I think Cole would be a little paranoid about his children after the Homicide desk, but that's my opinion, at least.
Prompt: Poem (can be used as theme or wording)
Length: 496 words
"You think he moved?" Wanda Phelps whispered, peering through the leaves of the bush.
"Dunno," Shirley whispered back.
Wanda grasped her friend's shaking hand. "Our mommies will find us, and he'll go away."
It had been a ritual for the two to creep behind the park bushes, the ground beneath them covered in shapes drawn by a stick as they pretended to be secret agents. Their mothers had glimpsed them slipping behind it, but said nothing to keep the illusion of secrecy. As Marie had her hands full with her younger daughter, Shirley's mother watched them from a distance.
Wanda had been about to slip in when she caught sight of a lanky man clad in a shabby coat and hat sitting on a bench. Meeting her eyes, he flashed her a crooked smile. Startled, Wanda darted in after Shirley.
"Wanda!"
"Shirley!"
The girls glanced through the leaves again to see their mothers, Marie holding Wanda's sister close.
Looking back toward the bench, Wanda saw that the stranger had disappeared.
XXXXXX
The door creaked as Cole pushed it open, casting a beam of light into his elder daughter's room.
"You worry too much," Marie whispered. She held his vest, soaking with sweat after the shootout at Parnell's. "It's a safe family park, Cole." She kissed his cheek. "Get some sleep soon."
Cole nodded his head, and she headed off down the hallway. He wouldn't sleep well tonight; two cops were dead because Roy just had to dart into the fray.
A poem about the Sandman hung over Wanda's bed. The adornment of a sleeping moon on the poem's frame taunted him.
He knelt down, and kissed her forehead.
Wanda cracked open her eyes. "Daddy?"
"Hi, sweetheart. Mommy told me you had a little scare today."
"There was a strange man at the park."
"What was so strange about him?"
"He wore a shabby coat and hat. He waved at me."
The image of Eli Rooney formed in Cole's mind, and his fist clenched at his side. "Wanda, this is very important. Can you tell me anything else you noticed about him?"
She sighed. "No, I was too scared. Shirley and I just wanted to have fun."
"I understand, but you should stay closer to Mommy." Cole stroked her hair. "Go back to sleep, honey. I'm sorry to wake you."
Pulling the covers over her, Cole rose.
Whether it had actually been Rooney that had looked at Wanda or not, it was beside the point. The fact remained that men like him freely roamed the streets of Los Angeles, with blind eyes being turned until a sensational headline could be made on a child's body.
At the wheel of Roy's convertible, Cole saw the Hollywood glamour be stripped away until nothing but a husk remained. Had he not apprehended Rooney in the past, Cole knew he would have been none the wiser.
Cole pulled the door shut behind him, deciding to look further into it in the morning.