So I had the Pupae and his goons holed up in the shoelace factory, letting loose on the pizza gun whenever they stuck there heads out to check if the coast was clear. Their complexions were ruined.
"Try to worm your way out of this one, Pupae," I yelled down the stairway and into the loading dock.
"Why don't you come in the factory, so we can talk, Rumba?" He replied.
"I only got one question for you, Pupae."
"What's that Rumba?"
"Why did you hire that dentist to kill me?"
"You had some valid dental problems. Besides, I had nothing to do with it. It just so happens that we share the same dentist."
"But who told him to put the exploding load in my molar?"
"So the man is a sadist. I've only recently found out he was a dentist for the Nazi SS trained in mindcontrol techniques and oral surgery. You're lucky it was a dud. You only lost one little tooth. I'll make sure he never practices in Stone City ever again."
"Is that a promise?"
"I swear. The poisoned applesauce, that was me. But this, I had nothing to do with. Let me go back to my cocoon and I swear I'll see to it that you get no more tainted food and I'll help you find out who's stealing all the fingers. Whatever you want."
A deal with the Pupae? What could be stranger? I'd have to watch my back, but it would give me a chance to watch his back, or whatever it was. It looked like someone had made a carseat out of an eggwhite omellette.
"OK, Pupae, c'mon out. I'm out of pepperoni anyways."
"It's the cheese that gets me. Bad gas."
The Pupae came inching out, flanked by the mole-headed goons that dug him up as he was hibernating earlier this fall. The Pupae had very refined, distinguished features which might be called handsome if they were not perched atop that pallid, sticky body. "You got any leaves on you, Star Nose? The stress has got my blood sugar down." The Pupae looked up at his henchman.
"How about some more pizza?" I grinned.
"Please Rumba, I'm trying to avoid splitting open like an baked potato."
"Here, Boss."
He swallowed the leaves after chewing thoroughly and said, "Rumba, I'm prepared to pay for your root canal, if you just forget it all and let us go."
"What assurances can you give me?"
"I swear on my bagworm mother's eggsacs."
"And all the other stuff you said..."
"Okay, sure."
I didn't know if I could trust the Pupae. But if this fell through I could always sneak up to his cocoon with the hairspray and the lighter. That would wreak more havoc than the pizza gun. In the meantime, I needed to find a dentist I could trust. My jaw was feeling like someone snuck a brick in my fritter.