Wearing Purple (Oz Blackstone Mystery)

by Quintin Jardine

  ‘What the hell am I supposed to do about it? Why tell me about this, Oz?’

  ‘Well for one thing, if I go to any other copper; say, for example, the boys who investigated Jan’s death; they’ll investigate hard, they’ll walk all over Susie, and you’ll be seriously embarrassed, maybe even out of a job. Remember Ricky Ross?’ As I looked at him, he did, and he shuddered.

  ‘For another thing,’ I continued, ‘you might be a flash bastard, but I trust you. Now ask yourself this. What would you do if any other company was involved?’

  He answered without a second’s thought. ‘I’d go to my boss and ask permission to seek a warrant to seize the documents involved.’

  ‘Well in this case, why don’t you go to your other boss? Ask Susie to let you have those papers back.’ I checked myself. ‘No, on second thoughts, ask her for photocopies. We don’t want anyone to know that we’re still looking into this.’

  ‘But what’ll I tell her when she asks why I want them?’

  ‘Tell her what you like, mate, but make damn sure you tell her to keep her mouth shut.’

  Chapter 51

  ‘You can trust this buddy of yours not to make too many waves, can you?’ Everett was still not reconciled to the idea of bringing the police in on his problems.

  ‘He understands the situation okay, and the sort of money involved. I spoke to Mike this morning before I came here. He’s advised his boss of the situation and he’s got the green light to handle it himself. He’ll be there tomorrow night with a couple more CID men, but there’ll be no heavy uniform involvement, nothing like that.

  ‘Have you hired the security firm, as we discussed?’

  The big man nodded. ‘Yeah, I did that yesterday afternoon. I went for the biggest and best. They’ve promised me a specialist team on site all day tomorrow.’ He paused. ‘Will you still make it through tonight for the first rehearsals?’

  ‘Sure. No reason why not.’

  ‘That’s good. Everything’s gotta be word and move-perfect tomorrow; there’s no scope for mistakes, so everyone has to rehearse as often as it takes - including you.’

  I threw him a look. ‘I could shove a brush up my arse and sweep the floor at the same time,’ I offered.

  Everett grinned. ‘I’ll bear that in mind, should the need arise. Meantime, let’s go and sort out this information your policeman friend needs.’

  The GWA contractual work was all handled by the McPhillips law firm, but Everett employed a personnel manager to deal with the routine aspects of people management. He led me straight into her room. ‘Want to look at the files, Hazel,’ he said.

  He crossed to one of three steel filing cabinets which stood against the far wall, opened a drawer, pulled out a file, apparently at random, and handed it to me. It belonged to Diane, and listed her birthplace, Decatur, Illinois, her date of birth, which was one day after mine, her maiden name, Boone, her US and UK social security numbers and her permanent address and telephone number.

  ‘That be enough for you?’

  I nodded. ‘Looks ideal. Are they all in this format?’

  ‘They’re all computer stored, so I guess they will be. Hazel, I need you to do something.’The dark-haired woman, who was in her mid-twenties, looked up from her desk. ‘Print out the top sheet of every file and bring them to me. Don’t ask why, and don’t tell anyone.’

  She nodded, without a word, and we went back to Everett’s office. One mug of coffee and two doughnuts later - he had five - she knocked lightly on the door, stepped inside and laid a brown A4 envelope on the glass table.

  ‘That’s whit yis wanted,’ she said, in a broad Glasgow accent, turned on her heel and left. I watched the door as it closed.

  Everett was grinning as I turned back towards him. ‘Hazel doesn’t say a word she doesn’t have to, but she keeps tabs on everyone in the business. I like her, like her a lot. I’m just waiting for the day she smiles at me.’

  I was back home by midday, half an hour before Dylan arrived to pick up the documents. I spent the time glancing through them; they were completely up-to-date, for they included forms for Al Hendrix and the unpronounceable Japanese tag team.

  ‘How long will that lot take to process?’ I asked Mike, as he flicked through the thick bundle.

  ‘Depends on access to the computer,’ he replied. ‘We’ll have to do some checking across the Atlantic and in Europe, and that’ll take time. I hope it’ll be wrapped up by close of play tomorrow, but I can’t promise anything.’

