Below the photograph was a lengthy caption:
This Philadelphia Highway Patrol car, racing to the scene of a reported abduction, ran a red light on Second Street at Olney Ave. and smashed into the side of a 1970 Chevrolet sedan at 8:45 last night, killing Stephen P. McAvoy, Jr., aged four, of the 700 block of Garland Street, instantly. His father and mother, Stephen P., 29, and Mary Elizabeth McAvoy, 24, were taken to Albert Einstein Northern Division Hospital, where both are reported in critical condition. Both policemen in the police car were seriously injured.
The tragedy occurred the day after Peter Wohl, a Police Department Staff Inspector, was given command of the Highway Patrol, in a move widely believed to be an attempt by Commissioner Taddeus Czernick to tame the Highway Patrol, which has been widely criticized in recent months.
(More photos and the full story on page 10A. The tragedy is also the subject of today's editorial.)
Peter shook his head and looked around the office.
"We didn't run the stop light," David Pekach said. "The guy in the Ford ran it."
Peter met his eyes.
"Hawkins told me the light had just turned green as he approached Olney Avenue," Pekach said. "I believe him. He was too shook up to lie."
"He was driving?" Peter asked.
"Nobody's going to believe that," Mickey O'Hara said. "You guys better find a witness."
"1 hope we're working on that," Wohl said.
"I've got guys ringing doorbells," Pekach said.
"How's theBulletin handling this story, Mickey?" Wohl asked.
"It wasn't quite as bad as that," Mickey O'Hara said. "Cheryl Davies wrote the piece. But I'm here for a statement."
"We deeply regret the tragedy," Wohl said. "The incident is under investigation."
O'Hara shrugged. "Why did I suspect you would say something like that?" he said.
"It's the truth," Wohl said. "It's all I have to give you."
"What about the abducted female? The Northwest Philly rapist? On oroff therecord," O'Hara said.
Wohl's phone buzzed again, and he picked it up.
"Inspector Wohl," he said.
"Taddeus Czernick, Peter. How are you?"
"Good morning, Commissioner," Peter said.
Both Pekach and Sabara got up, as if to leave.
Probably, Peter thought, because they figure if they leave, Mickey O 'Hara will take the hint and leave with them.
He waved them back into their seats. "Fine, sir. How about yourself?"
"It looks as if we sent you over at just the right time," Czernick said. "You've seen the papers?"
"Yes, sir. I just finished reading theBulletin."
"A terrible thing to have happened," Czernick said, "in more ways than one."
"Yes, sir, it is."
"Anything on the missing woman?"
"No, sir."
"Well, I have full confidence in your ability to handle whatever comes up; otherwise we wouldn't have sent you over there. But let me know if there's anything at all that I can do."
"Thank you, sir."
"The reason I'm calling, Peter-"
"Yes, sir?"
"Colonel J. Dunlop Mawson called me yesterday afternoon. You know who I mean?"
"Yes, sir."
"Under the circumstances, if you take my meaning, we can use all the friends we can get."
"Yes, sir."
"He has a client, a woman named Martha Peebles. Chestnut Hill. Very wealthy woman. Has been burglarized. Isbeing burglarized. She is not happy with the level of police service she's getting from the Fourteenth District and/or Northwest Detectives. She complained to Colonel Mawson, and he called me. Got the picture?"
"I'm not sure," Peter said.
"I think it would be a very good idea, Peter," Commissioner Czernick said, "if police officers from the Special Operations Division visited Miss Peebles and managed to convince her that the Police Departmentstrike that,Special Operations -is taking an avid interest in her problems, and is doing all that can be done to resolve them."
"Commissioner, right now, Special Operations is me and Mike Sabara and Sergeant Whatsisname-Frizell."
"I don't care how you do this, Peter," Czernick said, coldly. "Just do me a favor and do it."
"Yes, sir."
"I seem to recall that Denny Coughlin got me to authorize the immediate transfer to you of forty volunteers. For openers."
"Yes, sir."
"Well then, you ought to have some manpower shortly,"
Czernick said.
"Yes, sir."
"Keep me informed about the abducted woman, Peter," Czernick said. "I have an unpleasant gut feeling about that."
"Yes, sir, of course."
"Tell your dad I said hello when you see him," Czernick said, and hung up.
Peter put the handset back in its cradle and turned to Mickey O'Hara.
"What can I do for you, Mickey?"
"Don't let the doorknob hit me in the ass?" O'Hara said.
