The Medium Snooze - Chapter 7

Chapter 7 : A visit to the hive.

Sunday 9th July 11.30am : Apparently they don’t get hangovers either. I was in the office feeling sorry for myself while Alice was typing away humming some damn happy tune. I was wondering whether I could get a silencer fitted to the typewriter and realised that even if such a thing existed there certainly wasn’t going to be anything that would keep Alice quiet, I needed to get out of there.
“If we haven’t had any cases since Spindler other than Sammy’s and now he fits into several very small bags how come every time I have a headache you’re typing ?”

“Poor Ernie, you really don’t have any idea how the business side of all this works do you ? Feeling a little fragile are we ?”

“Yeah, well I’ve had a rough couple of days and not much sleep.”

“You only got in half an hour ago.”

“Hmmmm... well I’m going out again.”

“Where ?”

“To the only lead I have Alice. I’m off to see this Stanley character.”

“That’s our only lead ?”

“Well it is until Unc can find anything on Bendelbee or the orb weavers. Look I said it was our only lead I didn’t say it was a good lead.”

It turned out that Stanley wasn’t a particularly hard snail to find (not that snails are the hardest thing in the garden to find anyway, let’s face it they don’t exactly have the greatest range on them.) Norman had given me a couple of possibles and I’d tracked Stanley down to a small cafe located in a rather nice patch of pansies. I’d tell you how, but tricks of the trade and all that, I’m a P.E. remember ?

Ok, between you and me I asked someone.

What can I tell you about Stanley, he was a snail, not as small as Sammy had been but still, he was a snail. The guy was drinking pond water coffee at a leaf on his own so I figured I’d go and join him.

“Stanley ?”

“Yeah.”

“My name is..”

“Ernie Pincher. Private Earwig and sometime bodyguard. Yeah I know who you are, you were supposed to be looking out for Samuel Maybrook weren’t you ? I take it Melissa didn’t keep you on.”

That threw me a little. It wasn’t always a good idea to be instantly recognisable in my line of work, especially when you’re getting a reputation for screwing up.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss my client relationship.”

He smiled and just said “Yeah, whatever.”

“You were a friend of Sammy’s weren’t you.”

“That was a long time ago Mr. Pincher. I doubt I can tell you anything about his killers. I assume that is what you’re doing here ?”

“Something along those lines. I’m trying to find out if Sammy had any enemies, long term. I have a source that told me you and Sammy were quite close back in the early days.”

“Sure we were friends, but things change, time moves on. Sammy set up on the lawn and I’m out here in the flower beds, we just sort of lost touch. I used to speak to him now and again but nothing beyond the odd drink.”

“That’s all right I’m more interested in the early days right now anyway. Especially about your time with one Lenny the Legs. Tell me Stanley why would a crane fly try to hire a couple of snails as runners ?”

Stanley laughed, more to himself than anything, as if he was remembering some old joke involving three ladybirds and a hosepipe, but anyway...

“Well I don’t suppose it matters any more, I’m about the only one left alive that knew what was going on anyway, who’s going to care now ? You see Mr. Pincher, Lenny was a bookie yes ?”

“Yeah.”

“No.”

“Huh ?”

“Well he was but that was only the cover. Lenny was actually more in your line of work.”

“Lenny the Legs was a private investigator ?”

“Not exactly. He was more in the line of information gathering. Lenny used to find out things, about people, operations, places, organisations. Once Lenny had the information he’d either sell it on to interested parties or he’d keep it quiet, depending on which made him the most money or kept him alive the longest.”

“So he was a snitch and a blackmailer then ?”

“I don’t think that’s quite how Lenny used to put it but, yes, more or less.”

“So where did you two snails fit in ?”

“Well Lenny had this theory, he reckoned that a snail was basically a walking safe, or crawling of you prefer. Any really valuable secrets Lenny found that needed moving around he’d give to me or Sammy, we’d put it inside our shells and Lenny figured that no one could get to them.”

“I know a few stag beetles that would disagree with that.”

