Way the Ball Rolls - 3. On the Spot

I didn’t realise when it was that I’d drifted off, coming to my senses when I was roughly shaken awake, my cheek brushing none too softly on the rough material of the sack under my head.

“Wakey wakey!” If the sharp burn wasn’t enough, the cold mocking voice singing so near my ear is more than enough to shake me out of my stupor.

“Huh?” I can’t see his face, and he’s not the one who’d come to fetch Rory. “You’re up!” he says in a sinister tone as he grabs my upper arms and hauls me to my feet.

“What? Where? What do you mean? Where are you taking me?” I cannot help the tirade of questions any more than I can help being half-shoved, half-carried by my arms towards the door.

“God! You sure do talk a lot! Why can’t you put those words to better use and do us all a favour?” he snickers.

I’m almost thrown into a dimly lit room, a smaller one this time; the first thought that comes to mind is an interrogation room. I can’t help glancing around to try and spot the one sided glass on any of the walls.

I have to shake my head at my own stupidity when I find none. Of course I wasn’t at a police station; were it so, I’d have been in a lock up, not in a dark room.

As soon as I seat myself on the lone chair in the room, the door opens and in walks two men. They were nothing like I’d expected interrogators to be.

One of them looks like he could belong on the cover of TIME magazine, complete with a Navy blue power suit, while the other looks like a college student, maybe a couple of years older than me at most. Their expressions are perfectly calm and composed and the 'suit' even sets down a bottle of water in front of me.

Seeing me eye the bottle suspiciously, the college guy starts chuckling and I can’t help but shoot him a glare.

“It’s not drugged if that’s what’s worrying you.” The 'suit' glares at the college guy too. “Stop horsing around Jack. We really have to get this done, and soon; we don’t have a lot of time.” Turning to me he continues in more or less a monotone, “We really need you to be able to talk, drink some water. You’ll need it, trust me!”

“Trust you?” I scoff, ‘that’s the last thing I will ever do,’ I add silently.

“Yes, trust us. That’s about the smartest thing you can do, right now.” College guy, aka Jack pipes in.

“What the heck is that supposed to mean? I have no idea what I am doing here.”

“Now, now. That’s not so true, is it, Mark?” The ‘suit’ whose name I do not know yet leans back on the table, facing me. His blue eyes looking like chips of lice, ready to shoot shards at me. Meanwhile, Jack has started emptying the folder he was carrying.

I honestly have no clue as to what is happening. My memory is still fuzzy about exactly what is it that happened since I was struck on my head outside the garage yesterday... or was it earlier today?

Taking a deep breath, that’s where I decide to begin the conversation.

“Look guys, I honestly have no idea what’s going on.” The looks on their faces are enough to tell me that they are both thinking the same thing: that I am trying to be too smart, probably too smart for my own good. But, I need to make my point, and I am really not a big fan of being on the receiving end of torture. Therefore, before either of them can interrupt, I decide to place my argument.

“I know you guys don’t believe me.” I say with a slight shake of my head.

“Just hear me out, okay. All I remember is walking into the garage, and someone hitting me on the back of my head, things are a little fuzzy from then on.” I sincerely hope telling the truth will help me some. What do I have to lose now, anyway?

“Are you fucking kidding me? We talked to you after that! What do you mean you don’t remember anything? We spoke for hours!” Jack slams his fist down on the table, almost upsetting the water bottle. The ‘suit’ reaches out instinctively to restrain him so that he doesn’t get closer to me.

“Jack! Calm down! Just give him a chance to finish, will you?”

“Fine Ed, I’ll give Mark his chance,” Jack turns to me, and takes a deep breath. Picking the bottle up from the table, he opens the cap and takes a small sip, still looking at me.

“Here drink this…” he passes the opened bottle to me. This time, somehow, I don’t feel like second guessing the integrity. I really am thirsty. So I don’t even hesitate to take a long drink of the water offered to me.

