“You jumped him in the men’s room of a restaurant?”
“It was just him and us,” Snapper said.
“Until someone walked in on you.”
Snapper grimaced. “Well, yeah. Until then.”
“Did you at least deliver the message?”
Snapper’s expression brightened and he nodded. “Right before we left. Whispered it directly into his ear.”
Finally, a bit of good news.
“The guy who interrupted you. Did he see your faces?”
“I-I’m not sure.”
Jimmy said something under his breath again, and Snapper grimaced.
“I can’t understand a damn thing that comes out of his mouth,” Gennaro complained. “What’d he say?”
Snapper hesitated, then said, “He thinks the guy might have.”
Gennaro groaned. “Wonderful.”
“Sorry, boss,” Snapper said. “Maybe we can find him and convince him he didn’t see anything.”
“Did you recognize him?”
“No.”
“Did he work there?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Do you know his name?”
“Um, no.”
“Then exactly how are you going to find him?”
“Uh—”
Gennaro closed his eyes for a moment, willing himself not to lose his patience. Snapper and Jimmy might be good intimidators, but Rhodes scholars they were not.
“When did it go down?” he asked.
Snapper checked the time, then said, “About an hour ago. We would have been here sooner, but traffic was—”
“I don’t care about traffic.” Gennaro stood and pointed at them. “Don’t move.”
He headed to the bedroom he used as his office. With the door shut, he called a contact at the NYPD and asked for info about what had happened at Liesel’s.
After putting Gennaro on hold for a couple of minutes, the guy came back on. “Somebody got jumped in a restroom. Was it something to do with you?”
“Are you seriously asking me that?” Gennaro growled.
“Sorry, Mr. G.” The cop cleared his throat. “Looks like the vic was worked over pretty good and taken to the hospital. The report says he’ll be staying the night.”
