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“Kallanan is a very interesting man,” Washington said. “Did you know that he’s a lay reader in the Episcopal Church?”
“So what?”
“So he told me that he has to be very careful about not bearing false witness.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning he’s worried about the power of suggestion. In other words, he’s afraid that when I asked him if it could have been you driving that car, and he said, ‘Oh, yes. That’s who it was,’ he’s afraid that the reason he now recognizes you is because I asked him if it could have been you.”
“What the hell is going on here? Are you that fucking desperate? You come up with a couple of matched prints—How many other prints matched?”
“Four sets,?
? Washington said. “And there were prints from two people in that car that don’t match any of anybody in Special Operations. We’re now running them against every cop in the Department. That’ll take a long time, there’s six thousand odd cops. I frankly will be surprised if we get a match, but you never know.”
“I think I’ve had enough of this bullshit conversation,” Carter said, and stood up and took a wad of money from his pocket.
“How do you think you’re going to like it in the 6th District?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re being transferred, tomorrow, to the 6th District. Where you will work for Lieutenant Foster H. Lewis, Sr.”
“I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re doing, or who the hell you think you are, Washington, but I will not take a transfer to the 6th Division or anywhere else.”
“You could resign, of course. That would make a lot of people happy. But if you stay on the job, you’re going to the 6th, tomorrow.”
“Because you have this nutty idea that I trashed Payne’s car? Or that I was involved in what happened to Monahan?”
“There is no question in my mind that you trashed Payne’s car, drove the car to Monahan’s house the morning he was shot, shot Monahan with a stun-gun, and told your friends when I was going to pick Monahan up at Goldblatt’s so they could throw a gasoline bomb at me.”
“You know how far you would get with this in court? They’d laugh you out of City Hall.”
“Did I say anything about taking you to court? All I said was that you were going to the 6th District.”
“You try to get me transferred, transferred anywhere, and I’ll have the Black Police Officer’s Association all over your ass!”
“You know how a complaint gets acted on by the Black Police Officer’s Association?” Washington asked, and then went on without waiting for a reply. “It goes to the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is composed of former officers. Like me, for example. And Richard Kallanan. I really don’t think, Brother, that you’re going to get a hell of a lot of sympathy from the Black Police Officer’s Association.”
“Fuck you, Washington!” Sergeant Carter said, tossed a five-dollar bill on the table, and walked away.
As he approached the booth occupied by Officer Richard Kallanan, their eyes met and Kallanan stood up.
Carter stopped at the booth.
“You’re still the white man’s slave, motherfucker!” he said.
Officer Kallanan thereupon struck Sergeant Carter in the face with his fist, causing him to fall to the floor.
Sergeant Washington rushed from his booth to restrain Officer Kallanan, but this proved unnecessary.
Officer Kallanan was already bending over Sergeant Carter, to assist him to his feet.
“I’m sorry I hit you, Carter,” Richard Kallanan said. “I should have remembered what it says in the Bible, ‘Judge not, lest ye be judged.’”
Sergeant Carter shook free of Kallanan’s hand and walked out of the back room of Hellman’s Bar & Grill.
The Philadelphia County Grand Jury returned indictments charging the seven men arrested by the police with murder in the first degree.
