Devil Take The Hindmost

Chapter Twenty-One

I wriggled in the steel chair, trying to unkink my back. It didn't help that the handcuffs started to chafe my wrists, clamped, as they were, firmly at the base of my spine.

"How long do you make it?" I asked Ty, while attempting to count the minutes in my head.

He stared at me, taciturn. His deep blue eyes wrinkled with a slight smile, and he gave an almost imperceptible shrug of his shoulders, the movement somewhat restricted by the handcuffs into which he too had been placed.

"Well, I reckon it's been about fifteen minutes," I declared, staring intently at Ty for some sort of confirmatory response. He remained silent.

"Look, I know it wasn't your plan. I get it. But we're here now, and we need to make the best of it," I tried to sound cheerful.

Truth be told, I didn't feel particularly chipper. Finding myself handcuffed in an interview room somewhere in the bowels of Wolverhampton Central Police Station was not a situation that brought out feelings of sunshine and rainbows in me.

"OK, OK," I continued, exasperated by the one-sided nature of the conversation. "This might not have been exactly what we had in mind."

Ty shook his wrists, rattling the short chain of his cuffs in protest.

"And what is more, if you had a problem with the plan, you really should have spoken out at the time. It's a bit too late now!"

Edge merely stared at me, mute.

"Right, that's it. I've had enough of the silent treatment," I huffed. "I know you're annoyed. Would you please just spit it out?"

Ty remained impassive, but after a moment of thoughtful contemplation he leaned forwards in his chair and, after a final short glance up at the small CCTV camera mounted to the wall by a bracket high in the corner, he opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue.

A small chrome object dropped onto the table with a wet little click.

"Thank fuck for that!" I sighed. "Now, let's get on with it, shall we?"

I struggled to my feet and gently pushed back my chair with my calves, careful not to overturn it and create a loud sound.

"I quite like the plan," Ty muttered faintly as he mirrored my movement. "So far, anyway."

I crept around the table, using the tips of my fingers as a guide along the edge.

"Left a little. No, your left," Edge chuckled as I felt across the surface in search of the small key he carried into the station under his tongue.

"Just turn around," I glowered once I felt the slimy object in my grasp.

"We are on a schedule here, Satchmo," Ty chided me as I fiddled blindly for precious moments, trying to get the tiny key into the lock on his cuffs with my own wrist movement severely restricted.

"It's been nearly sixteen minutes already. If your manual dexterity is this poor, is it any wonder Sophie dumped you?" he added unhelpfully.

"Fuck off!" I laughed, knowing he intended no offence and gratified by the sound of a soft click which indicated that I finally found the right hole, so to speak.

Ty's cuffs fell away and he took the key, taking very little time to reciprocate given he could see what he was doing.

"Right," I checked my watch. "Sixteen minutes! How do you do that?"

"Training, practice, concentration," Ty intoned seriously. "And by looking at that big clock on the wall," he nodded to an ancient timepiece which had past yellowing with age and was well on its way to brown.