“I am not. There has, however, been an incident.”
“What kind of incident?”
Chapter 11
Gennaro was cleaning the pairof pistols he kept hidden under his dining room table when the intercom to the front gate buzzed.
He heard Rosa make her way from her bedroom to the foyer, each step somehow conveying her annoyance.
After several seconds, she yelled, “It’s Baker and Toomey.”
“Let ’em in,” Gennaro said.
A few minutes later, she led Baker and Toomey into the dining room.
Gennaro motioned at the chairs across from him. “Have a seat. Either of you want a beer?”
“I wouldn’t say no to one,” Toomey said. He had a slight limp that Gennaro hadn’t noticed the last time he’d seen him.
“What happened to you?”
Baker snickered. “He took a knee to his, um…” He waved a hand over his groin.
Gennaro winced in empathy. “You need some ice or something? Rosa, when you get the beers, grab Toomey a bag of ice.” As she headed to the kitchen, he turned back to his guests. “I hope the injury doesn’t mean you failed.”
“Mr. Gennaro, I’m hurt you would even think that,” Baker said.
“Barrington got a lucky shot in, that’s all,” Toomey said.
“You saw Barrington in person?” Gennaro had been hoping they could avoid that.
“We scoped out his office, but there was no easy way in,” Baker said. “So, we opted to check his phone.”
Rosa returned with three cans of beer and a bag of frozen peas. She plopped the cans onto the table, tossed the peas to Toomey, then left.
Baker snickered as Toomey placed the bag over his injury.
Toomey glared at him. “It ain’t funny.”
“It’s kinda funny.”
Toomey started to stand. “Why don’t you see how it feels and then tell me if it’s—”
“Are you two done?” Gennaro snapped.
“Sorry, Mr. Gennaro,” Baker said.
Toomey grumbled something similar and retook his seat.
Right after Carter had told Gennaro about seeing Fratelli, Gennaro had made several phone calls and spent three hundred dollars on a bribe to obtain the reservation information for Fratelli’s lunch at Café Chelsea. It had been made by Stone Barrington, of all people. The same jerk who’d interrupted Snapper and Jimmy.
Turned out, Barrington was a lawyer of some repute. Gennaro had wondered if maybehewas Fratelli until a quick Google search turned up pictures that revealed that was not the case.
The good news was, Gennaro had never met a lawyer who didn’t keep a detailed calendar to track their billablehours, which was why he’d hired Baker and Toomey to get a look at Barrington’s.
Gennaro opened his beer. “How about you tell me what happened.”
Baker gave Gennaro theReader’s Digestversion of their encounter with the lawyer.
