The Investigators Part 89

Chenowith turned to look at him.

Matthews, his issue .357 revolver held in the position prescribed, shot him twice, calmly and deliberately.

Matt, his pistol now in hand, ran after Jennifer's Volkswagen.

She had apparently decided to ram her way past the garbage cans Matthews had placed in the lane. The one she had hit had wound up under the nose of the Volkswagen. Unsteerable, the Volkswagen had crashed into another parked car. Jennifer Ollwood now had the Volkswagen in reverse, trying to free herself. The Volkswagen's tires were smoking, but the car was just barely moving.

Matt ran to the Volkswagen, smashed the window with the b.u.t.t of his pistol, and then aimed it right at Jennifer Ollwood's face.

She took her hands off the steering wheel, and the sound of the racing engine died.

Matt opened the door and then grabbed Jennifer's sweater front and jerked her out of the car, tripped her, and threw her on her face on the lane.

She kicked and fought, and he hit her on the side of her head with the b.u.t.t of his pistol. It didn't knock her out, but it made her groggy enough so that he could pin her left arm behind her and, with his knee in her back, start to put the handcuffs on.

He heard a female voice say, indignantly, "He didn't have to do that to her!"

And then he heard a baby start to howl.

He jerked Jennifer to her feet, looked in the back of the Volkswagen, and saw the baby.

Susan can handle the baby.

"My baby!" Jennifer screamed. "Somebody help my baby!"

Matt turned to look at the growing crowd of spectators.

"n.o.body go near that car!" he ordered. "I'm a police officer, and I'm going to get someone to take care of the baby!"

"G.o.dd.a.m.n cops!" the same indignant female voice muttered.

Matt propelled Jennifer around the corner of the building, back toward the bank of pay phones.

Jack Matthews saw him coming, and stepped into the lane. He held both hands up, as if stopping traffic, and there was a pained look on his face.

Matt saw the obese young woman sitting on the ground, screaming, and after a moment, saw that she was holding her b.l.o.o.d.y right leg.

"Matt, don't come down here!" Jack called.

Matt had just enough time to wonder what the h.e.l.l was wrong with Matthews, when he understood.

Susan was on the ground, too. Matt put his foot in front of Jennifer Ollwood and pushed her hard. She fell again to the pavement, and started to scream obscenities.

He ran to Susan. Jack tried to stop him, but he wouldn't be stopped.

Susan was on her back, her mouth and her sightless eyes open. There was a small, neat hole just below her left eye. Her blond hair was in a spreading pool of blood.

"Oh, G.o.d!" Matt howled, and dropped to his knees and cradled her limp body in his arms.

"You wanted to see me, Mr. Mayor?" Inspector Peter Wohl asked, standing in the open door to the mayor's private office in City Hall.

"You took your sweet G.o.dd.a.m.n time getting here, Peter," Jerry Carlucci snapped.

"I didn't think you wanted me to turn on the lights and siren, sir."

"Don't smart-mouth me, Peter!"

"No, sir."

"Have you seen this?" Carlucci said, sliding the Philadelphia Bulletin Philadelphia Bulletin across his ma.s.sive desk toward Wohl. across his ma.s.sive desk toward Wohl.

Wohl glanced at it.

"I haven't had a chance to read it, sir. I heard about it."

"Read it. Improve your mind," Carlucci said.

"Yes, sir."

