Odd Couple 29

I watch as you slowly reach over and remove the gag.

“Hey, bitch, what….”.….it’s as far as he gets, my hands tighten on his shoulder, just give me the nod, Ava.

“Surely there’s no need to be rude. This will be over quickly, and rude behaviour tends to stay with you, so lets just be pleasant, yes?”

As you’re saying this, you neatly fold up the tatty rags, they look perfect and ordered now. You lay your little straight razor on top, giving it a tap with your hand at the “yes”, which clearly draws attention to it.

Your voice is still and cold and polite, with the promise of a terrible, unfeeling efficiency. He goes silent.

“Let’s have a conversation, shall we? A conversation about why I suddenly feel that you would wish us ill, Mr……?”

A question, but not a question. I guess I do the same thing, but where I intimidate physically, with you it’s something far worse somehow.

“I ain’t tellin you nothin, you..”

Your head just tilts to the side, a look like sorrow. It’s not, it never once touches your eyes. Faster than I would have imagined, you’ve flicked the razor out, and used it to cut open his pocket, taking out his wallet, and replacing the razor on top of the pile. Slowly, you open it up, smiling a sunny smile, that, again, never touches your eyes.

“Well, Mr Joshua Fenton, may I call you Joshua? Let me tell you something that I have noticed. Everybody talks. Oh, they don’t want to, and they all start out like you, all angry, insisting they’ll never say a thing. But every single one of them does. Given enough time, I could make anyone talk.”

He starts to fidget in the chair, uneasy. The stink of fear begins to ooze out of him, which, unfortunately for him, makes him angrier. I’m watching your eyes the whole time, trying to follow your lead on this.

“Fuck you, who do you thin…..”

Your eyes flicker to me, a nod. I hit him hard enough to make him piss blood for a week.

“This is really unfortunate, Joshua, that we should have to be so uncivilized, wouldn’t you agree?”

Nothing.

“Now, I believe, Joshua, that I don’t have the time required to simply make you talk. I believe that you have arranged for something unpleasant to happen to my gentleman friend and I, in the short hours before we have refueled.”

The razor is back in your hands, open, the small pile of towels on your knee.

“This time constraint forces me to use,…unsavoury methods…., to break you quickly. This is an ugly thing, and I’m sure that things would just be that much more pleasant if you told me what it is that you have planned for us?”

A quick look to me. “Trust me, I’d tell her what she wants to know. You sure don’t want her to ask hard.” You were right, I am playing good cop, a damned strange place to be in.

The razor flicks out again, releasing the strapping tape on his right arm. You have his hand, and I can see him struggling to pull it back, with no success.

“Replace the rag, please”

I put the filthy rag back in his mouth, holding my hand over it. The razor flicks out again, and he screams, biting down on the rag, as you cut his right pinky finger off. You take a rag from the pile, and, almost gently, press it to the wound, holding it for him, and helping him press it to his thigh.

“I’m sorry Joshua. That was awful.It can all end now. You’ve proven that it’s not easy to make you talk. You now have a terrible wound to show anyone who questions your resolve. It’s so easy to just say that you had no choice. People will understand, Joshua. Just let us know, it’s very easy. You’ll find that once you start to talk, it’s not difficult at all.”

“t t they’ll kill me, I’m not saying anything, you can’t make me talk….”

He starts to jibber, and stops, suddenly, caught in the glare of your eyes. That whirling madness that was in your eyes, as you stood over McDermott, is back. Made worse by the fact that you seem perfectly calm.

“I’m sorry, Joshua, I know this is unpleasant, but I’d like you to remember, when this is all done, that I gave you an out. I’m really, really, sorry for the way this has all turned out for you.”

You begin to tap the razor on the chair seat, right in front of him. He wets himself. You hand him another towel.

It’s been less that ten minutes. He tells you everything.

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