by Dave Corrick
Chapter 25
Moving on with Pearl’s Plans to save the Insect Community.
It was now Monday morning. It’s the day Pearl is meeting Louie and Lulu at the Factory at 10.30 a.m. to discuss the plans she had. Louie and Lulu were up early to get Tiger and Lily ready for Rose to take over.
Louie and Lulu said their goodbyes to Tiger, Lily and Rose. They then flew off to see what was happening at the Shufflegrub dairy farm. They headed off upstream together just after 8.00 a.m.
It was quite exciting having this job to do for Pearl. Apart from flying along a beautiful part of the stream, the bees didn’t know what they might find with each visit.
On arrival Louie and Lulu headed for the safety of the top of the Kauri tree in front of the house and watched.
Everything seemed to be functioning well. The cows were coming and going from the milking shed, the machinery was running nicely.
Today Councillor Shufflegrub’s car was parked at the front of the house. Yes Councillor Shufflegrub’s wife was carrying out suitcases and loading them in the car ready to go on their “fact finding mission”. Wherever they were going they had obviously decided to make an early start.
Councillor Shufflegrub really did seem to be a bit of a bully, as did his two sons who looked a little like their father. Shufflegrub yelled to his wife. ‘Hurry up woman, we haven’t got all day you know!’
Poor Mrs Shufflegrub struggled with the suitcases while the sons looked on and did nothing to help. Their job was to look after the cows, not help their poor mother.
Shufflegrub left his wife to carry on loading the car and called his sons over to the milking shed. The three inspected everything to make sure all was right before leaving. They seemed to be laughing amongst themselves about how clever they had been and how much money this new venture was going to make.
Lulu was watching Mrs Shufflegrub load the car. Lulu put an arm around Louie and said. ‘Look Louie, Mrs Shufflegrub is crying. If only we could help her. Why are humans so unkind to each other?’
‘I don’t know’, said Louie. ‘Take heart in the fact that Shufflegrub will be brought down a peg or two shortly’.
Shufflegrub and his sons ambled back from the milking shed. Shufflegrub again yelled at his wife. ‘Haven’t you finished yet you stupid woman, what are you doing?’
‘Just finishing dear’, said Mrs Shufflegrub sobbing to herself.
‘Stop snivelling woman!’ Shufflegrub yelled at his wife again.
‘What sort of holiday are these people going to have?’ said Louie to Lulu.
‘Not a very happy one’, said Lulu quite upset by what she was seeing.
At that moment a car came up the driveway. It had a trailer on the back with quite a bit of gear loaded.
‘I bet this is that Grovelmoore chap that Pearl mentioned’, said Louie. Sure enough, it was.
Grovelmoore was of the same ilk as Shufflegrub, arrogant and rude.
Shufflegrub and Grovelmoore walked over to the milking shed and went through the procedures to be adhered to while the Shufflegrub family would be away. There was a lot of arrogant laughing, back slapping and hand shaking. Maybe Grovelmoore was party to some deal the pair had. Outside Shufflegrub pointed down the pipeline towards the stream where he thought the effluent was going. Again Shufflegrub shook Grovelmoore’s hand. Grovelmoore may have organised the consent to discharge effluent into the stream.
Shufflegrub and Grovelmoore talked in the vicinity of the milking shed for about half an hour. Poor Mrs Shufflegrub sat in the car waiting for about twenty minutes; she dare not say anything to her husband.
In due course the Shufflegrub family departed.
‘Good riddance’, said Lulu.
Grovelmoore went back to the milking shed and satisfied himself that indeed everything was working fine. He then went back to his car and started moving belongings from his trailer into the house ready for the stay over the next month. There was quite a large amount of gear. Louie and Lulu assumed that there must be more of his family to come.
At about 9.30 a.m. Grovelmoore drove off. Presumably he would be back with his family soon. It seemed strange to go away and leave such a complex setup running without anybody to keep an eye on it.
‘Well my Lulu’, said Louie. ‘We must head for the Factory; it’s not long until Pearl arrives’.
Louie and Lulu flew high over the property and circled for awhile to take a final look. All looked well. Indeed nobody suspected that the effluent pipe outlet had ended up underneath the house! It was just a waiting game now until the effluent level reached the floor boards.
Just as Louie and Lulu were about to depart for the Factory they saw Grovelmoore’s car coming back up the drive, this time without the trailer.
‘Let’s go back for a moment and watch’, said Louie. ‘We have got time, just in case there might be something more to report to Pearl’.
‘Agreed my bee’, said Lulu and the pair flew back to their vantage point in the Kauri tree.
Grovelmoore had indeed brought his family back. Grovelmoore had a wife, a son in his late teens and a teenage daughter. The wife and the daughter went inside. Grovelmoore and his son went over to the milking shed. It appeared as though the son was quite familiar with the operation so no doubt he had been here before.
