Page 82 of He is Poison

“I’m just talking aboutyou being half-naked.” Domenico got up and walked over to Seth, to mess up hisperfectly arranged hair.

“So what should I do?Tell her I’ll tie her to that cross thing? Would that work?” Seth seemed totreat the task at hand like a videogame, where he could get points for sayingthe right line.

“You might start bysaying you’ll spank her if she doesn’t co-operate.”

Seth gave the door tothe cell a thoughtful look. “What if she likes that?”

“Really...” Domenicoshook his head and dragged his hands down his face. It was a hopeless case whenhis trainee didn’t understand the difference between a consensual andnon-consensual spanking, and what it implied. “Right, I’ll start and you watchme work, okay?”

“Okay… But…” Seth got upslowly, looking like a piece of confused beef. “What if she says something tome?”

“Just tell her to shutit.” Domenico rolled up his sleeves and lit a cigarette, slowly making his wayto the cell.

He could hear Sethfollow. “Can I have one as well?”

Dom looked at his tenseand unnecessarily rigid shoulders, but gave him the pack before unlocking the cell.

Vera looked up at themwith reddened, but attentive eyes. She didn’t say a thing, just watched them incomplete silence. Seth stood in the corner and lit a cigarette.

With the door closed,they could be certain no one would hear a thing.

“It’s nice to have awoman in our all-male flat, isn’t it, Seth?” asked Domenico. He stopped closeto her, pushing his hands down his front pockets.

“Yep,” Seth mutteredfrom his corner, smoking lazily, but the slight tremble in his fingers wasn’t agood sign. He doubted Salieri would notice though. She was just a greedy woman.

Domenico shrugged andlooked into her big, dark eyes. “So darling, do you know why we invited youover?”

She swallowed, inhalingdeeply. “I— You must have mistaken me for someone…”

“No, I’m sure Ihaven’t.” Domenico gave her a smile and shook his head. “You’ve been a verynaughty girl, Vera.”

She looked around theroom nervously, but froze when her gaze settled behind Dom. She must havefinally recognized Seth. “I only got a few simple tasks over e-mail.”

“So you’re not the oneto blame?” asked Domenico, slowly moving behind her. He smiled when her teethstarted to clatter.

Seth watched both ofthem, glued to the wall and halfway through the cigarette already.

“No, I don’t even knowwhat happened, I know nothing,” her voice got a higher pitch to it.

“Tell you what.”Domenico dropped his cigarette to the floor, looking at the top of her head,where her hair was slowly getting oily from the stress. “Tell us who is toblame, and we’ll let you go with a slap on the wrist.”

“I don’t know mycontact. I can give you his e-mail.” Her fingers trembled.

Seth started losing hisfocus and looked all around instead of paying attention.

“Show that bitch yourleft hand,” said Domenico, eager to pull him back into the here and now.

Seth walked up slowlyand raised his hand in front of her face. “And we’ll cut yours off if you don’ttalk to us,” he rasped with his eyes completely focused on her face.

The worst thing was thatat this point Dom couldn’t really predict what Seth would do, even if thatimprovised threat made him proud.

“And then all the otherones,” Dom whispered, cupping the top of her head and feeling her tremble. “Andthen your ears and nose.”

Salieri tensed up, butSeth took a step back, the chicken in him spreading its wings despite the beefyexterior.

“I never wanted this tohappen! I was blackmailed.” She raised her voice, jerking in the chair. Thereshe was. Panicking and changing her story.

“Someone needs to diefor what happened.” Domenico faced her again, slowly squeezing his hands on herknees.