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Chapter 21: Open Wide
Bobby leaned down and grabbed hold of the front of Harris' coat. He hauled the man up to his feet and slammed him back into the wall. "Well, now, Agent Harris, I have a feeling your buddy Kirkpatrick might be a little disappointed in the way you have handled this case, what do you think?" He sent his hands under Harris' coat, searching for the holstered gun he knew was there. When he pulled the gun out he checked that the safety was on and then let it drop to the floor to give it a kick across the concrete and into the corner of the landing just above the next flight of steps moving downward.
Harris seemed to snarl and his mouth opened, ready to spill obscenities.
"No, you keep your fuckin' mouth shut until I say you open it." Bobby gave the man a hard jerk away from the wall before slamming him back into it a second time. "Hell, that's fun, can I do that again?" Bobby somehow managed to sound as if he was being a sardonic ass, when in fact he truly wanted to slam the man into the wall over and over. Hearing the man's moans as his back cracked hard against the concrete walls was the most satisfying sound he'd heard all day. The only problem with that idea at the moment was that they needed answers, so he couldn't hurt the ass hole, not yet anyway. But still he gave him another hard tug away from the wall and slammed him again, just because it felt good.
"Damn Bobby, I got pliers here, you said you could use these." Jeremiah held his pliers up. "Come on man, you can't knock him unconscious, where's the fun in that?"
Bobby understood Jeremiah's warning. He didn't turn to look at his brother fully, but he could see him out of the corner of his eye and his mind started to click out mental orders to him as to what he had to do. They needed to know where they could find Winston and this was their opportunity to find that out. Harris was an older man, more experienced than the idiots Bobby had used to cushion his drop just minutes before. Harris was more likely to lie to them, but the men laying on the stairs, already in pain from whatever might have been busted from Bobby's body landing on top of them, they were gonna spill their guts. They were going to tell him what he needed to know; even if he didn't have a gas can to fire up the inspiration inside of them.
Maybe they could manage to get more information out of Harris' buddies than just where to find their boss. Maybe they could figure out exactly what Jessup Winston had sent Harris after. "Okay Harris, this is going to be pretty simple." He released his hold on Harris, but slammed his right forearm across the man's shoulders and upper chest, holding him in place with his own body weight but freeing up his left hand. "We got some questions, and you are going to answer the questions, or your buddies over there are going to lose a few teeth." Bobby flicked a quick nod towards the direction of the stairs.
Jeremiah seemed to grasp the intentions behind Bobby's words. He turned towards Angel, who was hovering over the moans and groans, checking for weapons under their coats and around their ankles. "Hey, catch." He grinned and gave the pliers a toss.
Angel caught the tool and flashed a smile towards Bobby. "I don't know Bobby, I think I like this better than the gasoline. Less chance of any kind of accidents, ya know?" He looked down at his intended victims. "Might be a little messy, but other than that I can adjust."
Bobby allowed himself one quick snicker at Angel's comment before he looked at Harris. "Now, this is how it's gonna go. Angel there is going to ask you some questions. You keep your mouth shut until I say to talk. If you don't talk when I tell you to, then your little friends over there get a tooth yanked." He pointed towards the frightened faces staring back at him from the stairs. "But, if they tell us what we need to know and you don't, you get a tooth removed." Bobby gave Jeremiah a quick nod and was proud to see his little brother hadn't forgotten how to play along.
Jerry held up the wire cutters he'd fished out of his pocket with the pliers. The object that looked like a pocket knife had a corkscrew sticking out of one end, that was the one Bobby wanted to get his hands on, but he'd have to settle for the most frightening threat he could think of and right now that seemed to be the tooth pulling. Hell, he had to admit it seemed to be the next best thing to carrying around a can of gas; people did tend to have a bad reaction to the idea of having their teeth forcibly removed. He could understand why, hell, he hated the dentist himself, a fact that Jack would swear to if given an opportunity, but that was another story, one that he planned on keeping between him and Jack.
Harris' gaze narrowed as he stared past Bobby to the wire cutters in Jeremiah's hand. "You do realize I can have you all thrown into jail for assaulting a federal agent? Attempted murder of a federal agent in fact, you are all going to pay for this, including Green and Johnson." Harris spoke with an angry quake to his voice.
"You really want to risk us telling your boss, Kirkpatrick about your connection to Jessup Winston and Adam Macks?" Angel spoke the words with a calm, steady tone. He shook his head slowly. "Right now, you are facing getting your teeth pulled from your dirty, rotten mouth, and you think you can deal with that?" He laughed and looked at Jeremiah. "He's one hard headed son of a bitch, ain't he? Why don't we see how these two feel about losing their teeth for him. See if they are as fuckin' stupid as he seems to be." He turned back to Harris. "We want to know where the hell we can find Winston. We want an address and the name he's using. We want contact information. Phone numbers for him and names of anyone he's dealing with."
