"Yes, sir."
"Item two," Wohl said. "Last night, Chief Inspector Lowenstein called one of our people-all right, Jason Washington- and asked him to do something he thought had to be done. Jason agreed to do it, then tried to find me to tell me, ask me, and couldn't-my fault, he should have been able to find me- and then went ahead and did it."
"What did Lowenstein want?" Pekach asked.
Wohl ignored the question and went on: "Okay. This is now official policy. As soon as Matt has the chance, he'll write it up, and I want it circulated to all supervisors. But I want this word passed immediately. Only three people, besides me, are authorized to take action when the assistance of Special Operations or Highway is asked for by anyone else. They are Captain Sabara for Special Operations, Captain Pekach for Highway, and Sergeant Washington for Special Investigations."
"Special Investigations?" Pekach asked, and then,"Sergeant Washington? When did that happen?"
"Washington made sergeant yesterday," Wohl said. "Special Investigations is a little younger. I thought it up about five minutes ago."
"Well, my God, Jason," Pekach said. "Congratulations. I didn't know you even took the examination."
He stood up and gave Washington his hand. The others followed suit.
"The word to be passed is that our supervisors don't-no matter who makes the request-do anything for anybody else unless, in your areas of responsibility, you know about it and approve. That means we have to be available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to make the decision. And if you're not going to be available, you have to make sure I am. Okay?"
"Don't misunderstand me, Inspector," Captain Pekach said. "But there' s a reason for this, right?"
"Yes, of course there is," Wohl said impatiently. "I don't want Matt Lowenstein, or anyone else, thinking they can just call up here and give our people things to do."
"It's hard to tell Matt Lowenstein no, Inspector," Jason Washington said.
"Especially if you hope to go back and work for him, right?" Wohl responded.
Washington's face tightened.
"I thought it was important, Inspector," Washington said.
"Just don't forget where you work, Jason. For whom you work."
"I suppose that means I won't be going back to Homicide?"
"The question came up as soon as the commissioner got the exam results. He called me and said he thought Lowenstein and Quaire would like to have you back in Homicide and how did I feel about that? I told him over my dead body. He said, joking of course, that Chief Lowenstein could probably arrange that, and I replied, joking of course, that if he did, the funeral procession would make a detour through the mayor's office, where the corpse would make a final protest."
Sabara chuckled.
"I'm glad you're amused, Mike," Wohl said.
"What I was thinking was, you really don't want to get promoted, do you?"
"I would like to be commissioner, all right? And I think the way to get myself promoted is to do a good job here."
"Hey, take it easy. I'm on your side. I'm one of the good guys."
"If you say so," Wohl said, and then he went on, "Item three: the Islamic Liberation Army."
"Don't tell me they gave us that too?" Pekach asked.
"No. Right now, it's a Homicide job. And properly so. What Lowenstein wanted Jason to do, and what, for the record, Jason quite properly agreed to do, was get in touch with Arthur X to ask him, so to speak, if when the Islamic Liberation Army is picked up, the arresting officers will face the Fruit of Islam, screaming religious and/or racial persecution."
"So they know who they are?" Pekach said.
"Yes, they do. What Chief Lowenstein told the district attorney was going to happen was that Highway would pick all these people up first thing tomorrow morning. They will be run through a lineup, lineups, so that they can be positively identified by the one good witness Homicide has. By then, the DA will have made sure that the municipal court judge doesn't turn these thugs loose on their own recognizance. He will then arrange to get them before the Grand Jury for indictment, and then on the docket. The district attorney has assigned Assistant District Attorney Farnsworth Stillwell to the case."
"What did Arthur X say?" Sabara asked.
"I don't think he considers the gentlemen in question to be bona fide coreligionists," Washington said. "The phrase he used was 'punk niggers.'"
There was a moment's silence.
"Inspector," Pekach said thoughtfully, "I get the feeling that there' s something about this that bothers you. I guess I'm just dense-"
"As I was saying to Officer Payne just a few minutes ago, Captain Pekach, listening carefully to what I say may be the thing to do."
Jesus, Wohl can be a sarcastic prick! Jack Malone thought. Then, Why am I surprised? He's no older than I am, and a staff inspector, a division commander. You don't get to be either as Mr. Nice Guy.
This was followed by: If he finds out that I'm still after Bob Holland, which now seems even more likely, with Payne and McFadden being pals, Christ only knows what he'll do.
"Chief Lowenstein also told the district attorney," Wohl went on, " that Highway will conspicuously protect his one witness, with the idea being that the other witnesses, perhaps counseled by Sergeant Washington, may suddenly have their memories unfogged by coming to realize that the only way they can really cover their asses is to help put the Islamic Liberation Army away, by testifying."
"But Chief Lowenstein did not, I gather, confer with you before he decided what Highway was going to do, right?" Jason Washington asked.
"Sergeant Washington has just won the Careful Listener of the Week Award," Wohl said.
"But he's like that, you know that," Sabara said.
"He may be like that with other people, but he's not going to be like that with me," Wohl said.
"That puts me in the same boat with Dave. I'm lost."
"Special Operations is going to make the arrests," Wohl said. "And Special Operations is going to protect Homicide's one witness. Not Highway."
"And if Special Operations blows it?" Sabara asked.
"We have here an armed robbery, during which a murder occurred. We know who the doers are. The suspects are under surveillance at this moment by Homicide detectives. At five o'clock tomorrow morning, they will tell Sergeant Washington where these people are. At that point, police officers, with warrants, will be sent to assist the Homicide detectives in arresting them. If the police officers in question cannot accomplish this without difficulty, then perhaps they shouldn't be cops, and their supervisors, by whom I mean you and me, Mike, shouldn't be supervisors."
Sabara didn't reply.
"Two things," Wohl said. "I don't want anybody in Highway, or anywhere else, hearing about this before it happens. And I don't want a big deal made of it. I'm not putting Highway down or Special Operations up. I'm treating the robbery and shooting at Goldblatt's like any other robbery where things got out of hand and somebody got killed. The Homicide Bureau found out who did it, and uniformed officers are going to help them make the arrests. I don't want to dignify a bunch of thugs by calling them an army."
"What about the press?"
"We owe Mickey O'Hara one. Actually, we owe Mickey O'Hara a couple of dozen. When you decide where this thing will start, Mike, call Mickey and suggest he might find it interesting to be there."
"Just Mickey?"
"Just Mickey."
"Do we know where these guys are? I mean are they all in one area, or all over the city?" Sabara asked.
"Mostly in Frankford, the Whitehall area," Jason Washington said. " One of them is in West Philadelphia."
"Where'd you get that?" Wohl asked.
Washington met his eyes and then said, "I talked to Joe D'Amata."