The Hard Way: Harper Cochran Mystery

By charles fisher

Harper Cochran takes over the squad while Carla Larsen is looking into the Kennedy Assassination. Lots of action, wrestling, and interesting situations involving old nemesis Jimmy Anders, who has had himself cloned. Also a few teasers for the next Carla Larsen Mystery about the assassination.

• Language: English
• Publisher: charles fisher
• Release date: Jan 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393270096

Book preview

Table of Contents

The Hard Way | Do Evil, BeIniquitous; in the  End, All You Get is Me

The End | Carla et al will return in American Shamrock; The Last American President.

The Hard Way

Do Evil, BeIniquitous; in the  End, All You Get is Me

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Larry King Live

1 CNN Center

Atlanta, Georgia

October, 2007

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My guest tonight is a part time professional wrestler, an Assistant United States Attorney, and a full time Assistant Chief of Detectives from Stratford, Connecticut. Please welcome Harper Boone Cochran. Thanks for coming, Harper, Larry said. Don’t hit me, he laughed.

Then behave yourself, Harper smiled.

I always do, Larry said. How long have you been a wrestler?

Since I was ten, as I recall. My mom is the World Wrestling Alliance Women’s Champion. She taught me since I was little.

Ten? Larry exclaimed. Don’t you have to be eighteen to wrestle?

I only wrestled a few exhibition matches; I wasn’t a full time employee. I did have two legit matches; I beat the former NWA Women’s Champion, then I beat the current one. Since then, I have wrestled infrequently. Usually it’s somebody who decided to jump ugly with me and needs to be taught a lesson.

Word is you really hurt some people in those matches. You put a State Trooper in a rest home last year.

Yeah, I did, Harper grinned. It was fun, too. That was a legitimate grudge fight. Had I done that in civilian life, I could have been fired from my job and possibly prosecuted.

At the risk of having my neck broken, I have to ask you this; is wrestling fake?

Ehhhh, Harper said, wiggling her fingers. Some of it is. The punches and kicks are somewhat pulled. It depends on where you wrestle, too. The WWA is known for what they call shoot matches; real fights. Even then, there are limits.

We recently did a show with Bret Hart, John Cena, and Chris Jericho; that show followed the tragic murder-suicide involving Chris Benoit. They call wrestling entertainment, Larry said.

It is entertainment; unless you’re the one getting the crap beat out of you, Harper said. The WWE is more family oriented and does not allow what the WWA allows. That’s why we kick their butts in the ratings. Jim Gooley, the owner, is good friends with Vince McMahon. Vince often comes to Jim’s office to watch our show, Monday Night Mayhem. Last April, John Cena wrestled at one of our pay-per-views. He took on Tara Shahin, our NWA Women’s Champion; she broke his arm and beat him half to death.

A woman beat John Cena? Larry laughed.

Yes. Tara has beaten quite a few of Vince’s best male wrestlers, including Kane, Brock Lesnar, and The Rock, Dwayne Johnson. You see, they think we’re faking it like they are. When they get into the ring with somebody like me or Tara, they find out differently. Mostly, they end up in the hospital. We call that the hard way.

But aren’t the matches planned?

Ours are not always scripted. Even if they are, you still take a beating. My Way by Frank Sinatra was written and arranged by Paul Anka, but only the singer can put it over with the audience. The most scripting we have is how long the match should take, and what the finish should be. Everything in-between is up to the wrestlers. When you see somebody thrown out of the ring onto the floor or through the announce table, that’s real; you can’t fake that. You either know how to land or you get hurt. Nobody really wants to hurt another wrestler in most cases; you start putting people out business, you put yourself out of business after a while too, because there won’t be anybody left to wrestle. The matches do get out of control, but that’s where the referees come into play. They stop matches when they see somebody has been rendered helpless.

You’ve had four matches now against your Chief of Detectives Carla Larsen. What is behind that?

She has a big mouth, Harper said. And she cheats. So every once in a while, I shut  her mouth for her. She never learns.

You beat up your boss? Larry laughed.