Harris' face seemed to pale instantly, and Bobby was sure he could feel a shudder run through the man trapped under his arm. Harris' mouth opened, but Bobby increased the pressure of his hold, "You keep your mouth shut until I tell you." He warned.
"Once you give us that much, it ain't gonna hurt you to spill the whole fucking truth and tell us what the hell he wants with our family. Why is he gunnin' for us? We ain't done shit to him. He was free and clear from the whole mess, why did he send you in to fuck with us?" Angel dropped down to one knee over the smaller man on the steps. "You know, you can save your ass, right? If he doesn't answer," He pointed the pliers towards Harris, "I'll pull a tooth, unless you start talking fast enough to stop me." He flashed a smile and gave the tool a slight wiggle in front of the man's eyes.
"Okay bitch, start talking, now. Just remember, if they talk and you don't, you're teeth are going to be yanked out, one at a time, nothing to kill the pain." Bobby prayed the man didn't think about the security guard in the lobby, or the fact that the fire and police had probably been dispatched when the alarms went off, effectively removing any chance of a long encounter in the stairwell.
He hoped Harris was scared enough at that moment to not consider the obvious, that Johnson and Green would never really let them do anything to the Federal Agent, or the two men lying in pain on the stairs; and the Mercers sure as hell weren't stupid enough to try anything right there in the stairwell of a fucking children's home, they just weren't that damn stupid or cold hearted. They had a reputation, and that's what Bobby was counting on, that Harris would consider their reputation and believe they were willing to inflict the pain as threatened.
Harris looked down at the wide eyes of his companions. Bobby could see the thoughts behind Harris' cold glare when the man shifted his gaze back up to meet his. "You ain't gonna do shit." He almost smiled at Bobby, but it was more of a mocking sneer. "You ain't got the balls to…"
Bobby planted his hand over Harris' mouth with a hard smack, effectively shutting him up. Harris wasn't going to fall for it, he was older, he'd been around a few times to know the Mercers were gambling on his fear and he wasn't going to play into it. He leaned in closer to Harris, studying the spark of uncertainty in his eyes. Well, maybe Harris wasn't as sure as he thought. He kept his eyes on the man, mentally daring him to try to say another word.
Harris didn't look away from Bobby, he locked stares with him. Bobby knew he had to find a way to convince the man that he was serious or he would have to really let his brother carry out the threat. "You messed with my family Harris. That's the one thing that pushes me past my limits. You understand that, don't you? You push me past my limits and I'm willing to do just about anything. You seem to know so much about me and my brothers. You really think I make threats I can't back up?" He let his hand drop slowly from the man's mouth, not surprised to see blood spotting the man's lip from the hard smack he'd just inflicted on him.
Harris didn't look as if he planned to speak yet, his eyes seemed to twitch, and Bobby was sure the agent was considering his words. Bobby waited a few seconds, but still Harris held fast to his silence.
"Start pulling teeth, Angel." Bobby didn't turn away from him as he spoke.
"You, turn this way." Angel yelled at one of the men still sprawled on the stairs.
"You son of a bitch, let him go!" Bobby heard the words behind him, but he didn't turn to the sight that Harris was flicking his unsure eyes towards. He let Harris look, aware of the shock slowly taking hold in the man's features as the screaming behind him bounced off the walls.
"Harris you ass hole, tell them what they want to know before they pull Jim's tooth out!" The yell came from the man who would be the next victim if no one talked.
"You shut your fucking mouth William!" Harris yelled and tried to make a move forward.
The man screaming, Jim, seemed to be fighting, but he was small compared to Angel and didn't stand a chance.
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you what you want to know!" William yelled out.
Bobby's head snapped around to look at William, the chubby fellow who had broken his fall down the stairwell. He flashed William a smile as he took in the scene of Angel, sitting with one knee in the chest of little Jim, a hand forcing the poor guy's mouth open and the pliers already gripping onto one of the man's front teeth. "Really, you'll talk?" He turned back to Harris and grinned even wider. "Hell, that means either you start running your mouth or I'm gonna get to start pullin' your teeth." He managed a laugh that sounded as if he was delighted by the prospect. He barely noticed Jeremiah stepping up next to him with the wire cutters held up in Harris' line of sight. Harris stared into Bobby's eyes, almost daring him to carry out his threat.
"Winston's real name is Nicholas, Jesse Nicholas; and he's got a suite at the Marriott downtown, at the Renaissance Center. He's not going to be staying in town much longer; he's planning to fly out of Detroit as soon as we deliver what he asked for." William spoke quickly without waiting for a prompt from Angel who was still looming above Jim.
