CHAPTER THIRTY

October 6^th 1972. Florida.

Babu and Lenny sat in a van outside the Coliseum. The parking lot was packed with cars, but there were no people around. Everyone who was coming was already in their seats watching the opening matches.

Lenny was quiet and thinking about his way home. He knew it didn't have to be back in New York. He was absolutely happy to go wherever his family wanted to go. He just needed to exorcise the wrestling demon first.

One time in front of the crowd, and make them believe. Lenny was a short time away from living his dream and he had never been as scared.

“You know what happens to you if you go in there?” Babu asked.

Lenny was resigned to the possibility that he wasn't going to walk out of there unaided.

“Danno sent word that he doesn't want you involved no more.”

“What about Proctor having him by the balls?”

“That's gone. You don't have to do nothing you don't want to do.”

Lenny looked at the giant defiantly. “I want to work him.”

What could Babu do? If Lenny entered that ring, Proctor was going to hurt him for real. It wouldn't be the first time that the 'trapeze' situation was used to protect wrestling malice from the law.

If a wrestler with an agenda dropped another wrestler on his neck and retired him, all the offending wrestler had to say was that he slipped. What could the law do? Could a trapeze artist get arrested for dropping a colleague?

Proctor had Lenny marked for the 'trapeze' angle since Danno's anniversary party. He was almost glad when Gilbert fingered him for this whole situation. Proctor knew that Danno couldn't protect the man who nearly killed his son.

“When I'm out there, I have to be professional. I have to work a match with this old fuck. I can't break character and protect the referee,” Babu took no pleasure in saying to Lenny.

“I know.”

“He's going to try and work a little something between you and him into the match. Then he's going to hurt you as bad as he can.”

“I know.”

“So, I'm not your mother. Danno asked me to pull you from it, but you're old enough to take your medicine if that's what you want to do in here.”

“I want to work Proctor.”

Babu thought Lenny was insane. He also thought it was none of his business what another man chose to do with his body.

October 6^th 1972. Texas.

Annie counted the remaining blocks of cash in a stall in the ladies room. Eighty four thousand. Saying she had eighty four thousand made her look like an amateur. A round, concise number conveyed the confidence that she was acting from. She composed herself and packed seventy back into the rucksack. The rest, she crammed into her purse.

Out in the bar, Curt was still waiting at the table. That alone lead Annie to believe that this deal wasn't dead. He looked sweaty and twitchy and constantly scanned the room.

“My apologizes, Curt. Had to...”

Curt was far past Annie's faux charm. “I want a hundred and twenty thousand now, Mrs. Garland. Your husband’s disrespect toward me has been shocking and upsetting, quite frankly. He and I have served together on the National Wrestling Council for...”

“I'm going to give you seventy thousand now, Curt. You get less for being an asshole.”

Curt laughed. “This is why I don't deal with the wives, Mrs. Garland. They are crazy one hundred percent of the time.”

“If you disrespect me one more time, I will pull the money from this deal altogether.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You've been without TV down here since December two years ago. If you want to know my feelings on this matter, I think my husband is being overly generous to you with regards to this matter. You have nothing to sell in my view. No TV equals no company in the wrestling business.”

“Bullshit.”

“Really? How was your attendance six months after the TV dispute began?”

Curt tried to think of a way of answering without having to tell the truth.

“You didn't have any, Mr. Magee. It only took one month without TV before your gates halved. Then three months in, you were back to running high school gyms and six months in, there was nothing. Your wrestlers all moved elsewhere.”

Curt was clearly getting angry. “Do you think I don't know how much of a hand Danno has played in my TV still being off down here?”

Annie wanted to defend her husband, “Yes, we have bought your old TV slot, Curt. We've also bought the TV in Florida and Ade Schiller sold us her company in San Francisco, so we've got her TV slot, too. Danno would now like to pay you for your company, but we both know he doesn't have to. Do we have a deal at seventy thousand?”

Curt shoved the table angrily back toward Annie, which knocked both their glasses onto the floor with a smash. “Who are you to be sitting in judgment of me? You fucking don't think I know what you've been doing behind his back? Do you think that somehow this fucking cesspool of a business is too good to talk about you, Mrs. Garland?”

Curt left the hotel bar. Annie waited for him to walk past the window before she exhaled. “Fuck,” she whispered to herself. She didn't expect him to be that intense or jittery. She couldn't get it done. She hadn't got the money to play it straight, but even if she had, she wasn't sure if he was all that keen on dealing with Danno's wife. And now she wondered if he was going straight back to Danno to let the cat out of the bag.

October 6^th 1972. Florida.

Ted Berry swung the van as close to the Studio Two doors as he possibly could. Danno got out and quickly entered the building where an anxious Sean Peak stood, waiting for him in the hallway.

“Are you sure this is going to be okay, Danno?”

“Sean, nice to see you again. I look forward to working with you.” Danno peeled off his coat and, underneath, he was dressed like a man who was about to make his Florida TV debut.

“What's going to happen?” Sean asked.

“We're all going to make a lot more money than we are now, that's what's going to happen,” Danno replied.

Outside, Ted Berry unloaded Gilbert King, still dressed in his hospital gear, from the back of a van. He carelessly dropped him into a wheelchair and slammed him off every door and wall he could find on the way into the building.

“I want to tape this, Sean, and then you run it at ten o’clock like we agreed,” Danno said as Ted wheeled Gilbert into the studio.

“What the fuck?” Sean said to himself as he saw the scene unfolding in front of him.

“Cameraman ready?” Danno asked.