CHAPTER FIFTEEN

 

 

Five days after the murder. 

Texas.

Mickey Jack turned down the top of Curt’s street and immediately saw the ambulances and police cars scattered around. All their lights were flashing in the dark and there were people starting to gather to see what was happening.

“Just continue, I have the wrong place,” Mickey Jack said to his cab driver.

He checked the address he got from Danno with the house that was surrounded and knew it was the one.

He seemed to have a knack for turning up with the job already done. 

He snuck a look through the back window and could see a covered body being wheeled out of the house. A local news truck was also unloading its equipment as the cab turned the corner.

“Where to now?” the cab driver asked.

“Take me back to the airport,” Mickey said, sliding a five dollar bill between the front seats.

 

Six days after the murder. 

New York.

Joe Lapine never fucking liked the phone ringing when he was asleep. That stupid fucking phone, fucking ringing and giving him a fucking heart attack.

“What?” he shouted down the line.

“Are you on your own?” Tanner Blackwell asked in a very matter-of-fact way.

Joe threw the phone against the wall and begrudgingly put on his glasses. He knew ten seconds in that this day was going to be a terrible day. He rose and fumbled around for the light switch. It was late afternoon but his room had ceiling-to-floor heavy curtains blocking the daylight out. 

It had been a long night for Joe. A long, great fucking night.

“Move it,” he grunted to the woman in his bed. She didn’t move nearly fast enough out of the room.

“Chop, chop, sweetheart,” he said as he stomped around the bed and clapped his hands like he was trying to scare chickens out of his way.

With the room now empty and the curtains pulled back, Joe sat on the edge of his bed.

“You there, Joe?” Tanner shouted down the line.

Joe picked up the phone and put it to his ear. “Yeah?”

“I just got a phone call from Texas. We have to settle this now,” Tanner said.

 

Across town, Ricky was nodding off in his chair while Ginny took a shower. Ricky kinda liked not having to talk sometimes so he’d put on something loud and distracting. He liked his day after a Garden card to be without fuss – an all too infrequent thing these days.

 

Joe sat distressed in his hotel room chair. 

“So, one of the wrestlers Curt fucked over on a payoff called one of my guys, who called me,” Tanner said, explaining how he knew what he knew. 

“Are you sure it’s Curt?”

Tanner was getting annoyed at how little of a fuck his chairman seemed to give. “Yes, it’s all over the TV down there. His goddamn mother gave an eyewitness account that it was Shane-fucking-Montrose they were looking for.”

Tanner paused and his voice went cold for a couple of seconds. “Just tell me that you’re sorting this now. We warned Garland to stay away from Texas.”

“And how do you know Danno was behind this?”

“Don’t give me that shit Joe. You know what has to happen here. I need to be protected. I’m fucking in with Danno and the title situation up to my ass.” 

Joe was genuinely hurt by what he was about to do. “I got it,” he said.

“You’ve got an hour,” Tanner warned him. “You handle it within an hour or I do.”

Joe grew tired of Tanner’s questions and demands. “I fucking got it,” he said as he slammed the phone down.

In that instant, Joe Lapine from Memphis, Tennessee found himself tasked with the job of protecting the wrestling business and making sure it sustained no more damage. He was left with zero option. Danno was making him deal with him. He wasmaking him do something. For nearly a hundred years the wrestling business kept its mouth shut, put its head down and just made money. Joe knew that they couldn’t let one man – Danno Garland – ruin all that.

So he quickly got dressed and made his way across the huge hotel suite where last night’s date was waiting patiently on a seat. 

“So what do I tell my husband?” the young woman asked as Joe scuttled her out the door. 

“Tell him to call my office in a couple of days.”

“So you’re going to hire him? He could be a champion, I’m telling you.”

Joe pulled the door closed and walked past the woman like they never met. He entered the elevator and managed to make eye contact with four other patrons without smiling or making small talk. Ding. Out onto the marble floor and across the nearly empty lobby, through the large revolving door and out into the New York hustle to the payphone on the corner.

He took a small contacts book from his back pocket and fingered through the pages as the city pushed and pulled its inhabitants up and down stream. 

He dialed in a number and waited a few rings until the voice kicked in, “Hello, you have reached the New York Booking Agency, the home … ”

Joe hung up and quickly went to his book again. He dialed. The Chairman needed to deal with the issue or he in turn would be dealt with.

“Hello?” answered the voice on the other end of the line.

“Hello,” Joe replied.

“Joe?” Ricky asked. “What do you want?”

Joe heard Ricky’s TV blaring in the background

“You got a big fucking problem here. You want to turn that down?” Joe asked.

“What problem?”

Joe didn’t even know where to start. But he knew he didn’t have time to sugarcoat anything. “Curt was killed. It was down in Texas and they’ve got Shane Montrose.”

Ricky’s day off was ruined. “It was Shane?”

“I was hoping you could tell me,” Joe snapped back.

“What?”

“What’s he gone and done, Ricky?” Joe asked with regret. 

“I don’t know. I don’t know what he’s doing out there anymore,” Ricky said honestly. He was tired of defending Danno. He knew the whole business heard Danno put a bounty on Curt Magee.

What was left that Ricky could do? 

