The Phoenix

Jimmy listened to the ringing of the phone in his hand. They had decided to call Fallon’s phone in order to talk to Jack Tallis, the man who had decided to hold the girls hostage.

He picked the large manila folder on his desk. The front of it was labelled ‘J.Tallis’ and in it contained every known detail about Jack’s life. From what he read, Jack Tallis was a forty nine year old accountant. He had no prior criminal record and this was probably a case of someone needing to vent their pent up anger. This should be pretty easy he thought as he waited for the phone to be answered. The phone rang five times before someone picked up.

“Hello,” a scared woman, he assumed to be Fallon since it was her phone, answered.

“Fallon Blackmore?” he asked as pulled out her file which was a similar manila folder only this one had ‘F. Blackmore’ printed on the front. She was a twenty one year old history teacher. He looked at the picture of the pretty vibrant young woman putting a face to the scared voice he was hearing.

“Yes,” she replied timidly.

“This is Detective Sullivan. Is everyone ok?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied after a long pause holding back tears.

Some of the tension in their makeshift command centre lifted at that one word. Jimmy exhaled slowly not even realizing that he was holding his breath in the first place. He didn’t take her word too much at heart. Jack could have made her say that.

“Can you please give Mr. Tallis the phone?” he told her. He heard soft shuffling as the phone was passed to Jack.

“What?” an angry voice spat on the other end.

“Hello Mr. Tallis,” Sullivan started, “I’m Detective James Sullivan.

Jack grunted in response but didn’t say anything.

“Is everything alright in there?” Jimmy asked Tallis after a few moments of silence.

“You just asked her that,” Jack asked clearly annoyed.

“I wanted to hear your opinion,” Jimmy said, “after all; your opinion is the only one that matters.”

Jack grunted in approval but again said nothing.

“So is there anything I should know?” Sullivan said carefully. “Anything I can help you with?”

Jack laughed. His problems were too numerous for them to even understand. He was one fucked up individual.

“Why don’t you just mind your own fucking business,” Jack spat and then hung up the phone.

Jimmy sighed.

'That went well' he thought as he put the phone back on the cradle. They did establish two things. The first was that the hostages were all fine, for now. Well that’s what they think anyway. The other was that Jack Tallis wanted something but he wasn’t too keen on sharing that piece of information with Jimmy. They needed a strategy.

Jimmy stood up and walked to his second in command, Jason Berry. He and the other members of the Hostage Negotiation Team were gathered around a desk where they were listening intently and recording the conversation Jimmy had been having with the taker.

“Any ideas?” James asked his team.

Everybody just looked at him. There was just not enough information for them to come up with a tactical plan for getting the girls out.

“Okay, let’s start again,” James told them after he received a few blank stares from his first question. “Who is Jack Tallis?”

With those few words he was bombarded with facts about Jack’s life.

Jack Tallis was forty nine years old. He was born in Wichita Falls, Texas and lived there up until thirteen years ago when he moved to Pennsylvania where he met his second wife. Jack Tallis had four children, all boys, two of which were from his first marriage.

His first wife was Lisa O’Keefe-Tallis. She is forty eight years old and was his high school sweetheart. The two of them got married shortly after Lisa turned eighteen. By then she was already pregnant with their first child Jack Jr. who is now thirty years old and works as an engineer on an oil rig in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico. Their second son, Michael, is five years younger and he is currently a freelance journalist.

Lisa and Jack got divorced after fifteen years of marriage. Her family members all say that she loved Jack dearly and that it hurt her to have to let him go. They got divorced because, according to Lisa, Jack just could not get over his addition to pornography and it was hurting the marriage. Nonetheless the papers cite the reason as being “conflicting personal beliefs.”

Jack’s second wife is Mary-Ann Tallis. She currently works as a nurse at a local hospital. Their first son, Lee Tallis is ten years old and the other, Marcus Tallis is six years old.

“Call the wife,” James instructed, “we might need her to get information out of him. She could help us.”

The command centre immediately started bustling with activity as everyone tried to get a hold of Jack’s wife. Within twenty minutes she was escorted to into the armored vehicle where Jimmy sat waiting for her.

“Hello Mrs. Tallis,” Jimmy greeted, “I’m Detective James Sullivan.”

“Hello,” she said softly, “I don’t understand. Why am I here?”

“I’m sorry to have to tell you this but your husband raided this small school this morning and is currently holding twelve children and their teacher hostage,” Sullivan was forced to tell her.

“Oh my God!” Mrs. Tallis screamed falling into a fit of tears. Jimmy stood and walked towards her placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“Mrs. Tallis,” Jimmy whispered, “has your husband been acting strange lately?”

Mrs. Tallis thought for a moment then said, “He been a little more reserved than usual.”

“Reserved? How?”Jimmy asked.

“Well he’s been extra quiet and he only speaks when spoken to. When he gets home he just locks himself up in his home office for hours and he, he-,” Mrs. Tallis stuttered looking slightly embarrassed.

“He what?” Jimmy pressed.

Mrs. Tallis looked down at her feet then said, “He doesn’t touch me anymore. I know I’ve gained some weight and I don’t know if he’s repulsed by the sight of me but that’s only because I’m pregnant again. I haven’t told him yet. I wanted to surprise him on his birthday next week.”

“When did this change happen exactly?” Jimmy enquired.

“Umm,” Mrs. Tallis thought hard. Then a flash of realization hit her.
“I caught him watching some stuff last month,” she said in a low voice.

“What do you mean by stuff?” he asked her.

Mrs. Tallis hesitated, “He was watching porn on his office computer.”

“And what did you do when you found out?” Jimmy enquired interested.

“I made fun of him, called him names, laughed to his face. I asked him if he needed that stuff to get it up you know,” Mrs. Tallis replied in a disgusted tone. “Imagine coming home to your husband watching that shit. But that wasn’t the worst part either. I actually thought it was a one time thing. I thought that maybe he came across it by accident but I went through his browsing history. He had been visiting that site everyday for the past two months!”

Jimmy looked at the woman confused. So what if Jack had a slight addiction to porn? It wasn’t like he was cheating on her.

“ I don’t get you,” Jimmy announced still confused.

“You don't get it do you?” she asked then shook her head when Jimmy face scrunched up in confusion. "It was gay porn."