"There's an elementary school building at Frankford and Castor," Frizell said. "Not being used. The Department's been talking to the Board of Education about that."
"And?"
"It's aschool building," Frizell said. "There's no detention cells, nothing but a bunch of classrooms. Not even much space for parking."
"And there's no room in this building to move in fifty, maybe a hundred, maybe two hundred cops," Wohl said. "Find out what's being said, and to whom, about us getting it, will you?"
"Yes, sir," Frizell said. "There was some discussion about giving Special Operations, if it grows as large as it might with the ACT Grants, Memorial Hall."
"At Forty-forth and Parkside in Fairmount Park?"
"Yes, sir."
"That would be nice. Keep your ears open and keep me advised," Wohl said.
Frizell nodded. "Inspector, what do you want me to do about these?" He held up the Northwest Philadelphia rape files.
"I told Payne to Xerox them in four copies."
"Our Xerox is down."
"What about the machine in the District?"
"Well, they're not too happy with us using theirs," Frizell said. " They'll do it, but they make us wait."
I will be damned if I will go find the District Captain and discuss Xerox priorities with him.
"Sergeant," Wohl said, his annoyance showing in his voice, "high on your list of priorities is getting us a new Xerox machine. Call Deputy Commissioner Whelan's office and tell them I said we need one desperately."
"Yes, sir," Frizell said. "And in the meantime, sir, what do I do with this?"
"Payne," Wohl ordered. "Go get that Xeroxed someplace. "You're a bright young man, you'll find a machine somewhere."
"Yes, sir," Matt said.
"There's one more thing, Inspector," Sergeant Frizell said, and handed him a teletype message.
Generaclass="underline" 0698 06/30/73 From Commissioner
PAGE 1 OF 1
*** CITY OF PHILADELPHIA***
*** POLICE DEPARTMENT***
THE FOLLOWING WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT ALL ROLL CALLS: EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY SPECIAL OPERATIONS DIVISION MOTOR VEHICLES (EXCEPT HIGHWAY PATROL) ARE ASSIGNED RADIO CALL SIGNS W-L THROUGH W-200, AND WILL USE THE PHONETIC PRONOUNCIATION"WILLIAM."
Jesus! I just got here, and they're already changing things.
"William"? That's awkward. Why not " Whiskey"?
Obviously, "Whiskey" wouldn't work.
And "Wine" and "Women" wouldn't work, either. But "William"?
In two or three days, if not already, that will he "Willy" and I will get an interdepartmental memorandum crisply ordering me to have my men follow official Department Radio procedures.
"Did you get the word out?" Wohl asked Frizell.
"Yes, sir."
Wohl, without thinking about it, handed the teletype to Matt Payne. Then he saw Charley McFadden and Jesus Martinez coming into the outer office.
"Wait a minute, Payne," he said, as he walked into the outer office.
"Good afternoon, sir," Martinez said.
"I hope you're here to report that you have seen Miss Peebles, and that she now loves the Police Department and all we're doing for her," Wohl asked.
"I don't know if she loves us or not," McFadden said, smiling. "But she made us a cup of coffee."
"What's going on over there?" Wohl said, gesturing for the two of them to go into his office, and then adding, "You, too, Matt. I want you in on this."
Wohl sat in the upholstered chair and indicated that Martinez, McFadden, and Payne should sit on the couch.
"Okay, what happened? What's going on with Miss Peebles?"
"She's all right," McFadden said. "A little strange. Rich. Scared, too."
"Explain all that to me," Wohl said. "Did Captain Sabara explain that she has friends in high places?"
"Yes, sir," Martinez said. "Well… do you want to hear what I think, Inspector?"
"That would be nice," Wohl said, dryly.
"She's a nice lady, with a fag for a brother," Martinez said. "I don' t even know if she knows the brother is a fag, she's that dumb. I mean, nice but dumb, you follow me?"
"I'm sure that you're going to tell me what her brother's sexual proclivities have to do with the burglary. Burglaries."
"She knows all right," McFadden said.
"Anyway, the brother brought a guy home. An actor."
"Going under the name Walton Williams," McFadden said. "Nothing in criminal records under that name."
"That was in the report I told you to read," Wohl said.
"Anyway, the way we see it," Martinez went on, "the fag took one look around the place, saw all the expensive crap- what do you call it, ' bric-a-brac'?"
"If it's worth more than fifty dollars, we usually say, 'objets d' art,' " Wohl said.
"Expensive knickknacks," McFadden offered.
"-and figured he was in a toy store. Especially after the brother went to France. So he's been ripping her off."
"How would you handle this crime wave?"
"Find the fag," McFadden said.
"Cherchez la pouf, " Wohl said.
Matt Payne laughed.
"Excuse me?" Martinez said.
"Go on," Wohl said. "How would you do that?"
"Give us a couple of days," McFadden said. "We'll find him."
"You think you know where to look?"
"There's a couple of fairies around who owe me some favors," Martinez said.
"Just off the top of my head, do you think there is any chance this Mr. Williams could be the doer in the rapes?"
"I called Detective Hemmings at Northwest Detectives," McFadden said. "The best description of that doer is that he's hairy. Black hairy. The description we got from Miss Peebles is that the brother's boyfriend is blond."
"And 'delicate,' " Martinez said.
Well, they're thinking, Wohl thought.
"What about his stealing her underwear?"
"That's a puzzler," Martinez said. "When I catch him, I'll ask him."
"We could stake out the house, Inspector," McFadden said. "Until he comes back. I'm sure he'll be back. But I think the easiest and cheapest way to catch him is for you to let us go look for him."
"What did you say 'cheapest'?" Wohl asked.
"I got the feeling that when we catch this guy, Miss Peebles isn't going to want to go testify against him," McFadden said. "Because of the brother. What he is would get out. And the brother may not want the guy locked up."
"I see."
"But if we can find him, maybe we can talk to him," Martinez said. " Maybe we can even get some of the stuff back. But I think we can discourage him from going back there again."
"You're not suggesting anything that would violate Mr. Williams's civil rights, are you, Martinez?"
"No, sir," Martinez said, straight-faced. "As a minority member myself, I am very sensitive about civil rights."
"I'm glad to hear that," Wohl said. "I would be very annoyed if I learned any of my men were slapping some suspect around. You understand that?"
"Yes, sir."
"You, too, McFadden?"
"Yes, sir."
"Okay, go look for him," Wohl said.
"Yes, sir," they said in unison, pleased.
"Sir, the best time to deal with people like that is at night, say from nine o'clock on, until the wee hours," McFadden said.
"You're talking about overtime?" Wohl asked, looking at Matt Payne as he spoke.
"Yes, sir," McFadden said.
"Put in as much overtime as you think is necessary," Wohl said. "I want you to take Officer Payne along with you, to give him a chance to see how you work."
"Yes, sir," McFadden said, immediately.
"Inspector, that might be a little awkward," Martinez said.
"That wasn't a suggestion," Wohl said.
"Yes, sir," Martinez said.
"Can we keep the car we've been driving, sir?" McFadden asked.
"If you mean, do you have to turn it in when you go off duty, the answer is no, not for the time being. I don't care which one of you keeps it overnight, but I don't want to hear that somebody stole the radios, or the tires, or ran a key down the side to show his affection for the police."