"No. What I said was 'What can I do for you, Mickey?' When I throw you out, I won't be subtle. Is there something special, or do you just want to hang around?"
"I'm interested in the abducted woman," O'Hara said. "I figure when something breaks, this will be the place. So I'll just hang around, if that's okay with you."
"Fine with me," Wohl said. He turned to Mike Sabara. "Mike, get on the phone to the Captain of Northwest Detectives, and the Fourteenth District Commander. Tell them that Commissioner Czernick just ordered me to stroke a woman named Peebles, and that before I send a couple of our people out to see her, I'm going to send them by to look at the paperwork. She's-what the commissioner said was-beingburglarized, and she's unhappy with the service she's been getting, and she has friends in high places."
"Who are you going to send over?"
"Officers Martinez and McFadden," Wohl said.
"Who are they?" Sabara asked, confused.
"Two of the three kids sitting on the folding chairs in the foyer," Wohl said. "I'm doing what I can with what I've got. Then, the next item on the priority list: We need people. I would like to have time to screen them carefully, but we don't have any time. A teletype went out yesterday, asking for volunteers. I don't know if there have been any responses yet, but find out. If there have not been any, or even, come to think of it, if there have-"
"McFadden and Martinez used to work undercover for me in Narcotics," Pekach said to Sabara. "They're the two that found Gerald Vincent Gallagher. They're here?"
"Chief Coughlin sent them over," Wohl said. "To Special Operations, David, not Highway."
"They're good cops. Not much experience in Chestnut Hill…" Pekach said.
"Like I said, I'm doing what I can with what I have," Wohl said. "As I was saying, Mike, get us some people. If you, or Dave, can think of anybody you can talk into volunteering, do it. Then call around, see if there have been volunteers. Check them out. Have them sent here today. Go to the Districts if that's necessary. The only thing: tell them that if they don't work out, they go back where they came from."
"You want to talk to them?" Sabara asked. "Before we have them sent over here?"
"After you've picked them, I want to talk to them, sure," Wohl said. "But you know what we need, Mike."
Peter picked up his telephone and pushed one of the buttons. " Sergeant, would you ask Sergeant Frizell to come in here? And send in the three plainclothes officers waiting in the foyer?" There was a pause, then: "Yeah, all at once."
"Now, I'll be polite," Mickey O'Hara said. "Am I in the way?"
"Not at all," Peter said. "I'll let you know when you are, Mickey."
Sergeant Frizell, trailed by Officers McFadden, Martinez, and Payne, came into the office.
"What do we know about cars?" Wohl asked.
"For the time being," Frizell replied, "we have authority to draw cars, unmarked, from the lot at the Academy on the ratio of one car per three officers assigned."
"And then they'll have to be run by Radio, right, to get the proper radios?"
"Right."
"I want all our cars to have J-Band, Detective, Highway, and ours, whenever we get our own," Peter said.
"I'm not sure that's in the plan, Inspector," Frizell said.
"I don't give a damn about the plan," Peter said. "You call Radio and tell them to be prepared to start installing the radios. And call whoever has the car pool, and tell them we're going to start to draw cars today. Tell them we have fifty-eight officers assigned; in other words that we want twenty cars."
"But we don't have fifty-eight officers assigned. We don't have any."
"We have three at this moment," Wohl said. "And Captain Sabara is working hard on the others."
"Yes, sir," Sergeant Frizell said. "But, Inspector, I really don't think there will be fifteen unmarked cars available at the Academy."
"Then take blue-and-whites," Wohl said. "We can swap them for unmarked Highway cars, if we have to."
"Inspector," Frizell said, nervously, "I don't think you have the authority to do that."
"Do that right now, please, Sergeant," Wohl said, evenly, but aware that he was furious and on the edge of losing his temper.
The last goddamned thing I need here is this Roundhouse paper pusher telling me 1 don't have the authority to do something.
Frizell, sensing Wohl's disapproval, and visibly uncomfortable, left the room.
Wohl looked at the three young policemen.
"You fellows know each other, I guess?"
"Yes, sir," they chorused.
"Okay, this is what I want you to do." He threw car keys at Matt Payne, who was surprised by the gesture, but managed to snag them. " Take my car, and drive McFadden and Martinez to the motor pool at the Police Academy. There, you two guys pick up two unmarked cars. Take one of them to the radio shop and leave it. You take my car to the radio shop, Payne, and stay with it until they put another radio in it. Then bring it back here. Then you take Captain Sabara's car and have them install the extra radios in it. Then you bring that back. Clear?"
