Pinkie’s jaw clenched. Normally, Pinkie wouldn’t have given a stool pigeon like Gennaro the time of day, but his always-meddling mother had asked him to give Gennaro achance. He was family, apparently—a second cousin three times removed or something like that. To keep the peace, he’d set Gennaro up with a small bookie operation in Queens with strict guidelines on what he could and could not do, and how big he could grow.
“I can call Gennaro right now, if you want,” Scotty offered.
Pinkie shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Miguel and I will handle it from here.”
“Sure. Whatever you want, boss.”
“Thanks, Scotty. I like how you took the initiative on this. I won’t forget that. But for now, consider the matter closed.”
Catching the hint, Scotty stood and said, “You got it. Have a good lunch.”
As soon as they were alone, Pinkie said, “We have someone keeping an eye on Gennaro, don’t we?”
“Toomey, but he’s not full-time. Gennaro calls him when he needs muscle.”
“I want to talk to him.”
Miguel pulled out his phone and made a call. “Toomey, it’s Miguel…Good, good. The boss wants to talk to you. Can you come in this afternoon?…I see…Uh-huh…When will you be back?…Okay, hold on.” Miguel put his hand over the receiver and said to Pinkie, “He’s in Miami on something for us, actually. Flies back tomorrow morning.”
Pinkie motioned for the phone, and Miguel passed it to him.
“Hey, Toomey. How’s Miami?”
“Mr. Ramirez,” Toomey said, surprised. “Miami’s Miami, sir.”
Pinkie chuckled. “I hear you. Try not to get into too much trouble, will ya?”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Have a question for you. When’s the last time you did anything for Ricky Gennaro?”
“Just last week.”
“Oh, really? What was that?”
“He sent me and Baker to get a look at a lawyer’s phone.”
“A client racking up bad bets?”
“Nah, I don’t think it had anything to do with gambling.”
“Is that right?” Gennaro seemed to be straying off the very narrow path Pinkie had granted him. “Then why were you seeing the lawyer?”
“Gennaro wanted to know the name of someone the lawyer had lunch with. So, he had us check the guy’s calendar.”
“Gennaro wasn’t really interested in the lawyer at all? He was looking for someone else?”
“Yeah, that’s the way it seemed like to me.”
“Did he tell you why?”
“Sorry, Mr. Ramirez. He didn’t say anything about that.”
“Who was the lawyer?”
“Stone something or other. What was it?”
“Barrington?”
