"I ran a campaign based on the promise that I would eliminate corruption in government," Richard O'Toole said. He was a handsome man. The slight smattering of gray hair at his temples gave him a distinguished appearance. Not a single hair was out of place. He wore a nice tailored suit that spoke of money. His shoes were polished to a bright shine.
"I read about your campaign," Magus replied. "I was less than overwhelmed by your promises."
Richard ignored the snide comment about his campaign promises. He said, "The problem is that the corruption is so wide-spread that I can't keep my campaign promise."
Magus looked at the man incredulously and said, "Don't tell me you were surprised to discover that."
"I knew there was a lot of corruption, but I didn't realize how bad it was. I swear that everyone in my government is on the take."
"You don't belong in politics," Magus said shaking his head.
Irritated, Richard asked, "Why do you say that?"
"You're too naïve," Magus answered.
"You might think I'm naïve, but I'm going to do what I promised. I believe that I'm exactly what my community needs — an honest man who will eliminate corruption just by being an honest man," Richard said.
Magus was disgusted. Again the man had fallen back onto empty words without a plan to back them up. He said, "Now that is load of bullshit piled higher and deeper if I've ever heard it."
"I'm sorry that you feel that way," Richard said. "I came here for you to tell me how to clean up my town."
Magus opened an envelope and started dropping business cards in it. He paused in thought for a second and then pulled out a sheet of paper from a drawer. He shoved it into the envelope with a smile. Sliding the package across the desk, he said, "Here it is."
"What is it?" Richard asked.
"That is your solution," Magus answered. He looked Richard in the eye and asked, "Do you have the balls to do what is necessary to get rid of the corruption?"
Confident, Richard answered, "Yes."
"Even if your family comes under attack?" Magus asked.
"It wouldn't come to that," Richard said faltering a little in his convictions.
Magus snorted in disgust. He said, "It will come to that. It will start with a little comment from someone who works close to you about how they heard that gangs have started hanging around St. John's School. A little later in the same conversation they'll mention that your kids go to school there while acting all surprised that they remembered that little fact. They will change the subject for a minute or two and then casually mention that if the kids were killed by a gang that odds were good that they'd never catch the ones who did."
"I'd add patrol cars to the area," Richard said full of confidence. He could easily imagine such a conversation taking place.
"No. You'd ask the police chief to add patrol cars to the area. He'd tell you that he's got a budget crunch and can't pull the cars out of higher crime areas," Magus said.
"I would agree to expand his budget," Richard said a little less certainly.
"So you'd add a bit more money to the budget to be skimmed off by the very crooks you are trying to eliminate. I'm sure that some folks would view that as a payoff. If you step over the line the least bit, you've just landed with both feet on a slippery slope. Next thing you know, you'll have the city building maintenance crew out at your house installing new storm windows," Magus said.
"Okay. Rather than expanding his budget I would hire bodyguards to protect the kids," Richard said hopefully.
"That will look real good in the newspaper. Having bodyguards hired by the mayor to protect his children at one of the most expensive private schools in the state would make the front page of the newspaper. I'm sure that the voters will be thrilled about that."
"So what do you suggest?" Richard asked getting angry. He could imagine the political backwash that such a story would create.
Magus said, "I suggest that you do what is specified in that envelope. You will follow the directions step by step regardless of how much it costs you politically. You will call the names on the cards that I have given you. You will pay them the money that they ask and then get out of their way so that they can do their jobs. When they talk to you, you will listen to them."
"What are telling me to do?"
Magus answered, "I am telling how to evolve the situation to a point where you can hire someone like J. Edgar Hoover. You'll need someone who is willing to dig up every skeleton and use that information to clean out the closets. Once you've got him, stay out of his way and never ever sin again because he'll turn on you faster than you can whistle Dixie."
"Hoover wasn't exactly a nice guy. That sounds ... I don't know ... kind of dirty," Richard said.
"Dirty? No. Nasty? Yes," Magus said. "That's just the beginning."
"It is?" Richard said. He wasn't pleased with the beginning and could only imagine how much worse it would get.
"Next we've got to get someone like Buford Hayes Pusser to be Hoover's deputy," Magus said.
"Who?" Richard asked.
