Nick looked down, and that's when he realized he was actually looking up at his feet. He was hanging upside down from his ankles with his hands tied behind his back and secured tightly to one of the belt loops on his jeans. Now he knew why he had a headache and his ankles hurt. He sighed and looked back to Warrick and Jeremy. Eric soon appeared with a smile on his face and crossed his arms.
"Good to see you finally woke up. Don't worry, you haven't been up there too long, it took us a little while to get you up there and over the pool."
Nick craned his neck so he could see the water below him. He could see his blurry reflection staring back in the clear water. "It may just be the headrush I'm getting from being upside down, but aren't we inside?" Nick asked.
"Indoor pool." Eric answered simply. "But let's just cut to the chase. We're going to play a little game." Eric started pacing back and forth on the other side of the pool on the edge, looking down into the water. "It's based off of one of my favorite games as a kid."
"Marco Polo?" Nick said. He suddenly began dropping towards the water, but stopped abruptly with a jerk after a few seconds. The rope tied to his ankles was strung through a pulley on the ceiling, and the other end of the rope was being held by Ray. Tony was standing next to Jeremy and Warrick holding a gun, just in case.
"No, hangman. And that was an example of how it's going to work. I'm going to ask you a question, and if I don't like the response you give me, you're gonna drop down. I will end up drowning you if I have to. So knock off the smartass comments and cooperate, will ya?"
Nick sighed. "I guess my hands are tied." He dropped another couple of inches closer for that one. He had started about five feet above the surface of the water and was slowly making his way down with every comment he made.
Eric stopped pacing and looked up at Nick. "Where's the package?"
"Actually...if you don't mind, I kinda wanna know what's in it first. I know it's important, but why?" Nick asked.
"I'll be the one asking the questions."
Nick tried to shrug, but really couldn't. "Fine, then I'll be the one drowning, leaving you with nothing except a dead body and a couple of hostages." Another few inches.
"Nick, stop fucking around!" Jeremy yelled. It was the first thing he'd said in a long time.
"Maybe I will when I find out what they're exactly looking for."
Eric yelled at Jeremy to keep his mouth shut before turning back to Nick. "Your brother is smarter than he looks. Being the good lawyer that he is, he kept papers, tapes, and whatever else on us to use as blackmail should anything come up that he would need it. He was trying to get out for good, like you did, but we couldn't lose both Stokes." Eric shook his head. "But that doesn't matter. Where is it?"
"Are you gonna clean my house if I tell you?" He dropped more again. Now he was only a few feet away from the water, and it was just a matter of time before he was under it.
"I'm really starting to get annoyed with your behavior Nick. I would strongly advise you to stop being a pain in the ass and tell me where the fucking package is." When Nick didn't say anything, Eric motioned to Tony, who pressed his gun against the back of Jeremy's head. "I'll kill him if you don't tell me in the next ten seconds."
"Go ahead, he's the reason I'm hanging upside down over a pool anyway. And he's the reason for everything I had to do for you in the first place. I only did it so you wouldn't kill him. I guess I was just postponing the inevitable."
That didn't sit too well with Eric, or Ray. Nick fell the last few feet until his head was totally submerged under water. He tried to pull himself up, but that only got him dropped deeper into the water. He was just about to pass out before he was yanked back up just enough so his head was out of the water. He shook his head so he could see without water running into his eyes. He finally caught his breath after a couple moments.
"I know this is a pretty weird time to be telling you all of this, but you need to know the truth before they kill me Warrick." He said. He tried to spit the taste of chlorine out of his mouth, but wasn't successful. He continued talking to his best friend. "When I was 15, Jere was working for them stealing cars and stuff. They used the cars to move drugs and whatever else they needed to. He got into debt with them cuz of drugs and totaled cars or whatever, and he couldn't pay it off so I had to go work for them so they wouldn't kill him."
"This is all very sweet of you Nick, but I ne-" Eric started, but was cut off.
"Let me explain this to him, then you can kill me." Nick said. He went on. "They taught me how to steal cars, so that's how I knew how to hotwire them."
"It was you, wasn't it?" Warrick asked. "You stole the Nissan that night and left it there."
Nick nodded slowly. "Yeah...that was me." He said softly. "But the druggie and his dealers weren't involved with me. Not those ones at least. Anyway...I did jobs and stuff with them until I graduated from college and got outta there."
"That's why he became a CSI." Eric chimed in. "So he could try and even out all the bad stuff he did, like dealing drugs, doing drugs, stealing cars, killing people..."
"It was one fucking person!" Nick said angrily.
"You still did it."
"Because you didn't have the guts to do any of the dirty work. That's why you needed me and Jeremy so badly."
Eric sighed. "True. But you were like a son to me Nick. That's why I taught you everything I know, I wanted you to take over for me one day."
"Sorry. I'm not a criminal." Nick said.
"Not anymore." Eric smiled evilly. "So, now that Warrick's gotten all caught up, why don't you go ahead and tell me where that package is so we can all go home?"
"You just said you taught me everything you knew. So you should know I'm smarter than that. As soon as you get it, I'm dead. So you're gonna have to do a lot better than hanging me over a pool Eric."