“I imagine the little girl he had mutilated screamed too, Dr. Muerto.”
Nick took a deep breath and slapped Haris into silence. “Right you are. Okay, Haris, here’s how this works. The demonstration comes first. When you get a taste of that we’ll uncover your mouth. You have one minute to begin telling us all your bank account passwords. Dr. Kabong already has your laptop open on the table with your three bank accounts windowed on the desktop. We also need to know where you keep your house papers. Felicia showed us where your safe is. We’ll need to know the combination for that too. Okay, here’s your demo, shit-head. After it’s over you’d best not be bashful about telling us what we want to know.”
Nick sliced El-Amin from breastbone to groin, just deep enough so the intestines began to bulge. Johnny poured bleach over the wound. They watched the effect on Haris with clinical interest. “It’s a good thing we did so many duct tape winds, Johnny. Otherwise, I think Haris might have bucked right out of them.”
“He seems to be enjoying this as much as I had hoped.”
“Indeed. Did Cala mind escorting the girls to dinner?”
“No,” Johnny answered, glancing at his watch before neutralizing the bleach with warm water and salve. “She will keep them away for a couple of hours. Gus will make sure they stay safe. We should then arrive at the Allegheny Park at about exactly the right time. Is the cutoff you’re familiar with safe enough for us to dig for a while without being observed?”
“Oh yeah. I’m sorry about having the digging become part of this. It’s a hell of a lot easier throwing them out of the helicopter.”
“I don’t mind. Cala’s not too crazy about dark woods. I was thinking maybe we should leave her at a town until we finish.” Johnny readied his iPad for recording.
“Sure, Johnny. That would be fine.” Nick leaned over and pulled off the duct tape from Haris’s mouth. “Are you ready to speak? Remember you only have one minute to speak. Otherwise you get a second demo. Ready?”
Nick pulled the rubber ball out. It was off to the races. When they acquired all the information requested, Nick went upstairs to the safe while Johnny transferred funds to Felicia’s new Bank of America account. Nick found thirty-nine thousand dollars in the safe and all the house documents. He made copies of the house documents on the house printer and made a printing of the safe combination. By the time he finished, Johnny was receiving confirmation on the new account transfer.
“Haris had over two million dollars. It’s all been transferred and the accounts closed,” Johnny told him. “How did you make out?”
“Thirty-nine grand and I have the papers. We’re good to go.”
Nick stuck the final eternity syringe into El-Amin’s neck while Johnny readied the body-bag Haris had been kneeling over. They cut the bindings and lowered him into the bag. There was very little cleanup needed. Gus had taken one of El-Amin’s vehicles to escort Cala and the others. When Gus returned with his charges, Nick had already finished off Eliah Kader and loaded El-Amin beside him with Johnny’s help. When everyone was together in the living room, Nick explained everything about the financial side.
“When Claude comes to visit, he’ll have the property in your name, Felicia. If there’s any kind of a glitch we’ve missed addressing, Claude will straighten it out when he visits. I’ve already sent copies of the papers to our IT specialist. He’ll get them ready before Claude leaves. Will you be okay here?”
“Now that the beast is gone, we will be fine.” Felicia took Nick’s hand in both hers. “Thank you. I know I can never repay you. It is good Claude has friends like you. He was very lost for a long time.”
Nick patted her hand. “I’ve programmed the phone Gus bought for you. It has my number, Claude’s, and John Harding’s. If ever Haris’s friends or business people stop here looking for him, remember what I told you to do.”
“Yes. Be polite. Tell them Haris left without telling us where he was going. Take down their names if they wish to leave them with us, and pepper spray them if they try to force their way in.”
“Use the stun-gun I gave you as a follow up. Stun them until they stop moving. Then call me and the police.”