CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

October 3^rd 1972. Atlanta.

Barry came marching back into the same restaurant that he met Ted in the day before. He surveyed the busy tables, but couldn't see Ted's big frame.

“Barry,” Ted called from a small booth in the corner. Barry approached. “What the fuck is it now?” he asked in a short manner.

“You gonna sit down?”

Barry remained standing.

“Okay. Danno wants to be up front with you guys... so he wanted you to know he has a small concern. It may be nothing...”

Ted leaned back and let the waiter pour him a fresh cup of coffee. He flipped up a spare cup for Barry and had that filled also. Barry begrudgingly sat down. He waited for the waiter to leave. “What concern?”

“Well... now it could be nothing, but... it's these hearings coming up in a couple of days. I mean, he doesn't think that he's not going to have the belt for you guys or anything”

“What?”

“Like I said, it's probably nothing. He just wants to make sure your side knows everything our side does. And if there is a chance that Proctor will have to cancel his match, Danno thinks it's only a small one.”

Barry sat in silence while he tried to figure out what was actually being said. “What?” he repeated, not quite understanding the language being spoken. “Are you saying there's going to be no match?”

Ted quickly jumped in. “No. Danno doesn't want to cause panic here. He just doesn't know what's going to come up from Senator Tenenbaum. That's all. Nothing big. Probably.” He raised his coffee to his lips. “I mean, he's heard the Senator has something but... that's all it was. A rumor. Nothing concrete.”

Barry's head dipped as he thought and muttered to himself. How the fuck was he going to tell Proctor this one?

“We could move the match forward or something?” Ted suggested.

“We've already...” Barry was undecided if Ted knew about Proctor's promo or not.

“Oh, you guys already said something? Oh. Listen, I'm sure the original date will work. We're probably just worrying over nothing.”

“That Irish prick needs to fix this, ‘cause if this match goes wrong again, I wouldn't want to be Danno or anyone related to him.”

Barry slid back into his seated position and Ted grabbed his forearm. “Listen, Barry. I'm telling you that Danno's balls are cut off right now and he's just going to sit wherever he is, with the blinds pulled, until the deal is over with the Government on Thursday, and until Saturday is over with you guys. No one has even seen him in days. I'm just saying that the man is depressed or something. He's not exactly a man of action at the moment.”

Barry slipped from Ted's grasp and tried not to look like he was galloping out of the restaurant.

October 3rd 1972. New Jersey.

Annie collected the message from Ted on the answering machine, “Job done,” his message simply said.

Annie knocked on the bathroom door. Danno was in the shower inside. “Ted says ‘job done’,” she shouted through the door.

“What?”

“Job done.”

Danno hurriedly stumbled for his towel. “Okay, make the call.”

Annie dialed from Danno's address book. “Hello, may I speak to Melvin Pritchard, please?”

Within the hour, Danno was starting to feel like his old self. He pulled down on his tie and slicked back the remaining hairs on his head. Annie brushed the dandruff from his shoulders. Tiny Thunder came out of their bathroom.

“I'm not fucking wearing that,” Tiny said, holding up a schoolboy outfit.

Danno was confused, “It's a disguise, Tiny.”

“Well, you wear it then,” he replied. “If I go into Manhattan dressed like a schoolboy, someone is going to try and fuck me. Sorry, Mrs. Garland.”

“You have to be able to blend in,” Danno stressed.

“And you think a thirty nine year old midget in a schoolboy outfit won't draw attention?”

Danno gave Annie a little devious smile. Seemed like he liked fucking around with midgets in his spare time.

October 3^rd 1972. New York.

Danno wanted his money back. He specifically mentioned the sum of ninety-two thousand when he gave Ted the message to give to Lenny. That's why Lenny found himself trying to break into his own garage at ten at night.

It was lashing down rain, and wind drove through the fence and long-ways across the front garden. Lenny thought that explaining a robbery to Bree was easier than explaining that the money wasn't theirs.

He pulled the black hood over his head and made his way to the side of their house. All the lights were off inside except for the light on the landing. That was for Luke, ‘cause he thought the bathroom sink next to his room was trying to kill him.

Lenny did all that he could to stop himself from simply putting his key in the door and slipping into his own bed for the night. He wondered if ninety two thousand was that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

It was. He cracked open his side gate and the unkempt dog of the alcoholic next door barked like a coked up lunatic.

“Shut up, you fucking dog,” Lenny hoarsely shouted.

The dog ignored him and kept up the alarm. Lenny decided to just run to the garage.

Inside, he wiped the rain off his face and ducked under the worktop where he pulled back the never-opened toolbox, and threw his hand down behind the workbench. He rustled around, but couldn't put his hand on anything that felt like the rucksack.

He quickly forgot the stealth part of his mission and pulled out the bench, causing old appliances in need of a look, to crash to the ground. He slid his head painfully into the small gap behind the workbench and eyeballed the dark empty space.

His heart sunk and he immediately felt sick. The rucksack was gone.

