“Be careful mister, you got witnesses in this room.”
“You talking about my ladies, man? They know what they’re seeing, don’t you, gals?”
All for Tony’s sake, who felt irrationally ashamed, wondering what Bobby Andes hoped to gain by this scary talk. Wondering how Bobby knew it wouldn’t blow his case against Ray Marcus in any court of law.
Lou with his wrists handcuffed behind him was twisting his shoulders back and forth. “Feeling uncomfortable, son?” Bobby said. He went over, unlocked him, patted him on the shoulder, fatherly. Now both men had their hands free, with Bobby grinning at them through his sickness.
He went back to his chair. Conversational, to Tony: “I’ve been making a study of torture.”
Tony heard Ingrid breathing.
“These guys are good at it, I hear,” Bobby said. “But they’re amateurs. I’ve been studying legal torture. What governments use, which is more efficient than private torture, like what guys like these here perform on women and children.”
“You’ll pay,” Ray murmured.
The possibility hit Tony, if Bobby had actually given up on a legal solution, if he really was intending to execute his own remedies. Which made Tony wonder what to do if that were the case. If he should intervene—if he had ever intervened in anything in his whole life. To intervene he would have to know what he was trying to stop. Tough talk, aggressive police work? Bluster, intimidation, psychological tactics. What would he propose instead?
“In government torture,” Bobby said, “there’s supposed to be a purpose. The purpose is to get a confession. That’s what they have to say, the ostensible purpose. Do you guys know what ostensible means? The real purpose is different. The real purpose is to make them wish they was dead.”
The trouble with intervening was that Bobby was riding a plan like a horse, and no cautious question about legality or charity could stop him now.
“Nobody gives a shit about confession. The great thing about torture, it gives you a maximum awareness of your natural instinctive death wish. How’s that for a definition, Tony?”
So Tony said, “Bobby.”
“What?”
Tony didn’t know. If Bobby was merely talking, Tony would feel like a jackass.
“What should we do with them, Tony?”
“I don’t know.”
Bobby Andes was thinking it over. He looked at his gun, weighed it, picked it up and aimed it experimentally at Ray’s head. Ray ducked, then sat straight. Bobby Andes cocked and uncocked it, aimed again, put it down. He looked a long time at Ray and Lou and Lou and Ray and then got up. He winked at Ray and handed his gun to Ingrid. “Here, hold this.” She handed it back and went into the kitchen alcove. He handed it to Susan, who held it in her fingertips with astonishment. He went to the back and opened the closet door and squatted down, looking for something on the floor.
Ray leaned back on the cot with his hands behind his head while Lou sat on the edge, and Tony with his gun in the straight chair watched. Ray snickered. “You scared, Lou?” he said. He tickled Lou in the ribs. “Cut the fuck that out,” Lou said.
“He ain’t nice, that man of yours. He’s gonna get in big trouble when he grows up,” Ray said. He watched Bobby’s back as he put his old fishing tackle box on the table in the alcove.
In the other wicker chair the girl named Susan, who had no last name, handling Bobby’s gun as if it were a turd, was trying to keep its cold metal from touching her bare white thighs. In the alcove Ingrid was banging around. “I didn’t know I was going to guard a prisoner,” Susan said.
They watched Bobby take something out of the tackle box and hold it up, examining it. He got up and took a rusty sickle out of the closet, felt the edge, put it back and brought what looked like an old automobile battery back to the table. Seated with his back turned, he held up a long piece of wire. He cut something with his knife, then held up the wire to make a loop, then leaned over and scraped something metallic with his pocket knife. He had fishhooks and pieces of wire scattered around him, and Tony could not see what he was doing.
Ingrid was sloshing water in the sink. They heard the tin dishes bang. Susan squeaked. The gun had slid onto her thighs. “I wonder if I could use this thing if I had to,” she said.
Ray sat up.
“It’s a pretty dangerous weapon,” he said. “You gotta be careful how you handle something like that.”
Ray was thinking about something, Tony could see that. He was looking at Lou trying to communicate, but Lou sitting there gloomy didn’t notice. Bobby glanced around, then back to his work. Bent over the table he made a grinding sound.
“Can I go to the potty?” Ray said.
“You just went.”
Ray got up. “Watch it,” Tony said.
“It’s okay, okay, just stretching my legs.” He went to look at the magazine pictures tacked on the wall.
“Sit down,” Tony said.
“Aw jeez, I need to exercise.”
“Sit down.”
“Yes boss.” He sat down.
At the table in the alcove Bobby turned around and looked at them. He had a knife and a pair of wires in his hand. He turned back to his work.
“Better do what the man says,” Bobby said, his back turned.
Ray said, “Did you ever shoot one of them things?”
Tony did not want to answer.
“I bet you never did.” He was talking quietly, but not too quietly for Bobby to hear.
“Hey Tony. If you shot me what excuse would you use?”
“That’s my problem, not yours.”
“This ain’t the law, this is kidnapping. If you shoot me that ain’t a police action, that’s murder.”
Tony chilled, what he had hoped would not occur to Ray. Which would take the gun away from him. He wished Bobby would finish what he was doing.
“Where do you teach, professor?” Ray said. He got up again. “Let’s go, Lou.”
“What?” Lou said.
There was Ray, moving around to the side, along the wall toward the door, “Let’s go, move it!”
Lou looked at Ray, blankly.
“Sit down,” Tony said. “Bobby!”
“Come on you jackass, it’s time to go,” Ray said.
Tony jumped up. He tried to cock the gun and block Ray from the door. In the alcove he saw Bobby Andes stand up in the shadow. “Shoot him, Tony,” Bobby Andes said.
“Let’s go, let’s go.”
“You crazy, man? That’s a gun he’s got.”
“Move man, move.”
Standing in front of the door, Tony got the gun up and pointed it. “Stop. Halt!” he said, while Ray came right at him, and he ducked aside because he was afraid Ray would grab the gun out of his hands. When Lou saw that he jumped up too, and Susan screamed.
The door caught Ray, who fumbled with the catch and broke out. Now Bobby moved, Tony saw him rush forward, grab Susan’s hand, heard him say, “Gimme that,” saw the inner door slam into Lou’s face, heard Ray’s feet running off the screened porch, saw Lou push the door out of his way and run, and Bobby rushing by Tony, shoving him aside and shouting, “Now I got you, bastards.” Then a great explosion just outside the door threw all his perceptions into chaos.