"What do you mean, 'who tipped me'? I was on my way home, Denny, for some well deserved rest, when what do I hear on the radio? You're coming here. Peter Wohl is coming here. So I figured, what the h.e.l.l, I'd come down here, we'd all have a cup of coffee, chew the rag a little-"

"Chew the rag a little about what, for example?"

"For example, why did you put the arm out for Mr. Ronald R. Ketcham?"

"Ronald R. Ketcham? I don't seem to recall the name."

"And why, if it was a Locate, Do Not Detain, did he wind up in a holding cell?"

"A holding cell?"

"Wearing nothing but an overcoat."

"Mickey, you have your choice between me throwing you out of here myself, or agreeing to really sit on this one. And that may mean permanently sitting on it. Now and forever."

"You got a deal, Denny."

"I'll fill you in later," Coughlin said. "I don't want to miss any of this."

He waved O'Hara into the small room with the one-way mirror adjacent to the interview room. There Mr. O'Hara found Inspector Peter Wohl; Amelia Payne, M.D.; Mr. Walter Davis, Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; a well-dressed individual Mr. O'Hara correctly guessed was also in the employ of the FBI; and Lieutenant Daniel Justice.

Through the one-way mirror, he saw Sergeant Jason Washington and a distraught-looking man sitting in a chair wearing nothing but a blanket around his shoulders.

Mickey waved a cheerful h.e.l.lo.

The FBI agent Mickey didn't recognize looked confused.

Mr. Davis of the FBI looked very uncomfortable, as did Danny the Judge.

Dr. Payne smiled at him absently, her attention devoted to what was going on on the other side of the mirror.

Inspector Wohl smiled in recognition and resignation.

Mickey helped himself to a cup of coffee, then sat down, backward, in a wooden chair and watched Sergeant Washington interviewing Mr. Ketcham.

TWENTY-ONE.

"I could use another cup of coffee, Mr. Ketcham, how about you?" Sergeant Jason Washington inquired of Mr. Ronald R. Ketcham. could use another cup of coffee, Mr. Ketcham, how about you?" Sergeant Jason Washington inquired of Mr. Ronald R. Ketcham.

"What I want is my clothes," Ketcham replied.

"Well, I certainly understand that," Washington said. "And they should be here by now. I'll check. Cream and sugar?"

"Black, please," Ketcham said.

Washington left the interview room, and closed the door after him. Ketcham, who had seen enough cops-and-robbers movies to suspect that he might be under observation by persons on the other side of the mirror, tried very hard to look righteously indignant, rather than uncomfortable.

Washington stuck his head into the room on the other side of the mirror, and motioned for everyone to come into the main office.

As Michael J. O'Hara pa.s.sed through the door, Washington draped his ma.s.sive arm around Mickey's shoulders.

"You will understand, old friend," Washington said "why my usual joy at seeing your smiling face is tempered by the circ.u.mstances."

"How goes it, Jason?" Mickey O'Hara replied.

"Mickey, sit in there for a minute, will you?" Chief Inspector Coughlin said, indicating Captain Henry Quaire's office. "Amy, you keep him company."

Mr. O'Hara and Dr. Payne went into Quaire's office. Chief Coughlin closed the door after them.

"You didn't get much, did you, Sergeant Washington?" Mr. Walter Davis of the Federal Bureau of Investigation asked.

"If we are to believe Mr. Ketcham, which I find difficult to do," Jason replied, "he was abducted, in what he believes to be a case of mistaken ident.i.ty, from the garage of his home by persons unknown."

Inspector Wohl chuckled.

"Letting your imagination soar, Jason, what do you think happened?"

"I would hazard a guess that Mr. Ketcham has no idea who transported him to the NIKE site, beyond a deep suspicion that it has something to do with his trafficking in controlled substances," Washington said. "About which, of course, he is understandably reluctant to talk. That position, I would think, is b.u.t.tressed by his being aware that he was not in possession of any narcotics at the time of his abduction."

