The Medium Snooze - Chapter 10

Chapter 10 : A Second Visit With Davy.

We spent the rest of the afternoon routing through old inventories, purchase forms and debt lists. We found a few threatening letters about the place and Sammy had been right they did sound pretty nutso. I didn’t recognise most of the names and the ones that I did wouldn’t have the contacts, influence or sheer nerve to line up someone like Bendelbee. I was reminded that Turfside had, by most standards, a pretty wimpy set of regulars. I’d just about had it and was thinking about suggesting to Alice we quit for the day and carry on in the morning when she drew my attention to a document she’d found.

“Hey this is pretty interesting.”

“What is it ?”

“It’s a term of contract for those two grasshoppers Sammy had as bouncers.”

“Gerry and Harry ?”

“Yeah.”

“What about it ?”

“They’d only been working here a week when you showed up.”

“What ?”

“Yeah they started working at Turfside on Monday 26th June.”

“See if you can find out who worked here before then and why Sammy changed staff will you ?”

Looked like Gerry and Harry had made a terminally bad career move shortly before Melissa had come calling on me. Of course this meant a bucket load of questions, if Sammy wasn’t expecting trouble why change security ? Of course that didn’t really work, if Sammy had been expecting trouble he’d have hired something a lot tougher than two grasshoppers, I had seen how he’d over reacted with Bendelbee, he’d got himself two damn orb weavers. I was pondering over Sammy’s hiring and firing techniques when another thought hit me.

“The lyin’ bastard, son of a....”

“Pardon ?”

“Sorry Alice just thinking out loud.”

“Cursing out loud more like, what about anyway ?”

“Clawson the lyin’ little...”

I let that one drop and shot Alice a guilty glance, she was staring at me and bobbing those antenna about in a fairly disturbing manner.

“It’s just when I spoke to Davy boy he said that he hadn’t seen either Sammy or his two grasshopper bouncers in at least two weeks, possibly three.”

“But Harry and Gerry didn’t work for Sammy more than two weeks ago.”

“Exactly. Which means that Davy had seen them inside the last fortnight.”

“Hang on Ernie, maybe Sammy had hired two grasshoppers before Harry and Gerry.”

“Possibly. That’s what I want you to find out.”

“And what about you ?”

“I’m going to have a less than pleasant chat with our friend David Clawson. Well it’ll be less than pleasant for him, I’m kinda looking forward to it.”

It was no great surprise when I discovered Clawson wasn’t hanging around the rockery any more. He must have heard about Bendelbee and, if I was right about him being involved, even he wasn’t stupid enough to hang around. I spent the next couple of days tracking him down and that meant hitting every lowlife, sleazy bar around. Asking behind the bar for him usually provoked angry curses and various threats, it appeared Davy owed a lot of bugs a lot of grubs. While I was touring the slug pits and webs Alice had been finishing off at Turfside. She’d managed to find out that previous to Harry and Gerry Sammy’s security had been handled by a ladybird named called Cyril. Alice had got kind of touchy when I asked her if she’d ever heard of him.

“It’s not like I know ever ladybird in the garden.” She’d said.

Strange, I think I know most of the ‘wigs, must come with the job. Not that it mattered in the end, after Alice did some digging around Cyril’s involvement in Sammy’s death was found to be non-existent. I had sort of hoped that I could work the disgruntled ex-employee line but after Cyril got himself fired (allegedly for being drunk at work although Alice talked to one of the dancers and there were some rumours about Cyril and Melissa, not entirely unbelievable after my own encounter) he also managed to get himself killed by a thrush, damn waste, it’s not like the bird could eat him.

Friday 14th July, 11.50pm : I was waiting outside a particularly sleazy joint known as “The hole in the ground”, it’s owner was obviously lacking something in the brain department or had a particularly odd sense of humour, either way it was a hollow in one of the ferns. I’d had a tip the night before that Clawson had been seen here recently and sure enough he was inside sat at a table in the corner. I’d considered going in and confronting him at the table but decided against it, too many bugs around. No, I’d decided to wait for Clawson to leave. He was taking his time and it was getting close to one when the place eventually shut and turfed the last of them out, Clawson included. I tailed the group that contained Clawson, he obviously wasn’t actually with anyone so I figured sooner or later he’d split off from the main group. After he’d separated himself from everyone else I scouted ahead and found the perfect dark, little nook for us to have a chat.

The first thing Clawson knew about me was when he was dragged by the neck screaming into the nook.

“Hello Davy.”

“ARRRRRRGH... What the ? For DDT’s sake Pincher you almost gave me heart failure.”

He still sounded worried.

“Now I wouldn’t want to do that Davy. That’d spoil the fun of ripping one of your legs off and beating you to death with the soggy end.”

“What the hell is your problem Pincher ? I got enough trouble without you on my case.”

“I know you do Davy, I know you do. You’ve been a very bad boy Davy and lying to me didn’t help you any.”

