Wearing Purple

Chapter 17

‘You don’t seriously think that, do you?’ She was standing by our living room window, looking out across the nighttime cityscape.

I knew from that response that Jan was taking it seriously too. If she’d thought that my proposition was completely daft, she’d have blown me right out of the water, as she had done often enough in the past.

‘Why not? For a start, Everett doesn’t like Matthews; he’d fire him if he wasn’t such a bloody good wrestler. You saw yourself how he reacted when Liam and I had our disagreement. On top of that, he’s convinced himself that Diane and the boy are having it off.

‘The thing that amazes me is why I didn’t suspect him of rigging the barriers in the first place.’

She smiled. ‘But you wouldn’t, would you. To use their language, Daze is a face. He’s a hero, and heroes don’t do that sort of thing. You’re part of their world now, you think like them. You even wanted to believe that it could be Jerry Gradi, because he’s a heel.

‘Ask yourself this though. Would Everett have been so devious that he staged the two earlier incidents just to cover his plan to get Liam?’

‘Maybe those two other episodes were genuine accidents. Maybe he took advantage of them.’

‘Why involve you?’

‘So that I could volunteer that story to the police investigating Liam’s death. . if he’d been killed that is.’

‘But he wasn’t, and the police aren’t investigating. So why are you still involved?’

‘Who decided against calling the police in Newcastle? Everett did. As for me, he could hardly change his new ring announcer after only one week, could he? Anyway, I’m a bloody good ring announcer, I’ll have you know.’

She shook her head. ‘No, honey, I don’t buy it. Everett just wouldn’t do something like that. He’s too nice a guy.’

‘You’d have said that about Prim’s sister’s pal,’ I countered, ‘but he had a damn good go at killing us.’ And then I stopped in my tracks. Neither Prim nor I had ever told anyone the story of what had happened in Geneva.

‘What!’ she said, astonished. ‘Miles Grayson? How?’

I did some fast thinking, and a wave of relief at being off the hook washed over me. ‘Bloody awful driver. Absolutely lethal on those roads up in Argyllshire.’

‘Achhh, stop avoiding the argument, Blackstone. What would it have cost Everett in penalties if he had lost last Saturday’s show because of Liam’s accident?’

‘A million dollars.’

‘Do you think he hates him that much?’

I must admit she had me there. I argued on for a few minutes more, but eventually I had to agree that I was being paranoid. Everett Davis had too much wrapped up in GWA to risk it all by killing one of his top performers. And yet. .

‘Can I tell you my news now?’ Jan asked.

‘Of course, love, sorry.’

‘I registered with a doctor today. She checked my blood pressure, heart, blood sugar and everything else she could find. I’m in prime condition, I’m glad to say. She ran a pregnancy test too, just for confirmation, and she gave me a delivery date.’

‘You make it sound like he’s coming by DHL.’

‘I wish she was! September 20, Oz. Try to keep your diary clear, will you.’

I took her in my arms. ‘Be sure of it. When do you get issued with your bump?’

‘In about three months, I guess. That’s the bit I’m not looking forward to; going through the summer looking like the side of a house, all hot and sticky, and running to the toilet all the time.’

‘What, you mean you’ll be peeing for two?’

‘Daft bugger! No, when you get really big the baby presses on your bladder. Makes you a bit subject to wind too, so the doctor said.’

‘What did she mean by that?’

‘Farting, Oz. She said I might, on occasion.’

I beamed at her. ‘What’s new about that? You’ve been farting in your sleep for years.’

‘Rubbish!’

‘No. It’s true; but gently, lady-like.’

‘You never said before.’

‘I was afraid you’d stop sleeping with me.’ I held her to me, but carefully. ‘Oh God, Janet Blackstone, nee More, how I love you.’

‘Just as well,’ she whispered, giving me her most delicious grin. ‘Seein’ as how you’ve got me in the club.’

‘Come into the kitchen, and I’ll begin to spoil you. I’ll cook dinner. Speaking of which, I’ve booked a table at the Chip for tomorrow.’

‘I thought you mentioned One Devonshire,’ said Jan. I nodded, then explained about my match-making enterprise earlier in the day.

‘And you gave them our table!’

‘Yes, but the Chip’s great too, and it’s lively, and I thought they’d be better somewhere quieter, and so. .’ I looked at her, uncertainly.

My wife laughed. ‘I never imagined that when we decided to settle in Glasgow it would be to start a dating agency for bashful wrestlers. What do you think wee Colin would say if he knew that his favourite monster was too shy to do his own chatting up?’

She followed me into the kitchen, where two steaks lay ready to go on to the griddle which I had heating on the hob, and watched as I dropped them on to its hot non-stick surface, searing them quickly on either side.

‘On the subject of dinners,’ she said, ‘I’ve invited Susie and Mike here next Tuesday. Is that okay with you?’

‘Sure. How did you get on at Gantry’s today?’

She frowned as I glanced across at her. ‘I’ve finished my analysis of all the pubs,’ she said. ‘It’s almost too good to be true. Some do better than others, but there isn’t one of them that doesn’t give a decent return on investment. I’ve had a few licensed trade clients in my four years as an independent, and the Gantry pubs do better than any of them.’

‘So is Susie wrong? Is the business doing as well as it could?’

‘No, it’s not. The way that old fool Donn handled the finances of the company was a real buggers’ muddle. He could only have got away with it in a private company. Everything just went into one big pot. There was no divisional structure, no separate VAT accounting, nothing, just localised books kept in each division. They’re what I’m having to take apart.

‘But looking at that overall picture, the profitability, the return on resources utilised, is well below reasonable expectations. I’m nearly done now. I’ve only got one place left to look, the health care division, as they call it, but that’s going to be the most difficult of all, because it’s the most complex and labour intensive of all the group businesses.’

‘You’re loving it, though, aren’t you.’

She smiled, her long, slow, intimate smile. ‘Yeah, I’m loving it. Who says accountancy can’t be fun?’

I looked at the steaks on my griddle, at the chips in the electric fryer, and at the eggs which I had cracked into a skillet. ‘Well, put it to one side for tonight,’ I told her, ‘and prepare to enjoy your last good fry-up till the end of September. I doubt if you’ll find too much of this lot on the pregnant ladies’ diet sheet.’