“Mark, I’m just impatient. All I meant to say is just that… you were up for hours, and we’ve spoken now and again.”

“Jack, you’re not making much sense.” The ‘suit’, Ed, interjects. He clearly can see the bewilderment I am feeling. I don’t have any idea as to what Jack is trying to say to me. And yes, confused is not a good state on me, apparently. Ed turns to me now, and looks on as I wipe my face and immediately wince as the cut on my lip, that I didn’t know I had rubs on my sleeve.

“Mark, I can see you’re tired and confused, so let’s start from the beginning? Shall we?

“I’m Ed, and this bozo here, as you’ve probably gathered by now, is Jack,” He says nodding at Jack, who in turn nods at me.

It’s weird how their hostile attitudes change in such little time. They’re actually not looking threatening now; not even the slightest, but, in my line of work, where we know we’ve stepped on our share of toes and then denied having done it, we know better than to trust a couple of faces that look like they’re my friends. Because, if not anything else, I’ve learnt, and learnt the hard way, people lie, they lie their butts off, just to achieve what they want. Also, we humans are very capable actors; we act when we want, we act when we don’t want, and sometimes, just for the kick of it, we act just because we can. And that’s exactly what I am planning to do now, act; I need to know what’s going on.

“And, we have to talk.” Ed continues. “Too many things have happened in the past couple of days.”

“Couple of days? How long have I been here for? Zach would go mad with worry by now!” I can’t help my horror. God, who knows what’s going through his mind now, how he is coping with it all.

“Relax Mark, you’ve been here about half a day at the most. Who’s Zack?” Jack adds with a chuckle.

“Oh! Never mind then.” Half a day is not so bad. He’ll still be worried, but if this mess can be sorted soon, which it looks like, by the looks of it, maybe he’ll just have missed a night’s sleep at the most, I can deal with that. “So, you were saying?”

“Yes, I believe you know why is it that you’re here. But, since you say you’re having trouble remembering some things, let me give you a refresher course.” Ed looks like all business, shuffling some papers. “Let me begin by telling you what we know so far.

“We know you are now in procession of a white BMW, which by no legal mean is yours. We also know you were assisted by that kid in the other room, Rory, last Friday, when you stole it from the second floor of the parking structure downtown.

“Now, if it was just a matter of a stolen car, we’d have reported to the police and waited for insurance, and I think we both know it’s not just about that.” Ed’s eyes narrows at this and I try to keep my face impassive, which is turning out to be a tougher job than it should be; especially since the realisation of what really is happening dawns on me. “The car belongs to my Father; let’s call him Ed Sr. for now, shall we? And let’s just say, he had some sensitive information in the car that we cannot retrieve by any other means. We need the master copies that should be in your possession by now, since it is you who have stripped the car, I’m sure.

“Don’t even bother denying it, Mark.” He raises his hand in front of me and silences my attempt at opening my mouth to…well... deny what he was insinuating. I mean, that’s what I would have done, had I not been dealt a pre-emptive strike. He waves his hand, dismissing me.

“We have the two of you on camera, so there’s no use giving us the cock and bull story about how you were at some other place when it was stolen, etc. etc. We’ve already danced that dance.” Ed is clearly pissed. To be honest, I would have been too, were I in his shoes. But they need to help me out here, I really have just flashes. Why is my memory blocking out what happened in these last few hours?

“And?” I can’t help but wonder. And let’s just say, even I was keen to find out exactly what had happened in the last few hours and why I cannot remember… well whatever happened.

“And, let’s just say you’d not win ‘So you think you can Dance’.” Jack adds that bit with an amused and cocky chuckle.

“Haha Jack, keep your interests to yourself, will you?” Ed doesn’t look all that pleased, and I can see it’s not just me that has him gritting his teeth. Whoever Jack was to him, Ed didn’t look all that pleased with him, for some reason. When he turns to speak to me, I can see the calm façade slipping and the blasé demeanour that he was trying to pull off is coming off more as strained. To be fair, I think he looks almost every bit more tired than I feel right now.

