"Who's the shift commander tonight?" he finally asked.
"Captain Washburn. It was supposed to be Lieutenant Capullo but he's out sick."
Ron looked up at the night sky, dread settling in. That made Washburn top dog for the duration, since the chief and his second in command, Manierre, were out of town. Negotiation by its nature was tough enough, especially when you had as little experience as Ron had. Adding Washburn's built-in animosity for him wasn't going to make it easier.
The only missing stressor now was a gung ho tac team, champing at the bit to turn that trailer into the Alamo. And that much was a given with the team's new leadership-a transplanted Boston cop named Wayne Kazak. Ron smiled at the irony. Now he had his own triple to deal with.
He sighed softly and said, "Okay, let's get the van down here and set up a command post. Better count on this taking a while."
Chapter 2
Two hours later, Ron Klesczewski was sitting in an airless van, headphones binding his ears, his eyes half closed in concentration, listening to Matthew Purvis ranting on the other end of a dedicated line. This last detail was actually the PD's "throw phone," which Ron had managed to get him to accept after forty-five minutes of persuasion, using the ruse that Ron's cell, which he wasn't actually using, was running low on power.
The advantage of the throw phone over a standard line was being revealed right now, since Purvis wasn't actually talking to Ron, but yelling yet again at his estranged wife. Since the unit was unfamiliar to him, he'd merely put it down instead of hanging it up as he might have normally.
Which in turn was helping to enhance one of the pillars of good negotiation: information gathering. Anything the negotiator could learn about the subject, using all available methods, gave him something extra with which to defuse the situation.