“My thoughts exactly Mr. Pincher. That’s why I quit, I didn’t need the job that badly that I was willing to get my shell ripped off. I told Lenny as much, quit the job, left the hedge and I’ve been out here in the flower beds ever since.”

“But you kept in touch with Sammy and I take it he didn’t feel the same way you did ?”

“Sammy was never afraid of taking a few risks if he felt it was worth it. You see Lenny was smart, he knew that blackmailing the mob was a fast way to get you killed so he always made sure that if anything came up that directly involved the hive or the pond that he kept it quiet. He also made sure that the relevant family knew he was keeping it quiet, you see Mr. Pincher most folks have the mob all wrong, they think that the families are involved with every little detail that happens in the garden, they aren’t.”

“Really ? I try to stay outta their way personally but I always thought they kept a pretty tight hold on everything.”

“No, the mob families can’t be bothered keeping track of everything that goes on, they have bigger things to worry about, like each other. So the little everyday stuff goes mostly unnoticed unless you start affecting one of their main businesses. That’s the mistake most folk make you see, they get greedy, over reach themselves and attract mob attention. Lenny knew that if he kept the families sweet by doing them favours, like keeping things quiet about their operations, he wouldn’t have any trouble, neither the hive nor the pond is going to bother to shut you down if there’s nothing in it for them, especially if they think your helping them out on occasion, the guy who fills the hole you leave might not be as accommodating. Like I said Lenny was pretty smart, he kept things reasonably even handed, never appeared to be helping one family more than the other and they left him alone.”

“So the hornet thing wasn’t Mafia related.”

Stanley gently laughed a little.

“No, that was just Lenny not being smart enough over a fixed worm race. Something and nothing really, but you know hornets.”

“So how come Sammy ended up in charge ?”

“Well like I said Sammy never minded taking a few risks if he thought the rewards were going to be worth it. Lenny was smart but Sammy was smarter, it worked like this. Lenny would get some information about the pond, so he’d send Sammy off to the pond with the documents, the frogs take the documents and give Sammy something for Lenny by way of appreciation. What neither Lenny nor the pond knew was that Sammy would stop off on the way, get copies made and sell them off to the hive.”

“Sneaky.”

“Very. Of course it took a long time for the hive to trust Sammy, after all for all they knew he was doing the same thing to them.”

“And was he ?”

“I don’t think so. I think Sammy decided early on that the hive was the way to go, him being a hedge kid and all. What he did do, when the hive started to trust him was to sell false stuff to the pond that the hive had given him.”

“So this could all be about the pond finally waking up to what Sammy was doing ?”

“Possibly, but I don’t know. Sammy was always real careful. Besides it was the pond that helped him get Turfside, they thought he was helping them out.”

I didn’t like the way this was heading. I needed to solve this case but I didn’t want to get mixed up in some Mafia war. Stanley didn’t know any more or wasn’t telling me at least. I thanked him and left, my only lead had managed to make the worst case I’d ever handled look even worse, I just hoped Unc could come up with something on Bendelbee. That was the key, the beetles, who were they working for and what about the spiders ? It was somebody with significant influence anyway. I was so mixed up in my thoughts as I crossed the lawn that I didn’t notice the two shadows pass overhead, in fact I didn’t see them until they landed in front of me.

“Mr. Ernie Pincher.”

It was a statement not a question. These guys knew who I was, but then they would. They were a couple of wasps.

“We’ve been sent to invite you to the hive.”

“Yeah, the boss would like to have a quiet chat about the events leading up to the untimely demise of our friend Mr. Maybrook.”

Maybe it was optional.

“Ummmm... That’s very nice but what if I was to say I was real busy ?”

“Trust us Mr. Pincher, that would not be a very smart move on your part.”

I didn’t really think it would be.

“I hear the hive is lovely this time of year. Lead away boys.”

