Wearing Purple (Oz Blackstone Mystery)

by Quintin Jardine

  I turned at the sound of a classically discreet cough. ‘Your table is ready, sir,’ said our waiter. He escorted us into the restaurant, where he placed us beside another window which looked along the great boulevard.

  ‘You’re looking very well,’ I said to Prim as he went off to fetch the wine and mineral water which I had ordered. ‘I didn’t get a chance to tell you that in Barcelona.’

  ‘Thank you, sir,’ she replied. ‘I wish I could say the same for you. You still look on the high side of forty. Haven’t you been sleeping?’

  ‘Fitfully, you might say. To tell you the truth, I’ve been feeling homesick for the last couple of days. I had planned to go up to Anstruther tomorrow night, to see my dad and Mary. They’re still pretty numb, according to Ellie.’

  ‘What about Noosh?’ Prim asked quietly. ‘Have you heard from her?’

  ‘I tried to get in touch with her,’ I replied. ‘Her firm told me that she’s running their Russian office in St Petersburg. I asked them to pass a message to her, but I haven’t heard anything since. I don’t really want to, truth be told.

  ‘Look, Prim, let’s talk about something else. How about business in hand? You got off work no problem?’

  ‘Easy. I’ve got a couple of weeks owing. I’ve changed my flight back, in fact. When you go to Manchester on Friday, I fly to Glasgow. I’m off to see the folks for a week.’

  ‘I wondered why you had that bloody big suitcase.’ I grinned at her, and for the first time since Barcelona, I began to feel a sense of the guy I had once been. Okay, when it came to the crunch, it was Jan who had been for me all along, but I really liked Prim; she lifted my spirits.

  ‘What about this man Leonard?’ she asked, as the wine waiter opened our Turning Leaf, while another set two enormous prawn cocktails before us. ‘He is the guy, yes?’

  ‘Has to be.’ I explained the pattern of calls showing on the mobile phone statement, and told her about the way the barrier in Newcastle and the turn-buckle pad had been rigged. ‘We reckon that after Jerry was shot, Leonard was out of the arena before the ambulance.’

  ‘So what are you going to do with him tomorrow? And why do you need me there?’

  ‘I’ll decide how I’m going to play it when I see him. I want you there as a corroborating witness to whatever he tells us, but also I reckon you’ll put him more at his ease than if I went in alone, or with another guy.’

  ‘But if he’s made it back home, and he can’t be prosecuted, why should he tell you anything, other than to piss off?’

  I smiled at her across the table. ‘Primavera, my dear, I realise that you haven’t seen the man at his best, but do not underestimate the persuasive power of Everett Davis - even from four thousand miles away.’

  Chapter 42

  I don’t know why, but I’d expected St Louis to be bigger. As our 737 cruised alongside the convergence of the Missouri and Mississippi, the city - set on the western bank of the great united river - looked to be much smaller than Glasgow, or even Edinburgh.

  Prim and I had retired to our respective rooms in the Carlton Executive Plaza - Why are American hotels obliged to have at least two and preferably three names? I had asked myself - almost immediately after dinner, but the time-shift had meant that neither of us slept much. We had been bleary-eyed when we met up in the lobby at seven thirty to take a cab to the airport.

  We noticed as soon as we stepped out of the plane that without the cooling wind blowing down off Lake Michigan, St Louis was milder than Chicago. In fact for April, it was downright warm, and both of us felt over-dressed. From the look he gave us our taxi driver agreed with us.

  ‘Thirty-four seventy, Andrew Hamilton Drive,’ I told him as we climbed in, glancing at my watch as I did. It was just after midday; I hoped that Sonny Leonard’s mother’s patience would hold and that he still wouldn’t know that we were coming. We were lucky. Mrs Zabrynski’s home was in a suburb on the same side of the city as the airport, and so the taxi journey took us no longer than fifteen minutes.

  Andrew Hamilton Drive was long and straight, one of many in the flat, grid-like community. As I paid the cabby and turned towards number thirty-four seventy, I saw that it was a single-storey house with a smart, white-painted wooden exterior, built on a raised deck which stood on stilts five feet tall, and with a railed terrace running all the way around.

  ‘Okay,’ I said to Prim. ‘Follow my lead.’ Together we trotted up the steps to the deck. I rang the bell.

