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 leave 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.