No otherworldly monsters, just gangsters in 1949 here...
Eddie stepped up to Hernandez to take a closer look. "You work for Pasquale?"
Hernandez stared back, his dark brown eyes edgy, but he didn't say a thing.
Eddie snapped his fingers. "Jimmy, I'm gonna need your help to loosen his tongue."
Jimmy stepped in front of Hernandez and pulled a switchblade from his pocket. He thumbed the button and smiled as the blade leapt open with a clean snick. "Where do you want to start?"
"Anyplace." Eddie shrugged.
"He's the trigger man?" Leo asked Mandy.
"Yep." Mandy stepped back to give Jimmy room to work.
"Jimmy, take your time." Leo pulled out a chair and dusted it off with his handkerchief. "He's going to tell us everything."
Jimmy leaned over Hernandez like a barber and examined him as if he were looking for a good place to begin. "Let's start with the easy stuff." He pointed to a stain on Hernandez's shirt with the tip of the switchblade. "You take a potshot at my good friend Bob here?"
Hernandez looked at the blade and said nothing.
Jimmy touched the blade to his shirt and began tracing lines, the blade leaving only an indentation in the cloth.
"I'm talkin' to you, and I want to know if you was the one who took a coupla shots at Bob." Jimmy’s wrist made the knife turn like a figure skater.
Hernandez watched the blade and said nothing.
"If you're deaf and dumb, you're a dead man." Jimmy cracked a smile and continued tracing lines, this time with more pressure. The fabric of Hernandez's shirt visibly creased under the blade, then it began to part under the blade. "Just move your head up and down to say yes."
Hernandez did nothing.
Murphy watched Jimmy with wide eyes as the switchblade sliced Hernandez's shirt open.
"Don't make me mad." Jimmy eyed Hernandez as he sliced a strip of cloth from the shirt and dropped it to the floor. The exposed skin showed little more than scratch marks. "I get mad, no tellin' what I'll do."
Jimmy traced the blade on a reverse course. This time it left a widening trail of blood as he sliced through skin. He cut a line across the man's chest from left to right as Hernandez watched, then he paused.
"He can hear, can't he?" Mandy asked Murphy.
Murphy nodded. "Sure."
"How about I carve my initials in your chest?" Jimmy sliced across Hernandez, this time on a diagonal. "Or just a Z like the Zorro movies?"
Hernandez moved his lips without making any noise as he watched blood soak into his shirt.
"Maybe that didn't hurt enough." Jimmy sliced again like he was portioning out a Thanksgiving turkey. The blade paused in its tack across Hernandez's chest to twitch under Jimmy's guiding fingers.
Hernandez struggled against the ropes holding him to his chair and sweat beaded on his forehead.
"Felt that, didn't you?" Jimmy chuckled and worked the blade into the man's flesh. "I already know I can make you dance, so how 'bout you talk instead?"
By now much of his shirt shined slick with blood under the single light, and this didn't look like fun any more. Slapping a man around to make him talk was one thing, but Jimmy's knifework was beginning to look like the kind of stuff the Nazis did. Hernandez struggled again against the ropes.
"Jimmy rested the tip of his knife on the center of Hernandez's chest. "You know I could cut a couple tendons here and fix you good. You'll never do another push-up for the rest of your life." He pulled the blade away and grabbed Hernandez by the chin. "I got a better idea." He flashed a smile over his shoulder at Eddie and Leo. "If you ain't gonna loosen them lips, then maybe you don't need 'em." He touched the blade to the man's face. "Hope you didn't have your heart set on growing a mustache." Jimmy's teeth gleamed sharp and white under the single lamp.
A groan rose from the bound man's throat.
Jimmy's eyes widened and he tipped the blade away. "You changing your mind about bein' a clam?" He waited a second or two, then touched the blade to Hernandez's upper lip. A drop of blood welled up in the skin as it sunk under the blade's pressure. "Better talk now or this lip's comin' off."
Johnny stepped behind Hernandez and clamped hands on his head. "Cut him."
Hernandez made a loud grunt through clenched teeth.
Jimmy held the knife motionless. "You say somethin'?"
"Sí." Hernandez's eyes locked on Jimmy's. He tried to speak without moving the lip under the blade.
Jimmy looked at the knife. "You want me to put this away?"
"Sí."
Jimmy smiled over his shoulder at Eddie and Leo again. "I think he wants to talk now."
Mandy leaned over the bound man. "You pulled the trigger in tonight's little stunt, right?"
"Right." Hernandez's voice sounded hoarse and strained.