Wohl picked up the newspaper, and read the lead story: "COLD-BLOODED TERRORIST" MURDERS FBI INFORMANT MOMENTS BEFORE HE FALLS TO FBI'S BULLETS IN b.l.o.o.d.y DOYLESTOWN GUN BATTLE; SPECTATOR WOUNDED IN HAIL OF GUNFIREby Michael J. O'Hara Bulletin Staff Writer Doylestown, Bucks County-Bryan C. Chenowith, described by the FBI as a "cold-blooded terrorist," was shot to death shortly after 7:00 P.M. last night by FBI Agent John D. Matthews in the parking lot of the Crossroads Diner here moments after Chenowith machine-gunned to death Susan Reynolds, 27, of Camp Hill, Pa., who FBI officials described as a "public-spirited citizen" who had been a.s.sisting the authorities in their years-long, nationwide search for Chenowith and his a.s.sociates.Mrs. Deborah G. Dannmeir, 24, of Upper Black Eddy, who was using an outdoor pay telephone when the shooting erupted, was struck by one of the bullets fired from Chenowith's fully automatic .30-caliber military carbine. She is reported in "satisfactory" condition at Bucks County Hospital.Chenowith; his common-law wife, Jennifer Ollwood, who was apprehended by Philadelphia Detective Matthew M. Payne at the scene of the gun battle; Edgar L. Cole; and Eloise Anne Fitzgerald were indicted for murder following the bombing of the Biological Sciences building at the University of Pittsburgh, in which eleven people lost their lives. "The Chenowith Group" has been the target of an intense nationwide FBI search ever since.Cole and Fitzgerald were arrested without incident at approximately 9:00 P.M. last evening at a remote Bucks County farmhouse to which Miss Reynolds, shortly before her death, had directed Detective Payne. Miss Reynolds, according to the FBI, had known the women at Bennington College, Vermont. She was an appeals officer with the Pennsylvania Department of Social Services in Harrisburg.According to Walter Davis, Special Agent in Charge of the Philadelphia Office of the FBI, the Chenowith Group had turned to bank robbery, and said "there is incontrovertible evidence" that Chenowith, masquerading as a woman, had in the past few weeks robbed banks in Riegelsville, Pa., Clinton, N.J., and elsewhere."The Chenowith Group was armed with fully automatic weapons," Davis said, "stolen from the National Guard at Indiantown Gap, and was clearly prepared to use them. Both Special Agent Matthews and Detective Payne knew this. It is clear proof of their courage and devotion to the public's safety that they attempted to apprehend a criminal like Mr. Chenowith, disregarding the risk to their own lives."Davis went on to explain that there had been no way, given the circ.u.mstances, that either Matthews or Payne could have requested a.s.sistance."I can't, of course, go into the details leading up to this incident," Davis said, "except that it was one more example of the close cooperation between the FBI and the Philadelphia Police Department."Inspector Peter Wohl, commanding officer of the Special Operations Division of the Philadelphia Police Department, to which Detective Payne is a.s.signed, declined to comment on the shooting, or on Detective Payne's performance, stating that the case was under review.

"Yes, sir?" Peter asked, looking at the mayor when he had finished.

"What's the matter with you, Inspector, cat got your G.o.dd.a.m.n tongue?"

"Sir?"

" 'Inspector Peter Wohl declined to comment,' " Carlucci quoted in a high falsetto.

"What was I supposed to say?"

"Use your fertile imagination! Do you like the FBI grabbing all the credit for what was clearly our bust?"

"No, sir."

"Payne got that dame to roll over on Chenowith, not that FBI agent," Carlucci said. "You wouldn't know that to read Mickey's story."

"No, sir," Peter said. "You wouldn't."

"You're not going to ask me how I know that?"

"Sir, how do you know that?"

"Detective Payne told me," Carlucci said.

"You've seen Payne?"

"Did you see that thing on TV-G.o.dd.a.m.n, they shouldn't put things like that on TV-I mean, Payne standing there soaked in that girl's blood, watching them carry her body off?"

"Yes, sir, I saw it. It was pretty rough."

"So I called up and asked what happened to him, and where he was, and then he told me he went from the restaurant to arrest the rest of those slime. And then, when I called Special Operations, Mike Sabara told me you had sent him home."

"Actually, I placed him on administrative leave," Wohl said.

"Yeah, that's what Mike said, while it was decided whether or not charges would be brought against him."

"Yes, sir."

"I told Mike Sabara you made a mistake. He could take it from me that no charges were going to be brought against Detective Payne. Detective Payne is on compensatory time. He's put in a lot of overtime lately, what with bagging Officer Calhoun and this cooperation with the FBI. Are we clear on that, Inspector? That Payne is on compensatory time?"

