I looked up at Reid who was standing in front of me, seemingly totally unperturbed.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I yelled at him, hauling at my bonds in the hope that I could free myself. All I achieved was more pain from grazing my wrists and ankles.
Reid walked over to the table, stubbed out his cigarette and set down his glass.
He took off his jacket and hung it carefully on the back of another chair and came over to stand in front of me – still with that evil grin on his face.
“Mr Bruce,” he said “I’ve just given you a taste of what might happen to you if you do not cooperate with me. You have stuck your nose into affairs that should not have concerned you and you are now going to suffer the consequences. I warn you now. You are completely within my power and I can do exactly what I want to you. I admit that I enjoy inflicting pain. Always have. I don’t know why but that’s the way it is and you, unfortunately, find yourself in a situation where I can enjoy myself to the full.”
He walked round the chair and, without warning, lashed out at the side of my face. This time the pain was momentary but the shock effect was considerable. The force was such that the chair very nearly toppled over.
“What is it that you want?” I gasped. “I need information from you,” he replied. “But not too quickly, otherwise I won’t have the opportunity to have my fun.”
The matter-of-fact manner that he said this filled me with dread. The burn was stinging and throbbing like crazy. My head was still ringing from the blow. I was horrified by what he might think of next. And I was right to be.
He continued talking as he prepared for his next trick. I had great difficulty in concentrating on what he was saying while I watched him.
“I would like to know why it was that you started looking into the affairs of AIM.”
He was emptying things out of a large cardboard box that was lying on the floor over by the wall.
“I would like to know what you know about any connection between AIM and a certain Mr Bill Dewar.”
The first thing he took out was a poker which he laid on the floor in front of me. He then took out a blowtorch which had a small canister of gas attached to it. This he also put down on the floor beside the poker.
“I would like to know why you decided to visit AIM the other day and what you discussed.”
He then took out an extension electric cable and an iron which he proceeded to connect up to the socket in the wall. He placed the iron on the table. He turned to me.
“In short, I wish to know everything that you know, and I wish to be utterly convinced that everything you tell me will be the truth.”
He picked up the blowtorch and lit it with his lighter. When the flame was suitably strong he picked up the poker and applied it to it.
“Are you willing to talk?” “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said desperately, hoping that there was a degree of bluff in his pantomime. “I’m prepared to discuss anything with you if you will untie me and let me up from this chair.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” he replied. “Now let’s see if this is hot enough yet.”
He removed the end of the poker from the flame and without any reticence whatsoever walked over to me and lowered it onto my thigh.
“Shit!” I cried out and my whole body convulsed. He took it off after only two seconds but that was enough to have burned a hole right through my trousers and leave a searing gash on my skin. It was agony. The smile turned into a leer.
“Now you’ve seen what the poker can do. We’ll soon be passing on to the iron when it’s suitably heated up.”
He walked over to it and picked it up and turned the surface up towards him. He spat on it. The spittle sizzled and evaporated in seconds. “Not quite hot enough yet.”
I was in one hell of a mess. The two goons in the corner were going to do nothing. I was at the mercy of a madman who should be locked up and there was nothing I could do about it.
“Look, if you let me loose I’ll tell you everything I know.”
“Or guess?” “Or have guessed,” I confirmed. “Just let me up and put those damned things away.”
He stepped forwards and slapped me again. Once more it wasn’t the pain but the shock that created the effect.
“Bruce, I’m not mucking about here. I want everything you know or have guessed about AIM and if I don’t get it fast I’m going to really go to town on you. In fact, I don’t honestly think you’ll survive it.”
He was starting to perspire. Beads of sweat had started to appear on his forehead. His bloodshot eyes were lit up with eager anticipation of the plans he had for me. And I could do nothing.
He picked up the poker again. “No,” I screamed. He ignored me and applied it for even longer to my other thigh. The pain was viciously intense. You couldn’t call it unbearable because I bore it. I had no choice. But it seemed to notch up every nerve ending in my body. I screamed and retched. I couldn’t stop myself.
Coupled to the pain this time was the smell of burning flesh. My own flesh. There was a horrific wound, black and bleeding, across the middle of my thigh, about a foot long.
When I had recovered some sanity I gazed at him, gasping for breath.
“Look, I dug into AIM’s affairs because a suspicious investor asked me to. That’s all. I guessed Dewar was blackmailing Purdy but I couldn’t care less about that. That wasn’t my business. Anyway, I read he had got himself killed up in the mountains, so I don’t see what difference it makes now. And I visited AIM the other day simply to explain to them what I knew about Purdy’s fraud. I don’t know anything else and that’s the truth.”
“Let’s assume that is the truth and that is all you know,” said Reid, walking over to the iron and picking it up. “You still haven’t told me what you might have guessed or suspected. That is very important to me.”
He walked over towards me with the iron in his hand. He held it about six inches from my face. I could feel the intense heat emanating from it. Suddenly he thrust it against my arm. I wrenched myself away from it so hard that the chair fell over. With the pain and the shock I had blacked out for a few seconds. Reid dropped the iron and hauled me back up into a sitting position and left me there like a rag doll. He strolled over to the table to pour himself another glass of whisky. He took a satisfying sip and looked over at me and let out a sigh.
It was then that I heard the noise of a car on the gravel outside and steps coming into the house. The door opened and someone entered. The footsteps came over towards my chair. I couldn’t turn round to see who it was but I was pretty sure I knew.
“OK , Gavin, that’s enough for the moment,” said a voice with its distinctive accent and a familiar figure materialised in front of me.
Chapter 25
The newcomer flashed a questioning look at Reid.
“What does he know?” he asked. “He’s only admitted to what is obvious but he hasn’t yet confessed to what he might have guessed. Neither has he told us if he has talked to anyone else.”
“That’s what’s critical. Even if he has guessed we can simply get rid of him and nobody will be any the wiser. If he has voiced his suspicions to anyone else we have a real problem on our hands.”
I looked up and tried to focus on the face of the man standing in front of me – the man I had last seen on the sixteenth tee of the golf course.
He was standing in front of me glowering. He lent forward, grabbed a handful of my hair and shook my head.
“Are you listening to me, Bob? Can you hear me?” There was controlled anger in his voice. I knew this man and I knew that it wouldn’t take much for him to lose that control. And he had his insane lieutenant to carry out whatever he was asked to do. I shuddered.