After driving aimlessly for twenty minutes, making a succession of unnecessary lefts and rights, bogus three-point turns, Jack was fairly lost. He figured if he was confused, his passengers had to be completely disoriented.
He found Ditmars Boulevard again, reoriented himself, then meandered back to the Kentons’ house. When he pulled into the driveway, Lyle and Charlie hurried out onto the front lawn. Jack jumped out and motioned them to be quiet. He led them to the car and pointed through the rear window. The brothers started when they saw the two bound forms on the back seat and turned to him with wide eyes. Jack motioned them to open the garage door.
When the car had been moved inside and the door closed behind it, Jack motioned them into the house.
“They’re the ones?” Lyle said, his voice barely above a whisper even though the car was far out of earshot.
Jack nodded.
“The ones who tried to run me down?”
“The same.”
“But how did they wind up … ?”
“Part of the service.”
“Who are they?”
“We’ll find that out in a couple of minutes. By the way, I hope I’m hired. Otherwise I’ll have to throw them back.”
“Don’t worry,” Lyle said. “You’re hired. You’re so very hired. Do we sign a contract or something?”
“Yeah,” Jack said, and stuck out his hand. “Here it is.”
Lyle shook it, then Charlie.
“That’s it?” Lyle said.
“That’s it.”
“Ay, yo, you kidnapped them!” Charlie said.
“Technically, yes. Does that bother you?”
“No, but the cops, the FBI—”
“Won’t ever hear about this. Those people never saw me, and they don’t know their car is parked in your garage.” Jack rubbed his hands together. Time to learn a little about the Kenton brothers. “So, the question now is, what do you want to do to them? We can break their arms, break their legs, break their heads …”
He watched their expressions, was glad for the revulsion reflected there.
“Oh, man,” Lyle said. “This afternoon I wanted blood. I wanted to kill them. Now …”
“Yeah,” Jack said. “They are kind of pathetic looking. Personally I prefer messing with heads to breaking them.”
“Mess with their heads,” Charlie said, looking relieved. “Yeah, I’m down with that. Sound like the way to go.”
Lyle nodded. “Fine with me. How?”
“First off, some rules. Only I speak in their presence, and I’ll sound like Colonel Klink. Not a word out of you two because they might know your voices. We don’t want them connecting you with this, right?”
They both nodded.
“Good. That settled, the first thing we’ll do is take them out of the car, lay them on the floor, strip search them—”
“Yo. Rewind there. Strip ’em?”
“Right. I think a little humiliation will be good for the souls of a couple of attempted murderers, don’t you? Plus, it’ll keep them cowed; nothing makes you feel more vulnerable and helpless than being without your clothes. On top of all that, it’ll scare the hell out of them, wondering if we’ve got some twisted sexual plans for them.”
“But we don’t, right?” Charlie said with a pleading look.
“You kidding?” Jack said. “You got a look at them. Having them lying around naked will be lots tougher on us than them.”
“And after that?” Lyle said.
“We comb through their clothes, their wallets and pocketbooks, the glove compartment, learn everything we can about them, then decide how you guys get even.”
Jack noticed their reluctant expressions. Like true scam artists, they didn’t like getting physical.
“If it makes you too uncomfortable, I can do it alone. But things’ll move much faster if I have some help.”
Lyle glanced at Charlie, then sighed. “Lead the way.”