BROOKLYN BEATDOWN (FIGHT CARD)

by Jack Tunney

  And then it hit Levi. And then again. Just that quick, Levi was on his back on the canvas.

  “To your corner! To your corner!” Bendigo hollered at Deathblow, who backed away slowly, banging his fists together. Bendigo went over to Levi, who had gotten to his feet. “Round over! You still wanna fight, son?”

  “Hell, yeah.” Levi walked over to his corner, sat down on the stool as Nappy got to work on his bruises and swelling.

  “Man, what did I tell you about tryin’ to go toe to toe with him? That ain’t gonna work with him! He can take it and when you’re winded he’ll pound you into paste.”

  “It just ain’t that, Nappy,” Levi gasped out, trying to get breath in his lungs. “Deathblow’s a freak. He likes the pain. I seen it in his eyes. He likes bein’ hurt.”

  Nappy groaned. “Yeah, I heard some talk he’s a freak for pain. God only knows what he does with women. You got to outbox him until you see a chance to put him down. Double up on your jabs, and don’t forget to work them combinations. And move your stupid head more!”

  The bell rang for the second round. Levi sprang out of his corner like a man possessed, sailing across the ring at the grinning Deathblow, who looked as if he just couldn’t wait.

  ROUND EIGHTEEN

  It took everything Dorothea had to force herself not to shove and batter her way through the boisterous crowd and make her way to the ring. She deeply felt the need to get to Levi and beg him to quit the fight, to get out of there before he got hurt. If he needed the money that bad she’d work two, three jobs for him. She just wanted Levi out of there.

  The ear-splitting roaring of the crowd made her ears throb and seemed to be inside of her head. The warehouse was suddenly too hot and too closed in. She wanted to leave, to run away from this blood madness, but she couldn’t leave Levi. If she ran now, she’d never forgive herself.

  Across the warehouse, coming into the entrance, Teddy nodded at Bendigo’s men. They gave him a quick frisk and let him in. Due to the crowd, Teddy didn’t see his sister and Dorothea was too intent on what was going on in the ring to see Teddy. Teddy, however, spied Duke at Deathblow’s corner and shouldered his way toward him.

  Levi blasted punch after punch into Deathblow’s ribs. He didn’t care how hard those muscles were. If he just kept hitting long enough and hard enough, something had to break. It just had to.

  Deathblow did something Levi didn’t expect and didn’t see coming – a backhanded blow that set off an explosion of pain in his head. His vision vanished in a flash of white for a few seconds as he went backward a dozen steps, shaking his head, clearing his vision.

  Deathblow came up with a brutal kidney punch, making Levi grunt. Deathblow threw a jab. Levi blocked, jabbed back, got some more room to continuing clearing his head. His eyes watered, but he couldn’t take the chance to wipe them.

  Deathblow sent a couple more jabs Levi’s way. Levi thanked the stars Deathblow didn’t seem to know anything about combinations. Levi ducked another one of the devastating looping rights Deathblow tried every so often. Levi knew if one of those landed square, he’d be out for the night. He faked to his left and Deathblow went for it. Levi slipped inside real close and gave Deathblow an uppercut that rocked him real good. Deathblow spat out an obscenity.

  Levi gave him another combination in the ribs. All were solid blows and Levi could have sworn he felt something give.

  “His right! His right!” Nappy was yelling at Levi. Deathblow’s corner man was yelling something as well, but Levi couldn’t make out what it was. Levi knew nothing except he had to keep pounding those combinations into Deathblow and not let up, not give him a chance to throw a punch back.

  The shrill shrieking of the crowd increased in volume if such a thing were possible. Levi knew crowds at these things were noisy, but he’d never heard a crowd wail and yell as long as this one had.

  Deathblow roared and clasped both his hands together, brought them down on Levi’s right shoulder with enough force to drive him to his knees. Levi hit the canvas, rolled away from Deathblow and scrambled to his feet, got his fists up just in time to counter the looping right Deathblow aimed at his head.

  Teddy had gained Duke’s side, tapping him on the arm. “Hey, Duke.”

  Duke turned his head in annoyance and upon seeing Teddy, that annoyance quickly turned into outright anger. “What the hell you doing here? Didn’t I tell you to stay in the house until you were told different?”

