Page 35

At the same time Stone was checking on Fred in the front seat of the Bentley, Gennaro was pacing his kitchen, waiting for Manny to call back.

Even though he’d clearly told the idiot to keep the call connected while Manny did the job, the line went dead as soon as the countdown had hit one.

It had now been a whole four minutes since that happened, and Gennaro still didn’t know if Barrington’s vehicle had been turned into a pretzel or not.

Rosa entered the kitchen, then stopped and stared at him.

He halted and stared back.

“What?”

“What are you doing?”

“What does it look like? I’m pacing.”

“Why?”

“Mind your own business,” he said and started walking again.

She rolled her eyes, grabbed a wineglass out of the cabinet and an almost full bottle of chardonnay from the fridge, then flipped him off on her way out.

He almost returned the gesture but decided it wasn’t worth the energy.

Her years of mooching off him would be coming to an end soon enough, and when that happened, she’d be singing a different tune.

Not that doing so would change anything.

Once he had the money from Fratelli, he’d forget about everyone in his life, including his sister.

Gennaro’s phone buzzed.

He sprinted over to the table and snapped it up when he saw Manny’s name on the screen.

“Why’d you hang up?” he demanded.

“I didn’t! I thought you did.”

“Why would I hang up?”

“I don’t know. Why would I hang up?”

Gennaro took a deep breath.

“You know what? Never mind. Is it done?”

“Yeah, sort of.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“There was a little problem.”

“What little problem?”

“I gotta tell you. Barrington’s driver, man, oh, man, is he ever good. I bet he was a race car driver or something like that.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about his mad reaction skills.”

“Are you telling me you didn’t hit them?”

“No, I hit them. Only…”

“Only what?”

“The driver turned them out of the way at the last second.”

Gennaro rubbed a hand across his forehead.

“You just said you did hit them. And now you’re saying they got out of the way. Which is it?”

“I hit them, just not like we had planned. I smacked them in the side, and they spun around and smashed into a few other cars.”

“Hard?”

“Pretty damn hard.”

“Hard enough to hurt them?” Gennaro asked.

“I think so, but I have no idea. It’s not like I could stop and check.”

That was true, though it didn’t keep Gennaro from wanting to tear his hair out.

“Was the crash bad enough to kill them?”

Manny took a moment before he said, “Maybe.”

Gennaro should have asked Toomey to hang out in the area, so that he could have reported exactly what had happened.

Nothing to do about it now.

“Please tell me that you at least got away clean.”

“Oh, yeah. No problem there. I left the truck right where you told me.”

The spot was in a CCTV dead zone, allowing Manny to get away without being recorded.

“Okay, I guess that’s good.”

“You think it was enough to get us the cash faster?” Manny asked.

Gennaro tried very hard not to yell when he said, “If I had a better idea of what happened to Barrington, I might be able to answer that question.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

“You think?”

“Yeah, that’s why I—”

“It was a rhetorical question.”

“Oh.”

“Go home. I’ll call you when I need you.”

Gennaro hung up, then called his police mole.

“What can you tell me about the accident at Second Avenue and Forty-Ninth?”

“There was an accident at Second and Forty-Ninth?”

“That’s what I hear.”

“Hold on.”

Gennaro waited for nearly two minutes before the cop returned.

“What do you know? There was an accident there.”

“And?” Gennaro asked.

“And what?”

“I heard one of the cars was a green Bentley. I have a good friend who has one of those.”

“Why are you calling me if you know all the details already?”

“I only know what I’ve told you. What I don’t know is if anyone was hurt.”

“Let’s see,” the cop said.

“According to the initial report, two with minor injuries, and one in serious condition.”

“How serious?”

“How would I know? This ain’t the ER.”

“Can you at least give me the name of the one who was hurt most?”

“Give me a sec.” The cop paused, then said, “The guy’s name is Fredrick Flicker.”

“Well, shit,” Gennaro muttered.

“What was that?”

“Never mind. Call me if you hear anything else.”

Gennaro hung up.