The door opened and I jumped to my feet as Hawk frowned down at me.
“Hawk, I thought we were in agreement when I came in here.”
He folded his big arms across his chest again. “We were in agreement until I realized you weren’t getting anywhere.”
I huffed. “Are you fucking kidding me? I’ve been in here like five minutes. I didn’t even get a chance to pull out the torture devices and parade them along the table. I didn’t get to drag Simon in here to look menacing. I didn’t even get to insinuate I would tear off a few fingernails. It’s always the most fun part.”
The target glanced between us, eyes bouncing back and forth like a ping pong ball. He wasn’t sure what we were thinking or if I was joking. I smiled down at him, white teeth out, knowing it made me look a little deranged. All for his benefit. I hoped to keep him on edge and maybe he would reveal more than he already had to me. I needed every bit of information I could peel from his unshowered body.
Hawk dragged a black duffel from under the table and tossed it on top. It landed with a heavy thunk as things inside settled. They were mostly for show. Once we started pulling tools from the bag people usually began talking.
I sidled up beside him and watched as he pulled out a few pairs of pliers and lined them up neatly on the table. My body blocked the sight from my prisoner.
I leaned in and whispered fiercely. “This is my target and my job. You don’t get to come in here and take over in the middle. You’ll destroy the rapport I’ve started to build.”
“You mean the disgust. You flipped from bitch mode to candy sweet with not even a glimpse of a sober matron in between. It’s like you’ve never done a target interrogation before. I know damn well you were taught better than that. I also know you are aware you shouldn’t be working a case where you are emotionally involved. And it’s glaringly obvious you are emotionally involved in whatever the fuck all this is.”
I slumped and put my hand on the table. “Let me at least make the transition so I can still try to get something from him. If we go straight to the fear tactics, it’s as bad as actually using them. The information always gets blurred with whatever the target thinks the interrogator wants to hear.”
About fifty percent of fear-induced information could never be corroborated.
He gave me a quick jerk of his head to let me know he would fall in line with my next move.
I turned back to the prisoner with another slightly demented grin.
“Where were we? Oh, right, I was explaining how it would be easier if you told me what I wanted
to know and it saved us all a lot of time and, well...” I gestured at Hawk who meticulously lined up the tools on the table. “Discomfort.”
The man’s eyes grew wide and I snapped my fingers.
“Winston, look at me. Don’t look at the man with the mean instruments. We can keep things civil right?”
Winston searched for something in my face. I couldn’t say what, but his eyes continued back and forth as if delving deep into my soul and finding it lacking.
Then he spit right at my feet. Nope. I wasn’t getting anything out of him.
I sighed. “You know what, I take it back. Hawk, he’s all yours...Start with his balls and work your way up to the squishier bits.”
Hawk tested a tool of some kind. It made a whirring sound when he pressed the button which looked like a trigger.
“This is my favorite,” he said.
I smiled and leaned against the table, not looking at dear ol’ Winston or I’d put my boot through his smoke-stained teeth. “How long do you think he’s going to last? Do we have an office pool going?”
Hawk snorted and shook his head. “We didn’t bother. He’ll piss himself before I even touch him with one of these. I can always pick out the weak ones.”
I nodded. “You can. I know. What about that guy from Baltimore? He was tougher than you expected.”
“He screamed like a baby the second I started on his zipper.”
A shuffle came from the direction of the prisoner, but I ignored it. Hawk glanced over his shoulder and dropped the power tool on the table. He rushed to the man. I swiveled around and froze, watching as Hawk knelt down and checked his pulse on the slumped figure on the ground.
I held my breath until he told me what I already knew. What I could see plain as day on the asshole’s face.
“He’s dead.”
“Wow, that must be a record for us.”