But I knew that this was only the beginning. I’d managed to make both Wolfe and Haddock lose face, which was some achievement considering I’d only known them roughly twelve hours, and hugely stupid given their history of violence. The only thing counting in my favour was that the other two people in the room were trying to calm them down.
‘Ty! Stop! Stop!’ Lee was crying in a voice so shrill it could have shattered glass. ‘What are you doing?’
Tommy was also telling them to leave me alone, that what they were doing was madness, but the tone of his voice was hopeful rather than confident, and he wasn’t making any move to intervene.
The kicking continued. Fast and furious, carried out largely in silence.
Then, just as quickly, it stopped, as they finally grew bored.
At least that’s what I thought, but as I lay there unmoving, the pain finally beginning to make its presence felt, I heard Haddock snarl and rumble out a low, angry curse. The next second Lee screamed, and I opened my eyes and saw him standing over me, legs apart, the Remington raised above his head like a club, the butt aimed directly at my face. There was a glint of madness in his eyes as he stood there stock-still, and then, with a roar that temporarily drowned out everything else in the room, he brought it flying down.
Instinctively, I rolled over and it bounced off my shoulder and smashed into the carpet with such force that the stock broke in two, sending a piece flying across the room in a cloud of dust. If it had made contact with my head, as it was meant to do, it would almost certainly have killed me, and I felt a rush of relief even as he lifted what was left of it above his head again, to have another go.
‘I’m going to have you, you dog,’ he snarled, and lunged forward, smashing it down again.
This time I rolled into him and he missed completely.
Seeing my chance, I grabbed one of his legs with both hands, hoping to knock him off balance, but it was like trying to uproot a tree trunk, and he shook me off easily, catching me in the midriff with a frustrated final whack of the battered Remington, the angle too low to do any real harm.
‘All right, Clarence!’ barked Wolfe, still panting after his exertions. ‘Leave it. He’s had enough.’
I rolled over on to my back, every movement seeming stiff and painful. It felt like I might have a couple of cracked ribs. ‘I haven’t done anything,’ I whispered, the very act of speaking hurting me. ‘All I did was ask you what we were doing here.’
‘You pointed a fucking gun at me,’ said Wolfe.
‘And you pointed one at me. So now we’re even.’
‘I don’t see why we don’t just get rid of him,’ muttered Haddock. ‘We don’t need him and we can take his share of the cash.’
‘Hey, boys, come on,’ said Tommy. ‘Let’s be careful what we say here.’
Haddock shook his head. ‘I don’t trust him. All he does is ask questions.’
‘All I want to know is why the hell we kidnapped Kent. I still do.’
‘Because he’s a dirty rapist,’ put in Lee, striding over, her heels clacking on the mouldy floor.
‘Look,’ I said desperately, trying to appeal to anyone who might listen, ‘there’s something wrong with this whole thing.’ I turned towards Wolfe. ‘I mean, if your client’s a relative of one of Kent’s victims, then how did he manage to set all this up so fast? Kent was only arrested yesterday. When did you get hired? Because if it was before then, then this whole vigilante story’s bullshit.’
Lee looked at Wolfe. ‘Is this right?’
‘The client’s a relative,’ Wolfe replied defensively. ‘Maybe he had some inside knowledge. Who else would want a nonce like Kent?’
‘We can’t let this dog leave here,’ said Haddock, prodding me with the barrel of the ruined Remington. ‘He knows too much. And we don’t know nothing about him.’
‘I vouched for him,’ said Tommy, ‘and I still do.’ But there was something half-hearted in his tone, as if he himself wasn’t sure of me any more.
This confirmed for me, if I hadn’t known it already, that I was now arguing for my life. And that if I failed, I was dead. It was as simple as that. ‘Listen,’ I said, clutching my injured ribs, ‘you’ve had your fun with me. You’ve given me a kicking, and you’ve made your point. You can keep the rest of your money. In fact, keep the stuff you gave me if you want,’ I added, remembering that I’d left it in the minibus. ‘I just want out.’
‘He put a gun in your face, Ty man,’ snapped Haddock, interrupting my flow. ‘What the hell will it do for your rep if you let him walk out of here?’
I caught Lee’s eye, remembering how Wolfe had eased up when she’d started shouting, and knowing she was my best chance of getting him to let me go.
She looked away quickly, then turned to Wolfe. ‘Don’t kill him, Ty. It’s not worth it.’
A troubled look crossed Wolfe’s face, and I thought he was wavering, but then he saw the way Haddock was staring at him, and his expression darkened. ‘Shut the fuck up! This bastard wanted to kill me earlier.’
I started to protest, but he gave me a kick to the gut that I wasn’t expecting, and I doubled up, trying to catch my breath.
He pulled the Sig out of his waistband and yanked me to my feet by the shirt collar. ‘Right, let’s get him upstairs.’
Lee put a hand on his shoulder. ‘Don’t kill him, Ty. Please. You’re no killer.’
He brushed it aside, then swung me round and shoved the gun into my side while Haddock twisted my right arm behind my back with such force it made me cry out involuntarily.
I looked towards Tommy, my eyes watering with the pain, but he’d already turned his back to me, as had Lee, and I realized with a grim finality that I was on my own as Wolfe and Haddock marched me over to the staircase and began pushing me towards the darkness above.
Thirty
I craned my neck and asked Wolfe not to kill me, even though I hated myself for begging to the man who’d murdered my brother. But that’s what the instinct for self-preservation does to you. You’ll say most things to stay alive. But he said nothing in return, and Haddock yanked my arm upwards again, and this time I almost passed out with the pain.
Somehow the arm didn’t break as I was manhandled up the last of the stairs and down a dark corridor, the floor creaking precariously beneath my feet.
‘In here,’ said Wolfe, stopping at a door about halfway along. ‘It’s got a bolt.’ He pulled it open and together they threw me inside.
I stumbled forward in the darkness, realizing I was in some sort of cramped, windowless store cupboard, then deliberately fell to the floor, wanting to show them I was being as passive and unthreatening as possible. Every part of my body ached, my ribs were killing me, and the back of my head and my nose were still bleeding from where I’d been hit earlier with the two different guns. In short, I was a mess. Probably the most battered I’d ever been in my life.
The two of them stood in the doorway, silhouettes in the gloom, looking down at me. Then the door shut and I heard a bolt being pulled across, followed by hushed words from out in the corridor.
‘He’s got to go, Ty,’ I heard Haddock say in a whisper that was so loud it had to be deliberate. ‘But my gun’s fucked. You’re going to need to do him.’
‘I need something to muffle the sound,’ was Wolfe’s response, quieter but still audible.
I heard footsteps moving away from the door. Then silence.
It’s difficult to describe what I was feeling at that point. It wasn’t fear exactly. I was too bruised and exhausted for that. It was closer to resignation. A knowledge that I’d tried to go it alone, for the best of reasons, but that ultimately my plan had been found wanting, and I’d failed.