Side Story #1 - Colt - Page 19

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'Well, I suppose a good first step would be untying them,' said Bohwanox.

Colt didn't move, though. His heart was still racing, and his whole body seemed to be anticipating more violence, but he felt surprisingly calm, given the circumstances. His head was clear. 'You sure about that?'

'Um. Yeah. I'm pretty sure. You can't just leave them here like this.'

'Actually, I can,' said Colt. He started looking around for a phone. 'Did you learn anything good while they were being interrogated?'

'Yes, but now isn't the time to discuss it.'

'Well, skip the details, then. Tell me what I need to know.'

The reaper groaned, then motioned to the unconscious thugs on the floor. 'These two wanted to know where Rex hid a large sum of money. They seemed to think that Janet knew where it was. After a bit of denial on her part, she admitted that it was in her apartment but that it had disappeared. She doesn't know where it is now.'

Colt had moved into the kitchen and then the living room in his quest for a phone. 'How much money are we talkin' here?'

'I couldn't tell. Must be a lot, though, if it's causing all this trouble.'

Colt's eyes landed on a flat black object on the carpeted floor. The coffee table in the middle of the room was on its side, and the adjacent sofa was misaligned with the television. Colt didn't need to know more. He grabbed the object, and sure enough, it was a phone.

The screen was locked, though, asking for a password. Hmm. Damn. Would've been easier if it just wanted a fingerprint or face identification.

He took it back to the still-tied-up hostages and crouched down to show it to Janet. It could've belonged to any of them, but he figured he'd start with her.

She looked somewhat confused, but she nodded at least, and tried to say something through the gag.

Colt pulled the cloth out of her mouth.

"Th-thank you so much," she said, breathless. "Who are you? Where did you come from?"

He didn't answer her. His face was completely covered by the impromptu mask with eyeholes that he'd made for himself, but he still didn't want to risk her recognizing his voice. This was also why he'd left his coat in the car. She'd seen him earlier today in the park, so there was a slim chance that she might've been able to identify him based on his clothes.

That, and he hadn't wanted to get blood on it. He liked that coat.

"W-why aren't you saying anything?" she asked.

Colt just sat down in front of her, cross-legged. He pushed the phone up to her face again.

"...I can't unlock my phone while I'm tied up like this," she said. "There are knives in the kitchen you can cut us free with."

He exhaled a heavy breath and did not move.

"...What are you doing?" said Janet. "I... ah... th-thank you for saving our lives, but... could you please untie us now?"

He just shook his head.

'Colt, what the hell are you doing?' said Boh.

'Improvising,' he said.

"I don't understand," said Janet, voice trembling. "Who are you? What do you want? W-why are you--?"

Colt pushed the phone toward her.

Finally, she seemed to understand. "You want me to tell you the password?"

He nodded.

"W-why? There's no need for that. Just untie me, and I'll unlock it and call the police myself."

Colt took another long breath and sat back.

Janet was getting angry now. "What're you doing?! Don't just sit there! Help us!"

He turned away from her. There was no rush here. The thugs were unconscious. The cops weren't coming. And these three obviously weren't going anywhere. The only thing Colt had to worry about was getting back to the kids.

Hmm. Maybe he should go check on them, actually.

Janet only seemed to be growing more pissed off, though, so Colt stuffed the cloth back in her mouth and stood up. That didn't serve to calm her down at all.

He took a moment to reassess the situation. If this was going to drag out, then he should probably make sure the thugs were neutralized if they happened to wake up.

Alright.

He dragged the two thugs with him as he took a longer look around the house, making sure to disarm them first as he searched for something to tie them up with. One of them began to regain consciousness, so Colt put him back to sleep with a rear naked choke. He had to hold it longer than was typically safe, otherwise the bastard would just wake up again as soon as blood started flowing back to his brain. Maybe it would've been better to just kill these motherfuckers and be done with it, but he was still thinking it over.

Bohwanox kept pestering him as he moved through the house, and Colt kept reassuring him that he wasn't going to hurt anyone.

Except maybe the thugs. Jury was still out on that one.

Wait a second. Where did these assholes get their rope from? They must've brought it with them, right? He took their keys and went out to check their car. He left their unconscious bodies in the house and removed his mask briefly, just in case any of the neighbors happened to be looking out their window.

Ah. There was more rope in the trunk. Good. Now he didn't have to break all their arms and legs. He might still do it anyway, but he didn't have to.

By the time he returned to the house, the same guy from before was regaining consciousness, so Colt choked him out one more time. The other thug still hadn't budged at all. Colt checked his breathing. Eh, not dead. He felt around in the dude's greasy hair.

Yep. There was a big lump there on the top right side. Must've hit his head when Colt tackled him through part of the wall. Probably had a few broken bones as well.

