"I'm not going to pretend I have any say in that," Charlene told him. What a dumb thing to tell him. Of course she didn't have any say in it. Why would anybody believe that she did? "We were out here for something completely different. We're just bystanders who got involved. But I can tell you, watching from the outside, that this is fucked up. C'mon. Put the gun down. You don't have to let him go, but put the gun down."

"There's no way out," said the man. "The cops'll show up, they'll take my son, and I'll go to prison. You explain to me how that isn't the best-case scenario here!"

Should Charlene ask him his name? Isn't that what a professional negotiator would do? Try to form a personal connection?

Gertie was scratching her arm. Maybe she had an itch, or maybe she was planning to go for the gun. Charlene tilted her head toward Gertie and tried to shake it, just enough to send the almost-imperceptible message that she should not go for her gun.

Gertie lowered her hand. Either the itch was gone or she'd received the message.

Charlene returned her full attention to the man. He was absolutely right that prison was his best-case scenario here. To try to convince him otherwise would be a transparent lie. Unless...

"Let the boy go and run," said Charlene. "You can get away if you don't have him slowing you down."

The man let out an incredulous laugh. "I can't run away from the cops like that! They'll have helicopters and everything! My only hope was to drive out of town before they set up checkpoints, and that plan has turned to complete shit!"

"Fine. So the best-case scenario is you going to jail. That's still a better scenario than murdering your son and killing yourself."

"Better for who?"

"For you and your son! Jesus Christ, how can you not see that?" She hoped her tone didn't set him off.

The man said something, but he said it quietly and Charlene couldn't hear it over the sirens and his son's sobbing. Suddenly the sirens turned off and she could see the blue and red flashing lights reflecting off the brick walls of the alley.

"Tell them to stay away!" the man shouted. "I'll shoot him! If I see so much as a shadow of a cop, I'll pull the trigger!"

Gertie turned and waved her hands. "Stay back!" she called out. "Please, stay back!"

"I mean it! Don't think I won't do it!" Spittle flew from the man's mouth and he was pressing the gun so tightly against his son's head that it looked like he could accidentally break the boy's neck.

"He's serious!" Gertie shouted at the cops.

"Neither of you have to get hurt," Charlene said. "Let him go. Surrender to the cops. Don't give this a permanent bad ending."