Read If Angels Fall for Free Online Page B

what?”
    “Your daughter. Hope she feels better.” Willie held out the change.
    “Yes. Keep it.”
    Keller hoisted the child on his shoulder and walked off.
    Willie Hampton pulled the door shut, then left Logan for Donevers
Street, went four or five blocks before he realized it was a dead end. Damn. He
cut over another block west near Wintergreen Heights, the large project. As he
doubled back, he spotted his fare with the child just as they entered a
sorry-lookin’ little house. Don’t know your story, friend, but it must be a sad
one. Willie Hampton shook his head and returned to humming his favorite tune
from South Pacific . In a few hours he would be on a jet to Hawaii.

SIX

    Tiny ponies in hearts
galloped across Danny’s cotton pajamas, smelling of shampoo. Maggie touched
them to her cheek and wept.
    Night had come. If she didn’t get Danny into bed and read him a
story now, he would become cranky. Maggie tried to rise, but couldn’t move.
    She must be dreaming. She had to be dreaming.
    Sitting in her darkened studio, looking at the park, the swans in
the pond, the water shimmering in the light of the turn-of-the-century street
lamps. The distant din of the strangers downstairs. Maggie’s painting was
nearly finished. She’d been working on it that morning when Nathan called, his
voice small, breaking. She’d never heard him like this before. Was he drunk?
    “Maggie? Maggie. Something bad has happened.”
    “Nathan, what is it?”
    “The police, the FBI, are going to be there soon.”
    “Police? FBI? Nathan! What’s happened? Is Danny hurt?”
    She heard a muffled, coughing sound.
    “Nathan!”
    “He’s gone, Maggie...”
    “Nathan, where is Danny!” Her hand shook. Danny was dead.
    “A man took him—“
    “No! Nathan, no!”
    “I chased him. I stopped the train and ran. But I couldn’t catch
him. The police are looking everywhere—I swear I’ll bring him back. I’ll bring
him...I’ll be right there, Maggie. I’ll be right there.”
    She sank to the floor, cradling the receiver to her breast. Anyone
behind her would have thought she was holding a baby.
    This is how Maggie’s dream started.
    Then the doorbell rang.
    It was Gene Carr, the doctor from down the street. Nathan golfed
with him at Harding Park. Gene was with men in suits. Police. Saying their
names, showing identification. Please sit down, Mrs. Becker.
    What is it?
    Gene holding her hand.
    This is a dream. She knows what they are going to tell her.
    Danny is dead.
    Do you understand, Mrs. Becker?
    No.
    Your child was abducted by a stranger.
    Shaking her head, wiping her eyes.
    No.
    They were mistaken. This didn’t happen to nice families.
    No.
    Nathan would never allow it. Danny was a special child.
    Everyone exchanging glances. Solemn faces. It was no mistake.
    It was a mistake. It was.
    Punching someone, shoving the words back down his throat. How dare
you tell me this? Get out of my house. Get out now.
    Gene and the police holding her.
    No, you lying bastards! Where is my baby? You bring me my baby!
     
    Maggie waking on the living room couch. Someone holding her hand.
Nathan. Eyes red. Gene standing over them. Gene’s wife, Sharon, nearby, hugging
herself. Sharon was a distant relative of the President. She loved raspberry
tea. Gene asking Maggie to take the two pills he gave her, holding Danny’s
Goofy glass from Disneyland. She took the pills. One of the FBI agents, the
older one with the scarred chin, watching from one end of the sofa. The younger
one was on a phone. Police officers moving her grandmother’s Louis the XVIth
chair, setting up a table right where they stand the Christmas tree. Danny
loved— loves –Christmas. A technician quickly installing telephones, a tape
recorder, wires everywhere. Gene telling her the pills would relax her. Where
would she be more comfortable?
    Nathan suggested the studio. Gene and a policewoman in jeans helped
her upstairs, where she sat staring at the park.
    The FBI agents