The Rack & Cue

by Hughes, David Owain

  She picked her lolling head up and smiled at Johnson. “I’ve already told you, I know nothing,” she slurred, her blonde hair stained red from flecks of blood. Her once pretty face was now cut, puffy and black and blue.

  “Are you sure, Gail?”

  She laughed. “Yes.”

  “Maybe we should start extracting the nails from your toes and fingers? See if that loosens you up a bit?”

  Gail said nothing, just looked at her captors with rolling eyes. Vomit graced her chin and the front of her pyjama top, which had a Snow White emblem on it. A spew covered emblem at that.

  A pool of blood was gathered around her feet. Some had splashed her furniture, but mixed well with the chocolate colour scheme. Max and two more of Johnson’s goons had gone from room to room in search of any clues, smashing everything in sight. They’d even killed Gail’s pet cats, to which she showed little emotion.

  When they’d first broken in, they’d found the middle-aged woman sleeping in her bed. Alone.

  A perfect situation.

  She’d been dragged from the warm comfort of her slumber and forced to sit in a chair. She’d then been bound. A cup of water had been splashed in her face to rouse her.

  Once tied and secured, Johnson had been the one to go at her. Not too rough at first – a few slaps and a yanking of her long hair. Her insistent cackles and quips had led her down a dark path quickly.

  A punch to the gut.

  Then to the face.

  It did nothing to break her.

  She only laughed as they tried.

  “I can assure you, Gail, you will be begging for your life at the end of this ordeal.”

  She spat at his feet which earned her a hard slap across her face.

  “Pig,” Johnson said.

  “Fuck you, dickhead!” she said. “I’m not telling you anything! Ever!”

  “But Gail, what have you got to gain by protecting this man?”

  “He’ll do far worse things to me than you could ever do!” she said. The look in her eye told them all that she was terrified of Venom.

  “So, he has been here? Visited, yes?”

  She grinned a toothless grin. “Maybe. Who wants to know?” she asked, and then laughed.

  Johnson shook his head. “Okay, we’ll play it the hard way,” he said, nodding at Max.

  Max opened the toolbox for Johnson, which was on top of Gail’s coffee table. Inside was an array of sharp, blunt and serrated tools. “Pliers, please,” he said to Max, who obliged his boss’ request, by handing him the extracting implement.

  “Now, I should think this is going to hurt,” he told Gail.

  She began shaking her head frantically.

  Her eyes bulging.

  Johnson removed one of her slippers. “I’ll start with your piggies,” he said. “This should be fun. But, before I begin, are you sure there’s nothing you want to tell me?” he asked her, a warm smiling on his face.

  “I…I…I…” she quivered.

  “I guess not,” he said, going for the little toe first. He ripped the nail off with grunting pleasure. A small splash of blood found its way into his mouth and mottled his lips. He licked them, and then wasted no time in tearing three more nails off Gail’s left foot.

  More droplets of blood flicked across his face, giving Johnson a cute cluster of red freckles across the bridge of his nose. When he smiled, Gail could see her blood on his teeth.

  She screamed.

  Begged for mercy with glassy eyes.

  “No…no…please,” she whimpered, “No more, I beg you…”

  Her next scream slashed through the air as Johnson continued pulling her toe nails off – soon he was on her right foot, starting with the big toe. He yanked it off.

  “Now will you talk?!” he screamed in her face, before slapping it repeatedly.

  “I can’t! I fucking can’t, you motherfucker!” she screamed, before laughing manically.

  Johnson watched as Max left the room and come back in with a bottle of vinegar from the kitchen. He splashed her wounds with the brown liquid which set her off screaming. She thrashed in her chair as the fluid soaked into the mutilated flesh.

  The black man laughed as he did this. “Drink up, bitch. This is what you get for harbouring a fugitive.”

  “Stop it, you fucking jungle bunny!”

  He smashed her across the face with the glass bottle, tearing a gash down her cheek.

  “Gail? Gail?!” Johnson called. “I think she’s out cold,” he told Max. “Looks like we’re going to be here a while. Tell the men to stand-down. We’ll move again in the morning.”

