Rick Mofina - If Angels Fall

Sydowski agreed, patted Ryan’s shoulder, then leftwith Rust.

It was like walking into the bedroom of a doll’shouse. The two men dwarfed it, casting huge shadows on the walls.

Rust squatted, examining the contents of Gabrielle’sdresser, while Sydowski sat on her bed. Soft pastel, patterned wallpaper withtiny bouquets covered the walls. The ceiling borders were painted a lilacshade. Beautiful, Sydowski thought. A framed piece of embroidery reading:“Gabrielle’s Room” hung above the bed. A multicolored crayon drawing of Jackson,Gabrielle’s puppy, hung on one wall. This was the room of a happy child, likethe rooms of Tanita and Danny.

As Rust sifted gingerly through Gabrielle’s dresserdrawers, Sydowski ran his fingers over the flowers printed on her comforter.She had been here hours ago. Sleeping, dreaming. Safe. He touched her pillow,traced the frills of the cotton pillow case, and picked up a stuffed pink bear.

“Snuffles,” Rust said.

“Huh?”

“Snuffles, Walt. According to her dad, it’s herfavorite possession, after her pup.”

Sydowski touched Snuffles to his nose, inhaling asweet child’s scent. Rust opened Gabrielle’s closet, crouched down, andinspected the items jammed into it, starting with Gabrielle’s shoes.

“Why in hell are you doing that?” Paul Nunn asked fromthe doorway. “What could you possibly hope to find?”

Rust and Sydowski exchanged looks.

Nunn’s eyes were still wet and he was exhausted fromhaving endured hours of police interviews. Rust stopped, but remained crouched.

“Paul,” Sydowski began, “everybody has secrets. Evenchildren.”

“Secrets? What secrets?”

“Gabrielle may have been approached by her abductorbefore. He may have tricked her into keeping it secret. He may have given hersomething, a little gift.” Sydowski nodded to Gabrielle’s drawing of her dog.“Maybe she hid a drawing, or wrote something.”

Nunn absorbed Sydowski’s rationale. “But we’ve toldher and Ryan never to talk to strangers.”

“He may not have been a stranger to her. He may havelearned something about you and Nancy to trick her. If he took her dog, thenhe’s working from a plan.”

Nunn rubbed his stubble, then the back of his neck.

“She’s a good girl, she always tells us everything.”

“You don’t know that,” Rust said.

“What about her hair? You found her braids and therewas blood.”

“Well,” Sydowski said, “it’s exactly like we’ve said.We suspect he cut her braids off to change her appearance. She may havestruggled and he likely cut himself. If he tossed her hair in the street likehe did, it means he was likely in a hurry or afraid he was being watched. It iscommon for the stranger to want to alter the child’s appearance right away.”

“Why didn’t you tell the press about the suspect?”

“What suspect?” Sydowski said.

“Virgil Shook. I heard some of the detectives talkingtonight.”

“He’s a loser we want to check out. We’re waiting forhis file from Canada-that’s where he’s from. We’re checking out a lot of peopleas fast as we can. You should keep his name to yourself.”

“Why? If he’s got my daughter, you should tell thewhole world and splash his face across the news.”

“We need every edge we can get. We don’t want thekidnapper to know what we may find out about him. It could blow up in ourfaces.”

“That what happened in the Donner case last year withthat guy who committed suicide?”

“Something like that, yes.”

“Is this Shook guy connected to that baby’s murder andmy girl?”

“There are similarities in all three cases. That’s allwe know.”

Paul took a deep breath, his shining gaze going aroundthe room tenderly. His little girl’s room, where he tucked her in, read herstories, brushed away her fears, promising to keep her safe. And now his littlegirl’s room was somehow violated by the presence of these men-these men who’dlooked upon corpses of children, and into the faces of killers. These men who’dtouched death, touched evil, were now touching his little girl’s privatethings. They had invaded a hallowed region and somehow fouled it.

“Do what you have to do.” Nunn left, bumping intoInspector Turgeon, who smiled at him before entering and closing the door.

“What’s the latest, Linda?” Sydowski said.

“IDENT picked up the prints of a pervert from one ofthe stalls in the girl’s bathroom at the Children’s Playground. Belong toDonald Barrons. He doesn’t look like the composite. We’ve got two people whocan put him there about one hour before the abduction. Vice is grabbing him.Barrons likes to expose himself to little girls.

I thought somebody checked him clean on Donner andBecker,” Sydowski said.

“Maybe we should be more thorough this time,” Turgeonsaid.

“Shook’s file arrive yet?” Rust asked.

“The Mounties promise it by tonight.”

Rust cursed.

“That’s it?” Sydowski said.

“IDENT’s back at daybreak to do the yard and theneighborhood. More searches with volunteers at Golden Gate. DMV’s still workingup a pool of suspect vehicles based on the partial plate.”

“What about the tip line?” Sydowski said.

“I called them. Hundreds of calls, kooks, crazies.They’re checking everything, but there aren’t enough bodies, so it’s going totake awhile.”

Sydowski nodded. No one spoke.

The room became quiet, except for Rust siftingdelicately through Gabrielle’s clothes. They had nothing. Two children stolenfrom their parents in broad daylight and they had nothing to give them a degreeof hope. Sydowski slipped a Tums into his mouth.

The whipping of the chopper over Golden Gate Park thundered on the TV, thenfaded as the somber voice of Metro-TV News reporter Vince Vincentdescribed the kidnapping and hunt for Gabrielle Nunn.

Squeak-creak. Squeak-creak.

“And tonight, at their Sunset home, Gabrielle Nunn’smother, Nancy, made a heart-stopping plea to her daughter’s abductor…”

The story cut from the carousel at the park to Nancyand Paul.

Squeak-creak. Squeak-creak.

Keller yawned as Vincent summarized the case, howpolice linked it to Danny Becker’s kidnapping and the unsolved abduction andmurder of Tanita Marie Donner last year. The composite of Keller flashed on thescreen followed by the dramatic, blurry home-video footage of Gabrielle talkingto Keller.

Keller stopped rocking.

There was a description of Keller’s truck, then themissing poster of Gabrielle’s dog, details of her severed braids, a pictureshowing how she would look with shorter hair.

“I saw this man stop and seemed to be struggling witha child in his truck. I thought it was so strange,” Eva Blair recounted toreporters what she had witnessed near the Walker place that afternoon. “It wasunusual, so I called the police.”

Forensic experts searched for clues in the spot whereGabrielle was taken, in the parking lot, and in the secluded area where theyfound Tanita Marie Donner. Police were in Dolores Park where evidence in theDonner case was found last year. Someone in a pickup was stopped at the GoldenGate Bridge. Garbage collection was halted in Golden Gate Park and around theSunset. Trash bins were emptied, their contents prodded by officers in overallsand surgical masks. Scores of volunteers, mothers and fathers with theirchildren, walked across sections of Golden Gate Park searching for clues.Police officers and cadets went door to door with pictures of Tanita Donner,Danny Becker, Gabrielle Nunn, and the suspect’s composite. The reward for goodtips on the cases was raised to $200,000, and the SFPD and FBI had formed amultiagency task force to investigate.