“What do you remember since last Wednesday? I think that’s the day I finally managed to track you down to where your base was.” Ed is smiling now, looking almost smug.

“Wednesday?” SHIT! “So that was you? You had me followed… I remember seeing the black sedan everywhere.” My head is reeling; it was finally starting to make sense. The car, the guy at the coffee shop, and then—

“So, it was you guys that almost made me road kill? Twice?”

“That was not the intention,” Ed glares at Jack, “As you probably have figured out by now, this nut here,” he nods sideways at Jack, “he likes to show off, and sometimes… sometimes decides to cut things too close, if you know what I mean.”

I simply nod, also glaring at Jack, I have to admit, the boyish charms evaporated almost instantly when I learnt he is the one I’ve been running from for the last couple of days; it is like as if the rose coloured glasses were suddenly taken off my eyes, and the world didn’t seem so pretty anymore. ‘Nothing is as it seems,’ a small voice echoes in my head.

“So, he was trying to scare me?”

Ed simply nods and I feel the irresistible urge to knock off the silly smirk from Jack’s face.

“Did you consider the fact that I might not have known why it is that I was supposed to be scared?” I am bitter, and I can’t help it. If they think that Ed Sr.’s BMW is the only car I’ve stolen, either they’re incredibly naïve, which I don’t think they are, or that they’re just plain delusional, which, at this point seems more likely.

“Dude!” Jack bursts out laughing.

“Shut it, Jack!” Ed barks, “Mark, let’s get back to business now. As I said, we know you have the car, and for the last two days, we’ve been trying to get you to talk to us and give us what we want.”

“But, my job is to just steal cars. Not clean them, and certainly not touch anything that’s inside it. I’m just a tool. It’s not my show.” Bitter much? I am kind of surprised by the wave of emotions in me, it’s not like I ever want to run a car theft ring. In all honesty, I’m in it just because of the extra money that’s been promised to us, and no doubt, we did get our share too. This is just my share of trouble now, I guess.

“Your boss? The man by the name of… ‘John’?” Ed looks at a paper and then looks up to me. When I nod my assent, he absently shakes his head. “We did call him! He has the perfect answers to the questions we asked. Besides, we cannot accuse him of anything, given it’s you and Rory that’s been captured on the cameras.”

“Cameras? We’d scoped the place out, there was nothing where the car was, how did you manage to get us?”

“Let’s just say, it wasn’t the building’s cameras that caught you.” Apparently it was a funny matter, because Jack and Ed are now chuckling. “we were hoping someone else would show up, and you not only delayed our operation, but now, we ourselves are in a soup because of it.”

“Not to mention a lot of additional trouble!” Jack pipes in, leaning forward.

“So, what is it that you want from me?” While all of this is fascinating, I can’t seem to see why I am here, and what I could possibly do imprisoned in this… this place, whatever ‘this place’ is.

“Are you fucking kidding me? We want the papers and photos back; they were in the car, in a manila envelope on the back seat. Like I said, they’re very, very important to us, and we want them back. It’s more than a life and death situation on our end and we would do anything to get them. We’re hoping the ‘anything’ doesn’t go too far.” The steely edge in Ed’s voice has me wondering what the ‘anything’ consist of.

How did I hurt myself so badly? Was I beaten up or was it just manhandling on their part? I seem to remember being in a room tied up and Rory remembers me screaming. But then again, he did say that it didn’t sound like I was in pain, just that I was screaming for John. So, maybe I was left alone, and I cannot remember anything just because of the bump on my head and it’s just a nasty head injury; and eventually my memory will come back. I really do hope it’s sooner than later, I hate having a huge gaping hole that’s staring me in the face, mocking me and tempting me to lose my temper and scream out things like, ‘Will someone fucking tell me what happened after I was brought here yesterday rather than skirting around the issue and not sugar coating it?’