  ‘Touch and go,’ I said. ‘We need this before the event, don’t we?’

  ‘If your client had brought us in earlier that would have been no problem.’

  ‘Touché,’ I conceded. ‘Have you talked to Susie about the other matter?’

  ‘As soon as I got back to her place last night.’

  ‘How’d she take it?’

  ‘Badly, as I’d expected. She exploded at first, but when I got her to calm down, and explained what had happened and what it might mean, she got frightened. She’s terrified by the very idea that someone in her business might have been involved in Jan’s death. Of course she’s worried too about the effect on Jack’s political career.’

  ‘Fuck Jack’s political career,’ I snapped at him. ‘Is she going to get those photocopies for us?’

  ‘Calm down, Oz. She’s going to do it as soon as there’s no one else in the office to see her. She hopes she’ll manage it tonight, but she did warn me that the new book-keeper’s been working late a lot, getting to know the business and getting ready to do his first VAT return.

  ‘I asked her about Joseph Donn too. She said that he couldn’t have been in your flat that day. When she fired him, he went off in a huff to his apartment in Marbella. Jack had to call him there to get him to come home, back to the business.

  ‘First things first,’ said Mike. ‘Let’s concentrate on the GWA situation first. On Thursday, once that’s resolved, you and I will sit down and see if we can pick up whatever it was that Jan found. I’ve got plenty of leave due, so I’ll take a day off. We can work here.’ He hesitated. ‘As a matter of fact, Oz, you couldn’t put me up for a few days, could you? Susie sort of feels - and I agree with her - that if I’m investigating her company, it might be better for me professionally if I wasn’t living with her.’

  ‘What you’re saying, Mike, is that she’s chucked you out.’

  ‘Not exactly. Just till things are sorted out.’

  I smiled, and nodded. ‘A few days then; just a few. It might even make it easier for us to work on this thing. The sooner we get started, the better.’

  ‘Thanks mate,’ he said. ‘I’ll move my gear in tonight.

  ‘There is one other thing I’d like to do though,’ he added. ‘I’ve got a pal in the scenes-of-crime unit. I want him to dust this place down for fingerprints, especially the area around Jan’s desk and in the kitchen where the washing machine was. I’ll even ask him to dust the machine.’

  ‘What good will that do?’ I asked him.

  ‘Maybe a hell of a lot of good. Even in this day and age, we still catch more criminals through prints than through DNA.’

  Chapter 52

  Getting to Ingliston from Glasgow was a damn sight easier than getting to Barcelona. Without breaking any speed limits (well, not too many; it’s difficult to tell with the different restrictions on the cross-Glasgow motorway), I made it to the pay-per-view event venue from my flat in just under an hour.

  When I got there, the ring was in place. Darius Hencke and Johnny King were inside the ropes working through their title match, and Everett was supervising the installation of the special effects by Gary O’Rourke and his team. He spotted me as soon as I walked through the door and waved me across to join him.

  As I reached him, I saw that there was another man with him, hidden completely from my sight by the giant’s bulk. ‘Oz,’ said Everett, ‘this is the gentleman I told you about, Alex Kruger, the special effects co-ordinator. Alex, Oz Blackstone
, ring announcer; you’ll have seen him in action often enough.’

  Kruger nodded and offered a handshake. ‘Pleased to meet you at last. You handle yourself well in there.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I answered, deciding that mutual adulation was in order. ‘Your special effects ain’t too shabby either.’

  ‘Ah, I just plan them,’ he said. ‘Gary and the road crew put them together.’ His English was very good; maybe too good for a German, I thought. Then I saw his small metal Belgian flag lapel badge. ‘My job is to trigger them in order, as I’m cued by the television director.’ He pointed to a scaffolding tower at the back of the arena. ‘I sit up there, at a little console, with my headphones on.’

  ‘That’s them all in place, boss,’ came a voice from behind me, one that I had heard before; Gary O’Rourke’s unmistakable Glaswegian tones. ‘Hello mate,’ he said, catching sight of me. ‘How’re you doing? Sorry to hear about . . . you know.’

