If Angels Fall by Rick Mofina Read Free Book Online Page A

was
impatient.”
    “Have you and Nathan had any marital problems, have you been seeing
a marriage counselor, a clergyman?”
    Maggie looked at him.
    “No.”
    “Have you or Nathan ever had an extramarital affair?”
    “No.”
    “I have to ask.” He made a note.
    “Are you or Nathan under psychiatric care? Have you ever been?”
    “No.”
    “Anyone in your husband’s circles you think would do this?”
    “No.”
    “Has your husband ever used or dealt drugs?”
    “Absolutely not.”
    “Does he gamble?”
    “No.”
    “How are you set financially?”
    “Comfortable, I guess.”
    “No heavy debts, large loans?”
    “No.”
    “Do you know Angela Donnor or Franklin Wallace?”
    “Only from the news last year.”
    “Would you object to a polygraph test.”
    “A lie-detector? My son’s missing and you think I’d lie to you.”
    “It’s routine, but it will help. I am being straight with you.”
    Maggie covered her mouth with her hands and nodded.
    “Good. It really is routine,” Sydowski continued. “Can you think of
anyone in yours or your husband’s past who might hold a grudge, might have a
strong dislike for either of you?”
    “No, I can’t.”
    “Is there anyone in your families, or circle of friends or acquaintances,
who desperately want children, but can’t have any?”
    “Just us. Before we had Danny.” Tears rolled down Maggie’s face.
    Sydowski put his big hand on hers.
    “Maggie, what we’re going to ask you is very important. As soon as
you can, we need you to write out a daily schedule, with a detailed hour-by-hour
breakdown of the entire family’s routine for the last month. What you do, where
you go, everything, with all the detail you can provide. Places, name,
everything. Inspector Turgeon can help you. It’s crucial. Can you do it?”
    “I will do anything you ask of us, Inspector.”
    “Don’t answer your phone without us knowing.”
    Maggie nodded.
    “You were very helpful. We’ll talk again later.”
    “Is my son dead, Inspector?” Her voice became ragged. “I know what
happened last year with that little girl at Golden Gate Park. I know you and
Linda are homicide police, so you tell me right now if you think my boy is
dead. You tell me.”
    Sydowski stood, remembering Golden Gate. The rain. Tanita Marie
Donner’s body in the garbage bag. Her killer may have just claimed another
victim, Maggie Becker’s boy. What could he tell her?
    “We don’t know if Danny’s dead. We have no evidence to suggest it.
All we know right now is that a stranger took him. Maybe he just wants him for
a little while and will let him go. That happens.”
    Maggie’s eyes searched his for a trace of deception until she was
satisfied there was none.
    “Please. You have to bring him back. He’s all I have.”
    “We’ll do everything in our power to bring Danny home. You have my
word on that.”
    Sydowski patted her hand, then returned downstairs.

SEVEN

    “We’ve got to stop meeting like this, Walter.” FBI Special Agent Merle Rust implanted a chew of
Skoal between his right cheek and gum. “How’s your old man keeping these days?
Down in San Mateo, isn’t he?”
    “Pacifica. Got a garden, he’s fine. And you, Merle?”
    “Thought I’d hang it up this year, but the job has a way of
interfering with your life sometimes, doesn’t it?”
    “I wouldn’t know.” Sydowski sipped his coffee. “I have no life.”
    They were in the Beckers’ kitchen with Ditmire, Turgeon, Mikelson,
and Ray Tilly from General Works, who had the lead on the case.
    “Let me introduce my new partner,” Sydowski said. “Inspector Linda
Turgeon. Joined Homicide today from Vice.”
    “Turgeon, Turgeon?” Rust was remembering. “You Don’s girl?”
    Turgeon nodded, helping herself and Ditmire to coffee.
    SFPD Officer Don Turgeon was working Chinatown twenty years ago when
he was shot and killed shielding a tourist in the cross fire of a gang war.
Linda, his only child, was ten years old at