The chained man took quick, shallow breaths. He tried to speak through the pain. ‘Plea… please. I have a daughter. She’s ill. She suffers from a rare condition and I’m everything she’s got.’

The strange gurgling laugh filled the room again. ‘You think I care? Let me show you how much I care.’ He grabbed the head of one of the nails lodged into the man’s knee and, as if using a screwdriver to pop open a can of paint, slowly forced it to one side as far as it would go. The crunching noise was like stepping on broken glass.

The victim roared as he felt the grinding of metal against bone. His attacker applied just enough force to overcome the resistance and splinter the kneecap. Shards of bone perforated nerve and muscle. Nausea flooded through the chained man’s body. His assailant slapped his face several times to keep him from passing out.

‘Stay with me,’ he whispered. ‘I want you to enjoy every moment of this. There’s more to come.’

‘Why… Why are you doing this?’

‘Why?’ The man licked his cracked lips and smiled. ‘I’ll show you why.’ From his pocket he produced a photograph and held it inches away from the chained man’s face.

The man’s eyes rested in confusion on the picture for several seconds. ‘I don’t understand. What…?’ He froze as he finally realized what he was looking at. ‘Oh my God!’

His tormentor moved closer, his lips almost touching the bleeding man’s right ear.

‘Guess what,’ he whispered as he glanced at the wooden box in the corner, ‘I know what scares you to death.’

Two

Christmas was a week or so away and Los Angeles was embracing the festive spirit. Streets and shop windows everywhere were decorated with colorful lights, Santa Clauses and fake snow. At 5:30 a.m. the drive through south Los Angeles felt eerily calm.