Cake, or Death? And by the way, we’re out of cake.
Mike had the brawn and lack of queasiness you need to torture someone, but he lacked the imagination. George was such a pathetic little runt he couldn’t even give the order to have someone properly tortured. And Nate was too caught up in accountable deniability that he didn’t want to get involved. What it resulted in, then, was a lot of shouted questions and a few punches to the face. Which weren’t comfortable, but they also weren’t anything I couldn’t handle. I’d gotten far worse working undercover in some rough-and-tumble bars. But I tried to look cowed and scared, all while blubbering that I didn’t have whatever it was they were looking for.
Which was true. By now, all the proof should be in the hands of whoever would be able to bring Nate and his cronies down. Hopefully whoever that was was acting on it right this minute, getting all the paperwork in order and assembling a tactical team to secure my release. And hopefully we were someplace that Daniel could get a signal and find me. And then he would show up with the calvary, and the good guys would triumph and we would ride off into the sunset. Or, rather, sunrise, by this time. I’d lost track of how long I’d been here. I had managed to catch some sleep between the bouts of questions, and I was actually feeling a little better. Which I’m pretty sure is not the objective to a session of torture.
“Look, I know you tracked down that damnable evidence. I don’t know how you did, but if you don’t tell me where you’ve hidden it, you won’t be the only one to pay,” George growled as menacingly as he could manage.
“Yeah, that’s right,” Mike chimed in, sounding about six years old. I tried not to laugh. For one, I’m pretty sure it just wasn’t what you did while being tortured, especially when you were trying to convince them that you were being tortured. No reason to make them think they had to ramp it up a notch. For another, grinning would split my lip open again, and that really did hurt.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. “You have access to all of my notes, the file, everything. It’s all in the office, in the computer database. That’s everything I know!” My protests almost sounded sincere.
“I know you’ve been up to more than that. You’ve hardly been in the office, and you haven’t filed a report in ages,” George said.
“Did it occur to you.” I stopped and took a deep breath, and I didn’t have to fake the pain in my voice as I pulled a muscle in my back. I cursed Robin again for the shoveling. “Did it ever occur to you that I’m a little upset about the death of my ex-girlfriend? I still had feelings for her, you know. Maybe I just needed some time to myself.”
George considered that. It was clear that have never crossed his mind, and I wasn’t surprised. I would have been surprised if someone told me George had a shred of humanity and had every shown a genuine human emotion. “Is that all it was?”
“Yes, that’s all it was. Ask Nate if you don’t believe me. I did some free lance computer work. I was thinking of retiring and making that my career.” I wished my arms weren’t tied behind my back. Not because I had any grandiose dreams of jumping up and beating them both to a pulp before they could shoot me, as pleasant as that thought was, but because I desperately wanted to know what time it was. How long was it going to take Daniel to get everything together and come after me? Eventually Nate would grow tired of his underling’s pathetic attempts to get information from me, and then the torture would begin in earnest. Either at Nate’s hands, or by someone else he hired for the job.
They huddled together and talked it over. My guess is their consensus was that they had no idea, and they needed to call Nate. This didn’t make any of us happy. George and Mike were unhappy because it meant they had failed, and they knew they would pay for it. Nate would be unhappy that they had failed and dragged him into it. And I was unhappy because I knew my life was about to get a whole lot worse.
George wandered further away to make the call, and I couldn’t hear what he said. But it was obvious from his hand gestures that things were not going well. I thought about taunting Mike a little, but resisted the urge. No need to inflict more pain on myself before it was necessary. George gestured for Mike to join him, and they left the room. I tried pulling at the ropes that held me in place, but it was no use. Mike was an idiot, but he must also have been a boy scout. I could try to hop the chair across the room, but it would make a lot of noise and ultimately I still wouldn’t be able to get the heavy steel door open. So I did the only thing I could think of. I fell asleep.
I was woken by the sounds of arguing, loud and vicious enough to be heard through the heavy door. I hadn’t been asleep long, which meant Nate had been close. Which meant Daniel might also be close. I held on to that hope as the door opened, and George, Nate, and Mike walked in. There was a moment of relief that no one else, say, a massive thuggish killer-for-hire, had joined them, but that was quickly quashed by the look on Nate’s face.
“Where is it?” he asked.
“Where is what?” I feigned innocence. Really, he could have been talking about anything. I did not know, for instance, where that sock I lost in the laundry last week had gotten off to.
“The records. The proof. It was supposed to be in Edward’s office, but someone stole it. And I think that someone is you.” Nate loomed over me, his face turning red.
“Edward? Edward Gaust? The one Jason was supposedly in cahoots with? No one ever said they knew of proof of that relationship.” Misdirection, that was the key. And it threw Nate for a moment. He didn’t know whether to believe me. I tried another tack. “You think I stole it, tried to cover it up? You think I’m a traitor?”
Oh, now I saw confusion in his face. I’d given him an out, if he believed me. He could say it was all about mistrusting me, and if I was telling the truth, and that paperwork never surfaced, I’d be the one tossed out of the service.
“Did you?” he asked.
“No. If I’d known such paperwork existed, we’d have been down there in a flash, and this case would be closed.” Again, an element of the truth.
“You would say that, though, even if you’d taken it, wouldn’t you? Anything to save your skin.” Check and mate. He’d turned it around on me. He still had a perfect excuse to beat the crap out of me, and if he killed me, no one would be the wiser. At least no one as far as he knew. I wasn’t about to clue him in on the fact that if anything happened to me, Daniel would connect the dots and he’d be up for murder.
“You do have a point there,” I admitted. “But it’s also what I’d say if I were telling the truth.”
We stared each other down for a little while. He had the upper hand in the immediate situation, and he knew it. The only was I was going to get out of it was by talking my way out of it, or if Daniel came in and saved the day. So pretty much Daniel was my only hope.
“Look, we can stare at each other all day long, but I’m tired and hungry. Make up your mind what you’re going to do and get on with it, okay?” It sounded pretty brave to my ears, if a bit stupid.
“Where did you go when you left the office?” he asked abruptly.
“What?” I was completely caught off guard.
“You said you were going to meet a woman.”
“Ah, yes, so I did. She wasn’t home, so I went back to my place. Where your fine lads caught up with me.”
“And yet you left your car there. Why would you have done that?”
Dammit, he had me there. I’d acted like a man being followed because I’d known I was a man being followed. I’d been cocky and stupid, and instead of keeping them busy I’d felt the need to slip their surveillance and somehow ‘win’ the game. Instead, I should have acted completely oblivious. Hindsight, what can you say?
“It… broke down?” I offered.
“Try again.”
“I felt like walking?” I asked.
“Fifteen miles? I don’t think so. Would you like to try again?” He looked amused.
“I was suddenly stuck by the immediate need to become Amish, and it required me to eschew all motorized transportation. So I procured a horse and buggy and drove it home.” Like I said, Daniel really was my only hope.
“Creative, but not very plausible,” he said. “But a very nice try.”
“Thanks, I thought so. I’m not much of one for thinking on my feet, you know.” No reason to hide it now. Brazen and stupid to the end.
“Mike, it’s time to put an end to this,” Nate called out.
“Oh, so you’re too much of a coward to do anything yourself,” I sneered. Probably not my best move.
“You think you’re such a wise guy, eh?” Nate shouted at me. “If you’re no good to us alive, then…”
He pulled out his gun and pointed it at me. It seems he was finally ready to get his hands dirty, after all.
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