She’s not my boss when we step into that ring; she’s my enemy who called me out. Neither one of us will take that from anybody. She is my best friend and partner, but she knows that when she opens her big mouth, I won’t hesitate to put my fist in it. That’s just the way it is. I also beat the hell out of our Chief of Patrol, our County Coroner, the President of CBS TV, and Ric Flair.

That’s amazing. You must be pretty tough.

Tough is here, Harper said, tapping her head. Training is secondary. I’ve seen wrestlers with fifteen years experience taken apart by our girls in under ten minutes. Winning requires a certain viciousness; in that ring, it’s either you or your opponent. Our Women’s Division is made up of some of the nicest women you’d ever want to know; just don’t pick a fight with them, because they’ll do anything to win.

I’ve heard your Detective Squad doesn’t have any men, Larry said. Why is that?

Men don’t want to work with us, Harper said. Besides; we don’t need any men. We clear over 90 percent of our cases without them. That’s one of the best records in the country.

But don’t you have a lot of police brutality complaints lodged against your squad?

Sure we do. If you’re a big, strong man and just got the snot beat out of you by a teenage girl, what would you do? You’d make up some crazy story and file a complaint because you’re too embarrassed to face the truth.

Have you ever met a man you thought you couldn’t beat in a fight? Larry said.

No. My job requires that I will occasionally have to fight with perpetrators. The day I fear one is the day I should do something else for a living. I am fortunate enough to know how to fight and disable people in less than ten seconds, no matter how big or strong they are. And I will not and never have hesitated to do so. You mess with me, you’re going to the emergency room, period.

Ever feel remorse about hurting a suspect?

Never.

You are also a U.S. Attorney. How did that happen?

Carla and I catch a lot of cases that involve interstate laws, so our U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Connecticut made me an assistant. I have a law degree, although I have never practiced law. Carla has one, too. She is also a state and federal prosecutor. She has tried some cases and had a big part in the 911 case.

What are you working on now?

I cannot discuss ongoing cases.

Not even a hint? Larry smiled.

No. Don’t ask again.

Okay. Any more wrestling matches in the works for you?

Not at this time, although that could change any minute now, Harper grinned. Want a shot at the prize?

Not me, Larry said, raising his hands. I’m not a wrestler.

I know, I was just kidding. I don’t know what it is, but bad people always seem to find me and mess with me; especially waitresses and fast food counter people. It’s almost unheard of for me to go to one of those places without getting into a fight.

Do you provoke them? Larry said. I’ve heard of wrestlers doing that occasionally.

I do have a bit of an abrasive personality when confronted, Harper said. I guess it’s the way I was raised here in Atlanta. I simply can’t let things like that slide. You get in my face, you get your face rearranged. There is no other option. I don’t go looking for trouble, but it always seems to find me.

And you can’t ignore it and look the other way?

Why should I? Would you?

I would, Larry said.

Harper looked at the director. Go to a break. I want to test Larry. They went to commercials. Now you listen to me, you old Jew motherfucker, Harper hissed. I’ve had about enough of your shit. You sit here and make me out to be some violent, out of control lunatic. How would you like me to kick the shit out of you right here, right now? I could, and nobody here could save you. And I’ll get away with it, too.

The color rose in Larry’s face. What did you call me? he said.

Old Jew motherfucker, Harper grinned. Don’t like it? Do something about it, douche bag.

Larry took off his headset, slammed it onto the desk, and stormed off to the back.

Got you, Harper called out. See how it feels?

Larry stopped, turned around, and shook his head. You really are good, he laughed. You really got to me.

That’s the name of the game. Wrestling is like that. We call it talking smack. I’m the best there is at it.

Larry sat back down; the commercials ended. I can’t tell you what Harper said to me during that break, but it was very effective. She actually made me lose my temper and leave the set. She used a technique she learned in professional wrestling, and believe you me, it really works. Do people actually do that to you in civilian life?

Yes, they do. I called in a food order from the local diner, and the girl who answered the phone called me names and challenged me to a fight. She said she could kick my ... you know. I won’t use the real word on your show, but everybody knows what it is.

