“Peter here’s been running a surveillance operation,” Carlucci began.
“Surveilling who?” O’Hara interrupted.
“I’ll get to that in a minute. Anyway, they had a microphone mounted on a window, and it got knocked off. The window was on the thirteenth floor, I forgot to say. So what does Payne do? He goes to the room next door to the one where the mike fell off, goes out on a ledge, and puts it back in place. How’s that for balls, Mickey?”
“I hadn’t heard about that,” Chief Coughlin said, looking at Peter Wohl.
“Neither had I,” Peter said.
“He knew what had to be done, and he did it,” the Mayor said approvingly. “That’s the mark of a good cop.”
“Or a damned fool,” O’Hara said. “It was that important?”
“What the hell could be that important? He could have killed himself,” Coughlin said.
“The way it turned out, it was that important,” Carlucci said. “If he hadn’t put the mike back, we wouldn’t have got what we got after he put it back. Tony Harris told me that when he gave me the tapes this morning.”
“Which is what?” Coughlin asked.
“Enough, Tony Callis tells me, to just about guarantee a true bill from the grand jury and an indictment.”
The Hon. Thomas J. “Tony” Callis was the District Attorney for Philadelphia County.
“Of who?” O’Hara asked.
“Not yet, Mickey, but you will be the first to know, trust me. The warrants are being drawn up. Peter, I think you should let Payne go with you when you and Weisbach serve them; he’s entitled.”
When I and Weisbach serve them? Wohl thought. What the hell is that all about?
“Serve them on who?” O’Hara asked.
“I told you, Mickey, you’ll be the first to know, but not right now. For right now, you can have this.” The Mayor reached in his pocket and handed O’Hara a folded sheet of paper. “I understand the first of these will be given out first thing in the morning. You don’t know where you got that,” he said.
O’Hara unfolded the sheet of paper. It was a press release.
* * *
POLICE DEPARTMENT
CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Police Commissioner Taddeus Czernich today announced a major reorganization of the self-policing functions of the Police Department, to take effect with the retirement of Chief Inspector Harry Allgood, presently the Commanding Officer of the Internal Affairs Division. Chief Allgood’s retirement will become effective tomorrow.“The public’s faith in the absolute integrity of its police department is our most important weapon in the war against crime,” Commissioner Czernich declared.
“A new unit, the Ethical Affairs Unit (EAU), has been formed. It will be commanded by Staff Inspector Michael Weisbach, who will report directly to me on matters concerning any violation of the high ethical standards of behavior demanded of our police officers by the public, myself and Mayor Carlucci,” Commissioner Czernich went on.
“I have directed Inspector Peter Wohl, Commanding Officer of the Special Operations Division, to make available to Staff Inspector Weisbach whatever he requires to accomplish his new mission from the assets of Special Operations, which includes the Highway Patrol, the Anti-Crime Teams, and the Special Operations Investigation Section.
“Internal Affairs will continue to deal with complaints from the public regarding inappropriate actions on the part of police officers,” Commissioner Czernich concluded.
* * *
“What is that, Jerry?” Chief Wohl asked.“Show it to him, Mickey,” the Mayor replied. O’Hara handed it to him.
“I can use this now, or am I supposed to sit on it until everybody else gets it?” O’Hara asked.
“You can use what? I didn’t give you anything,” Carlucci said.