Page 160 of Taming Seraphine

“Five years ago, after you and your colleagues raped a woman by the name of Evangeline, your boss sent you to collect his son. Where did you go?”

He rears back, his head shaking from side to side as though denying any involvement.

“We don’t have time to sift through your lies.” I press the nail gun to his shoulder and pull the trigger.

Mike howls as much as he can with his mouth taped shut, and my blood sizzles with satisfaction.

“Answer my question or I’ll fill you with iron and then pull it out with a magnet.”

He shudders.

“Give him the notepad,” Leroi says.

I place a spiral-bound book on his lap, pull out the pen and place it into his trembling fingers.

Mike scrawls:

Girlfriend’s place.

“Where did you take him afterward?” I ask.

Some apartment in Queen’s Gardens.

“Then what?”

He shakes his head.

“That’s the last you heard of Gabriel?” I ask.

He gives me a vigorous nod.

I grind my teeth, the pulse in my ears pounding with frustration. It’s so loud I can barely think.

My fingers hover over the nail gun’s trigger, and I press its barrel into Mike’s collarbone. He makes a gibbering sound behind the tape and scribbles something else.

You are the daughter.

“So what?”

They said you ran away.

“And?” I ask

Take off the tape. It’s quicker.

“What’s he writing?” Leroi asks from the doorway.

“He wants me to ungag him.”

Leroi snorts. “He’s wasting time, thinking that someone is coming to save him in an hour’s time.”

I turn back to Mike, my eyes widening. “Is that why you’re holding back?”

He shakes his head vigorously, but doesn’t write anything else. My veins burn with a twisted sense of curiosity. If there’s a chance he knows something... I shake off that thought. Leroi is right. If Mike can speak the answer, he would write it.

“Where did Frederic Capello have his last surgery?” Leroi asks.

Mike scribbles:Somewhere in Mexico

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