I already had our tickets. The ringside price was $15. I'd bought a pair of $4.50 seats that would have put us closer to God than to the ring.
They got us through the gate, and I showed them to an usher down front and slipped a folded bill into his hand. He put us in a pair of seats in the third row.
'Now I might have to move you gentlemen,' he said, 'but probably not, and I guarantee you ringside.'
After he'd moved off Danny Boy said, 'There's always a way, isn't there? What did you give him?'
'Five dollars.'
'So the seats set you back fourteen dollars instead of thirty. What do you figure he makes in a night?'
'Not much on a night like this. When the Knicks or Rangers play he might make five times his salary in tips. Of course he might have to pay somebody off.'
'Everybody's got an angle,' he said.
'It looks that way.'
'I mean everybody. Even me.'
That was my cue. I gave him two twenties and a ten. He put the money away, then took his first real look around the auditorium. 'Well, I don't see him,' he said, 'but he'll probably just show for the Bascomb fight. Let me take a little walk.'
'Sure.'
He left his seat and moved around the room. I did some looking around myself, not trying to spot Chance but getting a sense of the crowd. There were a lot of men who might have been in the Harlem bars the previous night, pimps and dealers and gamblers and other uptown racket types, most of them accompanied by women. There were some white mob types; they were wearing leisure suits and gold jewelry and they hadn't brought dates. In the less expensive seats the crowd was the sort of mixed bag that turns up for any sporting event, black and white and Hispanic, singles and couples and groups, eating hot dogs and drinking beer from paper cups and talking and joking and, occasionally, having a look at the action in the ring. Here and there I saw a face straight out of any OTB horse room, one of those knobby on-the-come Broadway faces that only gamblers get. But there weren't too many of those. Who bets prizefights anymore?
I turned around and looked at the ring. Two Hispanic kids, one light and one dark, were being very careful not to risk serious injury.
They looked like lightweights to me, and the fair-skinned kid was rangy with a lot of reach. I started getting interested, and in the final round the darker of the two figured out how to get in under the other kid's jab. He was working the body pretty good when they rang the bell.
He got the decision, and most of the booing came from one spot in the audience. The other boy's friends and family, I suppose.
Danny Boy had returned to his seat during the final round. A couple minutes after the decision, Kid Bascomb climbed over the ropes and did a little shadowboxing. Moments later his opponent entered the ring. Bascomb was very dark, very muscular, with sloping shoulders and a powerful chest. His body might have been oiled the way the light glinted on it. The boy he was fighting was an Italian kid from South Brooklyn named Vito Canelli. He was carrying some fat around the waist and he looked soft as bread dough, but I had seen him before and knew him for a smart fighter.
Danny Boy said, 'Here he comes. Center aisle.'
I turned and looked. The same usher who'd taken my five bucks was leading a man and woman to their seats. She was about five five, with shoulder-length auburn hair and skin like fine porcelain. He was six one or two, maybe 190 pounds. Broad shoulders, narrow waist, trim hips. His hair was natural, short rather than long, and his skin was a rich brown. He was wearing a camel's-hair blazer and brown flannel slacks.
He looked like a professional athlete or a hot lawyer or an up-and-coming black businessman.
I said, 'You're sure?'
Danny Boy laughed. 'Not your usual pimp, is he? I'm sure. That's Chance. I hope your friend didn't put
us in his seats.'
He hadn't. Chance and his girl were in the first row and a good deal closer to the center. They took their seats and he tipped the usher, acknowledged greetings from some of the other spectators, then approached Kid Bascomb's corner and said something to the fighter and his handlers. They huddled together for a moment. Then Chance returned to his seat.
'I think I'll leave now,' Danny Boy said. 'I don't really want to watch these two fools pummel each other. I hope you don't need me to introduce you?' I shook my head. 'Then I'll slip out before the mayhem commences. In the ring, that is. Will he have to know I fingered him, Matt?'
'He won't hear it from me.'
'Good. If I can be of further service—'
He made his way up the aisle. He probably wanted a drink and the bars in Madison Square Garden don't stock ice-cold Stolichnaya.
The announcer was introducing the fighters, calling out their ages and weights and hometowns. Bascomb was twenty-two and undefeated.
Canelli didn't figure to change his status tonight.
There were two seats empty next to Chance. I thought about taking one but stayed where I was. The warning buzzer sounded, then the bell for round one. It was a slow, thoughtful round, with neither fighter anxious to commit himself. Bascomb jabbed nicely but Canelli managed to be out of range most of the time. Nobody landed anything solid.
The pair next to Chance were still empty at the round's end. I walked over there and sat next to him. He was looking very intently at the ring. He must have been aware of my presence but didn't indicate it if he was.