  The portly figure of Sonny Leonard opened the door. ‘Surprise!’ I said.

  ‘Oh shit!’ said he.

  ‘I don’t think you’re pleased to see us, Sonny,’ I went on, quickly, trying to keep the roadie on the back foot. ‘Now why would that be? We only want to talk to you. You might not remember my friend Prim, or maybe you do. She was in Barcelona; she jumped into the ring to give emergency aid to Jerry Gradi after he was shot.’

  A look of terror flashed across his face.

  ‘Can we come in, Sonny?’ I asked. As I spoke, an old lady appeared behind him in the hallway. She looked like a really nice old dear, which didn’t make me feel too good about having deceived her.

  ‘Your surprise arrived, I see, son,’ she said.

  ‘Yes, Momma,’ Sonny replied. ‘It’s friends from Scotland. Listen, I’ll just talk to them out here on the deck for a bit. We’ll be in directly. You put some coffee on now.’ She waved and nodded. Leonard closed the door on her and pointed to four wooden seats off to the right.

  ‘Let’s sit down here.’

  We followed him, and took seats on either side of him. ‘How is The Behemoth,’ he asked at once. ‘Did he make it?’

  ‘He’s making it even as we speak, Sonny,’ I told him. ‘With Sally Crockett in a nice hotel in the Costa Brava. He’ll be pleased you were concerned about him, but that won’t stop him from tearing your head off when he catches up with you.’

  I took my small tape recorder from my pocket and switched it on. ‘Let’s get to it. Everett sent us across to see you, to have a talk and get a signed statement. He was going to come himself but I managed to persuade him that wasn’t a good idea . . . for the moment.’ I paused, to let him consider that.

  ‘However, if we’re not happy when we leave here today, you will have a visit from him. Believe me, you really do not want that.’

  Sonny Leonard shifted in his chair. I had got through to him. He looked at Prim, as if for relief. ‘What does he want?’ he asked her.

  She smiled at him. ‘He wants you to tell him how Mr Reilly of CWI hired you to sabotage Global Wrestling Alliance events . . .’

  I leaned forward and tugged at his sleeve. ‘. . . specifically how you rigged the barrier in Newcastle, the one that injured Liam Matthews, then placed a miniature firearm in a turn-buckle pad in Barcelona, almost killing Jerry Gradi.’

  Sonny Leonard threw his head back and looked up at the eaves of his mother’s house. ‘Oh shit, I knew the boss would think that,’ he moaned. ‘Listen, Oz. I’ll tell you the gospel truth. I had nothing at all to do with those things. I never met Mr Reilly personally, and I never took any money from him.’ As he paused, beads of sweat formed on his forehead. ‘I guess I know why Everett thinks I did, though.’

  ‘Tell me,’ I said, not in the slightest convinced.

  ‘The Monday before the Barcelona gig, the day when normally there’s damn few people in the office, I went in to do some stock-checkin’ of our equipment and props. I reckoned we was a bit light on some things, and I knew Everett had been in, so I went to his office to talk to him about it.

  ‘He was gone, but there was this pile of mobile phone bills on his desk, with mine right on top, and lines drawn on it underneath this one number. Maybe you can guess what it was.’

  ‘I know what it was, Sonny.’

  ‘In that case,’ he said, ‘you’ll know how I felt. Like I told you on the plane, it ain’t no secret how the boss feels about CWI and Reilly. I guessed I was in trouble, but I couldn’t
say anything till he did, case he fired me for rooting around in his office.’

  He took a deep breath of the warm Missouri air. ‘Then that thing happened in Barcelona. I knew something was wrong as soon as Jerry hit the pad. Then I heard the boss yell in Spanish for the medics. I saw the blood, and I saw the busted pad - the one I had fixed on.

  ‘I was at ringside when Daze turned around and looked at me. It was like he was in a trance, and I tell you, Oz, looking at him I saw my own death.’ He turned to Prim. ‘Then you jumped into the ring, miss, and started yelling at him, till he forgot about me and looked at Jerry again.’

  He stared down at his hands bunched together in his lap. ‘It was as clear as day; whatever had been done to that turn-buckle pad, I had fixed it on, I had been calling the CWI number, and I was taking the rap.