  “Hopefully we’ll have something to go on by then,” Max said.

  “Yes,” Johnson said, lighting a cigar. “Until then, no-one moves. Give the word,” he told his right-hand.

  “Sure,” he said, leaving Johnson alone with Gail.

  “Gail, Gail, Gail,” he said, as he circled the woman. “There’s no need to play possum. I know you’re not out. It’s not going to buy you time. I will get the information I need.”

  She murmured.

  He smiled.

  She was playing the game well. It excited him.

  He yanked her head back by her hair as hard as he could with his free hand, fearing her neck would snap on the back of her chair. She wailed, spat and cursed him.

  “That’s more like it,” he said, looking at her bloodied toes. The sight sent a shiver through him. “Shall I start pulling your finger nails off now? Is this where we’re going. Really?”

  “Do what the fuck you like, arsehole. I’m sure that’s the only thing that gets your little limp dick hard,” she said between gritted teeth.

  He took a puff on his cigar then thought of putting it out on her forehead. No, not yet, he reasoned with himself. We’ll get to that.

  Letting her hair go, Johnson moved around to her front. “We’ll get started on the fingers then, just as soon as I finish my smoke. Can’t waste a good smoke, you know?” he told her, and then winked.

  She watched with wide eyes as the smouldering end of the cigar moved closer and closer to Johnson’s lips. The pain would start again. Soon.

  “I have no idea why you would protect such a man?”

  “I’ve told you. He’ll do far worse to me.”

  “Then, if he’s been here, why didn’t he just kill you? That would be an easier why do keep you quiet?”

  “Family don’t shit on each other, I guess.”

  “Fair point,” he said. “I just want you to know, that if you should give me his location, then you will be protected.”

  She scoffed. “Good one. Nothing could protect me from him.”

  “I’m serious. Once I have tracked him. I will kill him,” Johnson said, matter-of-factly.

  “You and that ragtag you call an army don’t know shit!”

  “Please, enlighten me?”

  “You have no idea what you’re up against. What type of shit you’re in, or how deep. He’ll murder you all. Rip you apart. Then, when he’s finished, he’ll celebrate by drinking your Goddamn blood!” she spat.

  “Well, you do paint a vivid picture,” he chortled.

  “You won’t be laughing when you come face-to-face with him. You’ll be begging, just like I’ve been. My only regret…”

  “Yes?”

  “…Is that I won’t be there to see your agonising end,” she concluded, smiling.

  “Touching. You know, after I’ve killed you, and dealt with Venom and whoever else he’s with, I’m going to make it my priority to wipe out the rest of his family. Even the infants,” he said, winking at her.

  This removed the smile from her face.

  “Maybe I should have your sister brought around here this evening? How old is she? Twenty? Twenty-one?”

  “No, please. Leave Jesse out of this!”

  “I’ll go through you all until I get what I want,” he said, finishing the last of his cigar. “So you’d better start talking.”

  Sh
e watched as he threw his cigar butt onto the carpet. He then stamped on it to make sure it was out. Gail knew what was coming next. “He’ll kill me!”

  “What do you think I’m going to do to you if you don’t tell me what I want to know?”

  She watched as he picked the pliers up.

  “No…”

  He started with her pinkies.

  The nails ripped clean off with ease.

  Her shrieking caused him to shudder – it prickled the hairs on his arms and at the back of his neck.

  Once both little fingers were done, he stood back, and watched her writhe and spit. “Do we stop? Are we ready to talk?!”

  “Go fuck yourself!” she screamed.

  Enraged, he tore the rest of her nails free, one after the other, with no rest in between. He thought the pain would make her pass out, but still she was being persistent.

  He slapped her. Once, twice, three times. “Talk to me, bitch!” he was losing control. If he didn’t reel his emotions in, he’d kill her. Then he’d know nothing.

  “What would you like to talk about?” she asked. Blood trickled down her mouth.

  He shoved the pliers into her mouth and grabbed at one of the few teeth still remaining. He yanked it out of her gob. A squirt of blood ensued.

  “Talk!”

