Chapter Eight: 

Chapter Eight: The Bull Public House Becomes Very Popular With Consequences

Despite all the recent 'Slippery' manifestation, the Lounge and Cellar Bar Restaurants were proving very popular. This was down mostly to the quality of the food, drinks, and service. Yes, reporter hacks and 'anorak nerds' were still lurking about, this did not put off customers any more than the Resident Ghost.

Sid and Beryl were overjoyed with all of this. It was now just two weeks before Christmas. I still had half a week to crawl through at school.

Plus the weather was even more gray and cold with a perpetual wet drizzle. I came in. ordered my pint, and slumped into my comfy leather chair. Everybody was there, as usual. We had to wait for Isabella who again was working late. She had started her shift at 5 am. Professor James Hudson quipped.

"You seemed bushed Young David!"

"Yes, unlike you academics we work full terms." I snapped back.

I then said sorry, I did not work on Tuesdays and Wednesdays when I did my property work. I wondered how my colleagues coped, working full time and this was in a pretty good school? The pint revived me though. Pamela Parsons got down to business. All the documents were handed back. She duly checked these and said they were all fine. 'Slippery Productions' was formally set up. This way we could try and get some control over the media.

It was about then that Isabella arrived. She seemed flustered and ordered a brandy. She had been working very long hours and had several difficult operations.

"A young girl nearly lost her baby. I thought birth control was very advanced here, but these girls still get into trouble."

I put my arm around her. She signed the form and sat back and had another brandy. Magda came back like a shot.

It was then that it happened. A table had been reserved by the window. A group came in and sat down. The Detective Chief Inspector immediately 'clocked' them.

"Ruskies, or something like that. 'Ivans'. See the overdressed bloke in the middle, those two 'professional' young ladies. The two over flashy heavy geezers. Those two with the big coats could well be 'packing' (having guns). Been aware of that crew for a while. Into 'nose candy' (cocaine), opiates, meths, club drugs, plus trafficking."

He said all this very quietly. He also sent a message via his inter con back to his base, warning them of the situation, but not to take any action in the pub.

The Detective Chief Inspector also knew that the City of London and all those testosterone-fueled City Traders were the big magnet for all of this. Given the 'Majors' background, he felt he should remain 'buttoned up' on this one. Old Slippery was lapping all this up, as of course, he could read the Detective Chief Inspectors' mind. More on this later.

Old Slippery was there. The chair cleaning trick had worked again. Of course Old Slippery knew full well who these people were. They were a considerable threat to the Bull. For now, he was appraising the situation.

There was laudanum around in his day. This was a form of opium and highly addictive. It was used as a pain killer. Laudanum was mostly alcohol, with some opium added. Like many others, such as the great poet Keats, Shelley and Lord Byron, Old Slippery was addicted. There was also snuff, tobacco pushed up the nose and his clay pipe. But this plethora of drugs? This really perplexed the Old Ghost.

"Well lads," The Chief told his apprentices very quietly. "This is big-league sh** now!"

"Those geezers can smell coppers a mile off. Call one of your ladies over for another round. Ask them, lads, if they have noticed anything?"

Magda came over and seemed upset.

"They are bad Russians and those girls are from Ukraine. They open their legs for money!"

James asked her gently what they were talking about.

"Yes baby, they say more bitches will come soon, some virgins, plus a lot more 'goods' from Colombia and China."

"Keep your cool love. They probably guess you are Polish."

"We need a picture but how?" The Detective Chief Inspector asked plaintively.

"Ah, a selfie!!!" was James' reply!

It was then that she got out her cell/mobile, put her arms tightly around James, and started to take a whole range of lovey-dovey pics, a whole number around the Lounge Bar. Beryl was more than a bit puzzled, but many of the regulars knew they were both well into a relationship. Yes, young love again. What she did manage to do was get some very good shots of the 'Russian' crew in the background without them knowing.

"Genius young lady!" The Detective Chief Inspector whispered. "I should give her your job, James" laughing quietly.

James looked kind of pleased and Magda was elated.

The Detective Chief Inspector reminded her again in a whisper "Cool young lady"

Major Humphrey then inquired. "Russian Johnnies?"

"Yes, Major Humphrey" Was the Detective Chief Inspector's reply.

"A very rum crowd what, had my fill of all that in Afghanistan. Schtum Chief Inspector?"

"This could be a very sticky wicket!"

"Yes, schtum Major."

Please note, I do not want to castigate all Russians by any means. Crime is everywhere and that was certainly true in London.

The Russian crew was none the wiser that they had been rumbled, They seemed to be involved in a very heated discussion. Magda reported back that this was all about money.

