through at intervals,
and winding steps go down the steep slope. There are bushes and trees
all over down there.

I thought for a minute, then said, "Suppose it was Nestor. How did he
get her away? It's a cinch he didn't just scoop her up in broad
daylight and go trotting off with her under his arm."

"Precisely what I was thinking," the Duke agreed. "There was no scream
or disturbance of that kind. Could he have lured her away, do you
think?"

"Possible, but not likely. Little girls in New York are warned about
that sort of thing from the time they're in diapers. If she were five
years old, it might be more probable, but little girls who are
approaching eight are pretty wise little girls."

"It follows, then, that she went somewhere of her own accord and he
followed her. D'you agree?"

"That sounds most reasonable," I said. "The next question is: Where?"

"Yes. And why didn't she tell her mother where she was going?"

I gave him a sour grin. "Elementary, my dear Duke. Because her mother
had forbidden her to go there. And, from the way she was talking, I
gather the mother had expressly directed her to stay away from the
river." I looked back over the retaining wall again. "But it just
doesn't sound right, does it? Surely someone would have seen any sort
of attack like that. Of course, it's possible that she _did_ fall in
the river, and that this case doesn't have anything to do with Nestor
at all, but--"

"It doesn't feel that way to me, either," said the Duke.

"Let's go talk to the mother again," I said. "There are plenty of men
down there now; they don't need us."

The woman, Mrs. Ebbermann, had calmed down a little. The police
surgeon had given her a tranquilizer with a hypogun, Officer Ramirez
was getting everything down in his notebook, and his belt recorder was
running.

"No," she was saying, "I'm sure she didn't go home. That's the first
place I looked after she didn't answer when I called. We live down the
block there. I thought she might have gone home to go to the bathroom
or something--but I'm sure she would have told me." She choked a
little. "Oh, Shirley, baby! Where are you? Where _are_ you?"

I started to ask her a question, but she suddenly said: "Shirley,
baby, next time, I promise, you can bring your water gun with you to
the park, if you'll just come back to Mommie now! Please, Shirley,
baby! Please!"

I glanced at the Duke. He gave me the same sort of look.

"What was that about a