"Put it together for me, Jason," Chief Coughlin said.

"I have several tentative theories," Washington said. "We have these facts: Mr. Ketcham was involved with Miss Longwood. To what degree we do not know. There was a telephone call to Dr. Payne at the hospital-the language of which was not consistent with the vocabulary of the caller-which alleged . . ."

He consulted a pocket notebook: ". . . that 'Cynthia Longwood was stripped naked and orally raped by a policeman under circ.u.mstances that were themselves traumatic.' Dr. Payne believes this is consistent with Miss Longwood's physical condition. The question then becomes, Who made the telephone call to Dr. Payne, and how did he come into possession of the knowledge of the rape?"

"Vincenzo Savarese," Mr. Walter Davis said.

Sergeant Washington looked at Mr. Davis in such a manner as to make clear he did not like to be interrupted, then went on: "I think it is reasonable to believe that Mr. Savarese, whose deep concern for his granddaughter has been made obvious, wondered if her gentleman acquaintance, Mr. Ketcham, might have information bearing on the situation. We must keep in mind here that Mr. Savarese had to move carefully. His relationship to Miss Longwood has been carefully concealed, and if Mr. Ketcham was not involved in the a.s.sault . . ."

Wohl and Coughlin grunted, accepting Washington's theory.

"I think it bears on the equation," Washington went on, "that Mr. Ketcham has not come to the attention of either Intelligence or the Drug Unit. Neither by name or by physical description. It is possible that Mr. Savarese's contacts on the street, or within the drug community, came up with his name, but I have the feeling that was not the case, and even if it was, his acquiring that knowledge would have been after Miss Longwood required medical attention."

"Okay," Coughlin agreed.

"But it is reasonable to a.s.sume that Mr. Savarese heard-probably from his daughter-that his granddaughter was involved with a man named Ketcham."

"Yeah," Wohl said.

"Mr. Savarese naturally wondered, I theorize," Washington went on, "if perhaps Mr. Ketcham had knowledge of the cause of Miss Longwood's mental stress. Even, perhaps, if Mr. Ketcham forced himself on his granddaughter. Dr. Payne told Peter that Mr. Ketcham had not been to see Miss Longwood. It seems reasonable that Mr. Savarese would have learned this, too, from the girl's mother."

"And had Joey Fiorello," Coughlin interjected, "hire Phil Chason to make discreet inquiries regarding Mr. Ketcham . . ."

"Which discreet inquiries," Peter Wohl chimed in, "re vealed exactly what kind of an upstanding citizen Ketcham is. And Chason told Fiorello."

"Precisely," Washington said. "What I don't understand, since we may presume it did come to Mr. Savarese's attention that his granddaughter was keeping company with someone who uses controlled substances-and probably introduced her to the use of them-is why Mr. Ketcham is not, to use that lovely euphemism, 'swimming with the fishes.' "

Wohl grunted in agreement.

"Once Mr. Savarese had learned that-what shall I say?-Mr. Ketcham was not a really nice fellow," Washington continued, "I think it is reasonable to presume that he ordered his minions to find Mr. Ketcham and to transport him to a place where he could be interrogated-the NIKE site-both at length and, should it turn out that Mr. Ketcham had no knowledge of what had transpired, in such a manner that there would be no connection Mr. Ketcham could make with him. I mean, in the sense that he is Miss Longwood's loving grandfather, the Mafia don."

"That const.i.tutes kidnapping," Mr. Walter Davis interjected, "and makes it a federal offense."

Washington ignored him.

"I further postulate," he went on, "that the interrogation revealed the exact circ.u.mstances-'that were themselves traumatic'-of Miss Longwood's rape."

"The drug bust at the Howard Johnson motel," Coughlin said.

"Yes. Mr. Ketcham-who, incidentally, I don't think has any idea of the relationship between the girl and her grandfather-almost certainly told-"

"Told who, Sergeant?" Walter Davis interrupted.