"Yes, sir," Matt Payne said.
"You two bring the other car here. I've got a job I want you to do when you get here, and when you finish that, then you'll start shuttling cars between the motor pool and the radio garage and here. You understand what I want?"
"Yes, sir."
Getting cars, and radios for them, and handing out assignments to newly arrived replacements, is a Sergeant's job, Wohl thought, except when the man in charge doesn't really know what he's doing, in which case he is permitted to run in circles, wave and shout, making believe he does. That is known as a prerogative of command.
Lieutenant Teddy Spanner of Northwest Detectives stood up when Peter Wohl walked into his office, and put out his hand.
"How are you, Inspector?" he said. "I guess congratulations are in order."
"I wonder," Wohl said, "but thanks anyway."
"What can Northwest Detectives do for Special Operations?"
"I want a look at the files on the burglary-is it burglaries?-job on a woman named Peebles, in Chestnut Hill," Wohl said.
"Got them right here," Spanner said. "Captain Sabara said somebody was coming over. He didn't say it would be you."
"The lady," Wohl said, "the Commissioner told me, has friends in high places."
Spanner chuckled. "Not much there; it's just one more burglary."
"Did Mike say we were also interested in the Flannery sexual assault and abduction?"
"There it is," Spanner said, pointing to another manila folder.
Wohl sat down in the chair beside Spanner's desk and read the file on the Peebles burglary.
"Can I borrow this for a couple of hours?" Wohl asked. "I'll get it back to you today."
Spanner gave a deprecatory wave, meaningSure, no problem, and Wohl reached for the Flannery file and read that through.
"Same thing," he said. "I'd like to take this for a couple of hours."
"Sure, again."
"What do you think about this?" Wohl said.
"I think we're dealing with a real sicko," Spanner said. "And I'll lay odds the doer is the same guy who put the woman in the van. Anything on that?"
"Not a damned thing," Wohl said. "Push me the phone, will you?"
He dialed a number from memory.
"This is Inspector Wohl," he said. "Would you have the Highway car nearest Northwest Detectives meet me there, please?"
He hung up and pushed the telephone back across the desk.
"I need a ride," he explained.
"Something wrong with your car? Hell, I'd have given you a ride, Inspector. You want to call and cancel that?"
"Thanks but no thanks," Wohl said.
"Well, then"-Spanner smiled-"how about a cup of coffee?"
"Thank you," Wohl said.
A Highway Patrol officer came marching through the Northwest Detectives squad room before Wohl had finished his coffee. Wohl left the unfinished coffee and followed him downstairs to the car.
"I need a ride to the Roundhouse," Wohl said, as he got in the front beside the driver. "You can drop me there."
"Yes, sir," the driver said.
They pulled out of the District parking lot and headed downtown on North Broad Street. Wohl noticed, as he looked around at the growing deterioration of the area, that the driver was scrupulously obeying the speed limit.
"If you were God," Wohl said to the driver, "or me, and you could do anything you wanted to, to catch the guy who's been assaulting the women in Northwest Philly-and I think we're talking about the same doer who forced the woman into the van last night-what would you do?"
The driver looked at him in surprise, and took his time before answering, somewhat uneasily. "Sir, I really don't know."
Wohl turned in his seat and looked at the Highway Patrol officer in the backseat. "What about you?"
The man in the backseat raised both hands in a gesture of helplessness.
"The way I hear, we're doing everything we know how."
"You think he's going to turn the woman loose?" Wohl asked.
"I dunno," the driver replied. "This is the first time he's… kept
… one."
"If you think of something, anything," Wohl said, "don't keep it to yourself. Tell Captain Pekach, or Captain Sabara, or me."
"Yes, sir," the driver said.
"Something wrong with this unit?" Wohl asked.
"Sir?"
"Won't it go faster than thirty-five?"
The driver looked at him in confusion.
"Officer Hawkins says it was the civilian who ran the stoplight last night," Wohl said. "I believe him. We're looking for witnesses to confirm Hawkins's story."
The driver didn't react for a moment. Then he pushed harder on the accelerator and began to move swiftly through the North Broad Street traffic.
With a little luck, Wohl thought, these guys will have a couple of beers with their pals when their tour is over, and with a little more luck, it will have spread through Highway by tomorrow morning that maybe Inspector Wohl ain't the complete prick people say he is; that he asked for advice; said he believed Hawkins; and even told the guy driving him to the Roundhouse to step on it.