Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Aftermath, The Press Needless To Say. Plus More Snakes Return!

Come Sunday all the media tried to pile into the Bull's Lounge Bar. However, to no avail. The bouncers were ready and uniformed police were outside the pub. The DJ had gone into hiding with some mates. Many of the clubbers were keeping a very low profile. Reporters were already pestering them. A lot were easy to track down through various social media sites. They all knew what to expect from the press. All of them had kept abreast of the recent developments at the Bull the last time the media circus descended. They kept their replies as minimal as possible.

Being a Sunday lead to some changes. The Detective Chief Inspector's wife Dorothy turned up along with the wives of both the two Majors, Agatha and Margaret.

They had all commandeered the comfy seats on the side. Their usual position. Beryl was overjoyed and took the opportunity to come over to see the ladies for brief chats and gossip. Both of the young detectives were there with their young brides. Pamela Parsons had also taken the trouble to come over with her partner, a BBC producer Charles.

Everybody needed Sunday to be a day of rest. However, this was exceptional. By 2.30 Old Slippery materialized on his chair dressed in his Sunday best. He was wearing his red coat, high cravat, and orange and white pantaloons. He too rarely ventured out from 'down below' on a Sunday.

A number of the 'Sunday only' diners were more than a bit taken aback, having not seen the 'House Ghost' before. Many knew what this was all about, Old Slippery's club adventures yesterday, well the early morning of Sunday.

The press en masse were having real problems with the latest 'Old Slippery' escapade. What pitch or angle should they take?

Their headlines reflected this chaos.

"Old Slippery Runs AMOK in the Bull"

Not true at all.

" Line Dancing IS BACK with OLD SLIPPERY"

That's better.

Plus of course:

"This is an affront to British Family values and morality"

Quite where this comes from was any body's question. Variations of this seemed to be the staple of this particular paper.

Along with;

"Shapely Susan was there. She bears all on PAGE THREE,"

A little more disturbing were these.

"This is an affront to press freedom. Press denied access to the club."

"Freedom of Speech considerably Curtailed!!"

This was from the more discerning press that should have known better. The Detective Chief Inspector went to some lengths to explain this was a public safety matter. Old Slippery would have known immediately if the press had been there. All the media people should have realized what this meant. The consequences did not bear thinking about in a crowded place like that. Detective Chief John Higgins stood by this position. A number of the more reasonable newspapers and TV channels agreed with this. The rest had found or made up, a new axe to grind. There was a field day of bizarre claims all over the web, very much 'Fake News'.

A few trusted reporters and media people were allowed in. They sat close to the Detective Chief Inspector and Pamela Parsons.

As for the newspaper hacks etc, they were kept out. The Detective Chief Inspector thought 'whatever'. Was he really bothered? Let them in, prancing around the Old Ghost with their flash photography, there would be a Sunday massacre.

Detective Chief Inspector John Higgins, Beryl, and Sid really did have the measure of all of this. Old Slippery was 'in' on this too. He of course could read what John Higgins and Sid were thinking. Telepathic conversations were going on between the Old Slippery, the 'Chief', and Sid. This was very much part of Old Slippery's redemption. Much that part of him would love to dice up all these media scum into little packets of meat with his trusted sword, but he knew this could spell disaster for the Bull.

He was beginning to admire his offspring's use of the 'wind up'. The Detective Chief Inspector had learnt to skillfully rile the more irritating elements of the media. Excluding them from the Bull was one of his 'tricks'. Yes, there would be more 'freedom of the press' blah blah blah reported later and on line. The Chief knew that most people saw the sense in what he was doing.

Old Slippery knew that the Chief 'hankered' after a more 'extreme' example, which amused him somewhat. He could understand now that these subtle games were very much part of the 21st century.

There was something else that was a worry. There could well be some new snakes appearing of late. The temptation was far too great. They may have known about the fate of 'The Snake' and his heart attack or didn't. Otherwise, they thought the risk was worth it. About four had infiltrated the Bull Lounge Bar on that Sunday afternoon.

They were up to the same tricks. Again the new 'snakes' were on the lookout for any juicy little titbits they could get their fangs into. These would be suitably exaggerated and distorted ready for whoever had the cash out there to spend on this dubious copy. There was always a market.

There was now a subtle variation. Two of the snakes were young women. Of course, the news was out there that Old Slippery had a liking for the ladies. It was hoping that this 'plan' would 'throw' the Old Ghost.

Fat chance!

Sid and Beryl knew straight away who they were. So did Old Slippery along with the Detective Chief Inspector and the two young detectives. The fact that two of the 'Snakes' were attractive young women did not go unnoticed by Old Slippery.

However, being ladies made no difference to the Old Ghost. They still constituted a threat to The Bull. The new 'snakes' had managed to silver through the 'vetting' system at the door, What particularly worried the Detective Chief Inspector was that they could easily set up an incident to wind up the Old Ghost. Then sit back and record the mayhem and milk it for all it was worth,

This time the Chief Detective Inspector Higgins felt a 'judicial' intervention from Old Slippery could well stop all of this from getting out of hand. Plus, make it plain to the slimy reporters that they were not welcome at the Bull.

Old Slippery and the Chief came up with a plan they thought could work.

Communicating telepathically, Detective Chief Inspector Higgins suggested that the Old Ghost could apply pain to various parts of their bodies. Nothing too threatening or life-threatening and especially nothing that would leave any physical marks showing that anything had happened.

Old Slippery got to work. The pain was administered to specific sensitive areas of each of their bodies. I will leave you, dear reader, to work out where this could be, yes very sensitive areas! These varied from annoying itches to deep-seated painful shocks.

All four started to look very uncomfortable. They soon stood up and shot straight out of the Lounge Bar. The Right Hon Jake Horatio Higginbottom then produced a full stately bow in the direction of the Chief Inspector. He reciprocated with a deep bow.