He’s playing a game with Prim. He’s showed part of his hand, in that he’s given her a draft agreement to sign, swapping Tom for the money she has in Vancouver. He wants to make the trade here in Las Vegas. Whether she does it or not is her call. I’ve still got her with me in the hope that when he contacts her again, I’ll be able to locate the kid while they negotiate, and enforce Harvey’s court order. We need to be close if this is going to work, or she could lose her money and her son. I don’t like this any more than you do, but you sent me, remember. If your trust in me has evaporated, get on a plane and come straight out here. Believe this or not as you will, but I’ve missed you from the moment I stepped out of our front door.
Love
Oz.
I re-read it, hit the ‘send’ button, then went back over to the window, and Prim. I picked up my abandoned glass and stared out at the city for quite a long time, seeing none of it.
‘Is she as steamed up as I’d be in her shoes?’ she asked, at last.
I shook my head. ‘Compared to Susie, your temper is a breeze beside a hurricane. You have been in her shoes, remember. She’s much more steamed up than you ever were.’
‘Can you fix it?’
‘I hope so. I love her, Prim, don’t be in any doubt about that,’ I felt grimmer than at any time before in my life as I picked up the bottle and refilled my glass. ‘If I lose her, and Wallinger’s to blame, you can forget anything I’ve said up to now. I’ll make a phone call and he’ll be dead.’
She looked at me anxiously. ‘Then you’d better not lose her, and drag yourself down in the process.’
As she spoke I heard a click from the laptop, telling me that I had more mail. I went back across and reopened my box. Susie must have been sitting beside her computer; my message had been answered.
It was not good news.
All well and good [she’d written], but if I put detectives on your trail what would they find, in Vancouver, and in San Francisco or in Los Angeles? Give me a straight answer, Yes or No, to this question. Did you and Prim sleep together in the Century Wilshire last night?
I took a deep breath; I hadn’t told her we were booked into the Century Wilshire. I began hammering on the keyboard.
I’m not playing, Susie. This is my straight choice for you. You either believe Wallinger’s lies and insinuations or you believe my truth. I am not having an affair with Prim or anyone else.
I sent the message and stayed by the laptop. The reply came through inside three minutes.
When the chambermaid in the Campton Place made the beds in your discreet two-bedroom suite on Friday morning, yours hadn’t been slept in. Shove it, Oz.
I sighed. She had indeed put detectives on my trail, or Wallinger had spoken to the chambermaid himself. Either way, I’d stitched myself up, well and truly.
I sent her one last message.
It’s all smoke and mirrors, Susie. I love you.
Then I switched the damned machine off.
‘What can I do?’ I asked myself aloud. What have you always done when you were in deep shit? I heard myself reply, inside my head.
I picked up the phone and I called my dad. In the few times in my life when all else has failed, he’s always been there. As soon as he heard my voice, he knew that it wasn’t just a ‘hello’ call.
‘What’s up, son?’ he asked me.
‘Dad, I want you to do something for me. My life might depend on it. I want you to call Susie and tell her I’ve promised you that I haven’t betrayed her. You don’t need to know the details; just tell her I’ve sworn that to you on a stack of Bibles and asked you to pass it on word for word.’
‘I take it that you’ve already told her this but she’s having trouble believing you.’
‘You take it right.’
‘Then what makes you think she’ll believe me?’
I thought about that one for a bit. ‘Dad,’ I told him, when I’d worked out the answer, ‘I might know that you’re not perfect, but nobody else does. As far as Susie’s concerned, when Moses came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, he looked just like Mac the Dentist.’
He chuckled. ‘I never did tell you about that burning bush I saw on the way home from the pub one night, did I? Okay, son, I’ll do it; I won’t promise that it’ll do any good, but I’ll do it. Oh, aye, and by the way, your sister’s got engaged. The guy even came and asked me if it was all right. He’s not so bad after all; a crap golfer, but not so bad. Goodnight.’
Hey, I thought, a piece of good news.
I went back into the laptop and read Ellie’s message. It confirmed formally what my father had just told me, and what she’d let slip a week before. I sent her a quick
Congratulations, I couldn’t be more pleased for you.
then looked at Jonny’s. He told me the same story, then asked,
What do you think of the law as a career, Uncle Oz? Harvey seems to be pretty well fixed.
I replied,
I know two sorts of lawyers, the boring ones and those who overcome the turgidity of their profession and remain interesting, amusing human beings. If you believe you can be the latter, go for it.
I think Jonny sees me as a Moses substitute as well. I hoped that after I’d climbed out from under the ruins I found myself buried in he’d feel the same way.
I looked at the box again, in case there was another message from Susie. There wasn’t. I clicked a button and deleted everything, then switched off once more.
I checked my watch; it was coming up for two. I left Prim with the rest of the champagne, told her to order whatever lunch she wanted from Room Service, then went in search of the big man’s suite.
As he’d said, it was just along the corridor. I knocked on the door and, as always, when it opened everything went dark. Everett Davis is so big he blocks the light from nearly every doorway he approaches. I still laugh when I remember the first time he came to see me in Glasgow; I thought there had been an unscheduled eclipse.
Since those days Daze, to give him his ring name, had gone on to become one of the biggest names in sports entertainment, as professional wrestling is called now for very good US tax reasons. He was everything in the game, performer, talent spotter, promoter and president of a company that he had founded and built to the point at which it was quoted on the New York Stock Exchange.
As I stepped into his suite I had entered the presence of a genuine dollar billionaire.
‘It’s great to see you, Oz,’ he began. ‘I want you to know how much I appreciate your being here. It could be the difference between success and failure for this movie.’
I looked up at him; way up. ‘Come on, man, failure’s never an option for you. I might make you a few more dollars; that’s what you mean, isn’t it?’
‘Let’s just say I’ll appreciate having your name on the marquee when we premiere.’
‘Is Diane here?’ I asked.
‘No, she’s in Jersey with the family.’ Everett’s kids are around the same age as mine. ‘Before we go in there,’ he said quietly, ‘gimme a rundown on your ex’s problems.’ I gave him the quick, five-minute version, leaving out all the aggravation between me and Susie.
‘This guy’s in Vegas, you reckon?’ he asked, when I was finished.
‘So we believe.’