's your son?"

"Back home. In Boston."

"How old is he?"

"Sixteen."

"And he wrote a short story?"

"Yes."

"You must be proud of him."

"He wants to be a writer," Marie said. Her tone had changed. Maybe thinking about her son made her realize just how serious her situation was.

"Is it any good?" Jimmy asked.

"I haven't read it yet. I just printed it up. He e-mailed it to me."

"That's cool your son wants to be a writer. You think he'll make it?"

"If he keeps at it."

"Even given our current situation, Marie, I can tell you're proud of him."

"I'm proud." A sniffle. "Very proud."

Dempster let an internal smile stretch across him. He'd never been sure about any of these guys, especially Jimmy. Now he saw what Jimmy was good at.

Jimmy looked up at him. "It would be okay to let her read her son's story, wouldn't it?"

"I don't want to read it right now," Marie said.

"Why not?"

"I don't want to read it when I'm stuck on the floor with a gun pointed at me and I don't know what's going to happen from one moment to the next."

"Nothing's gonna happen to you, Marie. I promise you."

"I'm really scared."

"I know," Jimmy told her. "I know you're scared. But you know what? I'll let you in on a secret. I'm scared too."

Marie was crying now. "You are?"

"Yes. I'm very scared. I don't like doing this. I don't like having to stand here holding a gun."

"So why are you doing it?"

"Because there's no other way for me. Nothing else will work for me. I worked at a Wal-Mart once and couldn't even handle that. This is the only thing that'll work." He let a considerate pause pass by, then said, "If you want, Marie, go on and prop up onto your elbows and read your son's story. I'm not gonna hurt you. It might make you feel better."

A silence within a silence ensued. Then Marie, whimpering now, said, "Maybe I'll just read the first sentence."

"Yeah, you go ahead, Marie." He looked at Dempster. "It's all right, isn't it?"

"Sure," Dempster said as he felt something tug in his chest. "Yeah, it's all right, I guess." He remembered what Sandra had said as she verbally played out her fantasy for the two of them. How she'd always wanted to try her hand at writing a novel.

He watched Marie, tears in her eyes, stumble up to her elbows and slide the papers out from under her.

"You just read, Marie," Jimmy told her. "Just read and pretend we're not even here."

"Your gun is still going to be on me," she said.

"Don't think about it. Just read. Read your son's story."

Marie cried a moment longer. Then she adjusted the pages in front of her, sniffled, wiped her nose, and looked at them. Dempster didn't know if she was reading or not. He didn't really care, so long as she stayed calm and kept out of the way.

"How's it coming?" he called into the back.

Clark's voice was rich with triumph. "Man, this is the jackpot times two!"

"Doug, Justin, Andy, you guys doing all right?"

When none of them spoke, Evan said, "Answer him."

They all said they were fine. Justin's voice was weepingly distinct.

"I feel really important," Clark said. "Like these boxes are rubbing off on me, making me valuable."

"Just keep at it," Dempster told him. He walked out from behind the desk and looked around the lobby. Still no sign of the kid. And no sign of Harold. No sign of anyone. He went to the desk and, over it, told Jimmy, "I'll stay on this side."

"No worries," Jimmy said standing near Marie, his gun slack at his side.

Dempster walked across the lobby, glancing out the tiny windows set in the front doors. He tugged once at the brim of his baseball cap then looked the other way, deep into the hotel, into the lounge where just last night Sandra had said, "I'm safe with you, aren't I?" and he had told her she was. It was now dark and empty.