“Was I just talking to you?”
“No. You were talking to Sergeant Kenny. I’m the chief. How can I help you?”
“Chief, my name is Payne. I’m a Philadelphia Homicide sergeant.”
“So Sergeant Kenny said. What can we do for you, Sergeant?”
“This a long shot, Chief, but that Peeping Tom you bagged last night may be a man we’re looking for in connection with a homicide here.”
“You don’t say?”
“Can you tell me if there was a knife involved? Did your guy have a great big knife?”
“Sergeant, I don’t know for sure you’re who you say you are, and even if I did, I’m not sure if I could answer that question. This is an ongoing investigation, and there’s some things we don’t want to get out, you understand.”
Which means, of course, that he did have a knife, otherwise you would have said “no.”
“How about a camera? A digital camera? Could you tell me that?”
“What part of I’m-Not-Going-To-Answer-Any-Questions-About — This-Investigation don’t you understand, Sergeant?” the chief asked.
“Certainly, Chief, I understand. But if you don’t think it would interfere with your investigation, could you tell me if the window he was peeping through was that o
f a young woman? And was he just looking, or maybe trying to open the window?”
There was a long pause.
“No, I don’t think I’d better get into that,” the chief said, finally.
This sonofabitch isn’t going to tell me a goddamn thing!
“Chief, I’ll probably be in touch with you again,” Matt said, politely. “In the meantime, if you’ll give me your police teletype address, I’ll have the department confirm who I am.”
“That sounds like a good idea, Sergeant,” the chief said, and gave it to him.
“I’ll get that out as soon as I get to the Round… police headquarters,” Matt said. “And thank you for taking the time to talk to me, Chief. I can imagine how busy you are.”
“My pleasure,” the chief said, and hung up.
“You don’t look so happy, boss,” Captain Frank Hollaran said as Deputy Commissioner Dennis V. Coughlin slipped beside him into the front seat of the car.
“Have you seen the Bulletin?” Coughlin asked.
“Yes, sir.”
“And Matty’s picture on the front page with Stan Colt?” Coughlin asked, and then went on without waiting for a reply. “I don’t like it, Frank. I understand why Matty’s showing that guy around, and from the perspective of Mariani and the mayor, it may be a great idea, but I don’t think it belongs in the newspapers.”
“I guess you haven’t seen the Ledger?” Hollaran asked.
“Same picture?”
“And worse,” Hollaran said, and indicated the newspaper on the seat between them. “The editorial page, Commissioner. ”
" ’Commissioner’? The editorial page? That sounds ominous, ” Coughlin said, as he flipped through the paper looking for the editorial page.
Ten seconds later, he said, “Oh, shit!”
And ten seconds after that, “Those bastards!”