“I can tell you what’s coming next,” Joe said. “Tanner is going to set the cops on him.” 

Joe felt like he was betraying another boss by talking to Ricky and giving him a heads-up. But he liked Danno and appreciated Danno giving him the Chairman position.

“Why?” Ricky asked. “What does that do?”

“He knows Danno is where all the poison is coming from. He wants to serve him up, make him the reason for all this stuff, and make all this go away in one fell swoop.”

 Ricky tried to interrupt but Joe stopped him. 

“He’s finished. I’m sorry,” Joe said.

Ricky needed more time to think. He had never come across a situation where someone from within the NWC was talking about ratting another boss to the cops. Ricky wondered whether Mickey Jack Crisp was trustworthy. He wondered if Mickey did what he paid him to do.

“What’s he going to say, Joe? I need to know what’s coming,” Ricky said.

“Don’t you waste time trying to fix this, Ricky. Tell Danno to run and get the fuck out yourself if you can.”

“What’s he going to say?”

“Ricky? I swear to God … ”

 Ricky threw down the phone and bolted from his apartment.

Joe put his phone down and watched as New York struggled past outside. It was dirty, grimy and packed with panhandlers, whores and junkies. He wanted to go home to Tennessee where he could breathe clean air. 

New York was nothing but a fucking headache. 

 

He waited by the phone in a full suit and his shoes still tied. Danno had been sitting there all night and all day wondering when Mickey Jack Crisp was going to call from Texas. He used the empty time to imagine what it would be like to pump a bullet into the man who killed his wife. With no one around, and his thoughts all to himself, Danno knew that having to kill again sickened him and frightened him.

But what else could he do? How else could he begin to make it right? Not doing anything was having a much worse effect on him than doing something. And that’s where he found himself. With no real good option. Danno only had the terrible choice of killing again or the unbearable option of not.

The shrill sound of his phone finally ringing jumped him out of his thoughts in the sharpest way. 

“Hello?” he said in a hurried voice.

“It’s me,” Mickey answered.

“Where the fuck were you?” Danno snapped.

“It’s not a good situation down here.”

“Have you got him?”

Mickey paused as he tried to figure out what to say next.

“What is it?” Danno asked.

“Do you want to make your way to another phone and call me back or something?” Mickey asked.

Danno didn’t care. “No.”

Mickey drew a couple of pained breaths and stuttered his way into a poorly constructed line. “I don’t know … ”

Danno could wait no longer. “Fucking say it.”

“He’s dead.”

“What did you do?” Danno shouted angrily. 

“Not me. They’re saying on the news that they’re holding Shane Montrose in connection with it.”

“What?” Danno asked in disbelief.

“I’m watching the local news. Shane Montrose. They’ve got a picture of him up on the screen now. They arrested him a couple of miles from the house.”

Danno couldn’t process what he was hearing. How did Shane get down there? How did he know where he was? 

“I got to go,” Mickey said.

“Wait.”

“What?”

“He’s dead?” Danno asked disbelievingly.

Mickey hung up.

Danno sat with the phone to his ear and tried to digest what had happened. What was he supposed to do now? How was he going to make right his wife’s memory?

Danno heard a car approaching and he lifted himself from the couch and checked the window. A black and silver Ambassador drove towards his house. 

Danno hurried and took up residence behind his front door. He heard the footsteps approaching. 

“Hello? You there? Boss?” Lenny shouted as he knocked on the front door. 

Lenny?

Danno took a breath before opening the door slowly. Lenny was standing there smiling with his arms out.

“I … knew you were here,” Lenny blurted out.

Danno couldn’t help but smile back. He felt overjoyed at seeing the harmless Lenny Long standing in front of him.

“I just wanted to say hello,” Lenny said as he walked cautiously towards his former boss. “And I wanted to set something right.”

Lenny had the missing money in the back of his car.

Danno dropped his head a little when he felt his lip quiver. He put out his arms and Lenny, totally confused as to what was happening, moved quicker into Danno’s embrace.

“I’m so happy to see you,” Danno said sincerely. “I’m so happy you’re okay.”

Danno compressed Lenny’s slight frame and lifted him off the ground. Lenny could see that Danno was far more happy to see him now than he ever was when he worked for him. 

“I thought you were dead,” Danno said holding Lenny at arms length. “I thought … ”

Danno became emotional. But he stopped himself from crying.

“I’m not dead, boss. I should have said something to you. I was going to call when we got settled. Me and the family.”

Danno didn’t care. He just wanted another hug.

 

    Mickey Jack Crisp stood in Dallas Airport with more money than he knew what to do with. He could maybe go home to Florida and set up something. A little business, or use the money for a deposit on a house or something. He would more than likely use it for no good. Maybe get some girls. Definitely get some girls. 

“Whatever you have left will be fine,” Mickey Jack said at the airport rent-a-car desk.

Danno’s chartered plane waited for him somewhere on the runway outside, but Mickey just wanted to get back to Florida. He didn’t want to get any further in with those wrestling guys. They were all at war, and it was hard for Mickey to know which horse to back in that race. 

He had cash stuffed and taped all over his body. A car would be easier. A day or two to Gainesville, then he could fade into obscurity.

Mickey Jack Crisp had earned his money and he did what he was paid to do.

Kinda.