Ahmed, Tony and Gulliver headed into Brooklyn. Bella’s apartment was in Greenpoint. Greenpoint had once been a largely Polish neighborhood, but it had been overrun by hipsters. Williamsburg had gotten too crowded, so the hipsters had moved to the next neighborhood over. Kids no longer wanted to live in Greenwich Village or SoHo. They wanted to live in Brooklyn. Gulliver still couldn’t get used to it. When he was growing up on Long Island, no one wanted to live in Brooklyn. Not even the people who lived there. Now it was the hippest, hottest place in all of New York City. So it was no surprise that the daughter of a rich and powerful man would choose to live there.
“I thought freshmen at state schools had to live in campus dorms,” Gulliver said to Tony as Ahmed pulled off the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway.
“They do, but it’s Joey Vespucci’s daughter we’re talking about here,” Tony answered.
Gulliver shook his head. “But even Joey can’t make all the rules go away. He’s a Mafia don, not the governor of the state.”
“It was easy.” Tony grunted. “When Joey can’t break the rules or change them, he goes around them. Just because he’s paying the rent on Bella’s dorm room don’t mean she got to live there, right? So to make sure Bella don’t get in no trouble, Joey also pays her roommate’s dorm rent too, and everybody’s happy. Bella lives where she wants, and the roommate’s got her own private dorm room.”
Most of the runaways Gulliver had dealt with were from poor families, but not all of them. A fair number had been from well-to-do families. Money didn’t make families immune to abuse or violence or bad parenting. Gulliver didn’t doubt for a second that Joey and Maria loved Bella. Plus, she had the extra love of her real father, Tony. But love wasn’t always enough to protect kids from the demons. Their own and the ones in the world. Sometimes love wasn’t nearly enough.
“So what is Bella like, Tony?”
“Why?”
Tony seemed antsy at talking about her in front of Ahmed.
“Don’t worry about Ahmed,” Gulliver said. “He’ll keep your secret. Not because I tell him to. Not because it’s his job. Not because he was a Navy Seal.”
“Then why?” Tony wanted to know.
Gulliver said, “Because it’s his nature. Right, Ahmed?”
Ahmed gave a slight nod of his head and guided the SUV into Greenpoint.
“So tell me what she’s like.”
But Tony needed another push. “Why? Why does it matter what she’s like?”
“It will help us find her, Tony. It could tell us who she might turn to or run from when things go bad. If I know how someone reacts to things, it helps me think like they might think. So please, help me out here.”
Tony sighed. “She’s real serious about stuff, Dowd. She thinks a lot of deep thoughts. You know what I mean? She don’t look at the world like her sisters or her parents. And she liked being with herself while she painted. She has always been her own person. I mean, she’s loving and everything. She’s even been nice and sweet to me. But she never needed a lot of girlfriends or nothing. She’s not sad or a loner. Not like that.”
“She’s self-contained,” Gulliver said. “I know some people like that. Any boyfriends?”
“Not now,” Tony said. “There used to be a guy. An artsy-fartsy type she knew from high school.”
“Mike Goodwin? I saw his name on the other PI reports.”
“That’s right, Dowd.”
“So what happened with them?”
“They dated for a while and then he went off to school somewheres in Ohio or Michigan or someplace like that.”
“Okay,” Gulliver said. “When we get to her building, you and Ahmed go have some lunch. I’ll talk to the super and the neighbors. You two would scare the piss out of them. I bet that’s what happened when Joey’s people talked to them.”
Neither Ahmed nor Tony objected. They knew Gulliver was right.
“Okay, little man, this is it,” Ahmed said as he slowed the Escalade to a stop in front of Bella’s building.
“I’ll text you when I’m ready.”
Gulliver hopped out of the Caddy and waited for them to drive away before he walked to the building entrance. So, he thought, it begins.