What happened to her? Larry smiled.

Me. She just got out of the hospital after nearly a month. I hear she’s looking to get even. Some people never learn.

And you’d fight her again? Larry said.

Of course! She won’t give me any other option. That’s the kind of people I attract. Next time, she may not get out of the hospital. Besides, she pulled a knife on me. That’s a felony. She may be going to jail. Or, she mused, I could drop the charges and make her wrestle me in the ring. She should enjoy that a lot.

You use a hold called the Crossface. That was Chris Benoit’s finishing move. It is now illegal in the WWE. Do you feel funny using it now that you know what he did?

Chris Benoit was pound for pound the best wrestler alive. He feared nothing, always worked safe, and could beat anybody straight up if it came to that. He always claimed to love his family, although they did have some difficult moments. I cannot believe that he did this in the deliberate way they claim. There has to be more to it than meets the eye. It could be some form of mental illness; who knows. He tested clean for steroids a couple of months before, and according to the autopsy he had only traces of testosterone and pain killers in his system.

What do you think happened? Larry said.

I have no idea. The whole investigation has been mishandled; we’ll probably never know. His body was allegedly badly decomposed when the police entered his residence on Sunday, June 24 at 2:30 in the afternoon, yet they say he sent text messages from his wife’s phone at approximately 3 AM that same day. Bodies do not badly decompose in eleven hours; not even in Georgia. I would guess they had the air conditioning on since the temperature had been in the 90s for some twenty days at that time. That would slow decomposition. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Could you solve this? Larry said.

If I had been originally assigned to the case and had all the information? Probably. There are too many unanswered questions. Now it’s too late. You have to understand something; pro wrestling was always huge in the south. World Championship Wrestling, called WCW after the split from the NWA around 1988, was Ted Turner’s favorite program. It had aired on TBS at 6:05 since the 1970s. Vince McMahon also opened up in the south after he took the WWF national around 1982. There you have two billionaires with a lot of influence in Georgia; I would bet they had some say in the way the investigation went, just to save face. Probably Vince more than Ted, since Vince bought WCW at a bankruptcy sale  around 2001. Sorry if I don’t get the dates exact, but I have no real interest in this.

Why not? You’ve been involved in wrestling for ... how old are you, anyway, if I may ask?

I was born November 12, 1986. I will be twenty one next month.

So you have no interest in Chris Benoit’s death?

I never met the man; I wish I had. My only interest would be as a law enforcement officer; but as I said, it’s not my case. It would only confuse the issue if I speculated at this point.

How long is your mother going to wrestle? Larry said.

She is 42 now. Your expiration date as a wrestler is around forty. Jim Gooley has treated her very well; she had oodles of money. I advised her to retire, but she is healthy and has never really sustained any bad injuries in the ring. She said she wants to wrestle as long as Gooley will have her.

And you? How long will you wrestle?

It’s a hobby for me at this point, and a way to get revenge on people who deserve no better. That may sound heartless and cruel; so be it. I’ll do it as long as I can or want to.

Jim Gooley is in his sixties, Larry said. I know the feeling, he laughed. At that age you start to think about retiring. What would happen to the WWA then?

Gooley will be sixty eight this year. His father started the company around the time Jim was born. It was a huge success in the 1950s and 1960s, but Jim’s father was old style. He didn’t have what it took to adapt to the era of television, but Jim did. He never had any interest in wrestling until the 1980s when he took over the company. Now he is always in the top tier, battling with the WWE. His biggest and best idea was to create a Women’s Division. That made him a billionaire. If he retires, he’ll give the company to the girls. He has a daughter Rebecca; she runs the West Coast Division. They don’t exactly get along, but she may get a piece of the pie.

Why do people like to watch women wrestle? Larry said. I understand the glamour aspect; men like to see beautiful girls in scanty outfits, but  traditionally it was a man’s sport.

