So he’d made a mistake. He hadn’t made many. He’d killed for the first time fifteen years ago and he hadn’t made any major mistakes after that. He’d learned from that first time—don’t kill in a rage.

What happened today? You lost it with that interloper in your house. You killed him, you killed those cops, you got shot yourself—all because you were angry.

That wasn’t his fault, not really. The man should have just let him in the house to look around. He didn’t have to be a dick about it. And the cops—they were in the way. They would have stopped him. He had no choice.

But anger would get him in trouble. It made him stupid. Anger caused mistakes.

He was calm now. He had everything set up. Now that the head FBI agent was in the building, it was time to start the show.

And in the chaos, he would disappear.

Glen Hamilton had checked into room 460. It was in the front north corner of the hotel, next to one of three staircases. The second staircase was next to the elevator, and the third on the opposite end of the long hall. Sixty rooms each on three floors, and twenty-four rooms on the first floor. They were at full occupancy, every room reserved, with a total of 387 guests and twelve staff members on-site. They couldn’t confirm that all the guests were in their rooms.

Matt called in SWAT. Their ETA was more than twenty minutes because of the weather, but they were already geared up and ready, on call at SPD. Harris was only five minutes out. They had six uniformed officers on-site, and Matt called them into a conference room, along with the manager. Kara was still going through the security feeds putting together a timeline, and Ryder was tapped into the live feeds. The hotel had cameras only at the elevators above the first floor, but the lobby, bar, and all entrances were covered. They hadn’t confirmed that Hamilton was in the building, but they confirmed he had registered under the name Glen Montclair—his mother’s maiden name—and the company GAM Computer Systems.

“Our number one priority at this point is to evacuate the fourth floor as quietly as possible. SWAT will be here shortly, and they will take the tactical lead, while we will assist in bringing all the guests on the fourth floor into the conference rooms. One officer will be with the guests in each room, at the door. Hamilton is armed and dangerous. May be wounded. We get the civilians out of harm’s way and then we can engage the suspect.”

Matt drew out on a whiteboard the rough diagram of the fourth floor. “Under no circumstances are we to use the north staircase. SWAT will position two men outside this door in case he attempts to escape. All guests need to be taken out via the southern staircase. SWAT will be there directing them.”

Michael Harris walked in and Matt was relieved. It was situations like this that he had wanted Harris on his team. “Agent Harris? Comments?”