by Paul O'Brien
“And what do you want?” Ricky asked.
Nestor rested himself against Ricky’s parked car. It was cold in the shadow of the building. Ricky didn’t notice.
“Things are happening. Something is going down with all your people. There’s things leaking out that are making my people very interested in you.”
Ricky could hardly contain his body from shaking.
Nestor said quietly, “Before the day is out, they’re going to get Danno. No doubt.”
Nestor blew into his hands and rubbed them together. “All everyone downtown is wondering now is – who else is going down with him? How fucking big is that chain across the country? You know we’ll get the evidence to find out.”
Nestor could see that Ricky was doing a fine job in holding himself together. He needed to push more.
“How do you think Ginny is going to do with you on the inside?”
That was it. That was the perfect question to get Ricky to react.
“You ever threaten me again,” Ricky said, “and I’ll … ”
“Give up Danno. Come downtown with me. Then, when all this is over, you can move somewhere else and enjoy the last of your queer years on a farm or something.”
“Are you here to arrest me?”
Nestor shook his head.
“Well then, why don’t you get back to your job and find yourself a clean cop to shoot or something?”
Ricky opened his door.
“When I get Danno I know you’re going to be coming in too. If you give him to me I can look after you … ”
Ricky slammed the door in Nestor’s face. Nestor kicked Ricky’s car in frustration.
“Fuck,” he couldn’t help but shout.
Eileen Dean felt bad. For most of her life she beat herself up about things she really shouldn’t have. She was getting on in years and spent most of her time in Arizona with a man who came and went, which suited her perfectly. She wasn’t close to her daughter who moved to New York about ten years before.
Eileen did what Eileen always did – she blamed herself. She was pretty much at home with the fact that she wasn’t maternal. She just didn’t have what she just didn’t have. She fed and clothed her daughter and always made sure she was safe. Eileen just didn’t do much in the way of affection.
And that ate her up too.
So in she flew to collect her grandkid. She wanted it to be different with him. She wanted to be the grandmother that she saw in her head. The one with the apron on, who was always tending to something delicious in the oven.
Eileen came into a little money when she sold her house, so now was the time. She invited her daughter and grandson to Disneyland. After all, that’s where happy families went. At least in Eileen’s head.
Eileen’s daughter declined but Eileen was allowed take her grandson with her.
What a fucking mistake that was.
Eileen could hardly contain how much she hated him as they walked back to her car. She had just spent five days looking after the whiniest little prick she ever laid eyes on.
“That’s too high, Nana.”
“It’s too hot.”
“I’ve got a sore tummy.”
“I miss my Momma.”
“When are we going?”
“I don’t like burgers.”
“That mouse is scary.”
He was fifteen years old.
Eileen was used to her own space. She thought she could manage. She couldn’t. She was terrified that if he opened his mouth once more she might punch him in his tiny, spotty face.
She tried to spend her guilt away. And she was left to drag all that guilt with her through the massive parking lot. Half deflated balloons, toys, candy, hats, buttons and two huge suitcases.
She watched with disdain as her grandson walked with trepidation across the noisy parking lot. The only time he forgot where he was, was when he caught a glimpse of himself in a car window.
“Nana. Where is your car?”
“We’re nearly there,” she answered.
“Where is it, Nana?”
Even the way he called her ‘Nana’ she found weird and a little creepy.
“I don’t know what it’s called. It’s beside the brown car straight ahead.”
The grandson took off into a floppy run that was embarrassing to even look at. He came up to the back of Eileen’s rental car and stubbed his sandaled toe, which propelled him face first into the trunk.
“Nana,” he squealed.
Eileen used one of the bags to cover her face while she laughed as the image of him falling played over in her mind.
“Coming,” she said between convulsions.
She tried to hurry with all her branded, plastic and sugared cargo. “Coming.”
Eileen knelt down beside him. “Did you have an accident?”
“You saw it,” he answered back.
“No, an accident.”
Eileen sniffed the air and her stomach turned at the smell wafting around.
“No,” the grandson answered very matter-of-factly.
“Smells like you did,” she said as she stood.
Then he began to smell it too. It was strong and pungent. And close. Eileen seemed to know instinctively that there was something wrong. The scent brought her to the brown Plymouth parked beside her. She cupped the windows and looked in.
“What is it Nana?” he asked.
She shushed him and continued her inspection of the car. His voice and they way her called her ‘Nana’ was making her stomach worse.
She noticed the car inside was messy in general and there was muck on the floor, but nothing to legislate for the type of stifling odor around them.
“It’s coming from the trunk,” he said, still sitting on the floor.
Ricky knew somewhere at the back of his head that it was going to end like this. Danno just wouldn’t give up and that put them all at risk. The way the business was set up was - if anyone from outside the business got access - then it was only a matter of time before the whole business went down.
Their web-like setup was what made them so strong and, now that they were breached, it was that web-like setup that could put them all away.