  “Aw, c’mon, Duke. I didn’t wanna miss the fight. Wanted to see that punk Kimbro finally get what’s comin’ to him.”

  “I don’t care! I told you to stay in the house. Boy, why won’t you do what you’re told?”

  Teddy’s face fell for perhaps ten seconds before twisting into an ugly mask of hate. “Y’know, man, I’m just about sick’a takin’ your crap. Why don’t you just gimme my half of the money and I’ll split.”

  Duke turned back to Teddy, not sure if he was hearing him right over the yelling of the crowd. “Boy, what did you say?”

  “My money. My half of the money. Kimbro’s money. You said you’d gimme half of it. I want my half now!”

  Teddy never saw the fist that knocked him to his knees. Duke had popped him just that quick. “Boy, you just ‘bout the stupidest country nigger I ever did see. You really think I was gonna give an ignorant porch monkey like you twenty-five thousand dollars? Really?”

  Teddy got to his feet, trembling and shaking all over. “You said you were gonna gimme that money, Duke.”

  “Get on outta here, Teddy. An’ don’t go back to the house. In fact, don’t go nowhere near nothin’ belongs to me. You and me is quits. Go on back home to your sister. You ain’t ready for this life and you ain’t never gonna be ready. ‘Cause you’re worse than stupid. You’re just plain dumb.” And with that, Duke contemptuously turned his back on Teddy.

  Teddy wiped away tears of anger streaming down his face, turned and shouldered his way back through the crowd.

  ***

  Deathblow shoved Levi up against the ropes, used his left forearm against Levi’s throat to hold him tight while his brought his right fist down again and again like a sledgehammer of flesh, battering Levi in the face. The forearm felt like a bar of iron, cutting off Levi’s wind.

  Desperately, he let go of Deathblow and brought his arms up and inside of Deathblow’s arms, windmilling himself free just long enough for him to head butt Deathblow. Blood spurted from Deathblow’s nostrils. He screamed shrilly, like a steam whistle and waded back into the attack.

  Deathblow swung a left which Levi blocked. He then lightly twirled on his heels, gaining enough momentum so that when he finished his turn he had both hands locked together, smashing them into the small of Deathblow’s back. Deathblow yelped, dropped to one knee and Levi let him have both hands once again in the same spot. Levi kicked Deathblow over onto his side.

  “Back up, back up!” Bendigo ordered Levi who was grateful for the chance to catch his breath and wipe his streaming eyes. “That wasn’t a knockdown,” Bendigo ruled. “The round ain’t over, boys. Fight!”

  Deathblow threw away all strategy and just pounded away at Levi, muttering in low, panting voice, “You mine, you mine, you mine,” while all the time throwing rights and left with such fresh ferocity it was as if they’d just started the fight.

  Levi backed up, catching most of the blows on his forearms as he covered up the best way he could, trying to find a way to throw something, anything back at the frenzy driven Deathblow.

  Levi threw a clumsy left cross, followed it up with two right jabs. Deathblow bobbed and weaved. The jabs had stung. Not enough to hurt, but enough to remind him who he was fighting.

  Levi’s feet and legs were a blur as he danced around Deathblow, belted him with a right cross that started Deathblow’s nose to bleeding again. He followed up with three right jabs that had nothing but pure heat.

  Deathblow snorted like a hog and spat a huge gob of bloody snot at Levi, which he tried to
duck and failed. But the distraction did its job, which was to set Levi up for that big looping right which Deathblow had thrown a dozen times now but missed.

  He didn’t miss with this one.

  It was as if a hand grenade went off in Levi’s head and he felt the familiar warmth fill his mouth along with that tangy hot coppery taste. Levi lurched backwards, totally disoriented. Deathblow hit him again with a big looping right, and this time, Levi did go all the way down, crashing hard to the canvas.

  Bendigo waved Deathblow away. Deathblow did move away, but not before hawking and spitting another wad of blood on his downed enemy. Bendigo hollered; “You don’t git up I gots to start the count, son! Whatcha gonna do?”

  Levi reached out, thankfully found the ropes, used them to haul himself to his feet. Half of the crowd screamed foul, that Levi should be able to get to his feet on his own and if he didn’t the fight should be over. The other half screamed back for the first half to shut the hell up. That was the half that hadn’t seen enough blood yet.