"You gonna tell us the rest of the story, or is Jimmy gonna have to make you look like a Jack o'lantern?"
"I talk." Hernandez barely moved his jaw. From the sounds of his accent, he must have grown up east of Havana.
Mandy nodded at Johnny, and the big man let go. Jimmy pulled his knife away and stood straight.
"Who sent you?" Eddie asked. "And give me the straight dope. I know you weren't here running errands for Pasquale's rackets because he's dead."
"You and Murphy partners?" Leo asked.
"Yeah, partners." Hernandez spoke through his teeth, jaw and lips hardly moving.
"So who sent you here to my part of town?" Leo's eyes hardened. "Novak?"
"The shipper, Ryan, and his lawyer." Hernandez licked a spot of blood off his upper lip.
Leo glanced at me. "I'm going to tell Jimmy to get his knife out again. The cops rounded up Miller this afternoon."
"We got the job two weeks ago." Hernandez licked more blood off his lip.
"Jimmy." Leo kept his eyes on the prisoner.
Snick. "Where you want me to start this time?"
Hernandez's eyes cut toward Jimmy. "He pay us to follow him." He nodded at me. "Tell us to rough him up and scare him away. Keep him away. Two days ago they tell us to find him and kill him instead." He swallowed. "He been hanging around with a cop all the time, so we waited." Hernandez looked at me, then at Leo, waiting to see if that started any trouble.
Leo stood up, his eyes flashing. "I'm insulted. My friend's with a cop and you back off, but when he's with me you got a license to turn my neighborhood into a shooting gallery?" He glared at Hernandez, his face flushed hot and offended.
Mandy punched Hernandez. "Shitbird."
"Don't you know who I am?" Leo stepped up to Hernandez and put his hands on his hips. "You got any idea how stupid you are?" He looked at both Hernandez and Murphy like a couple of cockroaches and he was trying to decide which one to step on first.
"I didn' see you." Hernandez's voice came out as a mutter.
Leo shot his arm out and grabbed the bound man's chin, fingers digging into his cheeks, puckering his lips. "You see me now?" He stared a couple of holes into Hernandez's face.
"Yes."
"Who you working for now?" Mandy leveled his eyes on Hernandez. "When you ain't killing people for Ryan and his lawyer."
Hernandez shifted his eyes to Mandy and said nothing.
"You'd look pretty good hanging from a meat hook." Mandy smiled like a junkyard dog ready to rip a chunk out of somebody.
Leo shook the man's head by the jaw. "What are you doing in my part of town?"
Hernandez stayed silent.
Mandy shook his head and turned around. He nodded at Jimmy and poked a thumb at Hernandez. "Scalp him."
Jimmy took off his jacket and began rolling up his sleeves. "He's gonna bleed like hell."
"Too bad." Eddie lit a cigarette and shook the match out. He squinted through smoke at Hernandez. "Johnny, give him a hand."
Leo stepped back and crossed his arms as Johnny shed his coat and rolled his sleeves up.
Jimmy stepped behind Hernandez, holding his switchblade the same way a conductor holds a baton. "The headlock, please."
Johnny chuckled and wrapped his arm around Hernandez's neck, clamping his head in place.
Jimmy grabbed a fistful of hair at Hernandez's forehead and ran the knife across his hairline as he pulled. He worked the blade under the flap of skin he made as he pulled and cut. "If I knew I'd be doing this, I'd'a brought a fillet knife."
Blood ran into Hernandez's eyes and he began to scream. I turned my head away.
Eddie leaned to get a better look. "Slow down or he'll pass out."
"Sure." Jimmy had worked loose an inch deep flap.
I watched the floor instead of Jimmy and his switchblade. All I wanted to know was what they had to do with murdering Javier and Miss Dahlia. Jimmy and Johnny's antics reminded me too much of the horror stories we heard about what the Nazis did to POWs. Walking out and going home looked like a good idea, except I needed more information, and Murphy looked like the guy who had it.
Eddie raised his hand. "Whoa, his lights are out."
Hernandez had fainted, body gone slack against the ropes. Jimmy stopped cutting and pushed the loose flap of scalp back. He had cut close to four inches and his hands shined slick and grimy with blood.
"Take a cigarette break." Mandy tossed Jimmy a deck of Chesterfields.
Leo paced in front of the unconscious Hernandez. "He's got to break sooner or later."
Jimmy took a light from Eddie and dropped the pack on the table. The cellophane wrapper bore bright red fingerprints. "We still got Murphy."
