Men In Blue (Badge of Honor 1)

There were two men standing with a packing list.

“Where are you taking this stuff?” Peter asked.

“What’s it to you?”

“I’m a police officer,” Peter said, and took out his ID.

The man handed him a clipboard with forms on it. The household furnishings listed below were to be shipped to 2710 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois, Apartment 1705.

“Thank you,” Peter said.

“Something wrong?”

“Nothing at all,” Peter said, and left the apartment and got in the LTD and drove to the Roundhouse.

He parked the car and went in and headed for the elevators, then turned and went to the receptionist’s desk.

“Let me have that phone, will you please?” Peter asked.

He knew the number of WCBL-TV by memory now.

They told him they were sorry, Miss Louise Dutton was no longer connected with WCBL-TV.

He pushed the phone back to the officer on duty and walked toward the elevators.

When the door opened, Commissioner Taddeus Czernick and Sergeant Jankowitz got out. Jankowitz’s eyes widened when he saw Wohl.

“Good afternoon, Commissioner,” Peter said.

“Got a minute, Peter?” Czernick said, and took Wohl’s arm and led him to one side.

“I think I owe you an apology,” Czernick said.

“Sir?”

“I should have known you weren’t the one with diarrhea of the mouth,” Czernick said.

“No apology is necessary, Commissioner,” Peter said.

Czernick met his eyes for a moment, and nodded.

“Well, I suppose you’re ready to go back to your regular duties, aren’t you, Peter?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Give my regards to your dad, when you see him,” Czernick said. He smiled at Peter, patted his shoulder, and walked away.

Peter got on the elevator and r

ode up to Chief Inspector Dennis V. Coughlin’s office.

“Well, good afternoon, Inspector,” Sergeant Tom Lenihan said, smiling broadly at him. “How nice to see you. I’ll tell the chief you’re here.”

Dennis V. Coughlin greeted him by saying, “I was hoping you would walk in here about now. You can buy me lunch. You owe me one, I figure.”

“Yes, sir. No argument about that.”

They went, with Tom Lenihan, to Bookbinder’s Restaurant. Coughlin ate a dozen cherrystone clams and drank a bottle of beer before he got into the meat of what he wanted to say.