Jack pauses at my request, so I run the scalpel down his left arm, soft at first, almost like a lover’s caress. I watch as fear settles into his eye, but still, he refuses to talk. I sigh and press harder, watching as his skin begins to split. He opens his mouth, then closes it again, so I press further. He groans as tears fall over his bruised face.
“2nd of March 1892,” he spits, forcing me to stop.
“Also a Wednesday. You’re not challenging me here, Jack.”
“What… what is the point of this?” he mumbles.
Ah, finally. The right question.
“Well, it came to my attention, after a conversation with my wife tha?—”
“You have a wife?” he asks, curiosity cutting through the pain.
I slap him instinctively. There is nothing more frustrating than being interrupted. A prisoner thinking he can do that? Unacceptable. I pull his face back into place and slap him again, harder this time. A tooth flies from his mouth as he screams.
“That is irrelevant, Jack. Stay focused,” I bark.
“S… sorry.”
“Good boy.” ‘Ain’t no mountain high enough by Marvin Gaye’ starts to play again as I take a steadying breath and force myself to focus. I need answers. He is no good to me if he is dead because I cannot control my anger.
“Where was I?” I muse. “Ah yes.”
I move around him so he loses sight of me, his body flinching as he tries to pull away.
“Do you remember what you were doing on Saturday the 6th of February 2021?” I don’t wait for an answer. Instead, I slice a circle into the centre of his back and he screams at the sudden aggression. “I do. You were at my family’s estate. Does that ring any bells for you, Jackie?”
Slicing another circle, his screams tip into hysterics. The noise drills into my head, ruining Marvin in the background. Deciding he doesn’t need to speak for this part, I sigh and step away. I grab a cloth and duct tape from the table, then return and shove it into his mouth, muffling the wails. Using the scalpel, I slice off a strip and secure it in place. Thank God. The noise dulls and I can think again.
“Where was I? Hmm?” I grip his face as snot and tears run down it. “Listen carefully, Jack. I’m not repeating this and when I’m done, you are going to tell me everything. Nod if you understand.”
He gives a weak nod. I accept it and move back behind him.
“Anyway… four years ago, you, Benjamin, Maverick and Alex came over to relax. Normal, right? Can you even count how many times you came round? Probably not… but I can.”
I carve an upside-down heart beneath the two circles already etched into his back and his body jerks.
“Do you want to know why I stopped hanging out with you after that? There was something off about your exchange. Something that didn’t sit right in my gut. You remember now, don’t you, Jackie boy?”
His muffled sounds suggest he is trying to speak, but that privilege is gone.
“I always found it strange that you knew Dr Fisher. He wasn’t someone you should know. Not with your station.”
I continue, carving lines beneath the heart, a little deeper than necessary.
“I remember it clearly, Jack. The others were busy showing off by the pool, too distracted to notice anything. But I saw you. I saw the shift. The confidence. The way you carried yourself when he spoke to you. Then you both moved off, tucked yourselves into a corner to hide the conversation.”
I lean in slightly.
“That was your first mistake.”
I pause.
“You think my house isn’t wired? We have cameras in every inch of that property. Nowhere, and I mean nowhere, has a blind spot.”
“Something just niggled at the back of my mind, you know? Like a scratch I needed to itch. When you left, I went and watched it back, Jackie boy.” I grit my teeth at the memory of what was said in my home. “Do you remember? Hmm?”
He doesn’t respond.