I mentally reprimand myself and try to focus on the ongoing conversation. It’s a safe topic for now and it doesn’t really need the knowledge of the few lost hours of yesterday.

“Look, like I said, all I am in charge of is delivering the cars to the garage, and then I get paid. So, I have no idea what happened with that envelope either. But, if I can get to the garage, I can look for them. As far as I know, the BMW hasn’t been stripped yet. It might still be in the car, just sitting there. And it will be easy for me to go get them.” I just hope John would understand the dire straits we are in and not make it tougher on us. All he wants is the car anyways, or so I hope.

“Let you go?” Ed’s laughter is really scary, I decide. What did I say that has him laughing this hard? He seems to find it difficult to regain control. Okay, creepy! I didn’t even think, he could laugh this hard and over nothing too.

“Who do you trust the most in this world, Mark? Who do you think will do exactly what you want them to do?” Jack asks casually.

“Zach.” I answer reflexively, and realise a moment too late that he’s not a part of this bit of my life, I should have said ‘Oscar’ instead, and he’d know how to deal with things now.

“Zach, and he is…?”

“My flatmate.”

“Flatmate? And you trust him with your life? That’s strange!” Jack’s cocked eyebrow seems to tell me that he knows anyway, so, I decide to take the plunge. I’m almost at my wits’ end anyway. What more can happen?

“Okay fine… he’s not just my flatmate, he’s my boyfriend too.” Satisfied, you bastards!

“OH! Wow. Boyfriend, huh? So, that means he’d be concerned about your wellbeing as well.” I am surprised at the lack of malice in Ed’s voice, but what scares me even more is the glee in it. What the hell is he thinking?

“Well being? What are you going to do? He has no idea about the car theft thing. He just knows about me working in the garage. Please, don’t involve him.” The request sounds like a plea even to my ears, and they must hear the desperation! Fuck! What have I done? Poor Zach, the last thing he needs is more stress. God, strike me with a bolt of lightning now!

“Even better!” Jack says, sitting on the edge of the table, right in front of me and extracting a mobile from his pocket, he starts scrolling down the contact list.

“Hey, that’s my phone.”

“No shit, Sherlock!” He even rolls his eyes, and I have to grit my teeth and clench my fists just so that I don’t deck him. “I’m looking for Zach’s number. He needs directions, and you get to walk him through it. I don’t see his name, what do you have it saved as?” His brows are furrowed, as he apparently finishes looking through my very small contact list.

“It’s on speed dial. Just hit two.” Ed’s voice surprises me.

I suddenly have a flash of sorts, I remember my own voice telling that exact phrase…

“How do you know?”

“Let’s just say, I’ve spoken to him.”

“What? When? What did you tell him?”

“Doesn’t matter, all he knows is that you’d be freed as soon as he can locate the envelope and call us on this number.” He points to my phone which is still in Jack’s hand.

That makes some sense… They did call Zach then, earlier, and they wanted to know who they could call. And I had instinctively given them directions to call Zach. But I don’t seem to remember anything about the phone call.

“Fine! What do you want me to tell him?” God, let this be over, and soon. I have a lot of explaining to do after this. ‘Please let me talk to him; don’t tell me that I’d just be the one listening to the conversation as an outsider.’

“Don’t worry; we’re going to walk you through it. So, you’re ready to do it?” Ed stands up and finishes the rest of the water in the bottle.

“And you let us go?” Can it really be THAT simple? Of course they’re shitting me, right?

“Of course, we don’t really care what the two of you do once you’re out of here,” Ed shrugs.

“It’s not like you’d go running to the police anyway. And as a bonus, you even get to keep the car!” Jack winks at me. I am tempted to believe them, honour among thieves and stuff like that. But then again…

“Whatever!” I shrug it off; it’s not my fight anyway. It’s not like I’d get a medal if I just sit and rot here. “I just need one thing, though.”

“What would that be?”

“Nothing much, just another bottle of water. Oh and, I also want to see Rory, make sure he is alright!”

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