No otherworldly monsters, just gangsters in 1949 here...
Eddie stepped up to Hernandez to take a closer look. "You work for Pasquale?"
Hernandez stared back, his dark brown eyes edgy, but he didn't say a thing.
Eddie snapped his fingers. "Jimmy, I'm gonna need your help to loosen his tongue."
Jimmy stepped in front of Hernandez and pulled a switchblade from his pocket. He thumbed the button and smiled as the blade leapt open with a clean snick. "Where do you want to start?"
"Anyplace." Eddie shrugged.
"He's the trigger man?" Leo asked Mandy.
"Yep." Mandy stepped back to give Jimmy room to work.
"Jimmy, take your time." Leo pulled out a chair and dusted it off with his handkerchief. "He's going to tell us everything."
Jimmy leaned over Hernandez like a barber and examined him as if he were looking for a good place to begin. "Let's start with the easy stuff." He pointed to a stain on Hernandez's shirt with the tip of the switchblade. "You take a potshot at my good friend Bob here?"
Hernandez looked at the blade and said nothing.
Jimmy touched the blade to his shirt and began tracing lines, the blade leaving only an indentation in the cloth.
"I'm talkin' to you, and I want to know if you was the one who took a coupla shots at Bob." Jimmy’s wrist made the knife turn like a figure skater.
Hernandez watched the blade and said nothing.
"If you're deaf and dumb, you're a dead man." Jimmy cracked a smile and continued tracing lines, this time with more pressure. The fabric of Hernandez's shirt visibly creased under the blade, then it began to part under the blade. "Just move your head up and down to say yes."
Hernandez did nothing.
Murphy watched Jimmy with wide eyes as the switchblade sliced Hernandez's shirt open.
"Don't make me mad." Jimmy eyed Hernandez as he sliced a strip of cloth from the shirt and dropped it to the floor. The exposed skin showed little more than scratch marks. "I get mad, no tellin' what I'll do."
Jimmy traced the blade on a reverse course. This time it left a widening trail of blood as he sliced through skin. He cut a line across the man's chest from left to right as Hernandez watched, then he paused.
"He can hear, can't he?" Mandy asked Murphy.
Murphy nodded. "Sure."
"How about I carve my initials in your chest?" Jimmy sliced across Hernandez, this time on a diagonal. "Or just a Z like the Zorro movies?"
Hernandez moved his lips without making any noise as he watched blood soak into his shirt.
"Maybe that didn't hurt enough." Jimmy sliced again like he was portioning out a Thanksgiving turkey. The blade paused in its tack across Hernandez's chest to twitch under Jimmy's guiding fingers.
Hernandez struggled against the ropes holding him to his chair and sweat beaded on his forehead.
"Felt that, didn't you?" Jimmy chuckled and worked the blade into the man's flesh. "I already know I can make you dance, so how 'bout you talk instead?"
By now much of his shirt shined slick with blood under the single light, and this didn't look like fun any more. Slapping a man around to make him talk was one thing, but Jimmy's knifework was beginning to look like the kind of stuff the Nazis did. Hernandez struggled again against the ropes.
"Jimmy rested the tip of his knife on the center of Hernandez's chest. "You know I could cut a couple tendons here and fix you good. You'll never do another push-up for the rest of your life." He pulled the blade away and grabbed Hernandez by the chin. "I got a better idea." He flashed a smile over his shoulder at Eddie and Leo. "If you ain't gonna loosen them lips, then maybe you don't need 'em." He touched the blade to the man's face. "Hope you didn't have your heart set on growing a mustache." Jimmy's teeth gleamed sharp and white under the single lamp.
A groan rose from the bound man's throat.
Jimmy's eyes widened and he tipped the blade away. "You changing your mind about bein' a clam?" He waited a second or two, then touched the blade to Hernandez's upper lip. A drop of blood welled up in the skin as it sunk under the blade's pressure. "Better talk now or this lip's comin' off."
Johnny stepped behind Hernandez and clamped hands on his head. "Cut him."
Hernandez made a loud grunt through clenched teeth.
Jimmy held the knife motionless. "You say somethin'?"
"Sí." Hernandez's eyes locked on Jimmy's. He tried to speak without moving the lip under the blade.
Jimmy looked at the knife. "You want me to put this away?"
"Sí."
Jimmy smiled over his shoulder at Eddie and Leo again. "I think he wants to talk now."
Mandy leaned over the bound man. "You pulled the trigger in tonight's little stunt, right?"
"Right." Hernandez's voice sounded hoarse and strained.
