I nodded.
He smiled as if he was impressed and made a kind of clicking sound inside his mouth. “Hell of a girl Vicky, I underestimated you. I thought you were going to near shit your panties when we were moving poor old Ivan. I guess you’re made of stronger stuff than you look.”
He nodded to himself, raising his head and looking thoughtful. He put his hands on his knees.
“If you were going to shoot me young man, you’d have done it by now,” he said turning to Mike. “I guess she’s the one with all the balls.”
Mike shook his head, looking at me with a wry, exasperated half smile.
Then suddenly Richard whipped open a bottom drawer, pulling out a handgun of his own. He pointed it at Mike. Mike tightened his grip, panic-stricken. “Woohoo!” chuckled Richard, “Now we’re sucking diesel! Isn’t that what they say – ay? Not so much fun when one’s pointing at you, is it Michael?”
Richard aimed the barrel of the gun back and forth between our faces.
“Put it down,” Mike said urgently.
“Fuck off,” said Richard, his smile evaporating, leaving his cold and drawn face bare.
“Maybe we’ll all put them away, you first though Richard, we still have things we need to talk about,” I tried.
“Well you haven’t actually got a gun my dear, now do you? We don’t so much have a Mexican stand-off here, just mano a mano. Isn’t that right Mike? Just you and me. Mano a mano. Homo a homo? Are you gay Michael?” he asked, playfully.
“No,” said Mike, angrily, rattled by Richard’s erraticism.
“I was just wondering. I mean – just because we put our dicks in Victoria here, it doesn’t mean…”
“Shut the fuck up!” cried Mike, edging over the desk, holding the barrel inches from Richard’s head.
Richard chuckled again. It was a lifeless, joyless noise. He was now some twisted, disgusting figure before me. Had he always been like that – but disguised it well?
“We took your bag Richard. From the locker. All your documents,” I said coolly. I tried to hide the feeling of faintness, feeling my blood draining from my face, pulsing unevenly through my veins.
He turned to me, I had his full attention.
“We stole them from the locker in Ikea. We have everything.”
He chewed at his lip, “Really? And what have you done with these items?” he asked crisply.
“Why – is someone else looking for them?” chimed in Mike. “Is that where all this came from?” he asked tightly, passing the gun side to side in front of Richard’s battered face.
The face darkened, he fell silent.
“So that’s it,” I said, something forming across my lips that I let blossom. I released a drawn out little laugh. I knew that I was perhaps playing with fire, but it felt good.
Richard pursed his lips, his eyes ablaze. Then he turned the gun from Mike to me.
“Fuck you, Vicky,” he said icily. He made to stand up again.
Mike took a step forward, “Hey, back the fuck off,” he said urgently. “We’ve a video of your stuff you’re gonna want to see.”
Richard’s tongue prodded through his clenched teeth before he lowered the gun a little.
He released an insincere smile, “This doesn’t need to get heavy, why not lower yours too – we don’t want any accidents.” His face was twitchy.
Then he turned to look directly at me again, the gun hanging loose in his lap, “We wouldn’t want to go messing up that beautiful face of yours.”
“Alright, that’s enough, no fuckin’ about,” Mike said, lowering his own gun.
“So where’s this video?” demanded Richard, struggling to keep his tone in check.
I hooked my phone out of my pocket and started swiping through the menu. I held it up, over the desk. Richard stood up. The three of us stared at the screen, inches from one another as the video began to play. I then set my eyes on Richard’s, his own squinting, with a look of bewilderment set on his face. The video displayed Mike’s yard. It was dark, the light had been failing. There was background noise of cars in the distance and a light breeze. It felt like days had passed since then. I had zoomed in on the papers in a pile on the ground. Richard’s expression flickered with recognition as he saw Mike hold one of the photos aloft. I saw fear on Richard’s face too. By the time the sheets were on fire, his eyes burned again too.
“What the fuck have you done?”
His voice was more desperate than angry, but it had plenty of anger in it too. He turned his back, gun at his side, his other hand up to his face.
Mike and I shared a nervy look. We were flying by the seats of our pants now. What was the best play? We hadn’t counted on Richard having a gun, there was no plan for this.
I kept staring at Richard’s back, slipping the phone back in my pocket.
Who is this man?
I realised I didn’t know him at all. You just assume you have the measure of most people by and large. Maybe if you shag a guy, you think you ought to know them a little better. Maybe if a guy tries to kill you, you think it then too.
He spun around, his eyes down, the gun still hanging loose. He reached into the open drawer where the gun had come from.
“Hey…” warned Mike.
“Aww fuck off,” Richard said dismissively.
He pulled out a polythene baggy and set it on the table. He shook out a large dose of the powder clumsily onto the table. He threw down the bag, then poked a finger into the stuff before rubbing it around his gums and sniffing the remnants off his finger.
“Fuck!” he shouted, shaking his head manically.
He looked between us both, a grim smile across his haunted face.
“You really fucked me didn’t you?” he said, nastiness polluting every word.
“We don’t see it that way.” My voice sounded smaller than I’d have liked. “Yeah