I was using the most calm, condescending voice I had. Sounded like a god damn butterfly.

“Look Pincher I told you I don’t know anything about Sammy...”

That’s when I punched him. He made this kind of squeaking noise and went down, so I hauled him back up.

“Listen pal, I don’t really have the time or the patience for any of this crap so let me tell you what I do know. You were working with Lars Bendelbee or Harold Cervus or whatever he was calling himself. You had seen Sammy or his henchmen recently because the grasshoppers had only started working for him recently and I’m betting it was you who set Sammy up. Now I’ve figured this out and I’m sure the hive have figured this out but just in case they haven’t I’m going to tell them in the morning.”

A wry smile played over Clawson’s face as I went through all of this.

“Do what you like Pincher. I’m a dead bug either way.”

“You don’t sound all that concerned for a bug with the hive after him.”

“Well what does it matter ? It’s not like they’re my only problem is it ?”

Clawson sat down on the floor of the nook. Surrounded by darkness with me standing over the top of him Clawson looked pathetic, he was a broken, beaten bug and if he didn’t start giving me answers he was about to get a whole lot more broken and beaten.

“Come on Davy. Are you going to give me the info or am I going to have to kick it outta you.”

“You think you’ve figured it out, don’t you Pincher ? You don’t know the half of it.”

Actually I still had very little idea about what was going on but I wasn’t going to tell him that.

“You think that the hit on Turfside was my idea ?”

“You ain’t smart enough Davy. So it was Bendelbee ?”

“Yeah.”

“Why Davy ? Even you must have enough brains to figure out that double crossing the hive is a fast way to get yourself killed ?”

“Because I owe some very nasty bugs a lot of grubs Pincher, and Bendelbee said he’d sort it out.”

“Did he ?”

“I’m guessing not.”

“Well he sure as hell ain’t gonna do it now.”

“So I heard.”

“Start from the beginning Davy. And make it's the truth or you won’t have to worry about anyone but me.”

Most of what Clawson had to say I already knew, or guessed, but it was worth the two days of trailing around to hear it confirmed. Clawson had been betting on the worm races, and losing big style, he owed a lot of grubs to a lot of bugs and couldn’t pay. He was too scared to go to the hive for help so being the slimeball he was he started peddling information about hive activities to the pond, small stuff, nothing that was going to get traced back. Anyway this wasn’t enough to bring in the grubs he needed by a long way, but his name was now known around the pond and he got an offer, from Mr. Bendelbee no less.

It seemed at the time Clawson didn’t know it was Bendelbee that had been putting the squeeze on the bars around the hedge and he swore if he had he wouldn’t have dealt with him (which if you believe I’ve got a bottle of everlasting Baby Bio that I’d like to sell you), the hive was getting pretty annoyed about the protection problem and wanted it dealt with, so Clawson and all the hive operatives were under orders to report anything suspicious. Bendelbee told him that Sammy had been double crossing the pond for years and now they wanted revenge. The deal was that all Clawson had to do was keep his mouth shut and tell Bendelbee if Sammy called for hive assistance, he wasn’t to report it to the hive, he was to do nothing, and in return Bendelbee would use his influence to sort out Clawson’s problems. Clawson did as he was told, like a good little snitch, and intercepted Gerry and Harry, Bendelbee sent Sammy some orb weavers and Sammy naturally assumed they’d come from the hive. Neat.

“And you believed him ? All this about Sammy double crossing the pond ?”

Clawson looked at me with wide eyes.

“What the hell did I care ? All I knew was that the hive wasn’t supposed to know anything, which was just how I wanted it. I had collection goons bugging me all the time and Bendelbee was going to sort it all out. Maybrook could roast in his shell for all I cared.”

“Nice.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not like Maybrook was a picture of virtue or nothin’. Then I found out they’d shelled him. Ok, even I thought that was going a little too far but what the hell.”

“Then Bendelbee turned up dead.”

“Yeah, I was scared. At first I thought the hive had found out and all I could think about was how much they knew about my involvement. Of course then the reports came through that it was the stags.”

“So you panicked. You figured somebody from the pond was clearing up the loose ends and that you were next.”

“Exactly. Then I find out that Bendelbee didn’t even clear my debt so now I have the hive, the pond and the debt collectors after me. Not to mention you.”

Despite myself I burst out in a huge grin.

“Couldn’t have happened to a nicer ‘wig Davy boy.”

“Laugh all you want Pincher but you’re name’s all over this case, you can bet someone is looking for you too. Besides, the way I hear it the hive is gearing up for payback, there ain’t gonna be nobody safe in the garden.”

“So who’s above Bendelbee then ?”

“What ?”

“Who had Bendelbee killed ? Who is behind all this ?”

“I don't know Pincher. And I don’t care either.”

I figured I’d got as close to the truth out of Clawson as I was ever going to get so after a swift kick in the ribs I left him gasping on the ground.

“See you around Davy.”