"And as you can see from the locations, the killer is working primarily in the Southern, Central and Southeastern, which makes sense given the concentrations of homeless in those districts." "Vics one and three were killed at night, two and four had daylight T.O.D.s." "Detective, what about the missing man, Mr. Butler?" "Is there any lead at all on his whereabouts?" "No, sir." "We... we have teletypes with every police agency in the mid-Atlantic, we're also running daily morgue checks in ten states and the district," " but nothing yet." " Where are we on a profile?" "I've arranged for our people to travel to Quantico today." "The bureau's been very accommodating." "This is a strange one." "I've heard of people going after street people, but it's usually adolescent sadism." " This sexual thing..." " It is different." "We put it out on ViCAP, and we have no hits anywhere else in the country." "I mean, I'm all for a little kinky shit now and then, but chewing on a homeless fella?" "You seem to be well grounded in the case file, detective." "What else do you need?" "Well, we've developed a rough list of those adult males who were briefly detained by police near pier five soon after the suspect made his last call." "We'd like to put some of those under surveillance." "They're not suspects but we would consider them persons of interest." "We've also developed a rough list of known adult white homosexual sex offenders in these three districts." "And, as we cull that list, we would... we'd like to put some of those under surveillance, too." " About a dozen men." " Less, actually." "We should be able to eliminate many of our potentials through retroactive investigation." "Do you have your people?" "I've asked the chief of patrol to detail Sergeant Ellis Carver from the Western to Homicide for purposes of running the surveillance element." "Why not a man from one of the districts where the attacks occurred?" "Well, I've worked with Carver on prolonged investigations in the past, and his familiarity with surveillance tactics is relevant." "Also, I would be inclined to trust his objective assessment when choosing surveillance teams." "Very good." "If that works for patrol, it works for operations." "What are we doing to protect people?" "Patrol and tactical are running extra cars in all three districts with special emphasis on posts where the homeless congregate." "We have ten undercovers dressed as vagrants working staggered shifts." "We're going to need good undercover cars, as well." "And I'm told that motor pool expects nothing back" " from Dickman Street until..." " Whatever you need, detective." "Yes, Mr. Mayor, but we're being told by Public Works..." "Go to Avis if you have to, Hertz." "I don't give a shit." "People are disappearing." "They're dying, for Chrissake." "Just do what you need to do." "The bad news, gentlemen, is we're actually going to have to catch this motherfucker." "The good news is that our mayor finally needs a police department more than he needs a school system." "Yo, can I help you?" " I'm looking to work." " Here?" "Yeah, you need anyone?" " How old are you?" " 18." "A'ight, man, I'm 15." "I can give you a form to fill out, but the manager, he ain't gonna hire no one under 17." "Hey, yo." "You used to run with the boy Namond, right?" "Yeah, I used to be on them Fayette corners." " Oh yeah, man, I remember you." " Yeah, I just got tired, you know?" "Shit got old." "So, I guess you need to bang a while longer, then come back, see if we got something." "Why me?" "Why not somebody from a district where they caught one of your homeless cases?" "Well, there's a hitch." "This is some fucked-up McNulty shit." "I don't want me or any of my guys getting burned." "Look, here's the deal." "Command are throwing more resources at me than I can use on my homeless stuff." "I got that covered." "But Lester's got a fresh line on Marlo Stanfield, and he needs people to run it down." "A fresh line, huh?" "He's got a fuckin' wire up is what you mean." "No, there's no wire..." "Who the fuck are you kidding?" "I handed him a fresh cell number for Stanfield not two weeks ago." "Listen, I don't know anything about any wire." "I'm just saying he's got a new line on Marlo, and he needs people to run it down." "Bosses stiff-armed him?" "Jesus." "Guy drops all those motherfuckers in the vacants." "Yeah." "So you're throwing people over to Lester, and paying for it from your case, is that it?" "O.T. Out the ass." " What about the paperwork?" " I'll take care of that." "All the sheets, office reports, come through me." "All your people got to do is straight police work." "Daniels gave me a free hand to pull people from any district." "Just make sure you send me people who work." "What about cars?" "Departmental account at Enterprise downtown." "Get what you need." "We delay fleet maintenance for Public Works over the next three months." "We cut snow removal in half and pray for global warming." "That's