All the signs – Bentley 34

 

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

[Relevant back story also in embedded links.]

In the end the posters simply said 'Missing Cat', included a picture of Covid (the cat) and tear off papers with Bentley's number. There was a reward for any help given. This had started at ten pounds but swiftly escalated to forty as Bentley ruminated on how dear the animal was to him.

Natalie and Bentley had gone out for a stroll late one evening with a dozen or so of these A4 affairs, fresh off Bentley's printer and stuck them up with tack, tape and staples wherever they could find a good site. Bentley noted there was no point in going over board on the number of copies since the cat couldn't have gone that far from home (and, he said chuckling, couldn’t read anyway). He had also questioned the inclusion of the bit where it asks readers to check their garages and sheds in case the cat were trapped in there. Natalie said it was almost traditional to use this and covered all bases. Bentley said they lived in a low rise flat estate, if she hadn’t noticed, and there were very few out buildings where cats could get caught.

Missing his cat, Bentley was downbeat about whether she would return. He was convinced she had been taken against her will and prayed that he'd hear from the cat-nappers soon with whatever demands they might have for her safe return. He was trying to visualise how this might happen and decided there was no way he would accept a box with the cat in – he had to see she was fit and well.

Having done this all that was left was a waiting game both with cat and Fred Thimble. He had done what he could but while he thought he had the patience necessary the truth was he really didn't. There had been too many disruptions, twists and turns to his life recently, too many suggestions of his own misdemeanours, too many people telling him they were people they were not to the extent that he wasn’t even certain if he trusted himself and his actions.

Maybe it was all completely on the level – he was a victim of circumstance with regard to the ring, simply walking into the wrong jewellers at the wrong time. Maybe he was far too much a stickler for certainty and correctness – too uptight to see the casual criminal activity happening around him, just as he sometimes insisted trains left promptly to the second if that meant them having to pause further down the line. Perhaps, he reflected, he was just a fool and he’d know exactly what was going on if only he thought about it long enough and in the right way. His problem might be that he was spending his energy in entirely the wrong pursuits, allowing people to take advantage of him – You can trust old Bentley, he'll see you right, and if you’re careful he won’t even see how you’ve stitched him up.

He couldn't wait for Thimble to start sweating, if he were a better man, thought Bentley, he would wait, but time was of the essence. Alone in his flat again he fired up the computer and took a further risk on applying pressure to Thimble. He wrote directly to the editor of Budgie World Monthly to complain about the attitude and action of one Mr. F. Thimble, questioning whether the budgie world really wanted such a person in their midsts and what steps could be taken in this day and age to ensure reputations were not generally tarnished.

That done he finally returned to the other item dogging his conscience. The box no longer contained £20,000. It was probably more like £19,850, but that was OK. Bentley felt he could easily cover the shortfall should he have to (at the point when whoever had sent it to him, demanded it back and wheeled out the thumbscrews to do so). The shoes, too small for Bentley, were still there too.

Lawrence had claimed that he knew about the money and would ask for it back at some point, but that was a while ago. £20,000 wasn’t something that a person just had and then didn’t care about any more. £20,000 wasn’t something you just shipped somewhere and didn’t keep track of. But did Lawrence have size ten shoes? And was he still watching Bentley’s flat after all this time.

Bentley decided he’d try a different tack. Christmas was coming. There were new people who had come into his life over the past nine months and everyone had had a pretty rough time of it with the pandemic and everything else. Bentley decided he would force the issue in as many ways as possible. He would spend the money. A lot of it. The question was what on?