Ambush

Chapter 23

In the afternoon, I drove south to Brooklyn. It wasn’t until I was across the Brooklyn Bridge that I realized how rarely I came into this borough. The place had really seen a renaissance in recent years. This was where all the hot new restaurants were opening, and it was continuing the slow process of attracting TV and film studios. There were soundstages and great locations all over the area.

Here in Brooklyn Heights, there were only a couple of the kinds of warehouses a movie studio would use. The area didn’t compare to Red Hook or Gowanus, where there were plenty of warehouses that attracted trendy new businesses.

I found the address that Juliana had given me and paused outside for just a minute. This didn’t look like an elaborate modern soundstage. It was an old warehouse in Brooklyn Heights.

No one greeted me as I entered the front door, and no one tried to keep me from walking through the corridors. I could see activity in the main room. As I walked back, a man carrying a long boom microphone nodded hello.

“Am I headed the right way to the set of Century’s End?”

The chubby man hooked his hand and pointed his thumb toward the main room.

I thanked him and kept walking. It may have been a small crew, and there may have been no security, but the set was impressive. It looked like a popular nightclub from the nineties, with a dance floor and wraparound bar.

No one was filming, and most people were just milling around the set. Juliana had told me it was a drama about young people in New York during the 1990s. I wasn’t sure I wanted my daughter pretending to be someone on the bar scene in the nineties. I was a young person in New York at the time. It may have been fun, but it’s not what you want to think about your kids doing.

I heard the familiar squeal of “Dad.” It was an excited sound, and she was happy to see me, despite her objections to a visit. I turned with my arms open to give her a hug.

As she jumped up to hug me, I caught a quick glimpse of her costume. A low-cut cocktail dress. Really low-cut. I didn’t know how to react. I didn’t want to make her self-conscious. Unthinkingly I slipped off my sport coat and draped it over her shoulders. She frowned at me but kept it there.

Part of me knew that I wanted everyone to see my gun and badge clearly. Sometimes it helps as a father if you’re big and everyone knows you’re a cop.

I said, “You said you’d be finishing up soon, so I thought I might give you a ride back home. Save you the effort of riding on the subway.”

Juliana said, “Thanks, Dad.” She took a moment to introduce me to the director. He was a little older than I was and couldn’t have cared less that there was a visitor on the set. He gave me a bored nod and told Juliana to be back on set tomorrow.

As we walked off the set, I was already thinking of how I would ask Mary Catherine to come by and hang out during the filming. It was the only way I would ever get some peace.