“Hey!” someone was saying. “Hey, wake up.” A foot nudged his leg. “Wake up, Fatso.”
Richie forced his eyes open. The room did a half spin, then settled, then spun again. His head felt like it had exploded and then been put back together by someone who’d never seen a human skull before.
He groaned and tried to raise his right hand to his aching head but it wouldn’t move. He looked and saw that it was wired to an arm of his chair. So was his left.
And then he saw that his chair had been wheeled away from the desk.
“Whuh…?”
Jack glanced at him. “Oh, good. You’re awake. About time.”
It looked like he’d divvied up the prints into a couple of piles. The negative strips lay tangled among them.
“What’re you doing?”
“Sorting.”
He stepped over to Richie’s chair and stood staring down at him. The room spun again as Richie looked up. He looked away real quick when he saw what was in the guy’s eyes.
“What’re you gonna do?”
“If I had the time and inclination, I’d like to do to you what you did to Sister Maggie. Remember her? You threatened to ruin her life, and you did.”
So here it was, right out in the open.
“You’re the one she hired to mess up my computer, right?”
The guy nodded. “And you’re the one who messed up Maggie.”
“You gotta lemme explain. It’s not how you think. I didn’t—”
A black-gloved hand backhanded him across the face. “Don’t waste my time.”
Richie spat blood. “Okay, okay.”
“How’d you find out?”
“About what?”
“About Maggie hiring me.”
“Why do you care?” Another backhand across the face made Richie’s head spin. “All right, all right. It was her boyfriend, Metcalf. He cracked wise about me being outfoxed by a nun. That’s when I knew.”
The guy sighed and said something under his breath that sounded like “Nobody listens.” But he looked like he was relieved or something. Maybe this was Richie’s chance.
“So it’s not all my fault. It’s Metcalf’s too. I shouldn’t take all—” He cringed as he saw that gloved hand wind up for another shot. “Don’t, please! Just answer one question, will you?”
“What?”
“You her brother or something?”
Please say no, he thought. Please say no.
The guy shook his head. “Never met her before she hired me.”
Relief flooded him. Maybe he could reason with him, operative to operative.
“Then why?”
“Why what?”
“Why come back? You got hired, you did the job—did it real good, I gotta tell you—and that’s it. You walk away. It’s over. Done. End of story. No reason to come back into the picture.”
The guy stared at him like he was looking down at a splash of fresh vomit. After too long a time he took a breath and pointed to Richie’s wired wrists.
“I wanted to use duct on you like you did on Maggie, but I couldn’t risk carrying a roll in case you searched my bag again. Wire takes up much less space.” He held up a silvery roll of duct tape. “But look what I came across in one of your drawers.”
With a single swift move he ripped off a piece and slapped it across Richie’s mouth.
Panic ripped through him. He tried to kick out with his feet but his ankles were wired down as well. When he saw the guy pick up the pistol from the desk Richie began to scream, but nothing got through the tape and the noise coming through his nose sounded like baby pig squeals.
“Let me introduce you to Mr. Beretta.” He put the shiny barrel of the pistol against Richie’s palm. “Shake hands with him. You’re about to interface.”
Richie wrapped his fingers around the barrel. No way he could get it away, but if he could just keep a grip on it—
The guy twisted it free like he was taking a rattle from a baby. Then he stuck it in Richie’s other hand. “Feel that? Like it? You and Mr. Beretta are going to get real friendly.”
Richie screamed again as the guy picked up a beige cushion. Where’d that come from? Looked like one from the couch downstairs. What was he gonna—
Oh no! The cushion pressed against Richie’s stomach as the guy buried the muzzle in the fabric.
NO!
A slightly muffled BLAM! and then searing pain shot through his gut. He screamed against the tape and writhed in agony. He’d never imagined anything could hurt like this. Never. Vomit rose in his throat but he swallowed it back. If he puked he’d suffocate, though maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. At least it would stop the pain.
“I hear nothing hurts worse than being gut shot,” the guy said in a cold, dead voice. “I hope I heard right.”
Richie watched through eyes blurred with pain and tears as the guy turned back to the desk and began shoving all the photos into an envelope. The negatives as well.
The room got gray around the edges and he thought he was going to pass out—if only he would!—but then things came back into focus.
Richie began to sob from an excruciating spasm, the noise snuffling in and out through his nose. Felt like someone had a pitchfork in his gut and was twisting, twisting…
And now the guy was stuffing everything into his shoulder bag.
Richie wailed into the gag. He wasn’t going to leave him like this! He couldn’t!
Then the guy picked up the cushion and the gun again and stepped up in front of Richie.
“You don’t deserve this,” he said in that dead voice as he placed the cushion over Richie’s chest.
What? No! NO!