- "This was some ten-twenty years ago, back in the city. A hot summer. We’d been on the case of this serial kidnapping duo for months. [...] Two clever bastards called Clusby and Gray."
Clusby and Gray, also written Clusby & Gray, is the 9th story in The Yellow Butterflies. It features Inspector Asker and Logan, some years after Windmill on Sin Hill. It is one of the darkest stories of Act One, containing strong themes of kidnapping, torture and sexual assault.
A PDF of the story's current draft can be found here.
The following sections contain spoilers, as well as the dark content. Read at your own risk.
Plot Synopsis[]
Logan, from Windmill on Sin Hill, visits Julian Asker at night, seeking advice and information as the Salt Hill windmill has collapsed. Asker is reluctant, but eventually settles down to explain his reaction to the Salt Hill case. He begins to tell a story of a previous case - of two serial kidnappers, Clusby and Gray.
Asker's story is as follows:
He was part of an investigation attempting to apprehend serial kidnappers Raymond Clusby and Lou Orson Gray. While Clusby was the public face and kidnapper, going around in a taxi kidnapping young, mostly drunk women, Gray stayed at their base and did unknown things to them, and the women were never found. As Clusby was the only one to really be out and about, he would occasionally be caught, but Gray, the brains and brawn of the duo, constantly broke him out.
Asker caught wind that the duo's base of operations was the basement of the Purple Pheasant in New Trashton. After a brief wait, he managed to sneak in after a client, before stalking the mysterious corridor: on one side, barrels and equipment, and on the other, a row of men and large concrete blocks.
After some time, as one man complains that his 'isn't warm anymore', Asker follows Gray into the back room and realises the horrifying truth - Gray has been encasing the kidnapped women in concrete, with only parts of their lower half exposed so the men can use them for sexual gratification. Horrified, Asker becomes enraged, and fights Gray, beating him to death with a hammer.
Asker briefly explains to Logan that he got away with this largely due to the police's willingness to believe his lie - most wanted Gray gone, and Asker managed to have it deemed that Gray was likely killed by a disgruntled client.
Moving on, Asker describes the arrest of Clusby - as Clusby returned with a group of new girls, he was arrested by Asker and a group of police officers. Clusby, however, seemed confident that Gray would come to save him, having never been informed of Gray's death. Asker visits Clusby some time later in prison, Clusby looking extremely weary and weak but still uninformed of or unwilling to accept Gray's demise; Asker shows him Gray's obsidian tooth as proof of his death and Clusby flies into a rage, having to be dragged away. Asker never visited him again.
Asker then explains to Logan that he was satisfied with this case, despite its horrific nature, since he could convince himself that he was in the right and that justice had prevailed. However, his experiences at Salt Hill had defied everything he believed in and driven him nearly to a breakdown, causing him to suffer from terrible nightmares. He becomes overwhelmed with emotion, but then allows Logan to say what was strange about Salt Hill's collapse - the pit where the hand had been erupted with yellow butterflies.
Asker finally relents and allows Logan to stay. Logan sleeps in the guest room while Asker sleeps in his own room, both plagued with nightmares as they try to sleep.
Characters[]
Julian Asker[]
Asker plays a central role, as the story consists largely of his personal anecdote. He displays similar outbursts of emotion as in Windmill on Sin Hill, but shows a new vulnerability and the effects that the case had on him.
Logan[]
Logan is weaker and visibly more vulnerable than in Windmill on Sin Hill. He is nervous, frightened and in need of advice. Although he becomes engrossed in Asker's story, he is apologetic for his behaviour at Salt Hill.
Raymond Clusby[]
One half of the titular duo of kidnappers. The 'poster boy' of the two, he finds, drugs and delivers the women under the guise of a taxi driver. Eventually convicted and never seen again after one visit by Asker.
Lou Orson Gray[]
The brains and brawn of the duo. Orchestrates the operations and largely executes the post-kidnapping procedures, along with handling clients and bailing Gray out. He is justly bludgeoned by Asker and his death is covered up. Notably has an obsidian foremolar.
Trivia[]
- None yet, it's all pretty much up there