It was then that something quite astonishing happened. There were definite shakings and rattlings. Slippery was far from happy. He had been reading the mind of the Detective Chief Inspector and knew something had to be done. The Russians had barely noticed him up to that point. This was going to quickly change!

The Russian table was taken by surprise. This allowed the Detective Chief Inspector to discreetly usher people out of the Lounge Bar. His young apprentices helped with this along with the bar staff, Beryl and Sid. It was a good job that they did. When the Lounge Bar customers came outside they were amazed to see a police armed response squad waiting outside, if they went out the front door. Those leaving by the side door to the pub's car park saw police vans parked there.

Slippery had a fixed expression on his face. His eyes had narrowed and were bright red. He was glaring across at the Russian table. The 'committee' had stayed behind. Sandra and Kevin had set up their equipment. There was a look of intent in the ghost's eyes. He seemed to know who they were. They were a threat to the Bull Public House. He knew evil when he saw it, having committed many evil deeds himself.

He moved/glided towards the 'Russian Mafia' table. He looked very critical at the two girls. There was a touch of lasciviousness in his gaze but mostly contempt. He knew full well who they were. Both the girls shrieked and ran to the bar door to escape. They were apprehended of course by the police as soon as they left the building.

The Russians brought out a Glock pistol each and started offloading these into Old Slippery. The bullets flew harmlessly through the ghost. He was dead anyway. The Right Hon Jake Horatio Higginbottom seemed impressed. These pistols did not seem to need reloading. If only he had a pair of these when he was a Highwayman? He grabbed one of the 'heavies' by the throat. The 'heavy' immediately went into cardiac arrest, a heart attack, and slumped to the ground. The other 'heavy' rushed to the door and ran outside to the front. He was ordered to lie flat on the ground and throw his gun forward, towards the armed response group. But the other 'heavy' started pumping bullets out. He was immediately shot and killed. One bullet straight into the forehead.

The third man, the leader, tried to sneak out of the Lounge Bar to no avail. Old Slippery toyed with the idea of thrusting his actual rapier sword through the leader's heart. He thought better of this and simply grabbed the man's throat. He turned a strange blue colour. The robber slumped to the floor, gasping for breath.

Inside, Old Slippery knew what had happened outside. He would soon be administrating eternal torture to this 'heavy' with the help of many others. The ghost went back to his chair and faded away. The rattling and shaking stopped. Isabella went straight over to the other 'heavy' on the floor. She checked for a pulse. It was there but very faint. Liza administered first aid pushing down hard on his chest. This did bring him round. He was quickly taken out on a stretcher under armed guard. Likewise, she brought the 'main man' round. He too was taken out on a stretcher by armed guards. They were at first taken to hospital.

The Detective Chief Inspector and his apprentices had to go straight back to their police station. He wanted to question the two remaining Russians through an interpreter. Once they were fit enough. Magda also later added a statement. All three police officers had a quick stiff malt whiskey courtesy of Sid and Beryl before they left. The rest of us, the professors, Isabella, the Majors, plus Sandra and Kevin had stiff drinks courtesy of the pub.

The Bull was closed for the rest of the night. Police forensic teams had to thoroughly examine the crime scene. Sandra and Kevin's videos fitted in with what had happened, but the police, like everyone else before, were perplexed by what they had seen on these recordings of Old Slippery and how he dispatched the 'Russian Mafia'.

There was another upshot from all these dramatic events. Quite a number of the Russian Mafia's Glock bullets had sprayed into the old and very expensive oak paneling in the Lounge Bar Restaurant. Beryl was understandably livid. Oak panels could cost anything up to £400 a square meter that is around $600 US. Plus these were originals. The Bull had a comprehensive property insurance policy but there were some additional costs to pay. I had words with Sid and Beryl and with my contacts. We were able to get some excellent replacement oak panels at half the cost. I got a few free beers out of this as well. Beryl, especially, was even less enamoured with these Russian gangsters. She fully forgave Old Slippery though. She knew he had operated with the best interests of the Bull Pub. He could read her thoughts. This pleased the Old Ghost a lot.

It was now a week to go before Christmas. Trade should have been really good then. Yes, things were picking up. The pub had been closed down for the weekend to let the police do their forensic work. However. the recent events and expulsion of the 'Russian Mafia' had made a big dent in trade. People were frightened to go back, understandably. The Entertainment Bar had also suffered. There had been widespread coverage in the media. International TV crews had come round. Yes, the Lounge Bar was still full of media 'hacks' and nerds waiting for something to occur. Special parties had booked dinner tables for the same reason. This was better than nothing, Beryl thought. Regulars were starting to drift back in and some office parties had been booked.