enough to avoid any cuts in school funding for this quarter." "This funds police operations fully, correct?" "They're back to where they started." "It's time anyway." "We ducked the teacher layoffs, and you got the 15 points on the third-grade M.S.A.s." "But if we don't drop crime in this quarter and the next, you are vulnerable." "It's now or never." "Besides, you're getting traction in this homeless thing." "Governor was on Y.P.R. Yesterday, and Steiner laid him out for the state cutbacks." "Health Care For The Homeless have asked for City Hall's steps tomorrow night." " Candlelight vigil." " You said yes, right?" "Norman told 'em they could do it if I got a chance to say a few choice words." "Speak of the devil." "I just got off the phone with the Post." "Reporter there wants your comment on a story he's working about Dobey, down in P.G., looking to take you on in the Democratic primary." "What?" "Dobey's getting in?" "Make matters worse, Upshaw's telling people he might just throw in with said county exec." "Shit, we might have a full-blown P.G. Insurrection on our hands." " Why would they do that?" " Lots of pissed off black folks down there." "Lot of grumbling' about always a bridesmaid, never the bride." "No way can Dobey take the statehouse." "All he's gonna do is make us spend money we'll need in the general." "When we went a-calling in P.G. Last month, who'd you see?" "Steny." "Maloney, Miller, those guys." "White, white and white." "Not even a cup of coffee with poor old congressman Upshaw." "I wasn't snubbing the guy." "Folks there are tired of being taken for granted." " Fuck, I gotta kiss a ring, don't I?" " More than a ring, actually." "Unlimited O. T?" "That's what I'm told." "But you say we might not be working the homeless cases." "Not all the time." "Major crimes has a drug investigation that may also need surveillance work." "Shit, who cares what we work?" "I need the money." "A'ight then, you'll be working out of homicide." "Report down there to Detective McNulty." "Oh, yeah." "Rented wheels on the back lot." "Fuckin' A!" "Ah, man, this is beautiful." "Hell, yeah." "It's weird shit, talkin' to a psychopath like that." "I interviewed Dick Cheney once." "What do you think, Gus?" "Are we hyping this, or is Templeton writing as it lays?" "Police say it's real." "An' those photographs he got sent?" "The guy's fucking missing." "I guess we're writing homeless stories till December?" "Why till December?" "Pulitzer submissions run the calendar year." "Anything a newspaper cares about at Christmas, they give a fuck about by New Year's." "Homelessness it is there, gents." "Hold on." "Fella in the lobby wants to talk to an editor." "What kind of editor?" "The kind that worked on the story about that homeless vet." "Scott's piece?" "Sure they don't want to talk to Scott?" "Says Templeton won't take his calls anymore, so he walked over here to talk to somebody else." "Tell him someone's coming down." "That all he say?" "Just walked up and said he got Savino." "Said he gonna get more of our muscle if Marlo don't come to the street and step to him." "Good thing he didn't make me from Monk's apartment." "I kept on lookin' away from the motherfucker, hopin' he ain't remember me." "He was limping' bad, too." "He had a crutch." "Wasn't lying' about Savino, was he?" "Everybody sayin' Omar's on this warpath." "Heard he got a stash house last week." "Everybody's..." "Everybody need to shut the fuck up." "Look, I'm just sayin', if Marlo was all that over June Bug calling' him a name, so that y'all dropped June and his whole family, then what the fuck?" "Omar out there calling' 'em bitches every damn day." "Fuck Omar." "What, ya think we ain't gonna catch this dicksucker?" "This nigger gonna get got." "Y'all gonna tell Marlo?" "We tell him, we don't tell him." "Man got enough on his plate." "Young on some different opinion shit there." "I dunno." "If I was Marlo..." "Motherfucker, you ain't." "Raspberry?" "Wild strawberry." " What?" " Nothing, man." "C'mon, man, we gotta get across town." "This bitch is gonna tell you where there's construction, gonna tell you left, gonna tell you right." "Pretty much blow you if you ask nice." "And look." "Yo, you gotta play some old school R'n'B shit on that, man." "New car, O.T. This fuckin' detail, man." "I hope we never catch this goofy motherfucker." "Hey, officers." "Lookee here." "You got two young bucks round the corner." "One in the white tee, the other guy a throwback on." "One got the jump in his dip and the one with a car tire, ya feel me?" " Round the corner?" " Fulton and Lex." " A'ight." " Thanks, man." "Yeah." "Mr. Hanning?" "It's an honour for me to meet you, sir." " Who are you?" " My name's Gus Haynes." " I edited the story you're featured in." " Then you're a fucking liar." "Omar." "It's Omar, yo!" "Gotta giddy up an' go, dawg." "Get!" "One..." "Two..." "Three..." "Four." "Ya see there?" "Omar know what one it is." "Look like all your