Head injuries were a tough thing. There was no real "safe" or "reliable" way to knock someone unconscious with a simple bonk on the head like in the movies. And considering how hard Colt had hit him, there was a pretty decent chance that this dude was going to have serious brain damage. If he ever even woke up at all, that was.

Hmm.

Well, he could still interrogate the other one, if it came to that.

But not right now. He tied them both up and gagged them with some cloth napkins he found in the kitchen. The rope was pretty sturdy, and he was confident in the knot-tying skills he'd learned from his grandfather. These fuckers weren't going anywhere now.

Before returning to the hostages, though, he took the opportunity to check on the kids. Turned out to be unnecessary. They were still asleep. It gave him peace of mind, though, which was all he needed.

He put his mask back on before showing himself in front of Janet and the other two again.

Just like before, he sat down in front of her and showed her the phone.

She'd apparently had enough time to calm down again and nodded, waiting for him to remove her gag.

He did so.

"Why do you want to use my phone so badly? Why can't you just--?"

He stuffed the cloth back in her mouth and sighed.

She protested in muted frustration while he sat back and deliberated for a while longer.

He could wait. She'd give him the password, eventually. It was only a matter of time until she realized that she didn't have much choice in the matter.

It did seem to be taking a while, though. She was being awfully stubborn, considering she'd almost just died. Hmm. Maybe she didn't fully comprehend how close those two idiots had come to killing her.

Or maybe...

Maybe there was something in her phone that she really didn't want anyone to see.

When he'd decided to resort to this strategy, Colt hadn't been expecting to find anything especially incriminating on her phone. It would be fine as long as it helped eliminate her as a suspect in Rex's murder. But the longer this took, the more suspicious he was becoming.

Hmm.

Actually, if whatever she was worried about was bad enough, then there was a chance that she wouldn't tell him the password for several hours. Maybe even longer, if she was a bit crazy, too.

That wouldn't be any good. He didn't want to leave the kids out there in the car all night long.

After another failed attempt at getting her to talk, Colt's eyes shifted to the other two hostages. He didn't know the girl's name, but presumably, she was the homeowner. He'd spotted her graduation photo and diploma among the knickknacks in the living room, but among the other pictures, there'd been no sign of a spouse, so Colt wasn't too worried about someone else showing up at the house unexpectedly.

It could still happen, though, he supposed.

'Hey, you're keeping watch for anyone approaching the house, right?' said Colt.

'Hmm? Oh. Uh. Yeah, totally.'

Colt just gave the reaper a look.

'It's fine,' said Bohwanox. 'There's no one out there. All the neighbors are in their homes.'

Colt supposed that would suffice. He eyed Janet's younger brother, Jason. A teenager, just like Boh had said. The kid hadn't made a sound this whole time. Must've been terrified. Colt could hardly blame him. Home invasions were the stuff of nightmares.

But, hmm.

Colt stood up and went over to the boy and knelt down in front of him. He could hear Janet's muffled protests again. Protective of her little brother, huh? That spoke well of her character, at least, even if it didn't exonerate her as a suspect.

He pulled the gag out of the kid's mouth and held the phone up toward him.

Jason's eyes shifted between the phone and his sister, who was still wriggling and trying to talk through her gag.

Colt waited patiently. It looked like the kid was working up the nerve to say something.

"W-w-will you let us go if I tell you the password?" said Jason in a cracking voice.

Janet's protests spiked suddenly, sounding equal parts confused and angry.

Colt gave the kid a silent nod.

Jason's eyes were still darting back and forth from his sister. "Okay, well, uh... it's 500%DongPower. No spaces. First letter of both words capitalized."

Janet screeched and accidentally rolled herself over.

A ringing endorsement, Colt supposed. He tried the password, and sure enough, the phone unlocked. He rolled Janet back over with his foot.

She was still trying to say something, angrier than ever, but it was Jason she was glaring at.

For some reason, Colt felt like he wanted to hear what she had to say now, so he pulled her gag out again.

"How the fuck do you know my password, you little weasel?!"

"D-does that really matter, right now?" said Jason.

"Yes! A lot!"

Jason looked toward Colt. Why? For help?

Colt just shrugged as he started to go through her phone.

"You left it written down on your desk, one time," said Jason.

"What?! I haven't written that password down in years!"

"Yeah, and you haven't changed it in years, either."

"Oh, I'm gonna kill you!"

"Hey, masked guy, you said you would let us go, right?"

Colt spared the kid another glance and held up a gloved index finger.

"Agh, c'mon, man. You promised."

Colt ignored him. Janet's contact list sure was long. So many girl names. How many friends did she have? He started looking for anything familiar. Leonard Pink, maybe? It was a long shot, he knew.

Boh floated up beside him. 'For the record, I want you to know that I am intensely uncomfortable with this whole situation.'

'You wanted me to intervene,' said Colt.

'Yes, and I am regretting it more by the second. Clearly, I should've thought this through more thoroughly.'

'Hey, everyone's still alive, aren't they?'

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