understand the thumb would come off, and that more pain would follow until he capitulated.
After four minutes Ava walked into the kitchen and stood in front of him. He stared at her defiantly. She looked down at him and, without a word, grabbed the duct tape, cut off a strip, and sealed his mouth. She nodded at Carlo, who ripped off the tape binding Douglas’s hands, and then nodded at Andy before walking back into the living room.
Even with the tape on his mouth, she still heard Douglas scream.
She heard another scream, and guessed that the stub of Douglas’s thumb was being pressed onto the red- hot element. She had watched it done only once, and that was enough for a lifetime. She was sure he had convulsed and emptied his bowels and bladder.
Andy and Carlo were talking to each other, their manner calm and professional. The tap was running and she knew they were cleaning up Douglas before bringing him back to her.
Carlo dragged him into the living room and Andy followed, holding the thumb by the nail. Douglas’s eyes were rolled back in his head, and she was afraid for a second that he had had a heart attack or a stroke. His pants and underwear were gone, exposing scrawny thighs and thin, meagre calves. She tried to pull his shirttail down over his genitals, but his round, hard belly was too large. If there was anything uglier than a man’s shrivelled penis, she didn’t know what it was. Carlo and Andy, she noted, had done a decent job of washing him; there was only a light streak of feces on the inside of each thigh.
“Andy,” Ava said, motioning at the thumb, “throw that in the garbage or give it to the dogs.”
She turned her attention back to the Disciple. “So, Mr. Douglas, here we are again.” His head lolled back and his pupils were dilated. She reached into her kit bag, took out the smelling salts she’d bought the day before, and held the bottle under his nose. “The clock is ticking,” Ava said as Douglas came back to life. “You have four minutes before the other thumb comes off. I’m going to take the tape off your mouth now, in case you want to speak.”
He grunted. She ripped off the tape and he roared at the pain. He then sat still, breathing heavily. When he looked up at her, his glare was defiant.
She was about to tape his mouth shut again when he whispered, “What do you want?”
“I’ve already told you.”
“You’re crazy.”
“That could be, but it’s only going to get crazier until you decide to be honest.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Your minutes are passing.”
“Fuck you,” he said without any passion.
“We can forget about the time that is left, if you want. I’ll turn Andy loose with his cleaver right now if this is how you’re going to act.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Straight answers.”
“To what?”
“Did you cheat my people?”
“We toyed a bit with the software,” he said, his voice devoid of energy.
“No, I want to hear it my way. Did you cheat my people?”
His head sagged to his chest. Ava put her hand under his chin and lifted his face. “Did you cheat my people?” she said.
“Yeah.”
She held the smelling salts to his nose. His head snapped back, his eyes took on more life.
“Why did you do it?”
He groaned, but his voice was clear enough. “The company was in the hole, big time. And when we saw how easy it was to make that kind of money, we kept going.”
“Why did you stop?”
He closed his eyes. “A couple of players began to complain. Ashton thought they’d picked up on what we were doing. We decided it was time to stop, to not press our luck.”
Barking erupted in the backyard. Ava went to the back door and looked out. Ashton had moved to the front of his cage, probably to test the padlock, and the dog had him pinned against the front bars. Ava opened the door. “I’d stay still if I were you,” she shouted, “because if that dog decides it wants to have you for dinner, we won’t interfere.”
When she came back to the living room, Douglas seemed to have passed out again. Another dose of smelling salts revived him. She tapped his naked knee. “Now, Mr. Douglas, we have to talk about how you and Jeremy Ashton are going to give that money back.”
“I don’t — ”
“If we can make that happen,” Ava said, “then you get to keep your reputation — even though it doesn’t seem to mean that much to you — and your various body parts. That’s the deal.”
“What do you want me to do?” he asked.
“You can start by telling me where the money is.”
He shook his head as if trying to clear it of some bad memory. “My thumb is killing me,” he said, his voice cracking.
“First you tell me where the money is and then I’ll see if we can do something about your thumb.”
He shook his head again. “You’ll need Ashton.”
“He’s next on my list. Where’s the money?”
“Most of it is in Cyprus. We moved it to the holding company. That’s where it banks.”
“You moved all of it?”
“Yeah, most of it anyway.”
“And it’s still there?”
“Yeah.”
“So a bank transfer is doable, I would assume.”
“Sure.”
“See how easy that was? If you’d taken this approach half an hour ago you’d still have that thumb.”
“That’s not funny, and it also ain’t that easy.” He closed his eyes and licked his lips with the tip of his tongue.
“Explain to me why it isn’t easy,” she said.
“To take any money out of that account needs three signatures.”
Ava blinked. “You and Ashton.”
“Yeah.”
“Who is the third?”
“His woman.”
“Lily Simmons?”
Douglas peered at her through hooded eyes. “You’ve done your homework.”
“How does she come into this?”
“Her father put up nearly all the money for The River.”
“And left you and Ashton to manage it?”
“No — are you kidding? Jeremy was running off to London every month to report in.”
“And this Lily, she is his what — girlfriend, fiancee, wife?”
“They’re engaged, he says.”
“But no wedding plans?”
Douglas shrugged. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Did Ashton meet with her father during any of those trips?”
“How would I know?”
“How about this Lily Simmons — did you ever meet her?”
“Once, in New York.”
“What was she like?”
“Tall, skinny, no tits, no ass, red hair.”
“Doesn’t sound like the kind of girl who would attract a man like Ashton. Maybe he has a thing for red
