Hunt the Thimble – Chase Sequence 4 - Bentley 33

 

[For back story go here: Story so far at 17 Sept 2020 and mainly this one.]

[Relevant back story also in embedded links.]

“It’s a question of triangulation,” said Bentley, firing up the computer. “Find as many live references, as many angles on your target as possible and then push them as much as you can.”

Natalie looked worried. “You can do this?”

“Say it with some conviction and we’ll get somewhere,” said Bentley. “I can do this.”

"You can do this," said Natalie, with a modicum of conviction.

For an elderly gent, Bentley's fingers positively flew over the keyboard. There were multiple windows and search engines ploughing away seemingly at once as the Internet was trawled far and wide, generally and specifically in search of their quarry.

"I've got to ask"; said Natalie, "where did you learn to do this?"

"University of the Third Age, local OAP computer club and the rest online."

"The local OAP club?"

"Oh yeah," said Bentley. "All kinds in there. Teach you how to store stuff in the cloud, back up your back ups so if your back up gets corrupted you've still got a back up to back up from."

“Right…” said Natalie, "Sounds comprehensive."

"And then there was Lenny."

"Lenny?"

"Turns out he understands how to find things out on people. Stuff he reckoned they might have forgotten or wouldn't like to think you knew."

"Right..." Said Natalie. "And how does he know this?"

"Probably all that time he spent on a computer course," said Bentley, "in Strangeways Prison."

Before too long Bentley had an array of interesting search results around Fred Thimble. His hit rate was pretty good and he easily disregarded the finds which simply went on about haberdashery. His final list included:

• membership of a national railway interest group
• employer records at York railway station and others
• volunteering record at the National Museum in York
• a brief appearance in court for trespassing on the line (claimed he was rescuing an injured bird, more likely to be taking his train spotting too far)
• three sports centre memberships (elapsed)
• half a dozen shopping discount code clubs
• a subscription to Budgie World

"So now what?" asked Natalie.

Bentley paused for a few moments.

“What would Lenny do?” he pondered, and then with a new resolve he said: ”We go after the budgie.”

“The budgie?”

“That’s what Lenny would do.”

And so Bentley hurtled virtually into the world of the budgerigar. He also aimed himself at York and the North in general and soon they were both virtually surrounded by exotic birds from all over the world, but living in the region. There were competitions, shows, advice, special offers, trading, reports of abusive language (usually said by some talking bird or other) and everything else besides. Natalie couldn’t really believe what they’d found, although Bentley thought it was all rather small town gossip, given what he’d discovered when he went after someone who was really really into goldfish.

Finally he felt he had what he needed. Fred Thimble had carried out some kind of exchange which involved three budgies for one parrot. However, cross referencing the going rates for these suggested the parrot owner was considerably down on the deal. With a few more twists and turns Bentley created an email contact from a highly respected national budgerigar organisation and from that contact he sent Fred a message compelling him to account for his actions and to be prepared to compensate the owner he had wronged and the national organisation as well in order to preserve his good character, professional outlook and certified listing.

All correspondence, one way or another would end up in one of Bentley’s own in boxes, ready for him to up the ante in due course and finally, so he planned, create enough pressure to flush things of worth from Fred Thimble’s grasp.

“Is this going to work?” asked Natalie.

“It’ll rattle his cage,” smirked Bentley.

Bentley explained that even if it just sewed some seeds of doubt that would be enough to get the ball rolling. There were plenty of other angles for him to bring into play from the contacts and information he had, and by chasing all of these at once there would come a point when Fred would misstep and expose himself. That would be the time to pounce.

Eventually, argued Bentley, Fred would do practically anything to get back to his quiet life and that would be when, for a certain price, Bentley would step in and offer to make everything go away. 

“That certain price being a certain ring,” concluded Natalie.

“You learn well,” said Bentley.

“Just one thing,” said Natalie. “If you think he’s got it, wouldn’t it be easier for you to just offer to buy it from him? I mean, you’ve still got all that money. Why not put it to good use?”

“Because the money isn’t mine so it isn’t in the picture,” said Bentley. “And if I did do that I’d give him all the power. Don’t over-complicate things. We’ll sort it out.”