Lenny sprung up and thought for a second if he had moved it to a better place one day or maybe he... something.

He looked through the cobwebbed window at his house and knew that Bree had taken the money inside to a safer nook.

He switched off the light and closed the garage door. Flipping up his hood, he took a brutal swipe of a gardening shovel to the back of his neck. Lenny dropped to his knees and tried to cover up.

“Wait,” he shouted. “Wait.”

He could make out the shovel being raised again in the light of the moon. “I live here.”

The shovel stopped.

“Lenny?” Bree asked. She was terrified and shaking with the fright.

Lenny couldn't move to get up but he rolled over onto his side and saw his wife, as white as a ghost, standing over him, crying.

“What are you doing, Lenny?”

“I'm sorry.”

“I thought you were going to come inside and go after the kids, next.” Bree's voice was trembling. “What would I do if that happened, Lenny?”

Lenny struggled to his knees. He wanted to hug his wife and make her feel safe. He thought he might cry himself, seeing her so upset.

“I didn't know what to do,” Bree said.

Lenny made his way up to his unstable feet and tried to move her head onto his shoulder, but Bree was standing rigid. “What are you doing to me?” She pushed him away. “What are you doing?”

“I need the money.”

Bree shivered. “What money? The bag?”

Lenny nodded. “Where did you put it?”

“Inside.”

Lenny tried to walk past Bree into the house, but she stood in his way. “What's wrong? What are you doing?”

“I just need it.”

“Why, Lenny?”

Lenny paused and tried to think of a good enough lie. “I can't tell you.”

“Lenny?”

“I just fucking need it. How much of it is gone? I need something to make up the difference, Bree.”

Lenny pushed past her and walked toward the back door of his house.

October 3^rd 1972. New York.

Danno sat silently opposite Melvin Pritchard in the food court of JFK International. He had a plane ticket in his hand and the rucksack from Lenny's house by his feet. Over Melvin's shoulder, and across the room, Annie sat incognito beside the payphone.

“Mr. Garland, not that I don't like your company, but... it's past two in the morning and you did say you were going to talk to me. 'Tell me everything' was, I believe, what your secretary said on the phone.”

Danno covertly looked to Annie for a signal, but she shook her head.

“Mr. Garland? We've been here for nearly two hours.”

Melvin might have been there for two hours, but Danno and Annie had been there since six.

“You have to know how hard this is for me, Mr. Pritchard. The workings of wrestling have been kept guarded for...” Danno began.

Annie checked her watch and quietly left for the exit.

“I've changed my mind,” Danno quickly said as he stood up and threw the bag over his shoulder.

“Excuse me?” Melvin said.

“You heard me. I'm going to need more time.”

Danno, too, walked for the exit, leaving Melvin wondering about what had just happened.

October 3^rd 1972. Florida.

Proctor watched as the sides of the cage were fitted around the ring. He had wanted to make himself relevant again for many years, but could never justify placing himself at the center of the territory. Now the paying public was demanding it, and he was ecstatic.

Revenge money travelled quicker than any other kind of money. People would pay double the price to see a father defend his son against the Big City cowards. There would be a packed house for the crowning of a new champion, and the towns on the loop after it were all sold out too.

“Ricky?” Proctor shouted across ringside. He enjoyed making Danno's former right-hand man dance in front of his own Boys. “Read me that schedule again.”

Ricky took out his hardcover book and began to read. “Mondays – West Palm Beach. Tuesdays is the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa. Wednesdays - TV in the day and Miami that night. Thursdays in Jacksonville and Friday is Fort Lauderdale, or maybe Arcadia? Saturday in Lakeland or St. Petersburg, and Sundays are Orlando or Ocala.”

Proctor quickly began to realize how Danno got rich so quickly. It was almost a pity the big, fat Paddy wouldn't be there to see him hold the belt over his head.

“Everyone hear that?” Proctor shouted to all the various people milling around. “We're going to make this place the hottest territory in the US.” Proctor proudly sat down. He quickly sprung back up and half-heartedly offered, “For Gilbert.”

There was a dribbling of respectful applause. Proctor sat back down and bathed in his own excitement.

“What do you want me to do about the hearings?” asked Barry Banner from the seat behind.

Proctor was annoyed that he couldn't just have one minute to enjoy this without Danno creeping in to ruin it somehow. “Do you think they were sincere about this politician having something on Danno?” Proctor asked.

“No. But there's no way to tell for sure.”

Proctor weighed up the situation one more time. He knew that if he did nothing, and the government shut Danno down, he ran the risk of losing it all before he even started. He could see himself in the middle of the ring in a packed arena with no giant to wrestle and no belt to take. He hated that Danno waited until Proctor told the whole of Florida the match was on, before telling him there might be trouble. He was going to have to take a risk, and he knew it.

Proctor and Barry's focus was pulled to a commotion in the entrance. They both stood up to see what was going on. Babu walked through the entrance with his belt over his shoulder.

It looked like Danno had just sent down some insurance to put Proctor at ease. He quickly whispered to Barry, “Do it.”