In one respect being taken to the hive was no bad thing. If the wasps wanted me dead I’d never have got off the lawn, of course this was about the only good thing about being taken to the hive. As we got closer I managed to relax a little, it appeared that the wasps weren’t particularly angry with me either, they let me crawl up the side of the apple tree and walk into the hollow under my own power rather than grabbing hold of me and flying me in there, which was usually a bad sign.

There are obvious lines of comparison between the hive and the ant hill, both are the headquarters of large organisations, both are run by a single individual (the respective queens in both cases) who organises her workers from the depths of the building, neither head is ever seen by anyone outside of the organisation and everyone has a job and does it with great efficiency. If you forget that the ants are the law and the wasps are the mob the two are almost interchangeable, well that’s what most folk think. Truth is I never felt that way, nor does anyone who has ever had any number of dealings with the two.

The hill is run with a kind of military precision, every ant has their place, they march around the place carrying out orders, filing in forms (eight copies). The forms, I didn’t tell you about the forms before did I ? Ants love forms, they fill them in for everything. New prisoner, fill in eight forms, release an old prisoner, fill in eight forms, need a pencil, fill in eight forms (this one gets me every time. How do you fill out eight forms if you haven’t got a pencil ? Easy, you estimate when your current pencil has only got eight forms of life left in it. If, heaven forbid, an ant was to lose a pencil then they have to fill out a temporary pencil form (eight times) at the stationery office, get a temporary pencil and use it to fill out the permanent pencil procurement form (eight times) and then fill in the loss of equipment form (eight times)). Now this kind of thing would drive just about anyone nuts right ? Not the ants, they live for it. The trouble is they think everyone else should live like this as well.

Now the hive is a different matter altogether, these guys are obviously highly organised and all have their orders but I’ll be damned if I can tell what the hell is actually going on. It’s a sort of organised chaos, hundreds of wasps crawling all over the place and each other, spinning around in little circles and back tracking all over the place, madness. I don’t think there’s a wasp on the planet that has ever filled out a form voluntarily, if you gave a pencil to one of these guys odds are he’d stab you with it. And the noise, oh god, the noise. All the while I was being taken to the hive my two wasp escorts were talking to each other. Constantly. About everything, the weather, the state of the lawn, the tidiness of the hive, the ache one of them had in their wing, on and on and on. They all do that, all the time, when a wasp stops rambling on about nothing you start to worry. And it was into this mess I was being taken.

It turned out the meeting itself was just inside the hollow, in a large section just under the hive itself, the wasps had obviously created this space for meeting with guests. It was spacious and fairly non-threatening for non-wasp types, if you could ignore the huge hive with all it’s noise hanging a couple of inches above your head. This seemed like the best bet so I tried, it didn’t work. The section was empty and one of my escorts disappeared to announce our arrival.

“Hey, what’s this all about anyway ?”

It was the first time I’d been able to get a word in to ask a question. My friend here was looking almost as nervous as I was, but then wasps always look that way.

“We told you. My boss wants to find out what you know about Samuel Maybrook’s death.”

“That’s all ?”

“Yeah. Well. That’s all they told me, I mean, they may want to know more but they aren’t going to tell me everything are they ? I mean why should they ? It’s not like it’s anything to do with me, I’m just a worker. I should be out collecting food, that’s what we were doing when we spotted you, we were over by the pansy patch. Did you see the pansies ? Aren’t they nice at the moment......”

It would seem I’d mistaken nervousness for a desire to prattle. It was a relief when the other half of my escort turned up with what, I had to assume, was the guy I was here to see.

“Hi, I’m....”

“You are Ernie Pincher, Private Earwig. I know full well who you are otherwise we wouldn’t have brought you here.”

How come nobody was letting me finish my sentences today ?

“Ok, so you know who I am. Who are you ?”

“You don’t need to know that Mr. Pincher, in fact it is probably better for your health that you don’t. I need to ask you some questions about your relationship with Mr. Maybrook. If you tell me what I want to know then this will all be over very quickly and you can be on your way.”

“And if I don’t ?”

“Then this will just be over very quickly.”

