"Larkin knows. We've talked."
"Ahha! And I'll bet that you're about to tell us what you and the Secret Service have come up with, aren't you?"
"WhatI came up with, Matt," Coughlin said. "And what Larkin is willing to go along with."
"Inspector Wohl," Lowenstein said, "why do you think I think the genial Irishman here has just been sold the toll concession on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge?"
"Goddammit, do you always have to be such a cynical sonofabitch? You can be a real pain in the ass, Matt!" the genial Irishman flared. "Thereare some good feds, and Charley Larkin happens to be one of them. If you're too dumb to see that, I'm sorry."
"If I have in any way offended you, Chief Coughlin, please accept my most profound apologies," Lowenstein said innocently. "Please proceed."
"Goddammit, you won't quit, will you?"
They glared at each other for a moment.
Finally, Lowenstein said, "Okay. Sorry, Denny. Let's hear it."
"We are going to have police officers every twenty feet all along the motorcade route, and every ten feet, every five feet, in 30^th Street Station and at Independence Hall."
Lowenstein looked at him with incredulity on his face, and then in his voice: "That's it? That's the brilliant plan you and the Secret Service came up with?"
"You have a better idea?"
"How many men is it going to take if we saturate that large an area for what, four hours?" Lowenstein asked.
"We figure six hours," Coughlin said.
"Has Charley Larkin offered to come up with the money to pay for all that overtime?" Lowenstein asked. "Or are we going to move cops in from all over the city, and pray that nothing happens elsewhere?"
"We are going to bring in every uniform in Special Operations," Coughlin began, and then stopped. "This is the idea, Peter. Subject, of course, to your approval."
I know, Wohl thought, and he knows I know, that me arguing against this would be like me telling the pope he's wrong about the Virgin Mary.
"Go on, please, Chief," Wohl said.
'That's the whole idea of Special Operations, the federal grants we got for it," Coughlin said. "To have police force available anywhere in the city…"
"There's not that many people in Special Operations to put one every ten feet up and down Market Street," Lowenstein said. "The feds pay the bills, and then they tell us what to do, right?" Lowenstein said. "I was against those goddamn grants from the beginning."
On the other hand, Wohl thought, we have the grants all the time, and they don't ask for our help all the time.
"There will be men available from the districts, and I thought the Detective Bureau would make detectives available."
Lowenstein grunted.
"Plus undercover officers, primarily from Narcotics, but from any
place else we can find them," Coughlin went on.
He looked at Lowenstein for his reply. Lowenstein grunted, and then looked at Wohl.
"Peter?"
"I don't have a better idea," Wohl said.
"Neither do I," Lowenstein said. "Okay. Next question. Do you think the commissioner will go along with this?"
"The commissioner, I think, is going to hide under his desk until this is all over," Coughlin said. "If we catch this guy, or at least keep him from disintegrating the Vice President, he will hold a press conference to modestly announce how pleased he is his plan worked. If the Vice President is disintegrated, it's Peter's fault. He was never in favor of Special Operations in the first place."