"Excuse me?" Washington said in strained courtesy, making it again clear he did not like being interrupted, even by the Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

"This interrogation you're talking about. Who conducted it?"

"I have no idea," Washington said.

"You think Vincenzo Savarese was there?" Davis pursued.

"Interesting question," Washington said. "Given Mr. Savarese's demonstrated ability to distance himself from criminal activity conducted for him by others, I am tempted to say no, of course not. But this is a different circ.u.mstance. And we know of his deep concern. So my answer is, I just don't have an opinion."

"Dennis, I'd really like to get Savarese on unlawful abduction," Davis said.

"May I continue?" Washington asked.

"Go on, Jason," Coughlin said.

"At the very least, I think we can reasonably presume that Mr. Ketcham told his interrogators that Narcotics officers were present at the Howard Johnson motel. Since Mr. Ketcham didn't have any names to give him . . ."

"Back to Joey Fiorello and Phil Chason," Wohl said.

"So goes my theory," Washington said. "The reason that Mr. Fiorello knew about the drug bust at the motel was that Savarese had learned about it from Ketcham."

"And to go by the message he left for Amy," Wohl said, "Ketcham must have convinced Savarese that one of the Five Squad raped the girl; in other words, that he didn't."

"Yes," Washington said. "And now Mr. Savarese wishes to discuss the incident with the officers involved. Hence, he needs their names."

"That doesn't explain why Ketcham is still alive," Danny the Judge said. "It seems to me that just getting his granddaughter in a situation like that would be enough for Savarese to-what did Jason say?-send Ketcham 'swimming with the fishes.' "

"After first cutting him in small pieces with a dull saw," Coughlin agreed.

"I read somewhere," Wohl said softly, "that death by starvation is one of the more painful ways to die."

"You mean Savarese was just going to leave him there?" Walter Davis asked, visibly shocked.

"Now that Peter has raised the point, I believe that is entirely possible," Washington announced. "Imaginative forms of retributive homicide are consistent with the Sicilian code of honor. Dishonoring the females of the tribe is really a no-no."

"That makes it attempted murder, too," Walter Davis said.

"That would not be easy to prove," Coughlin said. "I'm not even sure we have enough to get an indictment, much less a conviction."

No one said anything, and then Coughlin had another thought. "I got the impression, Jason, that Ketcham not only has no idea who grabbed him, but didn't even get a look at them?"

Washington nodded.

"I, for one, feel that nothing has been uncovered so far that should cause us to deviate from our original plan," Washington said.

He looked at Chief Coughlin for an answer.

Wohl spoke first.

"What do you think we should do, Jason?"

"I think we should show Mr. Ketcham the photographs," Washington said. "There will be a certain shock to them. So far we haven't even touched on the fringes of the rape. If we know about that, he will reason, what else do we know?"

"That's good enough for me," Coughlin said. "Go do it, Jason."

"Just a minute," Walter Davis said.

Everyone looked at him.

"We have a chance here to prosecute Vincenzo Savarese for kidnapping and attempted murder," he said. "I would hate to lose that opportunity."

"I would prefer to strike, to coin a phrase, while the iron is hot," Washington said.

"I really would like to bring the U.S. Attorney in on this now," Davis insisted.

"Walter, what we're talking about here is the prosecution of a police officer who committed a felony-the oral rape-while acting under the shield of his office," Coughlin said.

"Dennis, I'm wholly sympathetic to your desire to uncover corruption in the Five Squad, but an opportunity like this, vis a vis Savarese . . ."

"Walter, you don't really think that slime in there is going to get up in court and testify against Savarese, do you?" Wohl said.

"I think we should discuss the whole situation with the U.S. Attorney before we take any further action."

"Go do it, Jason," Coughlin ordered, then looked at Walter Davis. "Sorry, Walter."

Davis's face was white, but he said nothing.

Wohl handed Washington a large manila envelope.