  “Fuck you! Never, you piece of shit!” she laugh-cried, as pain roared through her body. She started dry heaving from the taste of metal and blood, but her stomach was empty.

  He slapped her again.

  “Insubordinate bitch!” he yelled in her face, before flying into a flurry of blows to her stomach. Left, right, right, right, left, left, right…he drilled heavy blow after heavy blow home. Johnson was done pussyfooting around her – he needed the information she had. If he didn’t, and Venom was close by, then an opportunity could be missed.

  He couldn’t afford to let the trail go cold.

  “Fine,” he told her, “Have it your way. Max! Max!” he yelled. “Bring that other bitch and her boyfriend in here!”

  From outside, Max dragged another woman into the room by her hair. She was forced into a chair opposite Gail then lashed by ropes. She too was wearing pyjamas.

  Three more thugs brought a bloke into the room behind Max, and, like the two women, he was put into a third dining room chair. He wore boxer shorts and nothing else. His body was covered in tattoos, his nipples pierced. He, along with the new girl, were no more than twenty.

  The boy had been gagged. He grunted and growled under the tape, but nothing could be made out.

  “Oh, Jesse!” Gail said, sobbing. “Please, don’t hurt them!” she begged. “It’s me you want! Please!”

  “Well, isn’t this cosy?!” Johnson said, smiling up at Max, then at Gail. He patted her on the head. “I’ll hurt whomever I see fit, Gail. Especially if I don’t get the information I seek!”

  “Is this about uncle Venom?!” Jesse squealed.

  “Shh, Jesse!”

  “Ahhhh, we have a winner,” Johnson chuckled.

  “Don’t say another word!” Gail warned.

  Johnson slapped her across the face once again. This evoked a shriek from Jesse and further muffled grunts from Tattoo Boy.

  “Get the drill,” Johnson told Max. “You three…” Johnson addressed the thugs who’d entered along with Max, “…May leave, but ask Dawn to come in here.”

  The one nodded, while the other two grunted, before leaving the room. Max was first to enter the living room after their departure. In his hand he carried a Black & Decker carry case.

  “Where do we start?” he asked Johnson.

  “Oh, I think non-blood should be first,” Johnson said, grinning.

  “I see,” Max said, clapping a hand to Tattoo Boy’s shoulder. “Looks like your numbers come in, lad!”

  “No, no, no, no…” Jesse pleaded. “Gail, do something!”

  But Gail could only look away from the carnage.

  “I don’t think so,” Johnson said, holding her head still so she could witness the grisly events unfold.

  Max opened the hard plastic box and dug out the power tool. The ten-inch drill bit whirled around and around and when the trigger was pushed. The black man took great delight in placing the cool metal tip to Tattoo Boy’s exposed left knee.

  “Well?” he asked Johnson.

  “Are we talking yet, Gail?” Johnson wanted to know.

  “Please! Gail, tell them what they want to know! Please!”

  Tattoo Boy grunted and growled as his chest, arm and leg muscles all flexed impressively against his restraints. He couldn’t budge them.

  “Don’t do this to them!” Gail pleaded.

  “You’re not answering my questions, Gail!”

  “I can’t tell you anything. I don’t know anything!”

  Johnson gave the nod to the awaiting Max. He beamed.

  The drill made a whirring noise as it kicked life.

  Jesse held down a scream, as she watched the vicious tool bore through her fiancé’s knee. It rendered his flesh as easy as someone peeling an orange. She heard his bones splinter and crack over his merciless and stifled screams. Blood bubbled and spurted like an erupting volcano. The stench of drilled bone made her stomach flip, causing her to retch.

  The sound seemed to go on and on and on and on….

  Minutes passed.

  When the rotating bit was pulled out, it was caked in slimy gore. Bits of bone and leg hair clung to its curves.

  Tattoo Boy’s whole body shook, stiffened, then relaxed. Strings of bloody saliva oozed out of his mouth as his head rolled on its plinth, his eyes undulating like marbles. He looked spaced out. His girly screams had stopped once the drilling had started – he’d given in to pain and passed out.

  Max was now slapping the boy about the face, trying to rouse him.

