Ivan was forever drunk. It was supposed that the malodorous, insane and imbecilic drunkard that had come with Ivan’s drink obsession had destroyed the once unruffled, motivated and supportive brother that Christie had known. He was one of the Grimstoners whom people stayed well clear of and harrumphed snide observations whenever he entered any public place. This meant that Ivan could stroll naked through the street and the people would fear him so avidly that no one would have the fortitude to rebuke him.
Therefore, as the people panicked at his presence, Ivan soon realised that he had the awe-inspiring power to have anyone do any favour for him. He was so overwhelmed by his tremendous authority and so he began to demand everyone around like his own personal slaves. At first this was superb as Ivan had Vinnie Belderbos pouring him free vodka, Gerald Smight, head teacher of Saint Grimston’s giving him a complimentary education and along with this Deacon, Tristan, Orson and Carter becoming his followers, but little did he know that they where only tagging along with him to look tough and supreme and possibly get a few useful favours done for themselves by gullible locals.
A month forth of his mighty revelation, Ivan had nearly the whole town kneeling down before him and no favour had ever been left unfinished. But, one day Ivan asked for something that was quite frankly beyond a favour. He asked for a job.
The man who he enquired was the owner of ‘We Knead Dough’ Grimston’s half-decent bakery, Jamie Hopton twin of Neil Hopton. Their shop always sent a delectable balmy scent into the polluted Grimston air and was always quite literally jam-packed to the edge with freshly baked cakes, bread, pies and pastries. Ivan being the self-loving man that he was took a fancy to seeing himself in a towering crisp-white baker’s hat with flour on his brow and so yes, when he was in the Howling Hog Inn and Jamie Hopton was present he asked him for a job.
Now, Jamie Hopton was amongst the few remaining well-educated and wise folk about Grimston. He was perfectly aware of the fact that Ivan Flinch was a trouble-maker, a scoundrel, a rascal, a good-for-nothing, pathetic, lying, cheating scallywag. He knew all about his ‘favours’. He also knew that he’d have a toad working in his shop before he had Ivan Flinch employed. And so as you can imagine Jamie refused Ivan’s ‘generous’ offer.
This certainly caused a stir in Grimston; in fact some people claim to still feel the ground tremble today. Ivan was so engrossed in his own pride that he had never even imagined that anyone would ever deny him. He was like a King in Grimston, a King whose servant had just betrayed him. To Jamie’s dismay Ivan was two heads taller than him and so it was remarkably easy for Ivan to knock him out with a single blow of one bulky hand. With Jamie lying unconscious and dribbling on the pub floor and Ivan flapping his lanky arms and bawling at every bystander, Vinnie Belderbos thought it best if he ended this customer-decreasing monstrosity.
By the time he was hauled out onto the pavement by Vinnie and the door was slammed shut in his face, Ivan was no longer angry with Jamie, in fact Jamie had shrunk to nothing more than a miniscule voice in the back of his head. Now it was Vinnie’s face that bulged in Ivan’s head and the fiery rage of revenge burned through his bones.
Ivan picked himself off the hard concrete and paced up and down the lane wheedling to himself, “I’ll kill that, louse! I’ll murder that weasel! I’ll slaughter him! I will! How dare he throw me out when I’m his most regular customer! The brute!” And then as quickly as Jamie had fallen to the ground, a plan sprang to Ivan’s sick mind. Vinnie had made Ivan’s body burn with a burning, scorching, blistering, sweltering, sizzling, flaming, hot displeasure. Ivan was going to the same thing to Vincent Belderbos, only on a much bigger scale.
Ivan waited. He waited until he was certain that the last customer had left the pub which was in fact Jamie Hopton with two plum-black eyes, no front teeth, an inflated inflammation upon his head and all sorts of other bruises and swellings across the shady stretch of his face. He waited until he saw the light adjust to complete darkness through the translucent window. He waited until he was positive that Vinnie was asleep with a glass of malted milk in his stomach.
Then Ivan acted. He carefully and mutely lit a blazing fire through the letter box of the Inn and ran home with a malevolence smirk on his mischievous face and petrol drenched across his hands.
Well, Ivan’s plan would have worked a treat if he had considered the following issue:
Ivan was oblivious to the fact that Vinnie’s bartender, Wally Crookson who was forgotten about on numerous occasions due to his tremendously miniature size, slept on the couch which was downstairs in the pub. Consequently, Crookson smelt the smoke, put out the fire and heehawed, “Thir, Thir, thomeone thtarted a fire!” in his high pitched, slurred voice, whilst tripping over his ever-growing black beard and rushing up the stairs to his ‘Thir’s’ room.
Ivan was deeply disappointed when he found out that his plan had failed, despondently. He would have had a second shot at it but he soon realised being an alcoholic that a pub with an infuriating owner was better than no pub at all.
The fire brings us back to the burgundy scar upon Ivan’s forehead. The people who knew about his attempt at arson consisted of the obvious, Orson, Carter, Tristan and Deacon along with Gerald Smight who happened to be walking by as he had realised that the main door of his school had been left unlocked (the caretaker was a very dim-witted chap) and had noticed Ivan’s face lit up by a flame. He hadn’t said anything to Ivan as he had given him a free education and was evidently one of the naïve villagers.
Anyhow, Ivan’s cronies presumed that the scar on Ivan’s forehead was a result of slapdash ‘playing’ with fire. Yet, Christie was aware that Ivan’s scar had appeared the night after the incident with the fire and so whenever she referred to it she named it the ‘secretive, sly or sneaky scar’.
Gerald Smight became aware of what Ivan’s actions could have caused and thus he went to the police and gave his evidence along with Vinnie Belderbos and Crookson.
