Captain Quaire, when asked if the denial to Officer Kellog of an “Inspector’s Funeral” suggested that his death was not in the line of duty, said that as far as he knew, no decision had been made in the matter. He stated that Police Commissioner Taddeus Czernich was the official who authorized, or denied, an official police funeral, and that all questions on the subject should be referred to him.
Commissioner Czernich’s office, when contacted, said the Commissioner was out of the office, and they had no idea when he would be available to answer questions from the press.
Kellog will be buried tomorrow in Lawnview Cemetery, in Rockledge, following funeral services at the Memorial Presbyterian Church of Fox Chase.
Quaire also said that the Homicide Unit was “actively involved” in the investigation of the murders of Mrs. Alicia Atchison and Anthony J. Marcuzzi in a downtown restaurant shortly after midnight last night, but the police as yet have been unable to identify, much less arrest, the two men who were identified by Gerald N. Atchison, Mrs. Atchison’s husband, and the proprietor of the restaurant, as the murderers.
* * *
“Why are you surprised?” O’Hara asked. “You know the Ledger’s after you.”“I don’t care if they go after me,” the Mayor said, “but putting in the paper that his widow has been messing around, that’s pretty goddamned low. Did you hear those rumors?”
O’Hara nodded.
“Did you write about them?” the Mayor asked. “Or feel your readers had the right to know that the widow was carrying on with some cop?”
O’Hara shook his head.
“There you go, Mick,” the Mayor said with satisfaction. “In that one goddamn story, that sonofabitch writes that the widow is a tramp…”
“That’s a little strong, Jerry,” Chief Wohl protested.
“What do you call a married woman who sleeps with another man?” the Mayor asked sarcastically. “And while we’re on that subject, Lowenstein, how is it that neither you nor Quaire told Detective Milham to keep his pecker in his pocket?”
Chief Lowenstein’s face colored.
“Jerry, I don’t consider that sort of thing any of my business,” he said.
“Maybe you should,” the Mayor snapped. “I don’t know if I’d want a detective around me whose wife divorced him for carrying on with her sister, and the next thing you know is playing hide-the-salami with a brother officer’s wife. It says something about his character, wouldn’t you say?”
Lowenstein’s face was now red.
Chief Wohl touched Lowenstein’s arm to stop any response. The worst possible course of action when dealing with an angry Jerry Carlucci was to argue with him.
“Take it easy, Jerry,” Chief Wohl said.
Matt Payne glanced at Chief Coughlin. Coughlin made a movement with his head that could have been a signal for him to leave the group. He was considering this possibility when his attention was diverted by the Mayor’s angry voice:
“Who the hell are you to tell me to take it easy?”
“Well, for one thing, I’m bigger than you are,” Chief Wohl said with a smile, “and for another, smarter. And better-looking.”
Carlucci glowered at him.
“Matty,” Chief Coughlin said. “Your girlfriend’s looking daggers at you. Maybe you better go pay some attention to her.”
Matt looked around but could not find Penny Detweiler. He wasn’t surprised. Coughlin was telling him a lowly detective should not be here, where he would be privy to what looked like a major confrontation between senior white-shirts and the Mayor of Philadelphia.
“Excuse me,” he said.
“You’ve been doing some good work, Payne,” the Mayor said. “It hasn’t gone unnoticed.”
Carlucci waited until Matt was out of earshot.
“You know what that young man did? Not for publication, Mickey?”
“No,” O’Hara replied with a chuckle. “What did that young man do, not for publication?”
“Peter here’s been running a surveillance operation,” Carlucci began.
“Surveilling who?” O’Hara interrupted.
“I’ll get to that in a minute. Anyway, they had a microphone mounted on a window, and it got knocked off. The window was on the thirteenth floor, I forgot to say. So what does Payne do? He goes to the room next door to the one where the mike fell off, goes out on a ledge, and puts it back in place. How’s that for balls, Mickey?”
“I hadn’t heard about that,” Chief Coughlin said, looking at Peter Wohl.
