It’s inspiration that counts, not the drill.” ~ Hugo Ball
Every year on Patty’s birthday I check in with the SFPD cold case division, specifically with Daniel Cunningham. Last I heard he was working only on Mondays since he retired. So, the Monday after Patty’s birth date I rang him. The voice mail message I got was for Tom MacGuire. I explained on the recording that I was checking in on Patricia Vance’s cold case and that this was the number for his predecessor.
That was two weeks ago. But I’m not giving up hope because it’s taken Cunningham this long to return my calls in the past. Whoever returns my call will only do it when he can fit it in, but he will say nothing. I knew the drill by now. The SFPD couldn’t share any details about the case because it might jeopardize it if those details happen to get out. But this case is over fifty years old now. Should there not be some wiggle room when so much time has passed?
Still what if a new detective translated into new information? Could having someone else take over the case mean that he might relent and give me more of what I need — answers? Yet, this McGuire was not likely a friend of Harold’s, Patty’s brother. That was the Cunningham advantage. He knew Harold and so was more likely to hustle to get some movement on the cold case
What I find on this MacGuire guy is an article in SF Gate from 2007 in which he is frustrated by being stuck with light duties. When he overhears a dispatch that a gang-related shooting has taken place nearby Mission Station where he is filling out a hit-and-run statement, he races out the front door hoping to catch the perpetrator that is headed his way. The article cites this maxim: People who wear guns for a living classify humanity into two groups: Those who logically run from the sound of gunfire, and those who run toward it. MacGuire is of the run-toward ilk, or he would have never given up his job in finance to be a cop, never traded in his business suit for a police uniform.
Perhaps fielding calls from friends and relatives of cold case victims is not exciting enough to suit Detective MacGuire. Perhaps rustling through stacks of photographs, statements, reports and the other flotsam of a case file does not give him the blowback of adrenaline that chasing after a gang banger fresh off a slaying gives him. I hope none of this is true. I am comforted by the fact that he tends to run towards danger. That means he gets off on risk. What if that translated into taking the huge risk of running the evidence SFPD does have against the suspected murderer of Patty Vance by the District Attorney? Not one detective so far has had the chutzpah to do that. Run MacGuire, run. Straight to DA Brooke Jenkin’s office. Is it naive of me to think that a woman holding that office might make some sort of difference? Probably.