"You son of a bitch, shut your mouth!" Harris yelled out as he attempted to dive towards the informant lying on the floor. If it hadn't been for Bobby's hold, or Jeremiah's body blocking his path he probably would have killed the man right then. William had just made himself an enemy in Harris.
Bobby turned and looked at William; the fear in his eyes was genuine. "You know you probably just guaranteed yourself a death sentence, right?" He asked the man.
William managed to half sit up on the steps. He looked at Angel, who was backing the pliers off of Jim's tooth. "Yeah, well, I want to talk to the cops. If I'm gonna tell anyone anything more, I'm gonna tell it to someone who can offer some protection." He spoke quickly.
"You're with the FBI, like Harris here?" Bobby asked quickly, not sure if he could trust good old William. Of course, if he rolled on his connections with Harris and Winston to the cops then there might be some hope for them all yet. The guy understood the shit he was in though, waist deep in it as a matter of fact. He wanted protection? He really thought he'd get it from the cops? Hell, if he was with the FBI he wasn't too fucking smart.
William looked confused. "No, that's Harris. We work for Nicholas." He gave a quick nod to Jim, whose eyes were still stuck on the pliers gripped tightly in Angel's hand. Despite the fact that pliers were no longer gripping Jim's tooth, the larger Mercer still had one knee planted in his chest, holding him down. "Come on, get off of him, I said I'd tell you anything you wanted to know."
Jeremiah flashed a smile at Harris and held up the wire cutters. "Does that mean I get to start pulling teeth now?" He gave Bobby a sideways glance.
"No, that's not enough information. I want more." Bobby turned back to Angel. "Start pulling some of his teeth," He nodded towards William, "Let's see if that motivates anyone to say more. The more they talk the more we get to take from Harris here." He looked back at Harris and grinned a little wider than he needed to. "Nice smile Harris, hope you know a good dentist." He looked back to watch Angel work on William.
Angel looked down at William and nodded his head. "You said you were supposed to be delivering something to Winston, or Nicholas, or whatever the hell his name is. What were you supposed to be delivering?"
William swallowed hard when Angel reached out and grabbed hold of his tie, pulling on it to draw him in closer, towards the pliers. "We don't know. Only Harris knew exactly what we were after, but he was playing stupid fucking games. He wouldn't get to the point with the kid; he was stuck on the damn Adam Macks murder. Playing games with the kid, mental shit, you know?" He looked up at Harris.
"By the kid, you mean our brother? Craig?" Angel asked, his stare fixing hard on William for a long moment before he looked up at Bobby, then to Harris. "What the hell can Craig have that you want?" He sounded as pissed as Bobby was starting to feel. "What the hell did you do to him?"
Harris flashed a wide smile. "Sorry, don't know what the hell he's talking about. He works for a known gangster, do you really think he's telling the truth?" His voice held an arrogance to it that ate straight through Bobby's self control.
"Fuck the pliers." Bobby growled while he met Angel's gaze for a short moment before turning back to look at Harris. His arm pulled away from the older man, but only for a moment. He shifted the angle and sent his elbow back towards Harris with a quick flash, landing it directly into the man's smile.
He felt flesh and teeth give way under the force of the blow and a warm sensation filled Bobby's chest; one that he recognized as a mixture of relief and satisfaction. He had really needed that. He reached up to rub on his elbow; it was going to hurt for a few days, but nothing he couldn't handle. He remembered the smile Harris had been wearing just a second before and chuckled softly at the look of shock and anger that had replaced it now.
Blood poured instantly in between the curses that ripped from the man's mouth. It was a heavy flow, unlike the tiny trickle that had previously been present. Bobby backed off, allowing Harris to plant his hands over his bleeding lips and gums.
"You son of a bitch," Harris spit two teeth into his hands and looked at Bobby. "You'll pay for that." His words sounded warped from the wide gap in the top row of teeth, the two that had been front and center were no longer sitting pretty to torment Bobby Mercer.
"You really should watch your step there Harris. Falling down the stairs like that, it's a sure sign that age is starting to catch up to you." Johnson's voice filled the stairwell.
Bobby turned towards the voice. Johnson was walking up the steps with Green right behind him. He should have known the cops wouldn't leave him and his brothers alone with Harris and his goons. "You hear much of that?" He asked the men, his eyes resting on Green, who was starting to look about the same as his name might suggest. "You okay there Wilber?"
Green stopped in the middle of the flight of steps beneath them, leaned against the hand rail and let out a sigh. "I'm fine." He sounded irritated, but still relieved to have stopped his ascent. "We heard it all." He looked at Johnson who hadn't stopped to look back.
