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Most of the time, Coughlin would either grunt his acceptance of the location, or repeat it in agreement, but every once in a while they would have a short discussion as to the precise district boundaries. Finally, they would be in agreement, and Lowenstein would very carefully print the name of the Detective Division having jurisdiction over that address in the margin.
Everyone in the room watched in silence as they went through the ninety-six names.
They could have taken that to Radio, Peter Wohl thought. Any radio dispatcher could have done the same thing.
But then he changed his mind. These two old cops know every street and alley in Philadelphia better than any radio dispatcher. They're doing this because it's the quickest way to get it done, and done correctly. But I don't really think they are unaware that everybody at this table has been impressed with their encyclopedic knowledge.
When he had written the last entry, Lowenstein pushed the telephone book to Coughlin, who examined it carefully.
"Take this, Matty," Coughlin said, finally, holding up the telephone book. "Type it up, broken down into districts. Tom, you go with him. As soon as he's finished a page, Xerox it. Twenty-five copies, and bring it in here."
"Yes, sir," Sergeant Mahon said.
The two left the commissioner's conference room.
"Peter, are you open to suggestion?" Lowenstein asked.
"Yes, sir. Certainly."
"There's three of us, you, Coughlin, and me. I think that list, when he's finished sorting it out, we can break down into thirds. I'll take one, you take one, and Denny can take the third. We'll have the detective teams, I think we should send two to each doorbell, report to whichever of us it is. That make sense to you?"
"Yes, sir. It does."
"Sort of supervisory teams, right?" Frank F. Young of the FBI said. "Do you think it would be a good idea if I went with one of them, with you, Chief Lowenstein, and I'll get two other special agents to go with Chief Coughlin and Inspector Wohl."
"Better yet," Lowenstein said, "why don't you and Charley go with Peter? He's the man in overall charge."
"Whatever you say, of course," Young said, visibly disappointed.
Wohl thought he saw Coughlin, not entirely successfully, try to hide a smile.
****
When the neatly typed and Xeroxed lists were passed around, it was evident that the Wheatleys were scattered all over Philadelphia. Lowenstein, after first tactfully making it a suggestion to Wohl, assigned himself to supervise the operation in the Central and North Central detective districts. He also "suggested" that Chief Coughlin supervise the operation in the South and West Detective Divisions, which left Wohl to supervise the detectives who would be working in the East, Northeast, and Northwest Detective Divisions.
At that point, although the CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS-DO NOT ENTER sign was on display outside the conference room, the door suddenly opened and the Honorable Jerry Carlucci, mayor of Philadelphia, marched into the room.
"What's all this going to cost in overtime?" he asked, by way of greeting. "I suppose it's too much to expect that anybody would think of telling me, or for that matter the commissioner, what the hell is going on?"
"I was going to call you, Jerry…" Lowenstein began.
"Mr. Mayor to you, Chief, thank you very much."
"… Right about now. Peter just decided how this is going to work."
"So you tell me, Peter."
Wohl described the operation to the mayor.
He listened carefully, asked a few specific questions, grunted approval several times, and then when Wohl was finished, he stood leaning against the wall thinking it all over.
"What do the warrants say?" he asked finally.
"As little as legally possible," Lowenstein said. "Denny got them."
"They're city warrants?" Carlucci asked.
"Right," Coughlin said.