Pamela Parsons's proposal was a godsend. She was busy at the BBC. She had set up, along with Kevin and Sandra a 'Slippery Jake' FaceBook page. He had his own Twitter account, @SlipperyJack.com, plus G mail and Yahoo email accounts. Plus of course his own web page. This was the 21st century after all. There was printing back in the 18th Century. However, a lot relied then on just a quill pen.

Kevin and Sandra were kept busy managing all of this. They would refer anything difficult back to Pamela Parsons. The committee would be kept informed. Pamela herself, was up to her neck organizing the Christmas programming schedule, so she could not easily get to the Bull. However, all her online information plus the setting up of a company had made it easy to deflect a lot of the media. Beryl and Sid and the bar staff were telling everyone to refer to the 'Slippery' web site. Lina, along with Justin was going to Estonia for a few days over the Christmas period. James and Magda would be going to Poland. Sven likewise was spending time in Sweden. All would be back for the New Year. Beryl had all these positions covered with temporary staff, again she was very grateful, for her daughters' help.

Christmas was really close but the 'committee' was there as usual, without Pamela Parsons. Both 'professors' were present, Dr. Amelia Smith and Professor James Hudson. I was at last free from school. This was not the case with Isabella. Child births did not respect calendars. She would try and drop round, Needless to say, the police contingent was there along with the 'Majors'. Detective Chief Inspector Higgins was kept busy telling assorted media types to "Fu** off" in the nicest possible way. He knew full well who the people were sitting around the table and were leaning over all the time trying to catch snippets of conversation.

Professor James did have some very interesting information.

"Although there many obstacles to publication during the Regency period, high taxes, censorship, etc, there were a large number of newspapers to start with. This is a good source of general information, and like now you can't believe most of what is written in them."

The Professor looked around the various 'reporters' on various tables nearby, with a surreptitious grin.

"There is enough there to start to get to a picture of our 'resident ghost'.

"Yes, he seemed to be a man of two extremes. One kind and gentle and caring, the other totally ruthless and callous. We have already seen both these sides of his character manifested here by his 'ghost'."

"The historical records are clear on this".

"I have several students who seemed to want to take up doctoral studies, Phds, based on studying 'the Right Hon Jake Horatio Higginbottom'"

Dr. Amelia Smith laughed at this and added. "Yes me too. I would normally discourage students from jumping on a 'popular bandwagon' ".

"Me too!" Professor Hudson added.

"Yes, but given his notoriety and the scattered records that are out there, we could do with all the help we can in pulling this all altogether."

"Unlike other notable highwaymen such as the much earlier Dick Turpin, 'our' highwayman had this 'lascivious' tag very much attached to him. As the so-called highly hypocritical Victoria period advanced along with its' so-called 'Victorian values' that "Slippery's' records were destroyed. These included personal letters and official papers. This Public House had a reputation as a place of 'ill repute' of course."

It was at this point that Isabella turned up. She had a quick summary of what was discussed so far.

She added:

"Ah back to our favourite topic of conversation. syphilis and our resident ghost. I have managed to do some research and talked to specialist colleagues. Mr. Higginbottom may well have had 'neurosyphilis'. This is when syphilis attacks the brain. It may have also been the case that our 'ghost' tended towards schizophrenia. This combined with advancing neurosyphilis could well account for these extreme mood swings. He would count himself lucky that he was eventually hung as the advancing infection would have proved increasingly painful over an extended period."

"Ah, so our ghost was better off being hung?" Percy added.

"You could say that I suppose Major," Liza replied.

We decided to send all the papers across to Sandra and Kevin and copies to Pamela Parsons. Both Dr. Smith and Professor Hudson stated that 'Slippery's' many lady friends had secretly kept love letters and other papers. These had the habit of turning up from time to time. Kept in the attic or in some bottom draw as a bundle of old papers. Everybody thought it was a good idea to give all this some publicity to see if anything else was out there. There was a lot of work to do and it needed doctoral students to undertake a lot of this work.

Since that Friday, Old Slippery had remained very dormant. It was if he knew he was in the 'dog house'. He had not appeared sitting in his chair. There were no rattles. Maybe also he did not want to encourage these reporters.

Sid came over and offered records he had on the ghost. There were a lot of these going back to the highwayman's life. These would be gratefully received. He also noted that Slippery had a habit of appearing and disappearing for some time, years at a time. This time, it was if he knew he had overdone things. We would all have to wait on that.

The meeting broke up and everybody wished everybody else a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Isabella and I drove back in our dream SUV. She could be called at any time at the hospital. The senior staff, at last, recognized the amount of work she had done and promised her this would only be if they were short-staffed and there was an emergency.