Wasp humour, you got to love it. Or at least you’ve got to fake loving it or get your head torn off, I smiled politely.

“Now then. What do you know about Mr. Maybrook and ourselves ?”

“Not much.” At least that was true.

“Just that he thought that you guys were his buddies and that he had some kind of deal with you.”

“Yes, Mr. Maybrook was an ambitious young snail. He showed a great deal of promise and we had high hopes for him, this business has put quite a number of our plans on hold. We don’t like putting plans on hold Mr. Pincher.”

“I can appreciate that, you’re a busy group of insects.”

“Exactly. Now tell me Mr. Pincher why did Samuel Maybrook hire you ?”

I went through the whole routine again, explaining that Mel had hired me, all about the death threats right up to the visit of the stags and Bendelbee. It was at this point I had to make a decision. Lying to the ants about not having a name was one thing but lying to these guys could quite easily see me dead. I hesitated.

“Yes, Mr. Pincher ?”

“Nothing I was just trying to remember what the darkling beetle looked like and if anyone mentioned any names.”

“And did they ?”

Well. What was I going to do ?

“Mr. Pincher ?”

“No. They were very professional. I don’t think anyone mentioned any names.”

He looked behind me to my two wasp escorts and bobbed an antenna.

“Go on, Mr. Pincher.”

It looked like I’d got away with it.

“Well, Sammy was pretty spooked at this point, so he finally decided to call you guys.”

“Sorry ?”

“That’s when he called you guys for help and you sent those two orb weavers, for what they were worth. I hope you didn’t pay out too much for those guys.”

“Ummm... no. Carry on Mr. Pincher”

A puzzled look had come across my interviewer’s face by now. I finished the story as far as Alice getting me out of the hill.

“And that’s about it.”

“What were you doing today ?”

“Just visiting a friend.”

“Really. Hmmmmmmm...”

“Is something wrong ?”

“What would you say if I told you Mr. Maybrook never contacted us ?”

That wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I wanted to hear how annoyed he was with his hired hands. I wanted to hear that the hive was going to get hold of their two mercenaries and beat an explanation out of them. I wanted to hear that the case wasn’t getting any more confusing. I wanted to hear that I hadn’t just hit another dead end. I wanted a lot of things (including getting out of there fairly quickly) but it didn’t look like I was getting any of it.

“Are you sure ?”

It was the most meek line of questioning in the history of P.E.s, it made my first interview with Mel look like a command performance. Let’s face it, in my somewhat less than glittering career as a P.E. that was about the worst line I’d ever taken.

“Of course I’m sure.”

Told you. What’s worse I’d managed to get him worked up.

“It’s my job to oversee certain aspects of our business and it just so happens that Samuel Maybrook fell into that area. Any contact from Mr. Maybrook via my contacts would be brought to me....”

Hang on, what did he just say ?

“....to insinuate that I am not in full awareness of what the various bugs under my direction are doing is ludicrous and I take personal offence that...”

He was in full flow but he kept saying it so I had to interrupt.

“Various bugs ?”

“...from someone who, quite frankly doesn’t seem to be able to handle his own job to any degree of...”

“Excuse me. Various bugs ?”

“...and shove it down your.. eh ? What ?”

“You said various bugs.”

“And ?”

“Don’t you mean wasps ?”

“No. I mean bugs. Why would I say bugs when I meant wasps, are you saying that I can’t even speak properly now ?”

I had to calm this guy down before he had me eaten or something.

“No, of course not it’s just I don’t understand. Didn’t Sammy send Harry and Gerry here ?”

“No I’ve just told you we didn’t have any contact with Mr. Maybrook at any time. Honestly Mr. Pincher for a P.E. you’re not very attentive are you ?”

“Wait, I mean, you said bugs, does that mean if Sammy wanted to contact you he’d come here or go somewhere else ?”

“Oh, I see what you mean now. No Mr. Maybrook would go to his designated contact, I don’t have time to deal with every last detail myself but his contact wouldn’t be authorised to take any significant action without my say so.”

“And who was Sammy’s contact.”