  ‘Thanks Gary.’ I was touched by the genuine sympathy in his voice, as I barely knew the man, but I had been with the GWA long enough to realise that by and large it really was the family that Everett had set out to create.

  ‘Everything’s ready to roll?’ the big man asked.

  ‘Aye, lights, lasers, whiz-bangs; the lot. Ready for the telly boys tae do their run-through.’

  ‘Okay. Hey Ted,’ Everett bellowed, in the direction of a raised booth behind Alex’s dais. ‘We’re ready to run the light show for you.’ In the distance, a man stood up, waved, showed a thumbs up sign, then held up his right hand, fingers splayed.

  The giant turned towards the ring. He waited until Darius and Johnny had finished the move on which they were working then called up to them. ‘Five minutes guys, then we dim the lights for the FX run-through.’ The Black Angel of Death, breathing slightly heavily after being tossed, impossibly, acknowledged him with a nod and a wave. As he did so, Alex Kruger ran to his tower and climbed a ladder, up to his position.

  There was a different effects sequence for the opening of the show, and for each major wrestler’s entrance. The overture was the most spectacular thing I’d seen in the GWA so far: a dazzling array of lights, whirling blue lasers, the yellow stars of the EU flashing in and out on the giant television screen and a series of wire-guided silver flares which seemed to drive right into the ground beside the wrestlers’ gateway.

  As always, though, the most dramatic curtain raiser was reserved for Daze. The same light sequence that I had seen used in Barcelona was augmented by the superstar’s face flashed up on the screen and projected onto the arena roof, and onto the ring floor by powerful, crimson-tinted lights. It was crowned finally by the explosion of four geyser-bursts of sparkling red firework flame from canisters strapped to each ring-post.

  ‘Wow!’ said the big man, when it was all over. ‘You guys really excelled yourself this time. I never saw those corner flares go so high.’

  Gary O’Rourke beamed with pleasure at the accolade. ‘D’ye like them then, boss? Ah told the factory to stick a bit mair powder in for this show.’

  ‘Then they got it just right,’ said Diane, appearing beside us as the road crew foreman spoke.

  ‘How do you like this, boys?’ she asked us. ‘It’s make-over time for The Princess.’ Gary, Everett and I turned simultaneously to look at her.

  I heard Gary gulp, Everett gasp and me whisper, ‘Jeez!’ as she twirled before us.

  She was dressed in a black leather costume . . . or rather about one third of a black leather costume. If she had told Everett that it would be less provocative than the Barcelona outfit, she had been kidding. It reached from her neck to her ankles, yet it was just about the most naked piece of clothing I had ever seen. All of the sides and most of the back had been cut away, and the remainder was bound together with a few tight leather straps. Even the inside legs had been scooped out from an inch above her ankles to an inch below her . . .

  Altogether, it was the stuff to make old men weep and young men lock themselves in the toilet for some time.

  ‘There’s a black leather cap to go with it as well,’ she said. ‘Oh yes, and a whip. I’ve decided that the Black Angel needs a Satanic handmaiden.’ She dropped into character. ‘Ain’t that right, Daze?’ she purred.

  ‘We talk about this later,’ Everett growled.

  ‘No we don’t, honey,’ his wife drawled back at him. ‘I wrote my own contract with this organisation. It gives me creative control over my costumes. Me and no one else.’

  ‘Yeah, but I plan the shows, and if I say that you and that fucking peep-show are out then that’s the way it is.’ I had never heard Everett swear at anyone before, far less his wife. I wished dearly to be somewhere else, and I could see that Gary felt the same. Quietly we drifted into the background and left the Davis family drama to play itself out.

  Diane had changed into a shirt and jeans by the time I left, but clearly the flames were still smouldering.

  My temporary flatmate was in when I got back to Glasgow just before eleven. So were the boxes from a takeaway Chinese which I found in the kitchen.

  ‘If you’re going to live here even for a day, Dylan,’ I grumbled, ‘the watchword is tidy.’

  ‘Sorry Oz.’ He sounded genuinely apologetic. ‘I was going to clear them up, but Susie called.’

  ‘Does she want you to move back in?’ I asked hopefully.