“Neither had I,” Peter said.
“He knew what had to be done, and he did it,” the Mayor said approvingly. “That’s the mark of a good cop.”
“Or a damned fool,” O’Hara said. “It was that important?”
“What the hell could be that important? He could have killed himself,” Coughlin said.
“The way it turned out, it was that important,” Carlucci said. “If he hadn’t put the mike back, we wouldn’t have got what we got after he put it back. Tony Harris told me that when he gave me the tapes this morning.”
“Which is what?” Coughlin asked.
“Enough, Tony Callis tells me, to just about guarantee a true bill from the grand jury and an indictment.”
The Hon. Thomas J. “Tony” Callis was the District Attorney for Philadelphia County.
“Of who?” O’Hara asked.
“Not yet, Mickey, but you will be the first to know, trust me. The warrants are being drawn up. Peter, I think you should let Payne go with you when you and Weisbach serve them; he’s entitled.”
When I and Weisbach serve them? Wohl thought. What the hell is that all about?
“Serve them on who?” O’Hara asked.
“I told you, Mickey, you’ll be the first to know, but not right now. For right now, you can have this.” The Mayor reached in his pocket and handed O’Hara a folded sheet of paper. “I understand the first of these will be given out first thing in the morning. You don’t know where you got that,” he said.
O’Hara unfolded the sheet of paper. It was a press release.
* * *
POLICE DEPARTMENT
CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Police Commissioner Taddeus Czernich today announced a major reorganization of the self-policing functions of the Police Department, to take effect with the retirement of Chief Inspector Harry Allgood, presently the Commanding Officer of the Internal Affairs Division. Chief Allgood’s retirement will become effective tomorrow.“The public’s faith in the absolute integrity of its police department is our most important weapon in the war against crime,” Commissioner Czernich declared.
“A new unit, the Ethical Affairs Unit (EAU), has been formed. It will be commanded by Staff Inspector Michael Weisbach, who will report directly to me on matters concerning any violation of the high ethical standards of behavior demanded of our police officers by the public, myself and Mayor Carlucci,” Commissioner Czernich went on.
“I have directed Inspector Peter Wohl, Commanding Officer of the Special Operations Division, to make available to Staff Inspector Weisbach whatever he requires to accomplish his new mission from the assets of Special Operations, which includes the Highway Patrol, the Anti-Crime Teams, and the Special Operations Investigation Section.
“Internal Affairs will continue to deal with complaints from the public regarding inappropriate actions on the part of police officers,” Commissioner Czernich concluded.
* * *
“What is that, Jerry?” Chief Wohl asked.“Show it to him, Mickey,” the Mayor replied. O’Hara handed it to him.
“I can use this now, or am I supposed to sit on it until everybody else gets it?” O’Hara asked.
“You can use what? I didn’t give you anything,” Carlucci said.
“OK,” O’Hara replied. “I would like to be there, Peter, when you and Weisbach serve your warrants.”
“I’m sure Peter can arrange that, Mickey,” the Mayor said. “C
an’t you, Peter?”
“Yes, sir,” Wohl said as he took the press release from his father and started to read it.
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you could find Staff Inspector Weisbach at Peter’s office in the morning,” the Mayor said.
“I got to go find a phone,” O’Hara said.
“Matt,” Carlucci said to Chief Lowenstein, “are you having problems with Commissioner Czernich’s reorganization plan?”“‘Commissioner Czernich’s reorganization plan’?” Lowenstein quoted mockingly. “Hell no, Jerry. I know where the Commissioner gets his ideas, and I wouldn’t dream of questioning his little inspirations.”
Chief Wohl chuckled.
“But I would like to know what the hell’s going on,” Lowenstein added.
“Well, apparently the Commissioner thought that since Allgood decided to retire, Internal Affairs needed some reorganization.”
“Why?” Lowenstein pursued.
“To put a point on it, Matt, because it wasn’t doing the job it’s supposed to do.”
“You got something specific?”