“Now why would I tell you that ?”

“Look, I’m going to be honest here. My reputation is in pieces over this and it’s in my interests to find out who killed Sammy. So I want to know and you want to know and, despite what you might think, I’m actually kinda good at my job. So as I see it I can help you here. You tell me Sammy’s contact and I’ll follow it up along with a few other leads...”

“Other leads Mr. Pincher ? What other leads ?”

Damn, force of habit. Of course I didn’t have any other leads apart from Bendelbee and I couldn’t give him that.

“Nothing concrete. Look you’ve said yourself you’re a busy wasp, you haven’t got time to fly around the garden chasing every half assed lead that comes along have you ? Well I have. I’m doing nothing else so what do you say.”

He looked thoughtful.

“We’ve already talked to his contact.”

“You’ve got nothing to lose.”

“We aren’t going to pay you for this.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to, just mutual interest that’s all.”

“I expect you to report back to me directly anything you find out.”

“Obviously.”

“I’ll use your dried, decapitated corpse as a hat stand if you double cross us Pincher.”

I’ve never seen a wasp wear a hat, why the hell would he need a hat stand ?

“Sure.”

“Ok, Mr. Maybrook’s contact was David Clawson, he’s a ‘wig like you.”

“Yeah. I know Clawson.”

That was an understatement.

“If I’m going to report back to you I’ll need to know your name and some contact details.”

“It’s Mr. Wington. Just get in touch with the hive and ask for Mr. Wington.”

Imagine the most annoying, irritating, rude, obnoxious, down right unpleasant person you know, right ? That was Clawson on a good day. I hated this guy, everyone who knew him hated this guy. Anything and I mean anything he could do to make a quick aphid he would. His brother had got in trouble with a group of hornets (and as Lennie the Legs had found out you don’t want to upset hornets) so Clawson, being the loyal family guy he is, had hidden his brother. Of course he was only hiding him until the hornets put out a contract on him, which Clawson duly collected, not that one less Clawson was any great loss for the garden but still. It was no great shock to find that Clawson was working for one of the mob families, the only surprise was that either one actually wanted to deal with him. Personally I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw the apple tree but then Clawson wasn’t the bravest of ‘wigs so I guess fear kept him loyal.

I’d found out from Wington that Clawson operated around the rockery and sure enough there he was, after all there’s no point being a contact bug if no one can find you is there ? As I walked up towards him a broad, charmless smile spread across his face, Clawson recognised me alright I could guess what was coming.

“Pincher. Haven’t seen you for a while, had any clients dismembered recently ?”

Clawson’s smile vanished as the back of his head ricocheted off the stone behind him then came to a sudden stop with my pincer holding him in place.

“Clawson, Clawson. Tell me Clawson why is it that you’re such a asshole ?”

“Hey look Pincher get your filthy bits off me I ain’t done nothin’ to you.”

I wasn’t about to let go.

“You’re alive Clawson. That upsets me for a start. Now then I hear that you’ve been associating with an ex-client of mine.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Clawson tried to whip his own pincer towards my head, he was as good with his tail as he was at lying so with his pincer safely under one of my feet I bounced his head off the stone again.

“Dumb move Clawson let’s try again. You’ve been talking to Sammy Maybrook or at least some of his friends.”

“No, honest Pincher, I don’t know what you’re....”

“Look Clawson even with a head as hard as yours this is going to start hurting sooner or later. So listen carefully. You work for the hive and they have you working as a contact point for some of their clients. One of these clients was Sammy Maybrook before he was so rudely shelled.”

“The hive ? What you been drinking Pincher ? Who feeds you this crap ?”

“Wington.”

TWACK! I slammed Clawson's head back against the stone to emphasise my answer. After the last whack Davy boy started to look a little woozy, maybe I was getting a bit carried away with myself.

Nah, better give him another so he knew I meant business.

“Arrrgh.. Let up Pincher. OK, OK so I do a little work for the hive. I couldn’t tell you, I mean you don’t advertise that kind of information, those guys would kill me.”