  ‘As a matter of fact she does, but I reckon it’s best this way, till we get things sorted.’ My heart sank once more.

  ‘Any news on those copy documents?’

  He nodded. ‘Yes. The boy was working late again this evening, so she couldn’t do anything. But the good news is that he always plays football on a Wednesday, so she’ll be able to do it tomorrow night for sure.’

  ‘Aye,’ I countered. ‘If we can both still see after tomorrow night. I tell you, boy, if those flares of Daze’s don’t blind you, then his wife’s cossie will!’

  Chapter 53

  The private security firm which Everett had hired were not there to mess about. There were none of those fat, tired, bleary-eyed, middle-aged men, the sort you see sometimes on doorkeeper duty in public buildings, slumped inside ill-fitting uniforms.These guys were all young, fit, sharp-creased and hard, with clear eyes and a bearing which told you they were all ex-servicemen.

  I stood beside Daze in the ring. He was in wrestling gear, since we had just completed the final run-through, and in a grim mood; partly because of the sheer tension of the day, and partly, I guessed, because he had lost his argument with Diane.

  She had appeared by the Black Angel’s side in her black leather gear . . . or what there was of it . . . parading round the ring, helping Darius to take off his winged gown and passing it carefully to an attendant. Normally, only the commentators and the television people stopped to watch the dress rehearsal. When Diane was up there in that suit the only sounds to be heard in the arena were the shuffling of Darius’ boots on the mat and a low, strangled moan from somewhere behind my table.

  I raised my mike and spoke into it. ‘Listen up, everyone. Stop what you’re doing. The boss has something to say.’ I handed the mike to Everett. He had just been through an energetic rehearsal of his fight with Liam, but he wasn’t even breathing hard.

  ‘Okay people,’ he began. ‘You’ll have seen we have some extra staff with us this afternoon. This is a very special event that we’re staging tonight; a hell of a lot of families are paying a hell of a lot of money to watch it live on television, so we can’t afford any more “accidents” like those that happened to Liam and to Jerry.

  ‘I want this whole arena cleared right now, so the security team can begin a complete sweep of the building. After that the hall will be sealed, and no one will be allowed back in unless and until they have business to do.’ He dropped the mike and whispered to me, ‘what time is it, Oz?’

  ‘Ten past five.’

  ‘We go on air in under three hours. Doors open to the public at seven fifteen, and I want ev
eryone back on site then. So get changed and get on the bus. It’ll take you along to the airport hotel where there’s a light buffet laid on. We’ll all eat properly after the show.

  ‘Remember people, this is a big one tonight, our biggest yet; so be fast, be strong, be skilful and most of all . . .’ He grinned for the first time that afternoon. ‘. . . believable. Thank you all and good luck.’

  He switched off the mike. ‘When do the police get here?’

  ‘Dylan said they’d be here at six. I’ll wait here for him.’

  ‘Hell no, you come along to the hotel. We’ll leave a message with the security guys; tell them to join us there.

  ‘You know if that computer’s come up with any result yet?’

  ‘It hadn’t when I called Mike at midday. Let’s hope he’s bringing a report with him.’

  He didn’t, though. ‘There’s heavy demand on the system today,’ he said, as he joined me in the reception room at the Stakis Hotel, ‘and the American checks are taking time. They promised me something by nine pm latest. When does the show begin?’

  ‘Eight,’ I told him, grimly aware that I had talked up the efficiency of the police for Everett. ‘We run from eight till eleven.’

  ‘Oh Christ, that’s not too clever. But I’ve left instructions that as soon as it comes in it’s to be biked through to me at the arena.’

  ‘Fair enough, pal. There’ll probably be nothing in the report to help us, but if there is, let’s just hope that when it gets here, we’re not standing in the midst of the wreckage!’

  Chapter 54

  Everett was less than delighted by Dylan’s news, but he didn’t make an issue of it; he was becoming completely absorbed in the BattleGround Special, so much so that he accepted Mike’s offer of a lift back to the Ingliston arena without stopping to wonder whether he would fit into his car.

  Fortunately, it was a Saab, fairly high in the back, and so, by lying a little sideways, he made it.