The Witness (Badge of Honor 4)

“ACT Teams from Special Operations, working with Homicide, made the arrests. Simultaneously—”

“Not Highway?”

“No, sir. Not Highway.”

“Go on, Peter.”

“Mickey O’Hara was there. I invited him. I sent Matt with him to make sure Mickey didn’t get in the way, get himself hurt. One of the doers, a scumbag named Charles D. Stevens, apparently saw either the cars, or more likely the Homicide guy sitting on him, and then the cars. As the ACT cars were getting in place, he—this is conjecture Chief, but I think this is it—made his way to either the next house, or the house next to that, and tried to get away through the alley. O’Hara and Matt were at the head of the alley. He—Stevens—started shooting. And got Matt.”

“Did you get Stevens?”

“Matt got Stevens. He shot at him four times and hit him twice. Once in the arm, and once in the liver. Stevens was brought here. I have the feeling he’s not going to live.”

“But Matt is in no danger?”

“No, sir. I don’t even think there is going to be much muscle damage. As I said, I think the bullet lost much of its momentum—”

“That’s nice,” Coughlin said.

“He’s more worried about his car than anything else, Chief.”

“What about his car?”

“We formed up in the playground of the school at Castor and Frankford. Matt went to the scene with Lieutenant Suffern. And left his car, with the keys in it in the playground.”

“You’re taking care of it, I suppose?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Have you called the commissioner?”

“No, sir. Chief Lowenstein is doing that.”

“Lowenstein was there?”

“No, sir. But he heard about it, and told me he would take care of calling the commissioner.”

“Is the Department going to look bad in this, Peter?”

“No, sir. I don’t see how. The other seven arrests went very smoothly. They’re all down at 8th and Race already. As soon as I get off the phone, I’m going down there.”

“Have you notified Matt’s family?”

“No, sir. I thought I should call you before I did that.”

“Well, at least your brain wasn’t entirely disengaged,” Coughlin said. And then, immediately, “Sorry, Peter. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Forget it, Chief. I don’t think I have to tell you how bad I feel about this. And I know how you feel about Matt.”

“I’ve been on the job twenty-seven years and I’ve never been hurt,” Coughlin said. “Matt’s father gets killed. His Uncle Dutch gets killed, and now he damned near does.”

“I thought about that too, Chief.”

“I’ll take care of notifying his family,” Coughlin said. “You make sure nobody else gets carried away with procedure and tries to.”

“I’ve already done that, Chief.”

“You’re sure he’s going to be all right?”