"He was a famous Sheriff in the late 1960s. He carried a big stick and wasn't afraid to use it. He busted a few heads, but he took down a vicious vice and gambling ring that was destroying his county," Magus said.
"Uh, that sounds kind of violent. This is Massachusetts, not the wild west," Richard said.
"You start cutting crooks out of million dollar scams and they'll get violent real quick. People will die. The question is whether it will be innocent people or crooks. When the bullets start flying, you need someone who can and will walk into a nest of rattlesnakes and come out with a bunch belts," Magus said.
"This sounds like police brutality," Richard said horrified by the idea of police violence.
"It isn't a matter of brutality; it is a matter of ruthlessness," Magus said. "You are dealing with corrupt people who will escalate the violence beyond your ability to imagine."
"I don't know," Richard said. It had been so easy to say that he was going to clean up government during the campaign. Now that he was beginning to get an idea of what was involved, he wasn't sure that he was willing to do it.
"Look. You aren't dealing with just a corrupt person or two. You are dealing with a culture of corruption. You have to destroy that culture and replace it with one that demands integrity. That's not easy to do. You're going to have to remove a hundred people almost all at once. Otherwise you end up replacing one crook with another in a process that never ends," Magus said.
Richard asked, "How can I know this plan of yours will work?"
"History," Magus said. "The experiences of the past let us know what works and what doesn't."
"I'd like to try something a little less drastic and violent," Richard said.
"Your predecessor went about cleaning up corruption the same way that you are going about it. He managed to get rid of two guys who were immediately replaced by individuals just as corrupt. We know that your way won't work."
"Well," Richard said. "That just shows my way doesn't work. It doesn't mean that your way will work."
"There are a lot of examples where a strong lawman came in and successfully cleaned house because he wasn't afraid of getting his hands dirty. They also did it without breaking the law. Those are the examples you have to follow," Magus said.
"Still, I just don't like the idea of it," Richard said shifting in his seat uncomfortably.
"A police department has two major branches: criminal investigation and law enforcement. You need a guy that will investigate the hell out of the criminals and you need a guy that will enforce the law," Magus said. Looking at Richard, he said, "Anything less than that will not work."
"What about afterwards? Won't I be stuck with two wild cannons?"
Magus shook his head in the negative. He said, "By the time they are done they will be so tired that all they will want to do is retire to someplace quiet and write books about their adventures fighting crime."
Richard stood up to leave. In a less than convincing tone of voice, he said, "I'll have to think about it."
Magus said, "Every time there is a new president, I get a call from the DEA. They want to know how to win the war on drugs. Every time they call I give them the same two solutions -- they either legalize drugs or they eliminate everyone involved in the drug trade with a ruthlessness that's never been seen in this country. They don't implement either solution and drug use remains a problem."
"Maybe it is time you suggest a different solution," Richard said.
"No, it is time they get serious about winning the war on drugs," Magus said. "Half measures don't solve problems; they make them worse."
Picking up the envelope, Richard walked to the door of the office. He stood there for a few seconds before saying, "I will think about your solution. However, I don't like what you've suggested."
Magus watched the man leave. He shook his head in disgust and said, "That was a waste of his money and my time."
It was later in the afternoon when Richard Parnell entered Magus's office. Unlike Richard O'Toole, he wasn't a distinguished looking man. His suit was ill fitted, wrinkled, and slightly dirty. His shoes were scuffed. His hair was unruly and he needed a trim. Once he had taken a seat, Magus said, "Before we begin there is a little matter of payment."
"Okay. How much?" Richard asked. He fished around in his back pocket to retrieve his wallet.
Magus asked, "Are you here for a personal problem or a professional problem?"
"A little of both," Richard answered. He pulled out his wallet. "It started out professional, but it has become personal with me."
"Are you here about the serial killer?" Magus asked.
"Yes," Richard answered. He was rather surprised that Magus knew about the serial killer. So far they had managed to keep it out of the press.
Holding up a hand, Magus said, "Put away your wallet. All I'll charge you is a favor."
"I thought it was a hundred dollars for a professional consultation for a local government agency," Richard said.
Looking insulted, Magus said, "There is such a thing as civic duty."
"Oh sorry," Richard said.
Magus asked, "When did it cross from being a professional problem to a personal crusade?"