Grovelmoore departed, and left his family to it. Grovelmoore would of course have council business to attend to.
Louie and Lulu flew back to the Factory at top speed. Pearl was due to arrive very shortly. Yes it was all go and it was exciting!
Pearl arrived at the Factory soon after Louie and Lulu. Import kindly made them all a cup of gum leaf tea and the trio filed into Louie’s office.
Louie and Lulu reported on today’s findings at the farm. Pearl was pleased and smiled to herself; yes everything seemed to be going to plan.
‘It’s a bit of a guess’, said Pearl. ‘But I think we have got at least another week or so before the effluent rises to a level where they will notice it. They might notice a bit of a smell but they will probably think it is coming from the milking shed. This gives us time now to get on with the other part of the plan’.
Louie, Lulu and Pearl sat around the table in Louie’s office sipping their gum leaf tea and Pearl explained the plan she had, it went like this:
There were two main issues.
Firstly the councillors and the executive of the council had to be stopped from squandering ratepayer’s money.
Secondly because of the culture of greed and dishonesty that existed within the council, the existing administration had to be removed and replaced.
Pearl had found from her extensive research in the village library that the only way that a council administration (councillors and the executive) could be replaced was in the event of blatant incompetence by such an administration.
If blatant incompetence was found to be of a sufficient magnitude, central government would step in and appoint a commissioner. It would then be the commissioner’s job to appoint and set up a new administration.
The first part of Pearl’s plan was for the three of them (Louie, Lulu and Pearl) to go to the village bank where the council held its bank account. Pearl would merge with the bank manager and Louie and Lulu would merge with two next in line administration staff.
Pearl would call the two administration staff members into “he”’ office. From here the three would transfer all of the council funds into a holding account. In fact more funds than those available would be transferred so the council account was at least run past any overdraft limit.
All records of the transfer of funds to the holding account would be deleted so there would be no evidence where the funds had gone! All records of rates and receipts would also be removed so the status of the council account would end up showing no funds and no reason as to why there weren’t any funds!
It would be a confusing situation. The only comment the bank would be able to make would be ‘sorry no funds sonny you ar
e overdrawn’ dear oh deary me!
Ratepayers would have proof of payment but it would show up as incompetence on the part of the council for ‘spiriting away’ or at least not accounting for ratepayers contributions. What a mess!
There would no doubt be some transactions in the council’s account showing disappearance of funds into a certain dairy farm, probably under the name of Appleton Estate expenses. Maybe some consent fees and possibly some pipe work? Who knows what the intrepid team would find on investigation. These transactions would not be removed so that evidence remained of naughty greedy things carried out by the councillors!
To prevent the councillors and their families from consuming any more council funds while away on the “fact finding mission”, all credit cards in the councillor’s names and their families would be cancelled and deleted. It would be as if the credit card facilities had never existed. It might have to mean an early home coming from the lovely holiday the councillors and their families were enjoying! What a nuisance!
Anyone owed money by the council, contractors, staff etc would soon be making loud noises as to why they weren’t being paid. The council administration would have no satisfactory explanation for this “minor little problem”! The council would in effect come to a standstill. A commissioner would ultimately have to be appointed to keep essential services operating and sort out the mess
On the appointment of a commissioner Pearl intended to merge with either him or her and take over the process of reinstatement of the council administration. What Pearl had in mind was to put in place a system that had integrity and values that were more akin to the values of the insect world. That is devoid of greed and dishonesty.
As commissioner, Pearl would call for submissions from the village community from those who would like to be on the council as a councillor or mayor.
In submitting names, those wishing to be on the council would have to state what they required in the way of remuneration together with how they proposed to serve the village. In this way the village community could then vote for the most cost effective mayor and councillors who genuinely had the village interests at heart.
Pearl had felt after observing the antics of the existing council administration the community would have been better served by a team of children just out of kindergarten! It would have cost a lot less!
Pearl had also decided in her wisdom that because the village was not great in size that five councillors plus the mayor would be sufficient. Naturally Grovelmoore and his staff would be fired and replaced at the discretion of the new mayor and councillors (with perhaps a little guidance from Pearl at times!).
Having outlined the plan to Louie and Lulu, Pearl said smiling, ‘Well that’s it team, what do you think?’
‘Unbelievable Pearl’, said Louie.
‘I knew it would be something clever’, said Lulu admiring Pearl for what she had come up with.
‘That’s the plan outline as I see it’, Pearl continued. ‘We may find as we go along that things need to be changed. It depends on what we find with the council bank account, what happens at the farm and how soon the councillors return from their little holiday. Another factor of course is how soon it will be before a commissioner is appointed; there are a few things beyond our control’.
‘Of course’, Pearl continued, ‘once the new councillors are in place we will go back to the bank and restore the money in the holding account back to the council account’.
