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Sergeant Patrick J. Dolan of the Narcotics Unit had entered Allgood’s Bar.

He walked directly to their table.

“What do you know good, Tony?” he said to Phebus. “What are you doing in here? Homesick for Narcotics?”

“How are you, Pat?” Phebus said, offering him his hand.

“Say hello to Gladys for me,” Dolan said.

“I’ll do that.”

Dolan turned to Coogan and Calhoun.

“You two are supposed to do the paper before you start bending your elbows,” Dolan said.

“Give us a break, Sergeant,” Calhoun said.

“Break, my ass. Finish your beer and come across the street.”

“Right,” Calhoun said.

“See you around, Tony,” Calhoun said as he got to his feet.

Sergeant Dolan walked to the door, waited there until Coogan had finished his beer, then led Coogan and Calhoun across Hunting Park Avenue and into the Narcotics Unit.

NINE

Special Agent Jack Matthews, who had been sitting in one of the two armchairs in the outer office of SAC Walter Davis, got to his feet when Davis walked in, in the process of taking off his topcoat.

Davis believed that an important key to leadership was to have one’s subordinates believe that you were concerned about them, and that a splendid way to do this was, under certain circumstances, to address them by their Christian and/or nicknames.

Yesterday, he could not have told you this nice young man’s first name if his life depended on it. He remembered it now, most likely because of his late-afternoon conversation with him vis-à-vis the recruitment of Detective Payne of the Philadelphia Police Department.

“Good morning, Jack,” Davis said with a smile.

“Good morning, sir.”

“You’re waiting to

see me, Jack?” Davis asked, now just a shade annoyed. He had told Matthews to let him know what happened, but he hadn’t really requested a first-thing-in-the-morning report, before he’d even had a chance to have a cup of coffee.

“If you can spare me a few minutes, sir.”

“A few, Jack,” Davis said, waving at him to indicate he had his permission to follow him into his office.

Davis went behind his desk, took a quick glance at his In basket to see if anything interesting had come in overnight, then glanced up at Matthews.

“Have a seat, Jack,” he said. “Tell me, how did it go?”

“Well, sir, Payne doesn’t seem to be very interested in joining the Bureau. But . . .”

“If at first you don’t succeed, et cetera. What exactly did he say?”

Matthews smiled uneasily.

“I don’t think you want to know, sir,” he said.

“Of course I want to know. What exactly did he say, Jack?”