"I guess it has been coming for a while, but the final straw was the latest victim. She reminded me of my daughter. I looked at the horror on her face thinking that this has to end," Richard answered. He sighed and said, "I take a lot of pride in my skills as a detective."
"You've been quite successful. I read about some your past cases," Magus said nodding his head in agreement.
"When it comes to this case, I say the hell with my pride. Someone has got to catch this bastard and I don't care who it is. We need him off the streets. I will accept any help that you can give me," Richard said.
Magus lifted up an envelope from the corner of his desk and slid it over to Richard. He said, "When I saw that you had made an appointment, I put this packet together hoping that you were coming for assistance in catching the bastard."
"You know who it is?" Richard asked staring at the envelope.
"No. Inside that envelope is the name of the best criminal profiler in the country. Denisa Moran has agreed to help you. One call and she'll be on the first plane from Los Angeles," Magus said.
"We've already got a profiler on the case," Richard said. He didn't recognize the name, but that didn't mean much considering that she worked on the West Coast.
"This lady is special. She's the best," Magus said.
"I hope that she will help," Richard said.
"She'll help. I wouldn't pay her consultation fee and airfare if I didn't think she'd help."
"You're paying her?"
"It is a matter of civic duty," Magus said.
Richard was pleased to meet a man who put his money where his mouth was. He said, "I thank you on behalf of the police department, but I'm sure that we could have covered it."
"By the time the decision to hire her made it through channels the killer would have taken another victim," Magus said.
"You're probably right," Richard replied.
"I've also constructed a probability map of where the killer is likely to strike next."
"You have that much information?" Richard asked. He had heard that Magus was good, but he couldn't believe he was that good.
"Of course I do. That is what I do for a living," Magus said, "I performed a search of deaths over the past two years. I managed to identify six more deaths that are probably attributable to your killer. The MOs are identical."
"I didn't find anything like that," Richard said.
Magus answered, "You were only looking locally. I went national in my search."
Richard said, "I sent out a bulletin."
"It was probably buried under a stack of other bulletins. Six months ago, your killer was operating in Pittsburg. He killed a woman there. Two weeks later the killings started here. I can say with some degree of certainty that your killer moved here six months ago from Pittsburg," Magus said.
"That's interesting," Richard said sitting up straighter. This was something that could be used to narrow the field of suspects.
Nodding his head, Magus said, "If I had access to the customer databases of the telephone companies, I could probably identify your guy in no time at all. I would look for who ended their service in Pittsburg and started service here within the appropriate time window."
"You can't do that?"
Magus held up his hands and said, "No, but I'm still looking at other resources. I'll let you know what I find."
"Any help will be appreciated," Richard said.
Magus said, "Call Denisa Moran as soon as you get back to your office. The sooner she gets here the quicker you'll catch your killer. Hopefully, you'll have him in jail by Friday."
"Thanks," Richard said picking up the envelope off of the desk.
Magus said, "By the way, she's a Boston Red Sox fan. You might want to take her to a game."
"It has been a while since I've been to a game," Richard said.
Magus reached into his desk drawer and pulled out two tickets. He said, "Here are two tickets to the game Saturday. Take her there."
"Thanks a lot," Richard said accepting the tickets.
Magus watched him leave. There was no doubt in his mind that he would do everything that was in the envelope. He was dedicated to his job, motivated to catch the killer, and not so proud that he wouldn't accept help. Sitting back in his chair, Magus said, "I guess that proves that not all Richards are dicks."
Phil entered the office and said, "The fellow leaving here looked excited."
"He's going to be a happy man for a long time," Magus said with a broad grin on his face.
"Why do you say that?" Phil asked not trusting his smile.
"I've got a feeling that he's going to be getting married soon," Magus said.
"You didn't agree to solve his loneliness, did you?" Phil asked.
Magus answered, "That wasn't why he came in here."
Phil asked, "What did you do? You aren't playing matchmaker again, are you?"
"Not intentionally. It just happens that part of a solution to one of his problems will solve his other," Magus said.
"Usually you marry off the women who work for you to a client. I hope that you aren't intending to get rid of Claudia that way," Phil said.
Magus smiled and said, "It sounds to me like you have a problem. For the low price of a hundred dollars, I'll provide you with a solution."
"No," Phil said holding up his hands.