Page 37 of Justified
“Where do you transfer the money?”
He shook his head.“I don’t know.It goes from my account to an anonymous account.It’s supposed to be safer that way so the owner can’t be tracked and we have plausible deniability.”
“Do you know where they are getting their victims or where they are killing them?”
He shook his head.“I have no idea.For all I know, it’s in another country.”
Shit.I was thinking the same thing.Maybe Jordan would be able to take photos of the locations and match them to buildings around the world.I had no idea how difficult that was going to be or if it could even be done.Only he’d know for certain.
“Please, I’ve… I’ve told you everything I know.Please let me go,” he begged.
I cocked my head.“Like you let that little boy go?”
Walter started crying again.I think he was starting to realize that he wasn’t going to get out of this situation in one piece… or at all.
“Yeah… that’s it… soak in all that fear and despair.The child you killed had parents who loved him, and you stole that away from him when you ended his life.He had a future, dreams, and now he is dead.Because some over-privileged, rich piece of shit wanted to get his jollies off.Life too boring for you?You have everything you could possible want, yet the world is not enough.”
He started to grimace at me defiantly.“Go fuck yourself!You think I give a shit about what you think of me?You think you can judge me?Who the fuck are you?!Some sick little boy playing at being a hero?”
I snorted.“Oh, don’t get it twisted.I’m no hero.What I am is someone who doesn’t like it when bad people get away with doing bad things to good people.Who I am is Cobra.”
With that, I grabbed his jaw, forcing his mouth open.He screamed as I stabbed his tongue with the tip of my knife, filling his mouth with blood.I ran the blade down, splitting his tongue in half as more blood ran down his chin onto his chest and lap.He spit blood on me as he screamed and cried in agony.I knew the pain must have been intense, but I was nowhere near through with this motherfucker.I released his jaw and held his head back as I dug my knife inside his right eye.More blood poured out as I gouged that bad boy out.
Walter started choking on his own blood, forcing me to let his head go so he could clear his airway.He coughed and sputtered blood on his chest and lap until he was able to take in oxygen.Once he did that, I pushed his head back to gouge out his other eye.I stabbed him again, moving my blade around in his eyeball until I hooked it good so I could pry it out.I stood back now, tossing his eye on the floor.He screamed like a bitch the entire time I removed his eyes.
“Doesn’t feel sexy or exhilarating, does it, Mr.J?That’s what you put that boy through.”
He was shaking his head and sounds were coming out of his mouth, but without the full use of his tongue, he couldn’t form the words he wanted to say.I was sure by now he was only begging for me to stop or to let him live.Didn’t matter, anyway.I was past done with listening to whatever he had to say.I stood behind him, holding his head steady as I began carving into his scalp.My stomach was a little queasy as I did this, but I had to keep it together.This motherfucker needed to feel every ounce of pain he had inflicted on that child for his own delight.
More of his scalp peeled away from his body, revealing the bloody flesh and white of his skull.I kept carving until a nice slice fell onto the floor by my feet.Walter was beside himself at this point, as his body started going into shock.I walked around to the front of him.His hands were already bound to the armrest of the metal chair, so I just started cutting through his wrist.
With my strength, it was easy to carve through his bone, which I did as more blood gushed from the wound until I had completely severed the hand.I tossed it in his lap, then started on the other.Again, he screamed and cried, but as far as I was concerned, his sounds were drowned out by the sound of my blade cutting through flesh, muscle, and bone.With both hands removed, he was bleeding out pretty badly and wouldn’t last too much longer.I still had his feet to do.
I squatted down and started cutting away at the ankle on his left foot, then his right foot, tossing them both in his lap.Looking at the exposed bone as blood ran from his many wounds was some of the most disturbing shit I’d ever seen, let alone had done.Walter was just moaning a little now, the sound barely audible to my ears.
“This is what you put that child through.This is what he felt when you had that man cut away at him.I want you to feel his fear, his pain, and his hopelessness.That was your gift to him, and this is my gift to you,” I said.I walked over to my stash of weapons and pulled out another one of my knives with a sharp blade.There was one last thing I needed to do.I walked back over to Walter, kneeling before him.“But even after all of that, you weren’t done with that kid yet, were you?”
He was in his final stages now.The life was slowly draining out of him.He whimpered, but that was it.
I nodded.“Naw, you weren’t done with him.You had one more little torture for the child to endure.”I aimed my blade at his piss slit and started slicing into his flesh.He moaned a little louder and tried to move, but there was no use.I continued to slice through his cock until it was split like a banana and all of the insides were exposed.Never saw what the inside of a penis looked like before, and I could probably live without ever having to see that shit again.
I rose and took a few steps back.“Now… now you know what he felt through and through,” I said, then removed my knife from his thigh and walked back over to the crate and started packing my shit up.By the time I turned around, I saw Walter take his final breath.I approached him, checking his pulse.There was none.Good.Before I left him, though, I wanted to leave a little message.I carved the word “Cobra” into his chest with my knife.Finally, I was done with Walter Darring, aka Mr.Jingles.I gathered all of my belongings and walked out of the place, climbed inside my car, and drove off.
I made it about four blocks before I had to pull over and puke.I’d been nauseous through most of that torture shit, but was forcing it all down so I could finish what needed to be done.But right now, all bets were off.Another wave of nausea washed through me and more of my roast beef sandwich and bile spewed from my mouth onto the pavement.I heaved a few times, then spit the last of it out.I thought I was done for now.I looked around, wondering how many people might have seen me looking uncool.There were only a few beggars on the street, so I didn’t stress.I closed my car door and drove back home.
Chapter nine
“Iseverythingokay?”Jordanasked me as I climbed out of my car.“Oh shit… are you okay?”he asked when he saw my condition.I looked like I’d seen better days and a lot of Walter’s blood was on my outfit.
I nodded.“My stomach is a bit flip-floppy, but mission accomplished.”
“You killed him?”
I nodded as I started removing my clothes.I headed toward the bathroom.I had to take a nice long, hot shower.“He’s dead, but he gave me a new name.Look up Richard Tate.”I closed the bathroom door, turned on the shower, and climbed in under the spray.It felt so good to wash all of it away and get the refreshing sensation of being clean.I must have been in the shower for a full hour before I finally turned off the water and climbed out.Jordan, the sweet guy that he was, had put a pair of my sweats, a t-shirt, and my glasses on the toilet lid for me.He’d also taken away my dirty and bloody outfit.
I dried off quickly and got dressed, then slipped on my glasses before I walked out of the bathroom.“Did you look him up?”
Jordan nodded.“Yeah.How are you feeling?”
