Wearing Purple

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.’

‘Touche,’ 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.’