"You gonna tell us the rest of the story, or is Jimmy gonna have to make you look like a Jack o'lantern?"
"I talk." Hernandez barely moved his jaw. From the sounds of his accent, he must have grown up east of Havana.
Mandy nodded at Johnny, and the big man let go. Jimmy pulled his knife away and stood straight.
"Who sent you?" Eddie asked. "And give me the straight dope. I know you weren't here running errands for Pasquale's rackets because he's dead."
"You and Murphy partners?" Leo asked.
"Yeah, partners." Hernandez spoke through his teeth, jaw and lips hardly moving.
"So who sent you here to my part of town?" Leo's eyes hardened. "Novak?"
"The shipper, Ryan, and his lawyer." Hernandez licked a spot of blood off his upper lip.
Leo glanced at me. "I'm going to tell Jimmy to get his knife out again. The cops rounded up Miller this afternoon."
"We got the job two weeks ago." Hernandez licked more blood off his lip.
"Jimmy." Leo kept his eyes on the prisoner.
Snick. "Where you want me to start this time?"
Hernandez's eyes cut toward Jimmy. "He pay us to follow him." He nodded at me. "Tell us to rough him up and scare him away. Keep him away. Two days ago they tell us to find him and kill him instead." He swallowed. "He been hanging around with a cop all the time, so we waited." Hernandez looked at me, then at Leo, waiting to see if that started any trouble.
Leo stood up, his eyes flashing. "I'm insulted. My friend's with a cop and you back off, but when he's with me you got a license to turn my neighborhood into a shooting gallery?" He glared at Hernandez, his face flushed hot and offended.
Mandy punched Hernandez. "Shitbird."
"Don't you know who I am?" Leo stepped up to Hernandez and put his hands on his hips. "You got any idea how stupid you are?" He looked at both Hernandez and Murphy like a couple of cockroaches and he was trying to decide which one to step on first.
"I didn' see you." Hernandez's voice came out as a mutter.
Leo shot his arm out and grabbed the bound man's chin, fingers digging into his cheeks, puckering his lips. "You see me now?" He stared a couple of holes into Hernandez's face.
"Yes."
"Who you working for now?" Mandy leveled his eyes on Hernandez. "When you ain't killing people for Ryan and his lawyer."
Hernandez shifted his eyes to Mandy and said nothing.
"You'd look pretty good hanging from a meat hook." Mandy smiled like a junkyard dog ready to rip a chunk out of somebody.
Leo shook the man's head by the jaw. "What are you doing in my part of town?"
Hernandez stayed silent.
Mandy shook his head and turned around. He nodded at Jimmy and poked a thumb at Hernandez. "Scalp him."
Jimmy took off his jacket and began rolling up his sleeves. "He's gonna bleed like hell."
"Too bad." Eddie lit a cigarette and shook the match out. He squinted through smoke at Hernandez. "Johnny, give him a hand."
Leo stepped back and crossed his arms as Johnny shed his coat and rolled his sleeves up.
Jimmy stepped behind Hernandez, holding his switchblade the same way a conductor holds a baton. "The headlock, please."
Johnny chuckled and wrapped his arm around Hernandez's neck, clamping his head in place.
Jimmy grabbed a fistful of hair at Hernandez's forehead and ran the knife across his hairline as he pulled. He worked the blade under the flap of skin he made as he pulled and cut. "If I knew I'd be doing this, I'd'a brought a fillet knife."
Blood ran into Hernandez's eyes and he began to scream. I turned my head away.
Eddie leaned to get a better look. "Slow down or he'll pass out."
"Sure." Jimmy had worked loose an inch deep flap.
I watched the floor instead of Jimmy and his switchblade. All I wanted to know was what they had to do with murdering Javier and Miss Dahlia. Jimmy and Johnny's antics reminded me too much of the horror stories we heard about what the Nazis did to POWs. Walking out and going home looked like a good idea, except I needed more information, and Murphy looked like the guy who had it.
Eddie raised his hand. "Whoa, his lights are out."
Hernandez had fainted, body gone slack against the ropes. Jimmy stopped cutting and pushed the loose flap of scalp back. He had cut close to four inches and his hands shined slick and grimy with blood.
"Take a cigarette break." Mandy tossed Jimmy a deck of Chesterfields.
Leo paced in front of the unconscious Hernandez. "He's got to break sooner or later."
Jimmy took a light from Eddie and dropped the pack on the table. The cellophane wrapper bore bright red fingerprints. "We still got Murphy."