Wearing Purple

Chapter 38

The plane to Amsterdam was a Fokker — yes, I know that joke. For a passenger plane it seemed to me to be very small, and seated next to Everett in the front row, I couldn’t help but wonder about the effect of his size on its stability.

‘Is Diane not coming on this trip?’ I asked him, once we were through the white-knuckle part of the flight and the pretty Dutch girls had appeared with the drinks trolley.

‘No, she said she has things to do in Scotland. Anyhow,’ he added, quietly, glancing over his shoulder, ‘Matthews is back on the commentary team this week.’

‘Jesus, man. Are you still nursing that one?’

He shrugged his shoulders. For a moment I thought that the Fokker lurched a little. ‘Sorry, Oz. I guess that was an insensitive thing to say to you, of all people.’

‘Yes,’ I told him, but with a smile, ‘I rather think it was.’

‘I’m trying, man, I really am. I love her so much it makes me crazy, that’s all.’

‘It seems to me that you only have one problem with Diane. What are you going to do with her in the organisation while Jerry’s out of action?’

‘We’ve thought about that one,’ he grinned down at me. ‘Diane’s going to become the handmaiden of the Black Angel.

‘Jerry leaves a very big gap in the roster in every respect. We really got only one guy who can take his place in the short-term, and that’s Darius. He’s our only worker who’s big enough to be really convincing in matches with me.

‘Liam will get his shot at the pay-per-view, sure. He earned that when he saved the show in Barcelona. But Daze can’t job to a guy his size, no way. He’ll go down, then we’ll start to position the Black Angel as the main contender. Having The Princess alongside him will make that easier.

‘For the longer term, we’re signing an ex-Triple W guy called Al Hendrix. He wrestles under the name of Cyclops because he’s blind in one eye and wears a mask. He has commitments in Japan just now, but he’ll be with us in a week. I’m bringing in a Jap tag team as well, all of them on six month contracts. It breaks my Europeans first policy, but I’m replacing Jerry and Chris Manson and they’re both Americans, so. .’

‘Sounds exciting,’ I said; to please him as much as anything else. To be honest, I really wasn’t sold on the GWA to the extent that I could be as enthusiastic as him.

‘Yeah,’ Everett murmured, lost in his art. ‘Diane’s working on some new costumes to match the Black Angel’s rig. She says they’re slinky, but not as provocative as Barcelona; that went a bit far.’

‘And annoyed the locals.’ I told him of Prim’s comments about Catalan sensitivity when it comes to their flag.

‘Thanks. I’ll tell her to keep that in mind.’ He paused. ‘Say, she really is something, that friend of yours. I was in a complete panic back in that ring after Jerry was hit. If she hadn’t sailed in and taken charge, I don’t know what would have happened.’

‘I do,’ I whispered.

‘Yeah.’ He caught my meaning. ‘Look, I want to let her know how grateful I am. Should I send her flowers — orchids or something?’

‘Prim? No, I don’t think so. I’d say you should write to her, to thank her. Then you or Jerry send her a case of French wine; good stuff, mind, no crap.’

‘We’ll do that, Jerry and I.’ He smiled. ‘I was thinking, I might offer her a job as a GWA superstar too, after the way she got my attention back in that ring.’

‘Better not do that,’ I warned him. ‘She might accept.

‘By the way,’ I went on, ‘did you have that turn-buckle pad examined?’

He nodded vigorously, then glanced over his shoulder to make sure that the people in the seats behind us were all engrossed in magazines. ‘I sure did,’ he said. ‘I took it apart myself, and I found a device inside, stitched right into the padding. I took it to a firm of private security consultants. They told me that it was one of those key-ring gun things, but that it had been adapted so that the cocking ring became the firing pin as well. Like we thought, the thing was triggered by a heavy blow, someone the size of Jerry being slammed against the pad, driving the firing ring against the turn-buckle and — bang.’

‘And Jerry and I watched that bastard Sonny Leonard strap the thing on,’ I muttered. ‘What have you done about tracing him?’

‘Nothing. Let him run back to Tony Reilly and tell him that his plan failed, and that I’m on to him. We won’t hear from them again. Leonard’s history; Gary O’Rourke is the new head honcho.

‘Anyhow,’ he added, ‘what could I do without bringing the police in on it?’

‘Let me think about that,’ I told him.

We had an uneventful flight to Amsterdam, and, as it turned out, an uneventful weekend. Considering everything that had gone on in Newcastle and Barcelona, the show was top class. Sally Crockett’s audience ratings in Holland were very high, so Everett gave her the headline spot, after Tommy Rockette’s second showing in a tag team with Chris Manson, against the Rattlers. Watching them all through rehearsal, I thought that Rutherford looked the most relieved man in the team, knowing that he would not be facing Daze.

The big man’s own slot was a handicap fight with the Choirboys, interrupted once again by a confrontation with Liam Matthews, who left his commentary chair to jump up on the ring apron and harangue the giant. This time he ran for his life up the ramp, pursued by a mock-serious Daze forfeiting his match with the Tag Team Champions.

The plane was almost ready to land in rainy Glasgow on Sunday evening, when a possible answer to Everett’s two-day-old question came to me. He and I were in the same front row seats, and so I tapped him on the arm.

‘Hey, remember that phone bill of Sonny Leonard’s?’ He nodded. ‘The other American number; the one in St Louis. We reckoned that could have been his parents, right?’ He nodded again. ‘He looked a dutiful son, didn’t he. What’s the betting he’s been in touch with his folks again within the last two weeks?’

The great dark face broke into a grin. ‘Could be, could be,’ he said, softly. ‘Why don’t you drop by the office tomorrow just after five and we’ll check it out.’