muscle done up and indisposed now." "So you might as well go ahead and drop it out, ya feel me?" "I'm obliged to walk up in there now." "You workin' a Stanfield corner, which means you workin' for a straight-up punk." "Ya feel me?" "I'm out here in these streets every day." "Me an' my lonesome." "An' where he at?" "Yo, y'all put it in his ear." "Marlo Stanfield is not a man for this town." "You dig?" "Yeah." "Yeah, eight men, four cars." "Ellis briefed 'em." "They know what's what." "No, they're just happy for the O.T. Don't worry, Lester." "Just sign the motherfucker and shut the fuck up." "Gimme." "We ready?" "'Cause you gotta figure an extra hour to get round the Capital Beltway this time of day." "You ever done an FBI profile before?" " Once." " How'd it go?" "They take your file, read you back some shit you already know." " Then why do it?" " So that we can say we did." "Need a pack of Newport." "Soft pack." "Let me get one of them, too." "Don't shoot!" "Lowenthal." "Where the fuck is he?" "He's..." "There you go, Bunk." "Request for a DNA comparison." "Case 06H-271." "Latent trace to obtained samples." "And it's a part of the serial killer thing." "It's now a part of that investigation." "That's different." "If it's connected to that investigation..." "It is, here." " It's in my notes." " I never said I was in a firefight." " Not on that day." " Sorry, but you did." "I told you the lead vehicle took a hit from an elevated I.E.D." "Killed the 50 gunner, and blew the hands off the driver." "That's it." "That's enough, man." " Why make the rest of that shit up?" " I didn't make anything up." " We sat there having coffee." " Coffee." " Having donuts and coffee." "And you said..." " What I say?" " Can I finish?" " I don't know." "I'm hearing about coffee and donuts, I'm not hearing..." "If you're not going to let me tell my side of the story..." "A lie ain't a side of the story, it's just a lie." " I don't have to listen to this." " OK." "Scott, let's just relax here." "Both you gentlemen, let's just step back here, please?" "Now, Mr. Hanning, forgive me, but do you drink much?" "You think I fucking sleep under a bridge sober?" "Sometimes when I have a few, and I do like to have a few," "I tend to be a little more descriptive in the telling of a tale." "I know what it is to tell a story." "I've told plenty in my time." "But there's some things that happen, you don't ever fuck with them." "I believe you, Mr. Hanning." "I believe that you believe." "That you believe you told me one thing." "But, sir, with all due respect and gratitude, for you and the service you gave to this country, you didn't tell me that thing." "You told me something else." "I wrote what Mr. Hanning told me." " Mr. Hanning, I know you..." " What if one of the guys, what if a Marine who was there, he reads that shit that you made up?" "That's why I come down here today." "What if one of the guys sees that?" "Man, get him outta my face." "Guy's just off." "Off in general, off his meds." "I don't know, but off." " A lot of them are, you know." "I hate to say it..." " He puts on a good front." "We'll call the Marines, get a service record, reach out to some people in his unit, find out what happened that day outside of..." " What was it?" "Fallujah?" " Yeah." "If it went down the way you said, we'll let it be." "But if not, we'll chalk it up as a misunderstanding." "But misunderstanding or no, we will write a correction if what we printed wasn't accurate." "And we didn't have coffee." "We had chocolate milk." "You miss what you had, though?" "I still got too much dog in me to be settled like that." "It wasn't Cheryl." "It was me." "Thing is, is I found a connect with the boy, you know?" "That part of it feels right to me." "Kids are great." "Yeah." "What about you and Beadie?" "You were quiet there for a time." "Yeah." "Bunk once told me I'm no good for people." "Everyone around me, he said." " Was he drunk?" " Yeah." "But still." " Omar be dead." "I'm tellin' you." " Heard that before." " For real." " You see him?" "Seen his dead ass laying' right up in there." "Boy up on the corner say he try to rob them Koreans and got killed." "You shoulda let me give him the years, Bunk." "He'd have been better off." "Thanks for calling." "Figured you'd wanna see this, you being so tight with the mope." "Professional job here." "No." "I thought so at first, but the Korean broad we sent downtown said he got done in by a short little fella with a big gun." "Shit, walked in an' lit his ass up." "How short?" "The boy robbed him?" "Counter lady said the hoppers all ran up in here for souvenirs." "Took his shotty and his semiauto too." "Ran all through his pockets." "Be my guest." "Back on the hunt, were you?" "Young 'un say he out here with no car, walkin' with a limp an' shit." "He gonna fall, Chris." "You gonna see." " Marlo need a meet." " For real?" "Leander, where we at?" "Still setting this up." "Why, did you catch another one?" "6:55 