  ‘I ran for it, Oz, simple as that. I was scared shitless and I ran for it. I took a cab back to the hotel, picked up my passport and the rest of my gear and went to the bus depot. I got on the first bus out for anywhere. That happened to be Madrid. The next day, Sunday, I caught a plane to JFK. That’s the God’s truth.’

  I have interviewed a fair few people over the years, and during that time I’ve learned to spot the difference between liars and those who are telling the truth. As I looked at Sonny Leonard, all my experience and instinct told me that he wasn’t lying; still, I couldn’t fly in the face of the evidence.

  ‘But what about those calls to CWI, man? And on a company phone, too.’

  ‘Yeah I know, that was stupid. But I wasn’t phoning Reilly.’ He paused and smiled faintly.

  ‘When I was at Triple W, I had a girlfriend there. Her name’s Sandra. She worked as a secretary, but she did all sorts of stuff. Now Reilly, he’d do anything to hurt Triple W. So when someone told him about Sandra, he made her an offer to come to work for CWI in his promotions department.

  ‘She should have asked me about it, but she didn’t; she just took the job. As soon as she got there, she knew she’d made a mistake and the longer she was there, the unhappier she got. All those calls were to her, just trying to give her a lift.’

  ‘So what were you doing in Philadelphia this week,’ I asked him, ‘when I called your mother on Monday?’

  The smile became a grin. ‘Well, first I was getting her out of CWI,’ he replied. ‘And second, we was getting married.’ He stood, stepped over to the front door and threw it open. ‘Hey Sandy,’ he yelled into the house. ‘Come on out here and meet these guys.’

  She stepped nervously into the door-frame. ‘Hello,’ she whispered.

  ‘Sandy, honey,’ said her new husband. ‘This is Oz, from GWA in Scotland. And this—’

  Prim thrust out her hand towards the girl. ‘I’m Oz’s business associate,’ she explained.

  ‘I’m trying to persuade them,’ Leonard went on, ‘that I ain’t been sabotaging Everett’s operation in Britain for Mr Reilly.’

  Her mouth fell open in horror. ‘Sonny wouldn’t do that, mister, honest,’ she burst out.

  I looked at her. ‘Would it surprise you to learn that someone has been?’

  She shook her head. ‘No. Nothing would surprise me about Tony Reilly,’ she said, in a light Eastern seaboard accent. ‘He’s a dangerous man, if ever I met one.

  ‘I wasn’t with CWI when Diane left him for Everett Davis, but those who were said he went ballistic. He said he’d kill them both. The story was, that was why Daze left the US.’ She paused. ‘I heard there was history between them before that, though.’

  ‘What sort of guy is Reilly?’ I asked her. ‘What does he look like?’

  ‘I can show you,’ she said. ‘I got a CWI marketing brochure inside.’ She stepped back into the house, reappearing a few seconds later, with a glossy folder. She opened it, took out a red-covered A4 booklet and handed it to me. ‘Page one,’ she said. ‘That’s him.’

  I opened the brochure. It was my turn to be shocked. I know there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be the case, but given my Celtic roots, I just hadn’t expected someone called Reilly to be black.

  Chapter 43

  ‘Sandy Schlitz?’ said Everett, still stunned by my story. I had called him straight away from the airport in St Louis. ‘Sonny Leonard’s married Sandy?’

  ‘That’s right. We talked to her, and she confirmed that all those calls were to her, or at least that he made that number of calls to her at the CWI office.’

  ‘In that case, Sonny’s telling the truth,’ he said. ‘I know Sandy from my Triple W days. She always struck me as slightly dumb, but she’s a good girl, and honest too.

  ‘That’s good work, you two.’ He grunted. ‘Even if it’s not what I wanted to hear. Because you know what it means.’

  ‘Oh yes,’ I said. ‘It means that you’ve still got a problem.’

  Since we didn’t fancy a sightseeing tour of the St Louis soap factory, Prim and I caught the first flight back to Chicago. We were faced with another night in the Windy City, so we made the best of it, with a quick visit to the Adler Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium in Grant Park, before dinner in a very good Italian restaurant in the heart of the Loop, listening to the rattle of the elevated trains as we ate.

  ‘You’re still homesick in spite of all this around us, aren’t you?’ Prim said as I said goodbye to my Minestrone starter.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ I said. ‘I think I take this with me everywhere I go.’

  ‘For how long?’

