"Please!" Matias wailed. "I will tell you about the two men-"
"No, I want to know about the man you were with first." Dominic said, placing the poker back in the fire , "if I find that you are lying to me, you will indeed know what a red hot poker feels like across your skin."
Licking his lips to moisten them, Matias said - in a quivering voice, I did some business with him a few years ago. He came to me with a proposal, I was to "assist" desperate travelers in getting to their destination. After the initial contact I have had none since, that is until last month. He had another job for me, said this one was the most importatn of all. If I completed it, making sure that the traveler had no other option but to go with me. It was just like before, when he would send the turistas to me, and then I would . . . you know . . . take them to remote locations all of his choosing."
"Rob and abandon them you mean," Dominic said. "What happened next?"
"Well . . . he tells me this time to bring a girl here, to the Chateau. He gives me a lot of money, but then he sticks a gun in my face and says, "No mistakes. The girl's name is Alannah Ferguson. When she showed up with a man, I thought I was done for, but I managed to take her bag from her and high tail it to my plane, forcing them both to follow me.
"I never told them my name, how did …. I don't get it." Alannah aked, with more questions than answers right now.
"OK - so now tell me about those two …"
"I was given a description of the Senorita, just in case she did not introduce herself, that is how I knew it was you," he said looking at Alannah "Señor - I do not know those men, I have never seen them before in my life. They came upon us as we were watching the Chateau. The tall one demanded that we back down, he said that they had everything under contol. He then gave me a gun and said that I needed to kill everyone. . . ." Matias started crying. "I could not do it Señor! I could not take a life, I just couldn't, Señor Beringer, that is the truth!"
They heard the door open and then close, and footsteps coming down the hall, as Patrick appeared in the doorway, Dominic said "I believe you, Matias" Dominic turned to the fireplace, removed the poker from the fire and placed it back in the rack. "Now, we'll get to cooberate your story with that of your associate."