Ricky Plick didn’t have the time or the knowledge to hide what needed to be hidden. He wasn’t familiar enough with the office to know what was legit and what should never be seen.
He just knew that somewhere in this office there was a lot of stuff that should never be seen by anyone outside the business.
And that’s why he stood at the door of Danno’s office on West Forty-Second with a canister of gas and a pocket full of matches.
He could feel the weight of his decision begin to settle down onto him. He walked the floor of the New York Booking Agency knowing that this office made Danno who he was. This room laid claim to the territories and the wrestlers. In their world, the contents of this office made Danno the boss.
Outside of their world, this office made them all criminals and thieves and match fixers. Outside of their world, the New York Booking Agency could end it all for everyone across the Americas.
And Ricky couldn’t stand by and let that happen.
He chugged out the gas along the floor and dowsed the filing cabinets with it also. He threw it liberally left and right as he shimmied backwards towards the door.
He knew that the match he struck meant that they couldn’t build a case against Danno based on his own records. He also knew this meant that if Danno couldn’t lay claim to his territories and his champion, then anyone could.
With a strike of his match Ricky both saved and ruined Danno Garland.
He also threw the red meat of a vulnerable business to the men who wanted it all along. But what else could he do with the cops moving quickly in?
Ricky Plick, longtime right-hand man to both Danno and his father before him, threw the lit match and quickly closed the door to separate him from the quick and intense heat.
The only thing he brought with him was the co
ntents of Danno’s safe. He figured that would get him and Ginny out of the way for a while. Just ‘til all of this settled down into whatever shape it was to take next.
The call came in and sent a concentrated pulse through Captain Miller. He couldn’t stick to a fast walk. He burst into a sprint along the corridor.
“What the fuck is going on?” he shouted to no one in particular.
All the initial information pointed to it being Proctor King in the trunk of the brown Plymouth. The height, age and skin color matched. Danno was picked up in that same airport just the night before.
A few days prior, Ricky took five grand from Danno’s safe. He didn’t like that so many backstabbing snakes knew where all the evidence was. In an effort to clean up, Ricky personally threw Danno’s gun in the Hudson and gave Mickey Jack Crisp the five grand to go back to Bear Mountain and move Proctor’s body.
Mickey was halfway through this job when Danno contacted him to go to Texas.
But all Captain Miller knew was the snitch on the phone was good. The tip-off was reliable. They now had a serious case. They just needed Danno.
Miller just had to make sure one person didn’t step in and fuck it all up - everything he built.
“Chapman. Get me Nestor Chapman,” he shouted to anyone who passed him. “I don’t want him anywhere near Danno Garland.”
“He’s not here sir,” a passing officer replied.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Five days after the murder.
New York.
There was a general sense of panic in Joe Lapine’s hotel room. All the other bosses had gathered and they wanted answers from their chairman. There were threats thrown and new lines being drawn. There was finger pointing and jostling for position.
Joe was thinking, trying to make sense of the situation Danno had put them in. Tanner Blackwell was all out of thought.
“Enough,” Tanner finally said as he rose out of his seat.
The room collectively calmed down and waited. It wasn’t just the remaining bosses in the Americas present – it was the bosses from across the globe. They had arrived for Annie Garland’s funeral and found themselves caught up in a meltdown.
“Danno Garland is going to be pulled today for the murder of Proctor King. I have it from someone on the inside,” Tanner told the gathering.
Tanner’s revelation sparked up the tension and confusion in the room again.
“Quiet.”
Tanner was clearly delighted with what he had to say. “Now I know all of you are wondering what the fuck is going on and what’s going to happen to us. But, this is the best of a fucked up situation folks. We got a boss, the one with the champion too, who kept pushing and pushing until something gave way. We all know that New York has been a mess since he took over. He’s made his money and he could have passed the belt onto you or I like a gentleman. Instead he decides to do this and threaten all our livelihoods.”
Tanner had the room by the balls. He was feeling it now.
“Now I heard you all talking about wanting to get the next plane out of here. Well, you go ahead and do that. I’m going to stay here and do what needs to be done. What my good Momma used to call ‘pickin’ the chicken’.”
Tanner stopped his performance to light a cigar and take in the confusion of the room. They were all waiting on him now to make sense of a horrible situation.
“When Danno goes away, he’s going to take all these problems we’re having with him. But … ” Tanner paused. “He’s also going to leave behind his treasure trove of goodies. He’s got no one. It’s not like he’s leaving all his territories to anyone. Who has the fat fuck got?” Tanner asked with a laugh.
Joe had finally heard enough.
“Alright,” he said from his sitting position. “It’s time to retreat. There’s no one in this room wants any part of this. Go back to your own territories and survive however you can until this all goes away.”
Joe suddenly stood up and opened his hotel room door for them all to leave. “We need to go back to what we were.”
