A Gamble

Nash is a little tied up.

“Are the ropes too tight?”

“No, they’re… mighty snug,” I said, smirking at my captor.

“Good, good,” said Calvert indifferently. For he’d taken care to inflict pain on me when tightening the knot. Calvert scratched his head on the muzzle of his gun, trying to be clever in his line of questioning. He’d gotten the drop on me, but I wasn’t sure why I was still alive.

“Um… who are you?”

He wasn’t that clever after all. He was too anxious. But even an antsy idiot can kill when his victim is immobile. I wasn’t dead yet, so I decided to play ball. “Nash.”

“What are you, some kind of cop?”

“Used to be. Did Amelia let you into the office, or did you break in?”

“I’ll ask the questions, NASH,” said Calvert pointing the gun at me again.

“Sorry,” I lied, “you’re the boss.”

“Why are you here? Who sent you?”

“Well no one sent me, I just know the diamond’s here.”

“So you’re after it too huh? Who else knows you’re here?”

I answered heartily, “Just you and me.”

He paced around a few of the desks, and then walked around behind me. In front of the elevator. I could have swiveled on the chair, but I knew he was coming back.

“But,” I began, “It’s getting close to eight. And someone’s gonna come into work eventually, and they’re gonna see all the spring cleaning you’ve done…” I motioned with my head to the mess that Calvert had made. Office supplies and paper lay scattered, even desk drawers had been wrenched out. “And of course me, tied up to an office chair with a gun to my head.”

Calvert was obviously worried; the way he twitched, the way he sweat. If I didn’t know any better I’d say he pissed himself, he smelled so bad.

“But you don’t know where the diamond is, do you?” I smiled, knowingly.

He was ready to snap. I wondered if he’d ask me how I could be so calm.

“Okay! Where’s the diamond?” Calvert threatened me by putting the gun under my chin.

I looked the man in the eye. The look of fear was tearing him up from the inside out. He made a good show, but even when the stakes were this high, he couldn’t kill a man. He wasn’t going to kill me. I was calm before but now I was relaxed. I took a gamble, and decided to antagonise the unstable, and incompetent thief.

“How can you be this stupid, Calvert?”

“How do you know my name?” he asked getting more worried.

“Oh, take a guess, nimwit! I used to be a cop, remember? I’d say you’ve been here… what all night? If it wasn’t in the safe, to which you had the combination, why would you keep looking?”

“What else could I do?”

“Obviously Amelia has the diamond! She double-crossed you, you big dope!”

“No,” he said nodding his head in disagreement, “No, she wouldn’t do that to me.”

“Are you gonna tell yourself that when you’re in prison?”

It seemed I was wrong. The rage in his eyes suggested he was willing to kill. Under the right circumstances. Calvert pressed the gun into my eye, and I winced with unease.

“How dare you say that about Amelia? She would never betray me!” he growled.

Suddenly the elevator dinged and he fired at the doors reflexively. An instant later I pushed off the ground, chair and all, and tackled Calvert onto one of the desks, whereupon the chair broke.

I wrestled with the man for the gun, but he held onto it, and knocked me onto the floor. He took aim, and as he was about to fire someone clipped him. He grunted as he went down, but it was a fleshwound. I jumped up and knocked him in the face with the first thing I put my hand on: a chair leg.

Calvert was down cold, but it looked like he was still breathing. I looked behind me to see Mccrae standing in the elevator with her gun drawn. She had been winged as well.

“You alright Mccrae?” I queried.

“Yeah. You?” said she, panting as heavily as I.

I nodded, “You took your time, detective.” As soon as I brought up her slow response time, Mccrae’s backup arrived, emerging from the stairwell at the far end of the bullpen.

The tough blonde brushed off my comment. I was so lucky that she got my message at all.

“It smells like piss in here,”

I needed only to point out the sweaty unconscious man lying on the floor, and she said, “Oh. So, where’s the diamond?”

“Amelia’s got it.”

“And I assume you know where to find her?”

“Yeah,” I said, having found a pair of scissors, and awkwardly cut the duct tape around my wrists. “Follow me.” Together, Mccrae and I rode the elevator back down, while the officers took care of the mess in the office.