Game Over! (Parker & Knight Book 3) by Donald Wells

downward. Nico gazed at him curiously.
    “What the hell are you trying to tell me?”
    Nico removed one side of the tape and Hearn took a deep breath before speaking.
    “Five thousand... there’s five thousand in my jacket... all, all yours, just let me go.”
    Nico reached in and plucked the envelope free.
    “I’ll consider this a bonus, but I still want the two large every week, of course, while you’re in the hospital your wife will have to make the payments. I’ll have her come here to make them, then maybe she’ll give me a different type of bonus.”
    “I’m sorry I tried this, Nico, and I swear I’ll pay you from now on; just let me go, please? Just let me go?”
    “No Timmy, you still have a lesson to learn.”
    Hearn opened his mouth wide to shout for help, and Nico slapped his face shut, before putting the duct tape back over his mouth. Afterward, he reached down and picked up Hearn’s modified bat.
    “I see you wrapped it in a nice fluffy towel. Well hell, I bet being smacked with this won’t hurt a bit, but let’s find out, huh?”
    Using his right arm, Nico raised the bat high and brought it crashing down on the side of Hearn’s leg, just above the knee.
    Hearn’s eyes bulged, and a muffled scream slipped out from the tape covering his mouth.
    Then, Nico hit him again, and again, and kept hitting him until he dropped the bat and reeled backwards in exhaustion, his shirt soaked in sweat, his mouth gasping for breath, as he fell into the scarred wooden seat of the motel chair.
    Atop the bed, Hearn was whimpering. He had one eye closed, both lips split open, and his scalp had a deep laceration. There were several broken bones in each hand, and beneath his clothes, numerous bruises were forming.
    It took a while for Nico to recover from his exertion, but when he finally did, he picked up the bat and smiled at Hearn.
    “Okay, that’s enough warming up. Now the fun really starts.”
    With the first fresh swing of the bat, Hearn’s right arm broke in two places.

10
    A t 4: 47 a.m., Rick Parker entered the hospital with Heather at his side.
    They met Jo by the nurse’s station, and she told them that Rachel was in the trauma unit, speaking with the doctor.
    “Nico put Hearn in a world of pain, Rick. It’s one of the worst beatings I’ve ever seen.”
    “What did he use?”
    “A bat wrapped in a white towel, although the towel is red with blood now and the bat broke during the beating. The bat actually belonged to Hearn. He brought it to Nico’s motel and Nico turned the tables on him. He also claims it was self-defense, but there are ligature marks on Hearn’s wrists and ankles. The doctors also found glue on his skin; I’m thinking that Nico used duct tape to bind him.”
    Heather made a face.
    “You’re saying he taped him up and then beat him?”
    “It looks that way.”
    “Well, then it couldn’t be self-defense,”
    “Nico claims those marks were there before he beat Hearn, said that Hearn and Rachel must be into kinky bondage games, but those marks are fresh.”
    “How bad is he, Jo?” Parker said.
    “Both arms are broken, all but one finger, several ribs cracked, a shattered collarbone, and deep lacerations on his scalp and face. His nose is particularly bad, and the doctors say he swallowed several teeth.”
    Heather shivered. “I don’t like Timothy Hearn, but my God, he didn’t deserve that.”
    “Did you get a statement?”
    “No, he was too banged up, and now he’s zonked out on morphine. I’ll return later in the day and try and talk to him.”
    “What about Nico, did you arrest him?”
    “No, I’m waiting until I get a statement from Hearn, one that will hopefully include his earlier dealings with Nico. I doubt he’s still willing to offer him an alibi for the Woolley murder after this.”
    “Don’t be so sure, he may now fear Nico so much that he’ll never talk.”
    Rachel walked around a corner at the end of the hallway. When she spotted Parker, she ran