  Levi barely made it back to his corner. Nappy went right to work, giving him water, seeing to the cuts, bruises and stopping the bleeding. “How we doing, Levi? Talk to me.”

  “Nothin’ I’m hittin’ him with works, Nappy. Guy’s made outta iron, I swear.”

  “No, he ain’t. He’s made outta meat and muscle just like you are. He may like pain, but he ain’t gonna like the pain you’re gonna lay down on him. Am I right?”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Levi breathed deeply, rhythmically as Nappy did his job. Deathblow sat on his stool in his corner across the ring. He looked as if he were having the time of his life.

  “I gotta find a weakness in him, Nappy. I gotta.”

  “You will. Just take your time and peep him out. Take this round to look for it. It’s there. Just stop tryin’ to overpower him. You’re not gonna do that.”

  “I can’t just stand there and let him pound all over me!”

  “And I’m not sayin’ you should! What I’m sayin’ is that you should start using more than your fists out there!”

  Bendigo signaled that the bell was about to ring and Nappy replaced the mouth guard.

  The bell rang.

  This time there was no rushing out of the corners. The two men circled each other. Deathblow plainly looking for an opening he could take advantage of to get in the one really good punch to put Levi down.

  Deathblow faked a right hook, but Levi didn’t go for it. He placed three jabs right in Deathblow’s gut. Hard punches. He switched up and fired a pair of straight jabs at Deathblow’s jaw. It was enough to send Deathblow back several steps. Deathblow could take a punch. Deathblow actually liked to take a punch, so what Levi had to do was frustrate him, get him mad enough to get sloppy.

  Deathblow seemed to remember Levi had ribs just like him and started to sling short arcing lefts and rights into Levi’s sides. Levi kept his elbows in, however, and they protected his sides.

  Deathblow snarled and Levi allowed himself a laugh.

  Deathblow didn’t like that.

  He snarled louder and continued to try and batter Levi into submission.

  ROUND NINETEEN

  Teddy left the warehouse and looked up and down the street until he found what he was looking for. Duke’s vanilla Cadillac Eldorado parked just a few doors away from the warehouse. Teddy ambled over. The driver’s side window was rolled up. Teddy tapped on it lightly. Curtis Sapp rolled down the window with his left hand. He held that month’s Jet in the other hand. “Hey, Teddy. What you doing here? I thought you weren’t supposed to leave Vernon Avenue.”

  “Duke said it was okay I come down to see Mr. High-and-Mighty get what’s coming to him. How come you ain’t inside watching the fight?”

  Curtis shrugged. “Jackie couldn’t drive Duke tonight. Dumb bastard smacked his old lady around and the old lady’s brothers are looking for him, so he’s hiding out at his girlfriend’s house over in Brownsville.”

  “Why don’t Duke squash that noise?”

  “You know Duke don’t get involved in family stuff. And anyway, this ain’t the first time Jackie and his wife been fussin’ and fightin.’ After a couple of days, he’ll go on back home. Until then I gotta drive Duke. I don’t mind, really.” Curtis looked at Teddy with some suspicion. “What are you doing out here? Why aren’t you inside watching the fight?”

  Teddy watched Curtis’s eyes as he said, “Duke sent me out here to check on the money.”

  Curtis’s eyes flickered toward the direction of the car’s trunk and that’s all Teddy needed. He reached in, seized Curtis by his necktie and yanked upwards, exposing Curtis’s throat. Teddy whipped up the linoleum knife which he had been holding out of sight and in one swift sharp stroke, cut Curtis Sapp’s throat. Blood gushed out of the gaping wound and filled his lap. Teddy let go of the tie. Curtis slumped over on the passenger side. His body twitched and a horrid gurgling sound came from his severed windpipe as he still tried to suck air in. Teddy reached inside Curtis’s jacket and found what he was looking for; a .38 revolver. Teddy slipped it into his own jacket pocket. He wiped off the blade on the sleeve of the dead man’s coat.

  He removed the keys from the ignition and went around to the trunk of the Cadillac. He used the key, opened the trunk. There was nothing in the trunk but a black valise. Teddy opened it and grinned so wide and so hard his jaws ached. The valise was full of money. Banded stacks of bills. The other half of the prize money Duke had given his word to pay off.