"Yes, sir. Sir, he disobeyed a direct order!"

Carlucci ignored what was for Peter Wohl a somewhat emotional outburst.

"So I went by his apartment on Rittenhouse Square. I figured it was the least I could do. And he wasn't there, so Jack and I went out to Wallingford to his father's house. First time I'd ever been there. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be. I really felt sorry for him. He was all broke up that the girl got killed. I mean, really broke up. And then, on top of that, he's worried about you and Coughlin . . . because he disobeyed some bulls.h.i.+t order you gave him."

"I didn't think it was a bulls.h.i.+t order, sir."

"We talking about the same order? The one Payne told me he got was he was not supposed to try to arrest this Chenowith character by himself under any circ.u.mstances. Is that the order we're talking about?"

"Yes, sir."

"Just between you and me, Peter, who issued Payne that stupid order? You or Denny Coughlin?"

"I did, sir."

"That's what Denny said when I asked him just a couple of minutes ago. He said he did. That's nice, the two of you being loyal to each other. Both of you trying to take responsibility for doing something stupid. I appreciate that. They call that loyalty up and loyalty down."

"Yes, sir."

"Do we understand each other, Inspector?"

"Yes, sir. I get the message."

"That will be all, Inspector. Thank you for coming in to see me."

"Yes, sir."

Wohl had just reached the door when Carlucci called after him.

"Peter!"

"Yes, sir?"

"Two things, Peter. Be sure to give your father my warmest regards."

"Yes, sir, I will. Thank you."

"And why don't you take the rest of the day off. You've been working very hard lately; you deserve a little time off. Take a ride. Go out to Wallingford, maybe. Take Denny with you. See Payne. He thinks you two walk on water."

"Yes, sir," Inspector Peter Wohl said.

a.s.sistant District Attorney Anton C. Phebus, Esq., disappeared shortly after having been informed by District Attorney Thomas J. Callis that all the police officers a.s.signed to the Five Squad of the Narcotics Unit had been arrested on a variety of charges, and that "Wohl, Was.h.i.+ngton, and Weisbach have got at least two of them singing like the Vatican Choir."

Later the same day, District Attorney Callis issued a warrant for Mr. Phebus's arrest on charges of complicity in the charges laid against members of the Five Squad.

He was arrested on charges of unlawful flight to escape prosecution by the Federal Bureau of Investigation six weeks later in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he was working as a security guard at a Kmart. He was subsequently extradited to Philadelphia and brought to trial before the Hon. Harriet M. McCandless. On a finding of guilty, Judge McCandless sentenced Mr. Phebus to fifteen to twenty-five years' imprisonment.

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Mr. Ronald R. Ketcham was found dead in his apartment of an overdose of heroin two weeks after he was released from the NIKE site.

Although defended by Armando C. Giacomo, Esq., all members of the Narcotics Unit Five Squad were found guilty of various charges placed against them for criminal activity, and received sentences ranging from eighteen months to five years in prison.

It was generally believed that not even Armando C. Giacomo could have gotten acquittals given the devastating state's witness testimony of former officers Herbert J. Prasko and Timothy J. Calhoun.

In a separate action, former officer Timothy J. Calhoun pleaded guilty before a United States court to one charge of violating the civil rights of Mr. Amos Williams. He was sentenced to one year in federal prison. After seven months he was released on parole, and he is now a truck driver in Philadelphia.

In a separate action, former officer Herbert J. Prasko pleaded guilty before a United States court to seven violations of the civil rights of Mr. Amos G. Williams and Mr. Marcus C. Brownlee, and was sentenced to four years on each charge, the sentences to be served consecutively. He was confined to the Federal Penal Facility at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, where he was a.s.signed duties in the mess-hall kitchen. Two months after his arrival, he failed to meet roll call and was declared an escapee.

Three weeks later, his remains were found tied to a log in the swamp surrounding the air base. Who tied him to the log is not known, but he is believed to have met his death by being eaten alive, by feral hogs, herds of which roam the Eglin Reservation.

t.i.tLES BY W.E.B. GRIFFIN.