Page 78

“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.