“I know exactly how they feel.” CRUNCH!

Clawson actually looked a little concerned now he started rubbing the back of his head.

“Hey, JEESE I’M BLEEDIN’, Pincher you son of a bit...”

“Leave my mother out of this Clawson, I kinda like my family.”

“What the hell is it you want Pincher ?”

“Well as I was saying before you so rudely started lying. You work for the hive, Maybrook was a contact of yours, when did you last speak to him ?”

“Erm...couple of weeks ago.”

“Not this week ?”

“No.”

WHACK!

“Arrrrrgh!”

“You’re lying Davy.”

I liked calling him Davy, it annoyed him no end.

“For cryin’ out loud Pincher I ain’t seen Maybrook or his two grasshopper bouncers for at least two weeks, maybe three. Look if you’ve spoken to Wington already he could have told you all this.”

“Wington can only tell me what you told him and I know you’re a lying scumbag even if they don’t, but I suspect they do.”

“I don’t know what to tell you Pincher. That’s all there is to it.”

“Ok Davy, just remember what I’ll do to you if you’re lying to me and more to the point what the wasps will do.”

I let him go at that point, stepping off his tail I noticed a pleasing large lump on the back of his head, it was the first thing to make me feel good all day. Trouble was I knew Clawson was lying, it was easy to tell when he lied, his mouth moved. Nope, he was lying, the problem was I didn’t know why or about what and of course I couldn’t prove any of it.

It was getting late and I swung by the office. Alice had left for the day but there was a note on my desk. Unc had got some information for me, apparently he had found out about our mysterious Mr. Bendelbee. Well that settled it I’d have to drop into Wiggies to get the information. It’s a hard life being a P.E. having to hang around seedy bars, drinking until all hours of the night, still someone has to do it.

Unc was behind the bar when I arrived, Wiggies was still fairly quiet and he motioned me to a table in the corner.

“Did you find out anything from Stanley ?”

“Oh yeah. Did you know Lenny was running a blackmailing outfit and was using the snails to ferry stuff around for him ?”

“Yeah I knew that, I thought I just wouldn’t tell you. That way you could get yourself involved in the sort of case that ends up with you missing half your legs.”

Once again I was the victim of an overly sarcastic Uncle. He was starting early today though, this didn’t bode well for the information he had for me. After the wasps I was hoping it was good news.

“Well it turns out that Sammy was working for the hive after all. His contact turns out to be none other than Davy Clawson.”

“Oh great. Now you’re really draggin’ every piece of low-life scum in the garden into it. Anything else I should know Ernie ? I mean, am I about to have my bar invading by the entire hive or what ?”
“Well...”

I didn’t know how to tell Unc. about my visit to the hive, he was going to freak out on that one for sure.

“I didn’t actually get Clawson’s name from Stanley.”

“So how do you know he was Sammy’s contact then ?”

“Now stay calm Unc.”

“Why ? What have you been doing Ernie ?”

“I don’t want you to blow a mandible or nothin’ it’s just that I kinda got picked up...”

“By the ants again ?”

“Actually by the wasps.”

“WHAT ?”

“Calm down Unc. It wasn’t anything heavy, just the hive wanting to find out about Sammy’s death, and they aren’t too pleased. Anyway this guy I saw, Wington he said his name was, he reckons Sammy never contacted the hive at all so I managed to persuade him that we could help each other to find out who killed Sammy.”

“So what are you tryin’ to tell me Ernie ? You’re working for the hive now ?”

“Not exactly working, that would involve them paying me. Just kinda, you know, trading information.”

“Sheeesh Ern, when you get yourself in hot water you don’t mess around do you ? You can’t trust the mob Ernie. They’ll slice you up and feed you to the worms without thinking twice about it.”

“I know, that’s why I gotta be careful.”

“Careful ? That’s an understatement. You told them everything right ?”

“Everything except Bendelbee.”

“Are you crazy ? Lying to the hive isn’t exactly a long term career plan Ern, more like a novel way of committing suicide.”

