Girl Missing by Tess Gerritsen Page B

babysitter?”
    “Hello,” Anthony grunted and stuffed in another spoonful of spaghetti hoops.
    Their personalities hadn’t changed a bit, Kat realized, watching Anthony and Bella, rememberingall those evenings she had looked after them while Papa Earl worked. Back in the days when the old man still had his vision. These two might be twins, they might have the same mocha coloring, the same high, sculpted cheekbones, but their personalities were like darkness and light. Bella could warm a room with her smile; Anthony could chill it with a single glance.
    Papa Earl shuffled about the familiar kitchen with all the sureness of a sighted man. “You hungry?” he asked. “You want something to eat?”
    Kat and Adam watched Anthony noisily lap tomato sauce and they said, in the same breath, “Nothing, thanks.”
    They all sat down at the table, Papa Earl across from them, his cataracts staring at them eerily. “So who’s this woman you looking for?” he asked.
    “Her name is Maeve Quantrell,” said Kat. “We think she’s living in the Projects.”
    “You have a picture?”
    Kat glanced at Adam.
    “Yes. As a matter of fact, I do,” he said, and reached for his wallet. He placed a snapshot on the table.
    Kat had been expecting to see a version of what he’d described to her, a hellion in black leather with Technicolor hair. What she saw instead was a fragile blond girl, the sort you’d find shrinking in the corner at a school dance.
    “Bella?” said Papa Earl.
    Bella reached for the photo. “Oh, she’s real pretty. Blond hair. Sort of shy looking.”
    “How old?”
    “She’s twenty-three,” said Adam. “She looks different now. Probably dyed her hair some crazy color. Wears more makeup.”
    “Anthony? You seen this girl around?” asked Papa Earl.
    Anthony glanced at the photo and shrugged. Then he rose, tossed his empty bowl in the sink, and stalked out of the kitchen. A moment later they heard the apartment door slam shut.
    “Like a wild animal, that boy,” Papa Earl said with a sigh. “Comes and goes when he wants. Don’t know what to do ’bout him.”
    Bella was still studying Maeve’s photo. Softly she asked, “Who is she?”
    “My daughter,” said Adam.
    Papa Earl sat back, nodding with instant understanding. “So you lookin’ for your girl.”
    “Yes.”
    “Why?”
    Adam shook his head, puzzled by the question. “Because she’s my daughter.”
    “But she run away. She don’t want to be found. Girl like that, you ain’t never gonna find her ’less she comes to you .”
    “Then I suppose …” Adam looked down wearily. “I suppose I’d settle for just knowing she’s all right.”
    Papa Earl was silent a moment. It was hard to tell what thoughts were going on behind those clouded eyes of his. At last he said, “You’ll want to talk to Jonah.”
    “Jonah?” asked Kat.
    “He’s the big man now.”
    “Since when?”
    “Year ago. Took over when Berto went down. Anything you want ’round here, gotta go through Jonah.”
    “Thanks,” said Kat. “We’ll follow up on that.” She was about to stand when another question occurred to her. “Papa Earl,” she said, “did you know a boy named Nicos Biagi?”
    The old man paused. “I heard of him, yeah.”
    “Xenia Vargas?”
    “Maybe.”
    “Did you hear she died?”
    He sighed. “Lotta people die ’round here. Don’t stick in your mind much anymore, people dying.”
    “They both took the same drug, Papa Earl. This drug, it’s moved into the Projects and it’s killing people.”
    He said nothing. He just sat there, his sightless eyes staring at her.
    “If you hear anything, anything at all about it, will you call me?” She took out her business card and laid it on the table. “I need help on this.”
    He touched the card, his bony fingers moving across KAT NOVAK, MD printed in black. “You still workin’ for the city?” he asked.
    “Yes. The medical examiner.”
    “Don’t understand you, Katrina. You a doctor