“Everyone calls him Lizard. I don’t know his real name, but he works for Cypress Construction. He called me and a few other guys who might bid on the pub job. Whoever made the call first got a grand bonus.”

“And did you get your bonus?” she asked and smiled.

He smiled back but it was tentative. “Yeah, but I’m sorry that guy got hurt. I swear—I didn’t think anyone would get hurt.”

“Did Jimmy know about your little deal?” It never hurt to have some leverage over the idiot with the Confederate flag tattoo.

“No way. He’d kill me for sure if he knew I got him shot. He’s home getting over it, but he can’t move his arm for six weeks.”

“One more thing before I let you go,” she said, standing up and taking what was left of his blood money. She handed the bills to Dino. “I owe you considerably more than that, but I thought you might want to take your girl out to dinner tonight.”

“Hey, that’s—” The guy stopped when she stared at him. “It’s okay, take it.”

“Did Lizard tell you who hired him for these phone calls he asked you to make?”

He blinked a few times. “He wasn’t giving up his source. He said he didn’t want none of us going around him and trying to cash in.”

Cain nearly sighed out loud. Stupidity rankled. “I don’t believe you. No one goes behind the bar before making the call unless they knew exactly what was going to happen. You must believe I’m some asshole with no brains if you think I’m buying that. Didn’t you consider I’d talk to the guy who lived?” She tapped the closed wallet in her hand and raised her voice a little. “Asshole, you should realize I know all the answers before I ask the questions.”

“Look,” the guy said, sitting up straight but not fighting the bonds. “Okay, yeah, I knew they were going to shoot the place up, but it was five grand to whoever made that call first. I got bills, and your guy’s going to be okay.”

“Do you think someone sprays a building with automatic weapons to scare people, or to kill? Remember, honesty will set you free.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“Doesn’t answer my question, and I’m not going to repeat myself.” She took his license out of his wallet and held it up to read the information on it. “A good friend of mine got seriously injured because you wanted a little bit of money.”

“Hey, five grand’s a lot of money,” the guy said loudly.

“Is it worth dying over?” she asked, curious what his answer would be.

“Hell, no.”