“Well I figured if you could find out about Bendelbee I’d have a damn sight easier time of things if the hive wasn’t chasing around after him as well.”

Unc wasn’t at all pleased, that was obvious, he kept twitching his middle legs and rotating his antenna. Well he’d have to live with it, I couldn’t say I was all that happy about the situation myself but I was stuck with it.

“So anyway why did you drag me down here ?”

“Hmmmm...”

Unc’s mind was on other things.

“Your news ?”

“Oh right. Well like I said Ernie when you land yourself in hot water it’s boiling. I found out a little about Mr. Lars Bendelbee.”

“Well there you go Unc, I was right not to mention him to the wasps or the ants. What have you got ?”

“Don’t get excited Ern it’s nothing major and I don’t think you’ll like it. No one I spoke to admitted knowing anything about him, which is kinda odd in itself, I mean anyone with enough clout to whip up a stag death squad and buy off a couple of orb weavers has to be known by someone right ?”

“Makes sense.”

“Well that’s when it struck me that maybe these guys did know about Bendelbee but not by that name. So I started asking about darkling beetles with stag heavies and one name came up, Harold Cervus.”

Unc was looking at me like this should mean something to me. It had been a long day and my head hurt. Downing the glass of Miracle Grow in front of me I searched my memory. Cervus. Cervus. Nope, nothing.

“Never heard of him.”

“No I didn’t think you had.”

Unc waved to Norman for another round and glanced around the room at his customers. Whoever this guy was he was obviously trouble and Unc was looking for a way to tell me.

“The reason I knew you’d never heard of him is because Harold Cervus is the name we were looking for a few weeks back when you were on the Spindler case. It seems he’s the beetle that’s been hitting some of the bars for protection grubs.”

Damn. That was all I needed, instead of two screwed up separate cases on my books I could now just have one giant screwed up mess.

“Are you sure Unc ? I mean how certain are we that Bendelbee and Cervus are the same guy ?”

“Nothing's for certain Ern but Sammy was a bar owner, Bendelbee was a darkling beetle, he had stags working for him and Cervus is a darkling beetle that goes around threatening bar owners with stag beetles. It’s not exactly difficult to spot the link is it ?”

“I see what you mean Unc but Sammy’s death wasn’t about protection grubs I’m sure of it, there’s more to it than that. How come you managed to get this guy’s name anyway ? We tried for ages to get info on this guy before and got nothing.”

“Simple Ernie, Cervus isn’t collecting any more or he isn’t collecting as often or from as many bars. Bugs tend to talk a bit more when they aren’t scared of getting their heads ripped off.”

“It’s the best lead I have at this point anyway.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes while we drank the round that Norman had brought over. I hadn’t exactly run out of options but I wasn’t drowning in them either. If Bendelbee and Cervus were the same beetle I suppose it made some sense, I still didn’t believe Bendelbee was the head bug behind all this so if you were going to set about trying to frighten a bar owner you might want to hire a guy with some experience. Even so there was still something that bothered me about Sammy’s death. Bendelbee hadn’t made any demands other than wanting Sammy out and the day after Sammy was dead. It didn’t seem like a huge amount of time for Sammy to comply even if he had wanted to. Nope Sammy’s death looked like a hit, Spindler’s, I was sure, had been because he wasn’t paying, so the motives were different. Why would anyone want Sammy dead so badly ?

“What’s the plan now Ernie ?”

The sound of Unc’s voice brought me out of my thoughts and back to Wiggies.

“Hmmm... oh yeah. Well tomorrow night I think I’ll pay a visit to Sydney’s Tub and have a chat with my old friend Tony. I’ll see if he’s any more chatty these days, maybe he’ll be able to tell me something about the guy who was putting thee squeeze on him.”

“Sounds good. What are you going to do until then ?”

“Well tomorrow during the day I plan to stay in bed nursing the hang over I’m going to spend the rest of tonight earning. Norman, same again. And keep ‘em coming.”