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.
FORTY-ONE
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.
A task force?
Keller swallowed. His throat was dry. Almost raw.
So be it. His mission was sanctified.
Squeak-creak. Squeak-creak.
The abductions have shaken the Bay Area to its verycore.
“It’s every parent’s nightmare.” Charlene Munroe toldreporters as she, along with her ten-year-old daughter and twelve-year-old son,combed Golden Gate Park’s wooded areas. “We helped in the search for DannyBecker. I’m a mother, too.” Charlene swept aside some grass with a stick, thencalled her children, who had ambled a few yards from her. “Stay close to me,guys! I just hope this works out for the best.”
Squeak-creak. Squeak-creak.
Vince Vincent went on about the intense investigation,the rumors about a psychic being called and contacts with police who facedserial child murder cases in Atlanta, New York, and British Columbia.
Keller switched his set off. Scattered around him werethe early editions of the major Bay papers. He had read every word, studiedevery picture, graphics, locator maps, everything on the case.
Let them search.
It was late, but he was not tired. He went to theworktable, looked through the heap of journals, binders and notes, stopping tostudy the time-worn snapshot of his three children: Pierce, Alisha, and Joshua.Laughing. A few weeks before they drowned.
They never found the bodies.
So let them search. For Raphael. For Gabriel.
They’ll never find the bodies. The Truth was revealedto him. His children were not dead. They were waiting to be reborn in celestiallight. Only God’s Angels could rescue them, transfigure them. Then togetherthey would walk in the Kingdom of God. How could police know his DivineMission? They were mortals. How could they comprehend what was preordained?
They could never know the Divine Truth as he did.
It had been revealed to him. He had been chosen. Hewas the enlightened one who would show the world God’s wonder. Edward Kellerhad been ordained; he was the light beyond sorrow, the light beyond the veil ofdeath, destined to fulfill a Holy Mission.
He was cleansed in the light of the Lord.
Soon everyone would know God’s love, His name, Hisglory.
Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus. Dominus Deus sabaoth.
The Angels, soldiers of God’s merciful love, were sentto him.