Ric Flair once said wrestling was the greatest man’s sport of the last four thousand years, Harper said. And he was right. The problem arose in the 1950s when women showed that they could compete on a level with men. Fabulous Moolah, Mildred Burke, Judy Grable, Mae Young, Wendi Richter, then the women’s revolution of the 1980s. Gooley tapped into that and made a fortune as a result. Part of it is the fact that people can’t seem to accept the fact that women can wrestle as good as or better than men. It’s like watching a work of fiction, only it’s real. The WWA makes it even more real by putting women in the ring against men who can’t accept that equality either.

How does the WWA get away with the violence and reality of what they do?

Wrestling was declared to be entertainment in the 1980s, Harper said. Vince decided that since his wrestlers were pumping up on steroids and taking pain killers by the metric ton, he broke tradition and said it was all scripted and fake, which the fans had known for decades, but no wrestling company would admit to it. As a result, he got out from under the state athletic commissions who licensed wrestlers and boxers and maintained strict health standards. He testified in court that it was all fake, and that meant he could do whatever he wanted with no supervision.

Do you like Vince McMahon? Larry said.

I don’t have a high opinion of him as a human being, Harper said. As a businessman, he did what he had to do to survive, and it has worked. Fake blood, fake injuries, fake feuds, and dozens of fake wrestlers who died as a result of drug overdoses and alcohol abuse because they couldn’t take the pain anymore. You cannot do 300 days a year in the ring night after night wrestling with pain. The human body isn’t designed for that, and the eventual result is death or crippling injuries. If you get hurt or disabled in the WWE, you’re on your own. There is no insurance or retirement.

And the WWA?

That’s probably the best thing about Jim Gooley. He really cares about his people; everybody has full medical and a 401K plan. It costs him  a fortune, but it makes him one as well. Injured wrestlers get full pay while they heal up; disabled wrestlers, which we have had very few of, get taken care of for life. And there is always that edge; you can schedule a match with somebody you don’t like and ruin them, Harper grinned. That’s the fun part.

You enjoy hurting people? Larry said.

Yes, I do. But only evil people and disrespectful rats who get in my face. I never would try to hurt another wrestler who treated me with respect. Then again I never wrestle anybody like that, because it would be a boring match nobody would want to see. The WWA fans want, like, and expect violence.

And you always deliver, Larry smiled.

Of course. Why wouldn’t I? The day I can’t put somebody in the hospital is the day I should stop wrestling.

And didn’t Mr. Gooley warn you about that?

Yes, he did. You can only go just so far on TV, and I tend to step over the line. I came close to killing a couple of people in the ring; I wanted to, and I am not proud of that. I have since gotten my temper somewhat under control, but they still assign extra referees to my matches. To Gooley, it’s a business. To me, it’s usually a personal vendetta against somebody who should have left me the hell alone. Why is that always my fault, when my opponent is the instigator and gets exactly what they deserve?

Not being a wrestler, I cannot answer that. But as a TV personality, I can tell you that nobody wants to see somebody die on TV. People like violence, but it has to be what they perceive as fake. Real violence resulting in death is unacceptable.

You are right, Harper said. I understand that, and I would never want to be responsible for somebody dying in one of my matches. Although I have come close to that line, like the State Trooper I put in a hospice for life. I am glad I didn’t kill her; that way I can go visit her every month.

You do that? Larry said. That shows compassion.

The hell it does, Harper grinned. I go up there and show her still shots from our match where I snapped her neck. I have no compassion for her; she doesn’t deserve any. There are a lot of people on this planet that don’t deserve any compassion.

I don’t quite know what to make of you, Larry said.

‘Maybe you aren’t supposed to, Harper said. That job belongs to somebody well above you.

Do you believe in a supreme power?

I’m trying, Harper said. Carla is extremely religious. She believes that she is a reincarnated gunfighter from the 1870s, and that she was sent here by God as his personal avenger. I have a hard time accepting that.

Why?

I can’t discuss that with you.

Okay, but you say Carla is very religious and you are not? Does that make it hard for you to work with her?

"No. I love her with all my heart. She is my sister; we live together with her crazy mother and Carole, our boss. I would give my life for her, and I’m sure she’d do the