Part 25 (1/2)

”Phone number in this one, handwritten.”

Matt unfolded the crumpled pieces of paper.

”This one has a printed number: four eight two. Looks like something from the factory. There's another phone number in one of the others, and the last one is the same as the first.”

”Call in to Special Operations every hour or so. When I get addresses, I'll pa.s.s them on to you. If you come up with something, pa.s.s it on. Leave a phone number, so if something interesting turns up I think you should know, I can call you.” He paused and smiled. ”I'll say I'm the Porsche service department.”

”Clever,” Matt said, chuckling.

”Yes, I sometimes think so,” Was.h.i.+ngton said. ”The evidence is overwhelming.”

A Highway Patrol car was waiting at City Line and Monument when Jason Was.h.i.+ngton and Matt Payne got there. Was.h.i.+ngton stopped on the pedestrian crosswalk and Matt got out. Matt walked to the Highway car, opened the back door, and got in.

”Hi,” he said. ”I need a ride to Bustleton and Bowler.”

”What the h.e.l.l are we supposed to be, a f.u.c.king taxi?” asked the driver, a burly cop with an acne-scarred face.

”I thought you were supposed to be the Gestapo,” Matt said.

Oh, s.h.i.+t, there goes the automatic, out-of-control mouth again.

The Highway cop in the pa.s.senger seat, a lean, sharp-featured man with cold blue eyes, turned and put his arm on the back of the seat and looked at Matt. Then he smiled. It did not make him look much warmer.

”He can't be in the Gestapo, Payne,” he said. ”You have to be able to read and write to be in the Gestapo.”

”f.u.c.k you too,” the driver said.

”You in a hurry or what?” the other one asked. ”We was about to get coffee when we got the call.”

”Coffee sounds like a fine idea,” Matt said.

”Why don't we go to the Marriott on City Line?” he said to the driver, and then turned back to Matt. ”Is that Was.h.i.+ngton as good as people say?”

”I was just thinking about that,” Matt said. ”Yeah. He's good. Very good. He not only knows what questions to ask, but how to ask them. A master psychologist.”

”He better be a master something,” the driver said. ”They don't have s.h.i.+t on who shot the cop, much less the mob guy.”

”Instead of going off s.h.i.+ft,” the cop with the cold blue eyes said, ”we're doing four hours of overtime.”

”I heard about that,” Matt said. Peter Wohl had told him how it worked: While detectives rang doorbells and talked to people-conducted ”neighborhood interviews”-Highway cops would cover the area, stopping people on the street and in cars, both looking for information and hoping to find someone with contraband-drugs, for example, or stolen property. If they did, the people caught would be given a chance to cooperate, in other words provide information. If they did, the contraband might get lost down the gutter or even dropped on the sidewalk where it could be recovered.

If they didn't have any information to offer, they would be arrested for the violation. By the time their trial came up, they might work hard on coming up with something the police could use, knowing that if they did and the Highway cops told one of the ADAs (a.s.sistant district attorneys) of their cooperation, he would be inclined to drop the charges.

Anyone caught in the area with an unlicensed pistol would be taken into Homicide for further questioning.

They pulled into the parking lot of the Marriott on City Line Avenue and went into the restaurant and sat at the counter. Matt sensed that they immediately had become the center of attention-much, if not most, of it nervous.

He remembered Amanda's reaction to the Highway cops in the diner at breakfast.

There is something menacing about the Highway Patrol. Is that bad? Any cop in uniform is a symbol of authority; that's why there is a badge, which, if you think about it, is descended from the coat of arms of a feudal lord and means about the same thing: I am in the service of authority. The badge says, ”I am here to enforce the law, the purpose of which is to protect you. If you are obeying the law, you have nothing to fear from me. But, malefactor, watch out!”

Given that, isn't the very presence of these two, in their leather jackets and boots and rows of s.h.i.+ny cartridges, a deterrent to crime and thus of benefit to society? No stickup man in his right mind would try to rob this place with these two in here.

On the other hand, if some third-rate amateur came in here and saw only Officer Matthew Payne, in plainclothes, with his pistol cleverly concealed and his badge in his pocket, he would figure it was safe to help himself to what's in the cash register, using what force he considered necessary and appropriate.

A little fear of law enforcers, ergo sum, is not necessarily a bad thing.

There was almost immediate substantiation of Officer Payne's philosophic ruminations. The proprietor, wrapped in a grease-spotted white ap.r.o.n, came out from the kitchen smiling. He shook hands with both Highway Patrolmen.

”How about a cheese steak?” he asked. ”I just finished slicing-”

”No thanks,” the Highway cop with the cold blue eyes said. ”Just coffee.”

The driver said, ”Thanks, anyway. Next time.”

The proprietor, Matt saw, was genuinely disappointed.

He's genuinely pleased to see the Gestapo and sorry he can't show his appreciation for what they do for him; allow him, so to speak, his const.i.tutional right to the pursuit of happiness.

”You hungry, Payne?” the blue-eyed cop asked, then saw the look of surprise in the proprietor's eyes and added, ”He might not look it, but he's a cop.”

”Actually,” the driver said, ”he's a pretty good cop. Dave, say h.e.l.lo to Matt Payne. He's the guy who took down the Northwest Philly rapist.”

”No s.h.i.+t” the proprietor said, and grabbed Matt's hand. ”I'm really happy to meet you. Jesus Christ, I ... can't I get you something more than a lousy cup of coffee?”

”Coffee's fine, thank you,” Matt said.

”Well, then, you got to promise to come back when you have an appet.i.te, for chrissake. My pleasure.”

”Thank you, I will,” Matt said.

I'm sorry he brought that up, Matt thought. And then, Don't be a hypocrite. No, you're not. You love it.

There was a good deal of resentment in Highway about Staff Inspector Peter Wohl's having named Officers Jesus Martinez and Charles McFadden as ”probationary Highway Patrolmen.”

It was not directed toward Martinez or McFadden. It wasn't their fault. But it was almost universally perceived as a diminution of what being Highway meant. An absolute minimum of three years, most often four or five or even longer, in a district before transfer to Highway. Then Wheel School, where motorcycling skills were taught, and then a year or so patrolling 1-95 and the Schuylkill Expressway, and only then, finally, being a.s.signed to a Highway RPC and sent out to high-crime areas city wide.

Martinez had been on the job less than two years, and McFadden even less, and here they were riding around with Sergeant DeBenedito on probation, and unless he could really find something wrong with them, when they finished, they would go to Wheel School and be in Highway.

The resentment was directed primarily at Inspector Wohl, but some went toward Captain Sabara (who really should have told Wohl what a dumb idea it was, and talked him out of it) and Captain Pekach (ditto, but what can you expect from a guy who used to wear a pigtail when he was in Narcotics?).

A problem arose when Officers Martinez and McFadden reported, four hours early, for overtime duty in connection with the investigation of the murder of Officer Magnella. Written instructions, later updated, had come down from Captain Pekach's office concerning the probationary periods, of Officers McFadden and Martinez. Among other things, they stated, in writing, that the probationary officers would ride with either Sergeant DeBenedito or with Highway officers on a list attached and with no one else.

Captain Pekach, who, it was suspected, was not overly enthusiastic about Inspector Wohl's brainstorm, was nevertheless determined to see that it was carried out as well as it could be. He was not going to see Martinez and McFadden turned into pa.s.sengers in Highway RPCs. He spread the word that it was to be a learning experience for them, watching the best Highway cops on the job.