“Are you saying Toby killed your parents?” Michael stopped moving when Erin aimed the gun at him.
“Stop! Don’t come any closer!” Erin continued to hold on tight to Kelly with the gun. “If only he stuck to what he was supposed to do, none of this would’ve happened. Toby left the seminary for my mother. She left my dad for him and moved here. She didn’t even think about me or our family. All she cared about was a new life away from us. It broke my dad’s heart. He stopped caring for anything after that.”
“Is your father still alive?” Phyllis asked hesitantly.
“He is. But he might as well not be with all the drinking he does.”
Oscar was the next one with the question. “Does your mom know you’re here in Scranton?”
Erin scoffed, “I haven’t seen that woman since she left.” Then a hard smile. “She tried to get in touch with me a couple of years ago, some bullshit thing like wanting to reconnect. But I know what she was trying to do. She just wanted to ease her guilt.”
A thought nagged Pam. “If you met Toby a long time ago, when he was still in the seminary, how come he didn’t recognize you?”
“I was still a young girl. He wouldn’t have found out about me if he hadn’t gone through my file for my performance review.”
Meredith gasped, “That’s right! I remember. Your dad’s name--I recognized it in your file. Toby told me a little about his ex-wife and the husband that she dumped when she met him. That was why you conked me over the head?”
“For a drunk, Meredith, you were too nosy. I suspected you might know something when I heard you were close to Toby. But I didn’t know for sure until I saw you snooping around the files on his desk.”
“Erin, think about this,” Dwight reasoned, “What makes you think you can get away now? There are a lot of witnesses here and only one of you.”
Erin’s cold smirk transformed her face in an instant, from an innocent young woman to the killer she was. “You’re right, Dwight. That’s why I don’t plan to let Kelly go until I’m a safe distance away from Scranton.”
Andy, up until this moment, was shocked speechless. But now, hearing Erin confess to the crimes and her lack of remorse, he snapped. “Kelly didn’t do anything to you! Why are you treating her like this? We can work with you to figure something out without hurting Kelly.”
“No. The Scranton Police Department doesn’t negotiate with murderers.” Dwight pointed out.
“Not now, Dwight.” Jim said softly with a meaningful look, telling Dwight that now’s not the time to cite police procedures.
Michael spoke up. “Okay, how about if you just let Kelly go, Erin, and we’ll let you walk out of here. None of us will stop you or follow you.”
“Michael…” Dwight protested.
“I don’t believe any of you.” Erin said, looking around the office.
Michael stepped forward. “It’s true. We don’t want anyone else hurt. We won’t call the police or anything.”
“But you’ll tell them what I did?” Erin asked.
“We’ll probably be forced to. But by the time the police get here, you’ll be long gone.” Jim reasoned.
Oscar chimed in. “Think about it. This is probably your best chance of running away. Can you really see Kelly being a low maintenance hostage?”
Seeing Erin waver, Pam pressed. “Erin, without Kelly, it will probably be easier for you to make your getaway.”
Looking around, Erin saw the earnest expressions on their faces. She inched around the desks and the people, all the while pulling Kelly along, still pointing the gun at Kelly’s head.
“I will let her go when I’m in my car. No one follows me or else I won’t be responsible for what happens to Kelly.”
Everyone nodded and Michael said, “You have our word.”
And when it seemed like the whole ordeal would end without more bloodshed, all hell broke loose. In the distance was the unmistakable sound of police sirens.
Erin’s eyes went wide and her expression turned from disbelief to anger at the thought that one of them didn’t keep their word and called the police.
The gun shook slightly in Erin’s hand.
Thinking quick, Jim said, “Erin, you can still leave now.”
Shaking her head, Erin continued to look at them angrily, “Don’t you see? It’s just not meant to work out like that. There can’t be any witnesses.”
Then she swept the gun from right to left, as if deciding who to shoot first.
From out of nowhere, Andy threw a ream of paper at Erin, causing her to raise her arm to block the ream. Seeing an opportunity, both Jim and Dwight ran at her, knocking the gun out of her hand. Pam saw the gun and immediately grabbed it so it was out of Erin’s reach while Jim and Dwight held Erin down.
Andy quickly ran over to Kelly. “Are you okay?”
She just nodded, still shaky from the aftermath of having a gun pointed at her head.
Michael yelled out to Oscar and Ryan, “One of you grab the plastic thingy to tie her hands.”
Ryan brought the hand tie over to Dwight so he could do it. All the while, Erin was screaming and cursing them.
Within minutes, the office of Dunder Mifflin was swarmed with cops, followed by Stanley, Angela, Creed and Kevin.
