‘Do yourself a favour, pal,’ Alberto told him. ‘Don’t move.’
They arranged this, she thought. The cloakroom woman passed them the guns.
‘Holy shit…’ escaped her lips.
Sweat had sprung out on O’Connor’s face. It had gone redder than ever. He was trying not to shriek with pain, biting his lip to stop himself. Max was staring into his eyes, and Benny could see that Max meant every single word.
‘Now, you tosser,’ said Max, pushing Benny until he was bent painfully back over his own desk. ‘Where’s Redmond Delaney?’
‘I don’t know…’
‘Wrong answer.’
‘Well, he’s dead, isn’t he? I told you. The fucking plane vanished, and him with it.’ The man was panting in distress. ‘Oh shit, my foot.’
There was blood seeping out of the top of his ruined shoe. Annie felt faintly nauseous just looking at it.
‘Those shoes were fucking horrible anyway,’ said Max conversationally. ‘Back to the point, yes? Redmond. Dead? I don’t think so. Some people are damned hard to rub out. Like cockroaches.’
‘I don’t know,’ wailed Benny.
‘As I said, wrong answer.’
Max took aim at Benny’s knee.
‘No!’ yelped Benny, sobbing now. ‘Don’t.’
‘Redmond,’ said Max. ‘Three seconds. One…’
‘I don’t-’
‘Two…’
‘Please-’
Max took aim. ‘Three…’ he said.
‘No! I’ll tell you!’ said Benny in a paroxysm of fear.
‘Where is he?’ said Max, pausing.
‘Redmond? I don’t know, but wait! Wait! His cousin – Rufus. He came over, flew in from Shannon a couple of weeks ago, they said he had Orla with him. I didn’t believe it at the time. Thought she was long gone. But no one said a damned thing about Redmond.’
Max glanced at Annie. Rufus again. The same name Dickon had given up before he’d gone straight to hell. This was starting to have the ring of truth.
‘This Rufus, where’s he staying?’
‘I don’t-’
Max sighed. ‘Wrong answer. Where’s he staying?’
‘No, he’ll kill me!’
‘Not if I kill you first, arsehole,’ said Max, and fired the gun again.
Thunk!
A hole appeared in the other shoe, up near the big toe this time. O’Connor let out a half-stifled moan of agony. ‘Shhh,’ said Max, coming in close to the man’s tortured face and whispering into his ear. ‘We don’t want to wake the neighbours, do we? Not when we’re getting on so well. Now, tell me. Where is Rufus staying? And don’t jerk me about, my friend. I’m running out of patience very fast here, and you’ve run out of feet. Knee’s next.’
Benny, sobbing with pain, told him.
‘Good boy. Was that so hard? Now go and sit in the chair. Alberto, bring your boy over and seat him here. Let’s get you all comfortable, shall we?’
O’Connor could barely walk on his wounded and blood-sodden feet, so Max half-carried him round and dumped him into his grandiose chair. Alberto got the heavy into another one. Max dug in his coat pocket and handed Annie scissors and duct tape.