places: in a bad way

Without taking his eyes off of me, the Russian ordered the guy with the gun to take me down downstairs.

“Where boss?” asked the man with the tommy.

“Take him to the basement, where we can talk.”

I felt a lump rise in my throat as we all walked down the stairs. My heart raced and my hands were noticeably shaking.  Downstairs we passed the kitchen and down a short hallway that lead to the basement door.  I felt the tip of the barrel brush against my back several times on the way down the creaky wooden steps.

No one talked on the way.  All that was lacking was a priest to accompany us.  We all knew what was going to happen next.

In the basement a string was pulled and a light bulb swung from the ceiling.  It was a small basement, but big enough to do what they had in mind.  They didn’t pull the trigger because it was now my turn to talk.

“Take off his coat and put him in the chair.” ordered the Russian.

The gunman grabbed my trench-coat by the back of the lapel.  He yanked it downward and I removed it.

The Russian pointed down toward my feet.  “Pick it up and hand it to me.”

I complied.

“Should I tie him down boss?”

“No.” the Russian said, “I need his hands free.  He’s not going anywhere.”

I looked around.  The shadows in the room were slowing. The light bulb was swinging as if it were a hanged man on a noose. The gunman was behind me.  He put the muzzle of the thompson to the back of my head for a few seconds, to make me sure of his presence directly behind me.  The Russian took his attention from me as he carefully rummaged through the pockets of my coat.

“Check him out Sam.”

“Sure thing boss.”

Sam did his job while still keeping his gun pressed against me.

The Russian removed Clayton’s .45 from one of my coat pockets.  Sam removed my billfold and inn keys.

“This is Clayton’s gun.” he said as he handled it.

Sam resumed his position behind me while the Russian took a chair and sat in front of me.

“This can be quick and painless.  It’s all up to you.”

“You sound like you’ve watched too many bad movies.”

He smiled.

“Skip the quick and painless.” as he pulled out the luger from his pocket and struck me across the face with the butt of it.

It hurt like hell.  I heard the crack of teeth and my left ear was left ringing.  I tasted blood.

I would have hit back, but I felt the tommy muzzle again at the back of my head.

The Russian continued.  “Here’s what I want to know.  I want to know what you have done with Clayton.  Understand this, you live if he lives.”

“Surely you don’t expect me to believe that?”

“I also want to know what you  were doing in his office.”

“Clayton is tied up at the moment, I’ll tell you where he is when you let me walk.”

He struck me again.  Just as hard.  My head was pounding.

“You’ll tell me where you have him now.” he said quietly.

My mouth had become filled with the steely taste of blood.  I coughed it out when I tried to spit it on him.  He stepped back in plenty of time to miss my defiant gesture.  He had done this before.  I could tell he was enjoying this moment of playing the cat with an injured mouse in his paws. 

I thought he was just a gunman, but after hearing what Clayton told me earlier, I figure the Russian’s presence was not as Clayton’s heavy.  More than likely, the Russian was there for assurance that Clayton was keeping up with his end of their bargan.  This is just a guess.  It came to my mind that the Russian knows more about what’s happening behind the curtain than Clayton.  Maybe it matters.  Even if it does matter, I am in a bad place.

I got beat.  I got beat so bad that I don’t know how long I’d been down there.  I held my tongue.  There’s no good in telling him that I’d killed Clayton.

It got to where I only saw shadows of them.  I heard the thuds and felt the blows.  They came like waves.  The light-bulb had been bumped again and the shadows danced with the beating fists.  I got beat until I was unconscious.  I guess he stopped because he grew tired of hitting me.

I came to after a pail of water was splashed into my face.  I had a hard time seeing.  One eye had apparently swollen shut.  I hurt all over.

“Tell me why you came back here.”

I leaned forward and coughed up water and blood.

“I came because Clayton wouldn’t tell me anything.  I came back because I needed to know why you people tried to kill me.”

“I guess then you know that your friend Rod Larkin wasn’t with us after all.”

“I don’t know anything. I just know that I was doing my job and the next thing I knew, your guys were trying to kill me.  I don’t know who Rod worked for and why you had him killed.”

“Self defense I’m sure Mr. Hale.  You arrived with him.  Mr. Larkin for some reason started killing those at the address he was to deliver his package.  It’s unfortunate that you drove him there.”

“I drove him there because it was MY JOB!  I need to know what’s going on.”

“What’s going on is that we’ve attained some questionable employees and you can no longer be trusted...especially now.”

“Clayton disappeared, so we went to your drop-off.  Everyone was dead there.  Both you and Rod were missing.  You said that Rod is dead, where is his body?”

“I heard shooting and Rod came out the front door.  Others came from around the building shooting at both of us.  Rod killed them both, but he took some hits.  I helped him into the car and drove away. I drove until I felt it was safe to pull over.  I didn’t see anyone tailing me.  When I pulled over to check on him, he was dead.  That’s the story.”

“Why did you kidnap Clayton?” asked the Russian.  “Why did you feel it necessary to turn on your employer.”

“Because the address is where Clayton sent us.  This was one of the regular drop-offs.  I needed to find out why I was targeted.”

“Idiot.  You were in no danger from us. You should have come to us directly.  Remember it was Clayton that armed you.  He didn’t want to see any harm come to you.  Why would you suspect him first?  You should have shown more allegiance to your employer.

“There was no one else to suspect but Clayton. He sent us to our death.”

“He had no intention.  In this business, things can go wrong.  Mr. Larkin is a man that had earned our trust and became greedy.  He apparently started shooting up at the drop-off to steal from us. He probably would have killed you if he hadn’t been shot himself.”

It’s apparent that the Russian could lie as good as I could.

“Tell us where you’ve taken Clayton.”

“I have nothing else to tell you.”

The Russian’s smile disappeared.  His face turned stoic. He held his luger inches from me.

“If that is so?”

I looked up into the barrel.  My head was throbbing.

He moved the gun closer, letting the metal rest between my eyebrows.  Sam stepped from behind me to clear himself from the bullet’s projection.

Blurred vision, I closed my eyes.  Incoming...this is it.

“Sam, the Russian spoke, “I have an idea.  Go get that fan upstairs.”