“Yeah, I got something specific,” Carlucci said unpleasantly. “That surveillance Peter has been running, that tape I got this morning, because Payne climbed out on a ledge and put the microphone back? It recorded a conversation between Lieutenant Seymour Meyer of Central Police Division’s Vice Squad—your friend, Matt—and Paulo Cassandro. You know who Paulo Cassandro is, right?”
“Take it easy, Jerry,” Chief Wohl said.
“I know who Paulo Cassandro is,” Lowenstein said softly.
“What they were talking about, Matt, was that Meyer and his good buddy, Captain Vito Cazerra—you know Cazerra, don’t you, Matt? He commands the Sixth District?”
Lowenstein didn’t reply.
“I asked you if you know Captain Cazerra,” the Mayor said nastily.
“Yeah. I know him,” Lowenstein said.
“As I was saying, we now have a tape of Meyer telling Cassandro that he and Cazerra don’t think they’re getting a big enough payoff from the mob for letting a Polack whore from Hazleton named Harriet Osadchy run a call-girl operation in our better hotels. You know Harriet Osadchy, Matt?”
“No, I don’t know her,” Lowenstein said.
“We also have what must be a couple of miles of tape of your friend Meyer in the sack with a half-dozen of Harriet Osadchy’s whores.”
“Jesus!” Lowenstein said.
“Now, I know and you know and Commissioner Czernich knows how hard it is to catch somebody actually taking money. But the Commissioner was very disappointed to learn that Internal Affairs didn’t take a close look at Meyer even after they got an anonymous call about the sonofabitch screwing Osadchy’s whores in every hotel in Center City.”
“They get all kinds of anonymous—”
“Goddamn it, Matt,” Carlucci flared, “don’t you start to make excuses.”
“—calls,” Lowenstein went on, undaunted. “A lot of them from disgruntled people just trying to make trouble.”
“Yeah, well, this disgruntled person—Peter thinks he’s a retired cop working as hotel security—was so disgruntled that after he called Internal Affairs twice and nothing happened, he wrote me a letter.”
“And you put your own private detective bureau to work on it,” Lowenstein said bitterly.
“My own detective bureau?” Carlucci replied icily. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Lowenstein. But if you have a problem with Commissioner Czernich asking Special Operations to look into something I gave him that neither your detective bureau nor Internal Affairs seem to even have heard about, why don’t you ask for an appointment with the Commissioner and discuss it with him?”
There was a tense moment when it looked as if Chief Lowenstein, who had locked eyes with the Mayor, was going to reply.
“Jerry, what’s the relationship between EAU and Special Operations—I guess I mean between Peter and Weisbach—going to be under this reorganization?” Chief Wohl asked.
Did he ask that to change the subject to something safer? Peter Wohl wondered. Or does he see it as a threat to my career?
The question clearly distracted Mayor Carlucci. He glanced at Chief Wohl in confusion.
“Just a minute, Augie,” Carlucci said, turning back to lock eyes with Lowenstein again.
“Lowenstein and I were talking about the Commissioner,” he went on. “The Commissioner and I were discussing the Overnights this morning. When he can find the time, he brings them by my office, to keep me abreast of things.”
It was common knowledge that at whatever time in the morning the Mayor of Philadelphia arrived at his office, he could expect to find the Police Commissioner of Philadelphia waiting for him in his outer office. The Police Commissioner’s own day began when the Mayor was through with him.
“And the Commissioner had an idea. You saw the Overnights this morning, Chief Lowenstein?”
Lowenstein nodded.
“Excuse me? I didn’t hear you, Chief.”
“Yes, sir, I saw the Overnights,” Lowenstein said.
“The double murder in the Inferno Lounge on Market Street? Did that catch your eye?”
“I was at the scene.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right. Then you know that Detective Payne was the first police officer on the scene?”
“I saw that.”
“Well, the Commissioner saw it too, and he asked me, what did I think of asking Peter, when he could spare him, of course, to send Payne over to Homicide to help Detective Milham on the investigation. Milham has the job, right? Your detective who can’t keep his pecker in his pocket?”
