"Dr. Payne believes that having suffered a traumatic experience like that is consistent with Miss Longwood's condition, which is, in Dr. Payne's opinion, very close to serious schizophrenia. I'm not too good with medical terms, Manny, but what Amy means is that if the girl gets that far, she won't come back soon, or at all."
"You're saying that one of the Five Squad narcs did this to her?"
"Yes, I am. And does Savarese know? He knows. He doesn't have the name of the cop yet."
"Aren't you presuming a lot, Denny? How do you know Savarese knows?"
"We know that Joey Fiorello hired a private investigator-a retired detective-to see who the girl's boyfriend was. His name is Ronald R. Ketcham. The retired detective told Fiorello that Ketcham wasn't quite the respectable stockbroker he's supposed to be; that he's into selling drugs. He also told Fiorello that it was logical to presume that Ketcham's girlfriend was also into 'recreational' drugs.
"Shortly after that happened, Ketcham was snatched from the garage of his apartment. They took him to a deserted NIKE site in South Philadelphia, took his clothes away from him, and left him there in the dark overnight. The next day, they came back and asked him questions. He had no idea he was keeping company with Savarese's granddaughter. He thought that the people who had snatched him were in the drug business."
"I don't understand what you're telling me."
"Last Thursday night, Ketcham went to the Howard Johnson motel on Roosevelt Boulevard to do a drug deal with a guy named Amos Williams. He had Savarese's granddaughter with him. The Five Squad was apparently onto both of them. They busted Williams, and the people he had with him. One of the cops went into Ketcham's room, stole twenty thousand dollars from him, handcuffed him to the toilet, and raped Savarese's granddaughter."
"You can prove all that, I suppose?"
Coughlin ignored the question.
"Ketcham told Savarese's thugs what happened. His assumption was that Williams thought he had given Williams to the Five Squad, and that Williams had sent the people to snatch him. You with me?"
"I don't know, keep talking."
"So Savarese left Ketcham in the NIKE site…"
That I don't believe. If Savarese thought this guy was responsible for his granddaughter getting raped-or just for getting her on "recreational" drugs-he just wouldn't walk away and leave it at that.
But the rest of this is probably true. Savarese wanted me to get an investigator for him. Jesus Christ, I'm glad I didn't do that!
"… and told Joey Fiorello to have the private investigator find out what cops were at the Howard Johnson motel when they busted Amos Williams. They gave the guy a bullshit story why they wanted to know, and the guy went to Mike Sabara and told him he smelled something fishy."
"How did you know that person or persons unknown had left the boyfriend in the NIKE site?"
"We're still off the record, right, Manny?"
"I'll tell you when we go back on."
"Amy Payne called Peter Wohl and told him about the message at the hospital. Peter brought it to me. I put out a Locate, Do Not Detain on Ketcham. Danny the Judge read it. When a South detective went to Justice and told him he had found a guy named Ketcham wearing only an overcoat locked up in the NIKE site, Danny called me."
"That's why everything is going on here?"
Coughlin nodded.
"You don't have any authority in one of those sites, you know. They're federal property."
Coughlin ignored that.
"Ketcham positively identified one of the Five Squad as the guy who raped the granddaughter, and gave us a sworn statement to the effect. Plus, that the same guy had stolen twenty thousand dollars from him."
"I wonder how convincing a witness Mr. Ketcham would be," Giacomo said.
"I went to Hanging Harriet McCandless-Tony Callis did-and got her to overturn the magistrate's decision to grant bail to Amos Williams and one of his thugs, a scumbag named Baby Brownlee. Jason Washington got them to give statements saying they had more cocaine at the time of their arrest than Five Squad turned in as evidence, and more cash, and in the case of Brownlee, a gold Rolex that until a couple of hours ago seemed to have disappeared. "
"Same question, Denny. I wonder what sort of witnesses Mr. Williams and Mr. Brownlee would make against fine police officers? Frankly, I would be prone to ask them, several times, so the jury would be sure to hear their answer, whether the police or the district attorney had offered them anything-like immunity from prosecution-in exchange for their agreeing to say these terrible things about these fine police officers."
"Baby Brownlee's gold Rolex showed up this morning in a safe-deposit box in Harrisburg, the only key to which was in the hands of another fine pure-as-the-driven-snow police officer assigned to the Narcotics Unit's Five Squad. And there was some fifty thousand-plus in cash in the same box."
"I presume you think you can prove the watch in question is actually Mr. Brownlee's?"
"He bought it at Bailey, Banks and Biddle. They made a record of the serial number."
"Very interesting story, Denny. Is that all of it?"
"Not quite," Coughlin said. "I had breakfast with Savarese this morning."
"Did you really?"
"I told him that we didn't want to subject his granddaughter to the humiliation of having to testify against her rapist, and that what we proposed to do was have him plead guilty to enough charges of violating the civil rights-"
"Violating somebody's civil rights? Whose civil rights?" Giacomo interrupted.
"Williams's and Brownlee's, for sure. Probably some others. We picked up everybody they arrested within the last ten days when their bail was revoked, and reinterviewed them. We're prepared to go further back, if necessary. "
"Why would you believe that an attorney would recommend that this guy cop a plea like that? It seems to me that, in this case, there is very little chance that the victim would ever testify against him."
"Savarese put it another way," Coughlin said. "He said he didn't think there could be a trial if there was no one around alive to try."
"He has a point," Giacomo said. "You didn't think that simple observation about life in general could in any way be construed as a threat against anyone, did you?"
"Manny, he as much as told me he's going to kill this guy just as soon as he finds out who he is."
"Not in so many words, right?"
"Not in so many words."
"If Mr. Savarese is, in your opinion, so prepared to cause the unlawful deaths of others, in particular those who have in some way caused harm to members of his family, why do you suppose he didn't do something dreadful to Mr.-Ketcham, you said?-"
"Ronald R. Ketcham," Coughlin furnished.
"-when he had the opportunity?"
"Peter Wohl thinks Savarese wanted him to starve to death," Coughlin said.
My God, that's probably exactly what Savarese intended to do.
"What do you want from me, Denny?"
"I want-what the hell, you'd have his name in a couple of minutes anyway-Officer Herbert Prasko to roll over on the Five Squad. In exchange for which, he'll get a twenty-year plea bargain, which means probably seven years in a federal prison."
"Why should I encourage him to do that?"
"Because otherwise you know that Savarese will have him killed."
"I know nothing of the kind!"
Who do I think I'm fooling?
"Come on, Manny!" Coughlin said.
"You've got the deal lined up?"
"The U.S. Attorney has been very helpful."
"Why?"
"Because-I'm guessing-he thinks he'd have a hard time convicting Savarese on an unlawful-abduction charge. And maybe because he thinks he'll look good in Washington if he put a local cop away on a civil rights charge. And the FBI will get the credit for uncovering that travesty of justice."