  Teddy closed up the valise, shut the lid of the Cadillac’s trunk. He could just take the valise and disappear. With twenty-five thousand dollars, he could go anywhere he liked in the country and start over again. But there was one more thing he had to do. And if he didn’t do it would keep him up at night and eat away at him like a cancer.

  Teddy moved into the shadows of the doorway of an abandoned building next to the warehouse and stood there, fingering the gun in his pocket.

  ***

  Levi twisted, slipped out of the path of the punishing blows and then went wild. Levi wasn’t playing with Deathblow, wasn’t testing him anymore. The flurry of lefts and rights took Deathblow by surprise. Levi gave Deathblow a hard left hook that snapped the bigger man’s head around. Levi followed it up with a left, a right, and another left.

  The crowd whooped and hollered as if the world were coming to an end. Levi skipped and moved right then left, living up to his nickname, dancing out of the way of Deathblow’s right hook.

  Levi threw a left hook that finally hurt Deathblow for real. He could tell. It was in the eyes. Those eyes that had not long ago been encouraging the blows and the pain that went with them. But this was different. It wasn’t fun anymore.

  A fresh surge of adrenaline flooded Levi’s system as he ruthlessly blasted straight right after straight right. Levi ignored the ache in his right arm and shoulder and continued targeting Deathblow’s face. Deathblow backed up into the ropes and lay there as Levi went to work on his mid-section.

  Duke Williamson clenched his cane so hard his hand ached. He had told Deathblow to take Levi down clean, fast and hard. Forget about giving the people their money’s worth. Duke wanted Levi taken out. For good. But Levi had proven to be every pound the fighter he was. He was giving as good as he took and now it looked as if he were turning the tide of the fight.

  Duke had given his word to Bendigo that he would pay Levi and had even brought the money, let Bendigo see it as an act of good faith. But that didn’t mean that Duke had any intention of handing it over. Best to slip out now while everybody was concentrating on the fight.

  It was too damn cold in Brooklyn any way. Six months in St. Thomas or Tortola sounded good right about now. Hell, why not take the whole year? He certainly had money enough. And that would be more than enough time for the heat to die down.

  It wasn’t the first time Duke had taken a sabbatical when things got tight, and it wouldn’t be the last. Once he was safely out of the country, he could make arraig
nments for somebody to kill Levi. That would solve the problem once and for all. Bendigo Cribb couldn’t exactly complain about keeping his word to Levi Kimbro when there was no Levi Kimbro alive, now could he?

  Duke turned slowly, so as not to draw attention to himself, and leisurely made his way through the crowd. Nobody paid him a bit of attention, so intent were they on watching the war in the ring.

  The right side of Levi’s face looked as if he’d been hit repeatedly with a two by four. Those looping right hand punches did their work. It would be a long time before all that swelling went down. But Levi still stayed on his feet, alternately slipping punches while getting in there and pounding away at Deathblow’s ribs.

  Then Levi finally felt something break under his punch. A rib in Deathblow’s left side snapped. Instantaneously, Levi followed up with a three punch combination, then went upstairs with a head shot that rocked Deathblow back on his heels.

  More head shots, left, right, left, right. Deathblow’s mouth guard flew up and away, arcing out into the crowd who stamped their feet, the clamor of individuals merged into one murderous, blood hungry wail of primitive lust.

  “He can’t keep up with your pace!” Nappy yelled. “Don’t give him a chance to get back in the fight!”

  Levi slammed home a right that landed solid, knocked Deathblow into the ropes. Then a hard left to the head. Followed it with another right to the head. Deathblow wasn’t looking so good now, his right eye almost completely closed. Levi kept hammering away, not letting up for a second. The tapes on his fists were no longer white. They were dark red with blood.

  Dorothea jumped up and down on her overturned washtub in pure delight. “Get him, Levi! Get him!” she screamed. She couldn’t help herself. Before the fight, her mind’s eye could only see Levi’s broken body at Deathblow’s feet. But here was Levi pounding the iron man of muscle into jelly. She clapped her hands excitedly. If he could keep this up, keep Deathblow on the offensive, Levi could win this thing and this terrible night would be over. If only she could find Teddy, it would be perfect ...