(This October, InsectPOD is celebrating with a special “creepy story”, the Hopper Case Files, told in installments. New readers should start with the first case file, The Missing Mayfly.)
I arrived at the jail first thing the next morning. The jailers weren’t in any hurry, and while I waited I started wondering which of them were on Arga’s payroll. This soured my mood considerably. Finally they checked me through and I went in to visit.
The first thing I noticed was that Argus had been telling the truth about how many mafia members were in lockdown with Gus. The open cell block was completely full of wolf spiders.
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They shuffled and pushed, some talked, others shouted. Some simply ran in circles. Gus was nowhere to be seen. I kept looking.
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A flick of motion out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. There were brief shouts and then a scuffle. Before I could even turn my head it was all over: on a prearranged signal, two inmates had attacked and killed the inmate next to them.
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I didn’t know if the victims had had a beef with Arga, or if they had simply been executed in front of me to send the message that Gus wasn’t safe on the inside. Either way, I was getting the message loud and clear. I still hadn’t seen Gus.
But I guess he had seen me. “Up here, Genius,” he said.
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“Gus!” I said, for lack of anything witty to say. “You look… good…”
“Can it, G. I know I’m in here because of you, and for what it’s worth, thanks for trying. Cassius told me the score and why you did it. Looks like you didn’t figure too good, though.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I figured the cops here were clean. Thought they’d keep you in solitary for safety.”
Gus said nothing, but shrugged. After a minute, he looked at me and said, “So… ask already.”
I laughed. “Am I that obvious? All right then. Argus Trifasciata told me I needed to talk to you.”
“Right on schedule,” he said. “So, what about?”
“I was sort of hoping you’d know. I told him I was looking for a missing dame, and he told me I should talk to you.”
“Ah, okay. Look, you’re asking the question all wrong. What you should have asked me is what Cassius told me before he locked me up.”
“Cassius talked to you before he locked you up?”
“I just said that. Try to keep up, Genius.”
“Okay, bad question. Here’s a better one: how did Argus know this?”
“Probably because Cassius talked to him after he talked to me. He said he knew Argus was of interest to one of your investigations, and this way he could tell you to come to me.”
I hate trying to live up to my name. I stared off into the distance for a long time, thinking, trying to work it all out.
Argus told me to come to Gus because Cassius had told him to tell me. He had left some information with Gus that he wanted me to get after—
I snapped my gaze back to Gus. “Cassius knew he was going to die.”
“Wrong!” Gus smiled his infuriating smile. “Cassius would have just mailed you a letter. But close enough, I guess. He thought he might die, and wanted to be able to not tell you this information if he lived. He couldn’t very well un-mail a letter, you see.”
“Okay, so he knew he was walking into trouble. What was his message?”
“Well, he started off by saying that you didn’t know who to be afraid of, and that’s why he wanted you out of harm’s way. Then he said that he didn’t know if Carlos was dangerous or not. If he died, he told me to tell you that Carlos was more dangerous than he had expected.”
“And he expected Carlos to be very dangerous.”
As we were talking, a couple of wolf spiders had started circling the cage to get closer to Gus, working to stay in his blind spot and not give the impression that they were stalking him.
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Gus saw me notice them and gave a nearly imperceptible shake of the head. “I see them,” he said. “Don’t worry about me. The spiders that just got killed were stalking me, too. But the mob wants me alive, see.”
“They got killed for stalking you. And these two are about to meet a sticky end if they don’t wise up quick, too.”
“That’s about the size of it. Until the mob decides I am of no further value, I’m safer in here than I was in my own home.”
“Okay,” I replied. “Back to work, then. Now I know Carlos is more dangerous than ever. But I still don’t know a thing about why he is dangerous, and I’m no closer to finding him.”
“I can’t help you with the danger. You’re on your own there. But as for finding him, he’s renting an upstairs apartment at 507 Elytra Avenue.”
507?” I asked, startled. “Cassius died at Elytra and Fifth!”
“Is that bad?” asked Gus.
“Cassius died of a hornet sting. Not multiple stings from a hornet, I mean a single sting. And he died before he could walk ten feet. That means there’s a hornet out there that’s….” I trailed off.
“A hornet? So… airborne, deadly venom, and crazy aggressive. We’re basically talking about a flying spider.”
“Yeah. Only with good eyesight. And don’t forget your basic hornet temperament.”
“Right. We’re talking about a flying, angry spider. With 20/20 vision.”
“I gotta go,” I said. “I’ve got a cop-killing mayfly to beat to death.”
“Genius,” Gus said as I turned to go, “I know I don’t have to tell you to be careful, so I won’t.”
“You either,” I smiled.
Image Credit: Aaron Wadley. Actually, I have to give credit to Aaron’s son: he’s the one who rounded up his friends and said “Let’s go catch spiders!”
Slowly getting the site back onto an even keel. It's nice to get back into the old posting rhythm.