Danno slipped on the cold arms of the suit that was lying on his bed. He was clean-shaven and wore his best shoes. He felt ready to move on. He noticed the reflection of the envelope that Nestor gave him sitting on the nightstand behind him.
His wife was gone, his business meant nothing to him anymore. He was old and had no one.
He took his waiting gun and jammed the barrel into his temple to see how far he would let himself go. His heart began to thump and his contorted face startled him. He began to fear just how easily the figure in the mirror was changing. No sleep, no wife, no revenge and no way to stop this choking pain. Danno sucked in angry breaths through his teeth and let them escape again, catching and projecting the saliva on his lips.
His body was petrified because his conscience held the gun. And Danno Garland’s conscience was an angry, bitter and deluded place. It was gnawing at him, taunting him for being less than a man. For not being able to protect his wife and not even being able to avenge her death.
He peeled back the hammer and remembered instinctively the seconds before he killed Proctor in the clearing. It was the same. It felt the same. He felt the same.
His mind screamed at him that he was a fat, old fuck who was always going to be scared and less than a man. That he should have walked away and let Annie have the life that she wanted to live. Instead he stayed and forced her to be with him. How repulsed she must have been by him. How many times she must have laughed with Shane Montrose about him.
Danno moved the barrel from his temple to his mouth and clenched his teeth down hard. His trigger finger was paralyzed. He wanted something to remember her by.
He shook free the gun from his hand and walked over beside his bed. He rested on his knees and opened Nestor’s envelope with a slice of his finger. He tilted it and an earring fell onto a crease in the bedclothes. Danno noticed it straight away and thought it might have been from a pair he bought her one year for her birthday.
He wished he could remember.
Remembering would have helped him believe that he was a better husband. That he noticed the little things and treasured his time with her.
He emptied the envelope totally and inside there were a couple of rings, a receipt and a wrapped, hard-boiled sweet that made Danno cry.
It was for her flight. To help pop her ears.
That he knew. That was his wife and something she would do. He couldn’t contain himself as he remembered buying her the sweets and a magazine in the airport before she left.
And there was a scrap of paper.
Danno didn’t recognize the rings, but that wasn’t unusual. Annie had a little chest of jewelry that her mother left her when she died.
But the scrap of paper?
It read:
I’m sorry boss. I don’t have all the money. I will pay you back. I promise. I’m sorry. Lenny.
Lenny?
Danno needed a second to think. To cobble together what was happening.
I don’t have all the money? I will pay you back?
Danno wiped his eyes and slowly made his way to his feet, deep in thought.
Captain Miller stopped at the top of Danno’s drive and scouted the huge house at the end of the drive. He could see no lights or signs of life, but decided to drive down slowly just in case.
“Wait here,” he said to the two other patrol cars that were with him.
Inside the house Danno was turning over his kitchen with rage. He flipped his table and smashed the answering machine against his refrigerator. He then pulled his microwave onto the floor before twisting and yanking the open cupboard door off its hinges. He collapsed with his heart thumping too fast. He struggled to catch his breath. He felt himself snap. He could only bellow as he drove the back of his head into the sheetrock wall behind him. He knew Lenny had lied to him about the money being right. He thought Lenny had put his wife in peril. Lenny Long betrayed him. And his wife.
Danno would le
ave his house a different man. A vengeful man. A man who wanted Lenny Long to feel exactly like he felt.
Captain Miller parked his car and walked the steps to Danno’s house. He looked back to see if the patrol cars had obeyed him. They had.
“Danno?” he shouted at the darkened house. “Danno, this is Captain Matthew Miller of the New York Police Department and I’m here to arrest you on suspicion of murder.”
Miller banged the front door. “NYPD.”
Danno crawled up the stairs and made his way to his room on his hands and knees. He was sucking in oxygen as he pulled the gun from his bed. He carefully peered out his window and saw a single car in the driveway. He then saw a figure walking to the back of his house.
Danno scurried and stumbled down the stairs and entered his kitchen carefully. The lights were on and it was obvious that he, or someone else, was inside. Captain Miller then appeared outside the kitchen window.
“You’re obviously not here,” Captain Miller said through the glass. “But if you were here, I would say to you that I was sorry to hear about Annie, Danno. You’re not going to last another night on the outside. I’m sorry but I just thought you should hear it from me. Out of respect to your old man.”
“Wait,” Danno whispered through the glass. “I need to do one thing. I just need a little time.”
Miller stood still, faced the door but said nothing. His silhouette was long and lean in the glass.
“There’s money in the barn, third bale down from the door. On the right. Ten grand or more,” Danno said.
Miller began to walk again. “You’ve got an hour.”
Danno pushed out the cylinder on his gun and saw one bullet waiting.
It was the bullet that had Danno Garland’s name on it from the start.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Nestor and Katy Spence sat silently in an unmarked car at the side of a darkened road. They both watched in silence as Captain Miller’s car pulled out of Danno’s driveway and was followed by two other patrol cars.