  “You mother-fucking-son-of-a-fucking-whore-bastard-shit-fuck-cunt. I’ll kill you!” Jesse screamed and bucked in her chair.

  “My, my, such language,” Dawn said, entering the room.

  She looked doped. “Had a nap, my dear?” Johnson asked.

  “Yes, but I’m sure glad you woke me for this!” she said.

  Johnson chuckled. “It would seem we’re having trouble extracting information from this trio.

  “You can go to fucking hell!” Jesse screamed.

  Dawn went to her – “Can I cut this one’s tongue out?” she asked Johnson.

  “Of course, if you think it will get us somewhere!” he answered.

  “You and I are going to have some fun,” Dawn told Jesse.

  “And they use drugs on POWs to get info?” Max asked. “I much prefer this method,” he concluded.

  “Continue,” Johnson told Max, who didn’t need telling a second time.

  The mini motor of the drill was off on its path of destruction again as it bore through Tattoo Boy’s other knee.

  “Nooooo…” Jesse said, “I’ll tell you what you want to know! Just leave Peter alone. Please, please, please! I’m begging you!”

  Johnson called Max off.

  “Be quiet, you fool!” Gail snapped. “You know what will happen if you talk!”

  “Dawn, shut her up, please? She’s clearly useless to us now we have this pretty little thing.

  “My pleasure, sir.”

  Dawn pull her silenced Walther PPK from her holster and shoved the muzzle into Gail’s face.

  The woman had little time to gasp before the trigger was pulled.

  Four bullets punched through her face and ploughed into the wall behind. Bits of shattered bone and mucus splashed the carpet.

  Gail’s head slumped forward.

  Jesse said nothing.

  Just sat in silence.

  Terror had her where it wanted her.

  Jesse then began to mumble. Tears formed in her eyes.

  Peter groaned to her side.

  With wild eyes, she looked up at Johnson. “I’ll tell you everything. Please, just don’t do any more harm to Peter. Please!�
�

  “You have my word,” Johnson said, who nodded at Dawn and Max to back off. He then cut the ropes binding Gail to her chair, shoved her body off, and sat on it. “Please begin,” he said. “I have very little time and much work to do.”

  “Can you guarantee protection for Peter and me if I tell you what I know?”

  “I will see to it that Venom never harms either of you. I promise.” Johnson said.

  She firstly turned to her Peter, who was crying and shaking. “Can’t you help him, before I start?” she asked.

  Johnson thought about it for a moment as he looked into her green-grey eyes. The way in which her hair flanked her young face made her look sexy, especially with the torn pyjama top, which exposed some of her pasty flesh.

  “Max will see to it that the bleeding is stemmed. We’ll also get him to a hospital, but only after you have given us what we require, Jesse.”

  She gulped.

  “Best start talking, or Peter’s going to bleed to death,” Johnson said, tapping his watch.

  “Okay, okay, I’m thinking,”

  “Think faster, Jesse.”

  “Tick-tock, tick-tock,” Dawn chided.

  “You promise safety from Venom?!”

  “I gave you may word – he will never harm you again. Either of you,” he added, sensing she would ask about Peter.

  “Fine, okay. Do you know the old section of motorway between here and Manchester – it leads to Newcastle?” she asked.

  “The section of old A5?” Johnson asked.

  “That’s the one,” Jesse said.

  “What about it?” Johnson wanted to know.

  “There’s a pub out on that road by the name of The Rack and Cue.”

  “Bullshit,” Max said. “That road’s been closed since Noah was running around in shorts, love!”

  “Ha-ha,” Dawn blurted

  Johnson sat unimpressed. “Excuse me?” he said. “A pub?”

  “Go and take a look for yourself, if you don’t believe me. It’s been in the family for generations.”

  “Okay,” Johnson said. “Tell us more. What about this pub?”

  “You can bet that’s where Venom has gone. He was very close to that side of the family.”

  “Who are they to you?”

  “Distant uncles,” she answered.

  “Who are?”

  “Porky and his two brothers. I can’t recall their names – I’m not even sure the name Porky is right. I think they have a daughter and son out there with them, too.”