“Detective Milham has the job,” Lowenstein said, flat-voiced.
“Yeah, right. Well, the Commissioner said that maybe if Peter sent Payne over there, Payne might learn something about how a Homicide investigation is conducted. And he’s a bright kid, he might learn some other things, too. About other investigations Homicide is running, for example. Things that would be of interest to Peter and Weisbach in carrying out their new responsibilities.”
“You realize the hell of a spot you’d be putting the kid in, Jerry, sending him into Homicide that way? There’d be a lot of resentment,” Chief Wohl said.
“Augie, I’m sure the Commissioner has considered that,” the Mayor replied. “So anyway, I told the Commissioner that he’s the Police Commissioner, he can run the Department any way he pleases, do what he wants. If the Commissioner does decide to ask Inspector Wohl to send Detective Payne over there, are you going to have any problem with that, Chief Lowenstein?”
Lowenstein now had his temper and voice under control.
“I have no problem, Mr. Mayor, with any decision of Commissioner Czernich,” he said.
“Good,” the Mayor said. “What do they call that? ‘Cheerful, willing obedience’?” He turned to Chief Wohl. “You were asking, Augie, what Peter’s relationship with the Ethical Affairs Unit is going to be?”
“That press release wasn’t very clear about that.”
“I thought it was perfectly clear. Peter and Weisbach have worked together before, and I can’t imagine they’ll have any problems.”
Oh, shit! Peter thought. What that means is that I’ll be in the worst possible position. I’ll have the responsibility, but no authority.
“I thought I taught you years ago, Jerry,” Chief Wohl said, as if he had been reading his son’s mind, “that the worst thing you can do to a supervisor is give him responsibility without the necessary authority.”
The Mayor’s face suggested he didn’t like to be reminded that anyone had ever taught him anything.
“Maybe you’re right, Augie,” Carlucci said. “Maybe that wasn’t clear. I thought it was. Ethical Affairs Unit is under Special Operations. Weisbach reports directly to me, but he works for Peter. You understand that, Peter?”
“Yes, sir.”
Carlucci looked around the room.
“Ah, there’s Angie,” he s
aid. “I better go join her. She doesn’t like it when I stay away too long.”
He walked away from them.
“Jesus Christ!” Chief Lowenstein said when he was out of earshot.
“My sentiments exactly, Chief,” Peter Wohl said.
“That crap about sending Payne to Homicide was a last-minute inspiration of his,” Lowenstein said.
“That was to remind you who runs the Department,” Chief Wohl said. “He thought maybe you’d forgotten.”
“I know who runs the Department,” Lowenstein said.
“You shouldn’t have argued with him,” Chief Wohl said. “First about Seymour Meyer, and then about Wally Milham. He knows that Meyer is dirty, and thinks Milham is. And he’s never wrong, especially when he’s hot under the collar. You know that, Matt.”
“Christ,” Lowenstein said.
“That’s what the whole business of sending Payne to Homicide is all about,” Chief Wohl went on. “He couldn’t think of anything, right then, that would piss you off more, and remind you who runs the Department.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” the stocky man in a dinner jacket said with a smile, as he saw two young formally dressed couples coming down the second-floor corridor of the Peebles mansion, “this part of the house has been closed off for the evening.”“It’s all right,” Matt Payne replied, “I’m a police officer, checking on the firearms collection.”
The reply was clearly not expected by the stocky man.
“I’ll have to see some identification, please,” he said.
“Certainly,” Matt said, showing his badge. “You’re Wachenhut?”
Daffy (Mrs. Chadwick T.) Nesbitt IV giggled.
“Pinkerton,” the stocky man said, stepping out of the way.
“Thank you,” Matt said, putting his badge holder away and reclaiming the hand of Miss Penelope Detweiler. He led her and the Nesbitts almost to the end of the long corridor, and then opened a door to the right.
“You could fight a war with the guns in here,” Matt said as he switched on the lights and signaled for Penny to walk in.
The Murderers Page 18