Bobby turned to William and Jim. "What were your orders? What were you supposed to do if you got whatever Winston was looking for?" He ignored Harris, but noticed the two hoods looking up at the agent.
"He wanted it delivered as soon as possible. Once he had what he wanted we were to leave town separately to be paid when we returned to…" Jim's words seemed to shudder as he spoke.
"Shut the fuck up, you idiot!" Harris yelled. "They are baiting you both, don't you see that? You both have just set us all up for a fall."
Johnson looked at Harris and smiled. "I think Kirkpatrick is going to be very interested in all of this. Don't you? When was he due back in town?"
Harris managed a half smile and turned his bloody face to Johnson. "It won't matter. It will be too late by then. There will be no one around to go after, except for us." He motioned to William and Jim. "And they will be dead shortly after that."
"And you?" Bobby shot at the man.
"Ain't much you can do to me without any proof, now is there? The worst that will happen to me is I am forced to resign my position with the agency. Hell, there's always a government agency looking for a good investigator." His smile faded. "And then I'll just come right back at you."
Bobby shook his head. "Not the way it's going to play out Harris." It wasn't an empty threat; he could feel it in his gut. They were going to end this, tonight. He'd always known he would end up killing Winston. He knew he'd end up putting a bullet in the man's head the second he laid eyes on him in his marble and glass palace, wearing silk and talking about how Macks had fucked him over. The man was good, playing all fucking naïve and put out by the violent side of crime. Bobby wouldn't fall for it again though, and this time, he was going to fire the gun, a gun that couldn't be traced back to any one in his family. There wouldn't be any witness either.
"Let's get this ironed out down at the station." Green spoke from his position on the steps. "Come on man, you boys need to be getting out of here now. Let us deal with our jobs." He gave Bobby a hard stare.
Johnson turned towards Angel and Jeremiah. "You go on, I got these clowns." He gave them both a nod while he pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his pocket. He snapped the restraints onto Harris' wrists, confining them in front so that he had use of his hands to hold over his bleeding mouth. He quickly frisked the agent and didn't seem surprised to find the man's gun holster empty under his coat. He turned towards the two injured men on the stairs. "They won't need cuffs yet, right?" He acknowledged the fact that Bobby's body slamming into both William and Jim from above had effectively put them both out of commission for a while. "Are they armed?"
"No guns, I checked them good. I think they're gonna be good boys and stay put for a while." Angle stood, removing his knee from Jim's chest. "Aren't you?" He directed the question to the men.
William and Jim exchanged quick glances but didn't comment.
Jeremiah looked at Johnson. "You sure you can handle them on your own? There are three of them."
"One is in cuffs and the other two look like they ain't gonna be walking far on their own for a while. I've got Green with me to back me up." Johnson laughed and looked from one brother to the other until his gaze fell on Bobby. "Where is Harris' gun?"
Bobby couldn't shake the uneasiness that settled into his gut. He stepped to corner and picked Harris' weapon off of the floor. He stepped down the stairs to Green and handed it to him. "You up to guard duty?" he asked quietly. "I didn't think you were here officially."
Green smiled and nodded, despite the fact that he looked wore down at the moment. "I'm good man. You guys need to get out of here before our back up arrives."
Bobby turned to Angel. "They ain't gonna be able to cause any problems?" He nodded towards William and Jim, still not comfortable with leaving the only men who knew about Winston alone with Johnson and Green.
Angel's eyes were focused on Johnson. His head nodded but he didn't divert his stare. It was obvious he felt the same chunk of heavy lead in his stomach as Bobby did. "Yeah, they're good. They ain't going anywhere."
Johnson looked at Bobby and then to Angel. "If one of you want to stick around and wait that's fine, but it's much better for you to be gone when the uniforms show up, really."
Bobby still had a sinking feeling gripping at his gut. He looked down at Green again. "You're sure we can leave you alone here?"
Green seemed to sense the true question. "Bobby, Johnson is like a son to me. I trust him with my life, and if you think back a few days, he's saved your ass a few times already."
Bobby turned back to Johnson. "No offense, but…" He started.
"You're a hard ass Bobby. No offense taken. Go get your brothers out of here before this whole night gets more complicated. You guys can't be here, it will raise too many questions. We'll give you a call once we got these guys booked and secure behind bars. In the meantime, you have Winston to track down, don't you?" Johnson seemed calm enough.
Bobby looked at Jeremiah and Angel. "Come on; let's let the cops do their job." He muttered. He was going against his own instincts, but he had learned that he could trust Green. He wasn't so sure about Johnson, but he was sure about Green. He led Angel and Jeremiah down the stairs. Johnson was right about one thing, they had a lead to Winston, and that was his next stop, Winston's hotel suite. He wondered if the son of bitch would be wearing another silk robe.