isturbing an already excited mother--or
aunt or whatever she was.

The officer threw me a salute. I returned it and said to the sobbing
woman, "Now, just be calm, ma'am. Tell us what happened."

It all came out in a torrent. She'd been sitting on one of the
benches, reading a newspaper, and she'd looked around and little
Shirley was gone. Yes, Shirley was her daughter. How old? Seven and a
half. How long ago was this? Fifteen minutes, maybe. She hadn't been
worried at first; she'd walked up and down, calling the girl's name,
but hadn't gotten any answer. Then she saw the policeman, and ...
and--

And she broke down into tears again.

It was the same thing that had happened a few days before. I had
already ordered extra men put on the Riverside and Central Park
details, but a cop can't be everywhere at once.

"I've got the rest of the boys beating the brush between here and the
river," Officer Ramirez said. "She might have gone down one of the
paths on the other side of the wall."

"She wouldn't go too near the river," the woman sobbed. "I just know
she wouldn't." She sounded as though she were trying to convince
herself and failing miserably.

Nobody said anything about Nestor; the poor woman was bad enough off
without adding more horror to the pictures she was conjuring up in her
mind.

"We'll find her," I said soothingly, "don't you worry about that.
You're pretty upset. We'll have the police doctor look you over and
maybe give you a tranquilizer or something to make you feel better."
No point in telling her that the doctor might be needed for a more
serious case. "Keep an eye on her till the doctor comes, Ramirez.
Meanwhile, we'll look around for the little girl."

* * * * *

I walked over to the wall and looked down. I could see uniformed
police walking around, covering the ground carefully.

Riverside Park runs along the eastern edge of Manhattan Island,
between Riverside Drive and the Hudson River, from 72nd Street on the
south to 129th Street on the north. In the area where we were, there
is a flat, level, grassy area about a block wide, where there are
walks and benches to sit on. The eastern boundary of this area is
marked by a retaining wall that runs parallel with the river. Beyond
the wall, the ground slopes down sharply to the Hudson River, going
under the elevated East Side Highway which carries express traffic up
and down the island. The retaining wall is cut