Wasps

Wasps are first invoked to explain the sudden sting Ronnie O’Neill suffers while playing golf; later, the same explanation becomes part of the uncertainty surrounding the cause of his illness. The insect is not confirmed as responsible: the apparent sting prompts a mistaken early account, while the possibility of a pellet and poisoning redirects the investigation toward a deliberate attack.

The golf-course incident

On the golf course, Ronnie waits for the breeze to drop before striking his ball. As he completes his swing, he cries out, drops his club, and slaps the right side of his neck. When Jack Reilly asks what is wrong, Ronnie says a wasp has stung him, though he allows that it could instead have been a horsefly. Steve Yates remarks that the interruption has come just after Ronnie has sent his shot close to the pin; Ronnie brushes off the idea that luck had anything to do with it and credits practice. The exchange keeps the episode within the familiar banter of a round of golf, where the sting seems like an incidental nuisance rather than a threat.

The later account fixes the incident more precisely. Ronnie’s companions recall that it happened at about 11:30 on a Friday morning, while they were playing on the golf course. He had been driving from the seventh tee when he dropped his club and slapped his neck. Ronnie thought he had been stung by a wasp, or perhaps a horsefly, but neither companion saw an insect. Their recollection supports that something happened at the site, not that a wasp was actually present.

From apparent sting to medical clue

After Ronnie is taken ill, the initial account of the mark on his neck is based largely on what his family told the paramedics: they believed it was an infected insect bite. The medical staff subsequently reconsider that explanation. Examination reveals a small mark on the right side of his neck, and a pellet becomes one possible cause. The doctors also find that the insect-bite-and-sepsis explanation does not fit the symptoms, and they favor poisoning while samples are still being analysed.

This shift does not establish that a wasp stung Ronnie, nor does it by itself prove how poison entered his body. It distinguishes his immediate belief from the later medical assessment: he thought he had been stung, but the clinicians consider whether the mark came from a pellet and whether poison accounts for his illness. The wasp therefore remains part of the first, plausible explanation, rather than a confirmed cause.

Narrative role

The wasp functions as an ordinary explanation that briefly conceals the possibility of violence. At the golf course, Ronnie’s reaction and his companions’ joking response frame the event as chance; in the investigation, the same reported sting becomes a detail that must be tested against the physical mark and the symptoms. The recollections confirm the timing and circumstances while leaving the insect unseen. That gap between what Ronnie assumes and what the medical evidence suggests makes the apparent sting an early clue in the inquiry, not a settled answer.