Sergeant's job, Wohl thought, except when the man in charge doesn't really know what he's doing, in which case he is permitted to run in circles, wave and shout, making believe he does. That is known as a prerogative of command.
Lieutenant Teddy Spanner of Northwest Detectives stood up when Peter Wohl walked into his office, and put out his hand.
'How are you, Inspector?' he said. 'I guess congratulations are in order.'
'I wonder,' Wohl said, 'but thanks anyway.'
'What can Northwest Detectives do for Special Operations?'
'I want a look at the files on the burglary-is it burglaries?-job on a woman named Peebles, in Chestnut Hill,' Wohl said.
'Got them right here,' Spanner said. 'Captain Sabara said somebody was coming over. He didn't say it would be you.'
'The lady,' Wohl said, 'the Commissioner told me, has friends in high places.'
Spanner chuckled. 'Not much there; it's just one more burglary.'
'Did Mike say we were also interested in the Flannery sexual assault and abduction?'
'There it is,' Spanner said, pointing to another manila folder.
Wohl sat down in the chair beside Spanner's desk and read the file on the Peebles burglary.
'Can I borrow this for a couple of hours?' Wohl asked. 'I'll get it back to you today.'
Spanner gave a deprecatory wave, meaningSure, no problem, and Wohl reached for the Flannery file and read that through.
'Same thing,' he said. 'I'd like to take this for a couple of hours.'
'Sure, again.'
'What do you think about this?' Wohl said.
'I think we're dealing with a real sicko,' Spanner said. 'And I'll lay odds the doer is the same guy who put the woman in the van. Anything on that?'
'Not a damned thing,' Wohl said. 'Push me the phone, will you?'
He dialed a number from memory.
'This is Inspector Wohl,' he said. 'Would you have the Highway car nearest Northwest Detectives meet me there, please?'
He hung up and pushed the telephone back across the desk.
'I need a ride,' he explained.
'Something wrong with your car? Hell, I'd have given you a ride, Inspector. You want to call and cancel that?'
'Thanks but no thanks,' Wohl said.
'Well, then'-Spanner smiled-'how about a cup of coffee?'
'Thank you,' Wohl said.
A Highway Patrol officer came marching through the Northwest Detectives squad room before Wohl had finished his coffee. Wohl left the unfinished coffee and followed him downstairs to the car.
'I need a ride to the Roundhouse,' Wohl said, as he got in the front beside the driver. 'You can drop me there.'
'Yes, sir,' the driver said.
They pulled out of the District parking lot and headed downtown on North Broad Street. Wohl noticed, as he looked around at the growing deterioration of the area, that the driver was scrupulously obeying the speed limit.
'If you were God,' Wohl said to the driver, 'or me, and you could do anything you wanted to, to catch the guy who's been assaulting the women in Northwest Philly-and I think we're talking about the same doer who forced the woman into the van last night-what would you do?'
The driver looked at him in surprise, and took his time before answering, somewhat uneasily. 'Sir, I really don't know.'
Wohl turned in his seat and looked at the Highway Patrol officer in the backseat. 'What about you?'
The man in the backseat raised both hands in a gesture of helplessness.
'The way I hear, we're doing everything we know how.'
'You think he's going to turn the woman loose?' Wohl asked.
'I dunno,' the driver replied. 'This is the first time he's… kept
… one.'
'If you think of something, anything,' Wohl said, 'don't keep it to yourself. Tell Captain Pekach, or Captain Sabara, or me.'
'Yes, sir,' the driver said.
'Something wrong with this unit?' Wohl asked.
'Sir?'
'Won't it go faster than thirty-five?'
The driver looked at him in confusion.
'Officer Hawkins says it was the civilian who ran the stoplight last night,' Wohl said. 'I believe him. We're looking for witnesses to confirm Hawkins's story.'
The driver didn't react for a moment. Then he pushed harder on the accelerator and began to move swiftly through the North Broad Street traffic.
With a little luck, Wohl thought, these guys will have a couple of beers with their pals when their tour is over, and with a little more luck, it will have spread through Highway by tomorrow morning that maybe Inspector Wohl ain't the complete prick people say he is; that he asked for advice; said he believed Hawkins; and even told the guy driving him to the Roundhouse to step on it.
ELEVEN
As they drove down Delaware Avenue Officer Charley McFadden pushed himself off the backseat of Staff Inspector Peter Wohl's car and rested his elbows on the backrest of the front seat.
'I never been in an Inspector's car before,' he said, happily. ' Nice.'
'It certainly doesn't look like a police car, does it?' Matt Payne, who was driving, said.
McFadden looked at him curiously.
'It's not supposed to,' Jesus Martinez said, and then put into words what was in his mind. 'Where'd you come from, if you don't mind my asking?'
'The Academy,' Matt said.
'You was teaching at the Academy?'
'I was going through the Academy,' Matt said. 'I was on the range yesterday When Chief Matdorf came out and told me to report to Highway in plainclothes this morning.'
'I'll be goddamned,' Charley McFadden said, and then added, 'we was in Narcotics. Hay-zus and me. We were partners, working undercover.'
'For the last week, we were over in the Twelfth District, catching guys robbing stuff from parked cars,' Jesus said. 'I wonder what the hell this is all about?'
Both Matt Payne and Charley McFadden shrugged their shoulders.
'We're gonna find out, I guess.'
'Where we're going is to that area behind the fence on the way to the Academy, right?' Matt asked.
'Yeah,' Martinez said.
'I sure like your wheels,' Charley said. 'Porsche, huh?'
'Nine Eleven T,' Matt said.
