"I'll handle this, Sergeant," O'Dowd said. "And to make things easier for everybody concerned, I'll keep track of Detective Payne's whereabouts. Will that be all right with you?"
"The inspector asked me where he was, and I felt like an asshole when I didn't know."
"Well, that won't happen again. Payne will keep me advised of his location, on and off duty, won't you, Payne?"
"Right."
Henkels left the office.
"You'd better get moving, Payne," O'Dowd said. "With the early morning traffic, you're going to have to push it."
"Do you know what this is all about?"
"No. But right now, you're not one of his favorite people. He made that pretty clear."
Matt tried to figure that out, but came up with nothing.
"I guess nothing happened overnight? About the lunatic?"
"Not a thing."
"Well, Sergeant," Matt said. "You know where I'll be."
Jerry O'Dowd nodded.
TWENTY
At twenty-nine minutes after eight, Matt entered the outer office of Chief Inspector Mario Marchessi, of the Internal Investigations Bureau, which was housed in a building about as old as the Schoolhouse, literally under the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, which connects Philadelphia with Camden, N.J.
Staff Inspector Peter Wohl and Officer Jesus Martinez were already there.
"Good morning, sir," Matt said.
Wohl did not reply. He gestured for Martinez and Payne to follow him out into the corridor.
"I want to make this clear before we go in to see Chief Marchessi," Wohl said. "This is to see what, if anything, can be salvaged as a result of you two going off like you thought you were the heroes in a cops-and-robbers movie on TV. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
"No, sir," Matt said. Martinez shook his head no.
"Jesus!" Wohl said disgustedly. "Martinez, you were sent to the airport to keep your eyes and ears open, and to report what you thought you heard or saw to me…"
What does he mean, "Martinez, you were sent to the airport"?
"…but when I asked you to tell me your gut feelings, you decided, to hell with him, I'll play it close to my chest; I'm Super Cop. I'll catch this dirty cop by myself."
Matt looked at Martinez, who looked crushed.
"And you!" Wohl turned to Matt. "Whatever gave you the idea that you could, without orders, surveil anyone, much less a police corporal of a district you have absolutely no connection with at all, anywhere, much less to somewhere in another county, for Christ's sake, where you knew illegal gambling was going on?"
"Inspector, I didn't…"
"Shut up, Matt!"
"…follow anyone anywhere."
"I told you to shut up," Wohl said. "I meant it."
He went back into Chief Marchessi's outer office.