Pearl thought for a moment and then continued, ‘If you two can manage it could we all go and start at the bank tomorrow? It will take a few days for the holiday makers to realise that their credit cards are no longer valid. If we do start at the bank tomorrow, the return of the councillors will probably coincide with the time things start happening at the farm’.
Louie and Lulu were quite happy with starting at the bank the next day.
‘How about we meet at the tunnel at ten Pearl?’ said Louie. ‘Lulu and I will go up to the farm first to see what is going on then meet you back at the tunnel’.
‘That would be great’, said Pearl. ‘I am really excited about this job, it is quite complex but I believe if we can pull it off we will have not only helped secure the future of our own community but of the people of the village as well’.
Pearl left the Factory and flew back to her apartment. She was smiling to herself. Yes everything was going to be alright.
Lulu was smiling too. She hugged Louie.
‘Tell you what Lulu’, said Louie. ‘Let’s go to lunch at the Nest Café. I feel really happy about what is happening and feel like celebrating. We can drop in and see Tiger and Lily on the way too’.
‘Yes my bee’, said Lulu affectionately. ‘Let’s do it’.
The next day (Tuesday) Louie and Lulu flew to the farm and arrived about 8.00 a.m. Things looked normal. There was a milk tanker outside the milking shed taking a delivery of milk.
Louie and Lulu noticed that there was a slight weeping brown stain down the brick foundation of the house nearest the milking shed. It wasn’t significant and nobody had noticed it. At least it confirmed that effluent was building up under the house.
Grovelmoore and his son were talking to the milk tanker driver and signed some dispatch papers. When the tanker had gone Grovelmoore drove off in his car and left the operation in the capable hands of his son.
‘Nothing to report yet’, said Louie to Lulu. ‘Let’s get back to the Factory for an hour or so before we meet with Pearl’.
‘Good idea’, said Lulu. ‘On the way back let’s just fly to the stream over there and check for sure that nothing is coming out of that effluent pipe’.
‘Good idea Lulu’, said Louie.
No nothing was coming out of the pipe, all was well.
‘It’s a good thing that this outlet is quite a way from the milking shed’, said Louie. ‘That lot are too lazy to walk this far and check it. It would probably spoil everything if they did discover there was nothing coming out’.
Later at 10.00 a.m. Louie and Lulu met with Pearl at the tunnel and they all went on through the quartz to the bank.
Once in the bank Pearl said, ‘Right team, just follow me and I will let you know what to do as we go on’.
Pearl looked around for the manager’s office. Yes there it was. The door was closed.
Pearl moved to the door and knocked. The manager came out and was initially surprised that no one was there. Within seconds Pearl had merged then whispered to Louie and Lulu to come into the office. Of course Pearl could no longer see Louie or Lulu and asked them to stay close so she could talk to them.
‘What I need to do’, said Pearl. ‘Is sit here for a moment as the manager and determine which two staff members would be best to work with me to manipulate the council bank account’.
After a minute or so Pearl stood up and looked through a glass partition into the area behind where the tellers stood.
‘Louie, Lulu, see over there’, said Pearl pointing, ‘there is a woman in blue with her back to us. Lulu if you could merge with her. Next to her on her right is a young man, Louie could you merge with him. When you have merged I will call you both into my office’.
Louie and Lulu went and merged with their hosts, and Pearl knowing their names called them into “her” office. So far so good!
Once in the manager’s office the three then systematically set about creating a holding account for the money from the council account.
‘I know what we shall call the holding account’, said Pearl. ‘Tiger Lily holdings Ltd!’
‘Yea yes!’ said Louie and Lulu together.
The three worked for over an hour. Ultimately all the credit card accounts operated by the council were deleted and the council bank account no longer had any funds available. The overdraft facility was run significantly over its limit so the bank would be asking a few questions as to why this had occurred.
On investigating, it was obvious that there had definitely been some serious dishon
est mischief making in relation to the Appleton Estate. It appeared that the milking equipment, the shed and fencing, had been funded with council money in the name of property maintenance! Generally automated milking equipment companies didn’t carry out property maintenance, did they?
With all the council’s money safely stashed away in the Tiger Lily Holdings account and no record of the money ever being transferred, the three insects went about demerging and leaving the bank.
‘Louie, Lulu’, said Pearl. ‘You two go back to your places and demerge and let’s meet outside in the square before we go back’.
Out in the square the three relaxed and congratulated themselves on a job well-done.
‘Well it’s a waiting game now’, said Pearl. ‘Within a few days all sorts of things are going to happen! I can’t wait. The situation will be very serious so I would think that there will be a commissioner in place fairly smartly to sort things out with the council. What I will do is come through the quartz each day to the bank to see what is going on. If you two could keep checking at the farm each day that would be great. Let’s keep in touch with our findings’.
The excited trio went back through the quartz to carry on with their normal activities for the day.