  ‘All my life, I reckon. It may not show as much but it’ll always be there. Sorry, Prim; I’m lousy company.’

  She smiled. ‘But I know you, so that makes it all right. I’d much rather you were like this, than pretending to be the old Oz. All wounds take time to heal: those as bad as yours may take a long time. But I like the man you are now just as much as I liked the old one.’

  ‘Listen.’ I paused to sip my wine. ‘Once you’ve touched base with your folks, what are you going to do?’

  ‘Go back to Spain, I suppose, go back to work. For a while at least.’

  ‘Promise me one thing then. Don’t head off into another war zone without telling me. No one has so many friends that they can afford to lose touch with even one.’

  ‘I promise.’ She reached over and squeezed my hand. I couldn’t help it, I recoiled; I pulled it back, very slightly, but she couldn’t mistake it. ‘Sorry,’ she said.

  God, was I a mess. Feeling guilty, I took both of her hands and squeezed them hard. ‘No, I’m sorry; there I was going on about friendship, too. It’s just that . . . How do I put it? . . . there are lots of bridges I’ll have to cross, but in my own time.’

  We said our goodbyes at O’Hare Airport next morning. Prim’s flight to Glasgow was due off just before mine, so we sat together in International Departures until it was called, then I walked her to the gate. I thought about kissing her goodbye; just a friendly peck on the cheek, but I couldn’t. Too soon, Oz, too soon; maybe never. So I smiled, ruffled her hair, and said, ‘Give me a call from Auchterarder. Say hello to your folks for me.’

  My body clock was totally confused, so I tried to keep it ticking all the way back to Manchester, to get it on an even keel, but once or twice I dozed off. The second time . . . at least I think it was . . . I had the grey dream again, only this time Jan was in our living room standing by our partners’ desk.

  I snapped awake, with a very clear picture in my head. It was of Jan, just before I left for Barcelona, the last time I saw her alive. It was still early morning, but she had been working on some papers at the desk, as she had through most of the previous evening. They were strewn all over it. And at the same time, her eyes were shining - the way they always did when she achieved some personal triumph. She had looked so good, I had felt incredibly horny, and had had to force myself towards the door.

  As I sat on the plane, coming back to reality, I thought about that moment and wondered just what the hell had happened to those papers.

  Chapter 44

  Everett was
waiting at the International Arrivals gateway at Manchester Airport when the flight came in, just before eleven pm, BST. I was still preoccupied with my dream on the aircraft, but he took it for jet lag.

  His Range Rover was in the short-term car park, which was almost part of the terminal. He handed me a copy of the Saturday BattleGround running order. I glanced down it and noticed that Darius was in action in the opening match against Le Baron, a French jobber, then was surprised to see Daze in the middle of the order, against Cyclops; Al Hendrix, the import from Japan.

  ‘He’s going straight in against you?’ I said.

  ‘Yeah. We’ve been running promos on him all through this week’s programming. He’s costing enough so I’m gonna get full value out of him. We’ll run a little play where I’m supposed to be fighting Axel Rodd . . . that’s Max Schwartz, remember . . . till Al takes him out and goes at it with me. We’ll play it even, until we’re interrupted by Liam.’

  ‘Is Matthews going to be fit for the pay-per-view?’ I asked him.

  ‘Yeah, he’s okay. The doctor signed him off on Wednesday, and he’s back doing full gym work, with high impact manoeuvres. He and I have even done a run-through of our match for next Wednesday. It’s going to be good; the guy’s fast, very fast. I could be wrong but his attitude seems a bit different since his accident; a little less arrogant, maybe.’

  I smiled at him. ‘Does that mean you’re beginning to give up your theory about him and Diane?’

  Everett grunted. ‘Yeah, I guess you were right about that. He couldn’t be that stupid. Anyway, if Diane was going to play around, I don’t reckon he’d be her type.’

  ‘What’s her type, then?’

  He grinned at me, sheepishly as he fitted himself into the Range Rover. ‘I guess I am.’

  ‘So,’ I asked him, as he drove out of the park, ‘am I back on watcher duty for this weekend?’

  ‘Yeah, you sure are, now that Leonard’s in the clear.’ His grin returned. ‘Hell, I must have scared him, looking at him out of that ring, mustn’t I. Scared him outta town and outta the goddamn country! I suppose I better send him a severance payment after all.’