and 34." "We're not on anybody yet, so we'll pick it up in the morning." "All right, later." "OK." "Doze, Truck, you're on Monk Metcalf." "Bobby, you and Brian are on Chris Partlow." "He usually rides with Snoop Pearson, but if they split, Karen and Tony will pick up on her." "Marcus, Angela." "You're the backup unit when we need one." " You're gonna do Stanfield?" " Yeah." "All their business is face-to-face, and they meet in the open several times a day." "We're just trying to find the pattern in the meets." "Where do we pick these guys up?" "Stanfield has every corner between MLK and Monroe, and they start shaping it up around 11 or so, OK?" "That's when the re-up orders start coming in, that's when you'll start to see Monk making the rounds." "Most mornings, Marlo starts off with a parley or two on the playground between Mosher and Lanvale." "Now, these guys seem to be wholesaling, too." "Other dealers, players, anyone who wants to get with him gets him there, OK?" "Chris and Snoop are usually with him." "And McNulty's got you covered for paperwork." "None of what we do here is necessary for court, so rest easy on that, all right?" "So we stage here tomorrow at nine." "No sign of him, but I ain't on nothin' else for as long as it take." "You ain't heard?" "Omar bagged up." "Shit, I thought y'all was gonna tell me." "I just got the word myself from Monk." " Who got him?" " Some young boy." " Who?" " Ain't heard a name." "Don't even know if there was a why." "Hopper wanna hear a pop, see the damage, ya know?" "Yeah." "That shit is gone." "We done with this next resupply, you an' me got some time in AC coming to us, don't we?" "Forensically, this guy is all over the map." "Sexual to a point, but inhibited." "Nocturnal on some, diurnal on the others." "And the notion of targeting the homeless, to begin with?" "We've only seen that a couple of times, but in those instances, it's been someone within that cohort." "And they're not usually carrying cellphones and calling newspapers." "You caught a strange one here." "Detectives." "Don't get up." "Arthur Toland, deputy director of the unit." "Just wanted to drop by and make sure we're progressing your case." "Yeah." "Great." "Thanks." "You might recognize the director from television." " He's done all of them." " You know those news shows." "Always want a talking head when a case comes up." "Greta van Susteren, Nancy Grace, Chris Matthews, that fella with the big forehead, whatshisname?" " Larry King?" " Yeah." "What the hell." "It's a chance to get the word out for the bureau." "And I sell some books." ""Human Hunters" " The Rise of the American Serial Killer"?" "They've used a lot of my stuff on those CSI shows." "I've consulted for them." "You haven't heard..." "So, how long you been doing death investigations?" "Eight years." "We don't see a lot of serial stuff, actually." "Drug murders." "A street robbery every now and then." "300 or so a year." "Well, you've got a serial case now, so, I'll leave you to it." "Good hunting." "Art was lead investigator on the Unabomber thing." "That was, like, 16 years, right?" "Yeah." "Then his brother ratted him out?" "Homeless is in at 30 inches." "It's good shit there." "No, really." "There was a real sense of place, especially under the Hanover Bridge when the police came up under there to give the warning." "Drama in small moments like that." " Truth is, I had a tour guide." " Yeah?" "Yeah, fella I met at a soup kitchen." "Volunteer there." "Ex-addict." "There's something about this guy." "I mean, he's just..." "I don't know, the more he talked, the more I felt like it was him I really wanted to write about." " Yeah?" " But he's not homeless." "I don't have any peg for him." "Shit, I don't know what the story is." " He's got a name?" " Reginald Cousins." "Volunteers at a soup kitchen." "What's he do for money?" "Sells the Baltimore Sun every morning out by Light Street." " Shit." "Not exactly a growth industry." " He lives in his sister's basement." "She'll take a plate down to him now and then but won't let him upstairs." " Spend some time with him." " What about the homeless coverage?" "You're covered." "Take a couple weeks, see what you see." "A'ight?" "Late entries from the copshop." "Two dead in a Charles county house fire," " and a homicide from the city." " Ettlin, what do we got room for?" "We're shy one brief in the metro digest." "Four paragraphs'll fill." "What's the homicide?" "A 34-year-old black male shot dead in West Baltimore grocery." "Juvenile suspect is being sought." "Write up the fire." "Scratch the murder, we don't have room." "So what we conclude from a behavioral analysis of the known forensics is the following:" "The suspect is likely a white male, in his late 20s to late 30s." "He likely is not a college graduate, but feels nonetheless superior to those with advanced education, and he is likely employed in a bureaucratic entity, possibly civil service or quasi-public service, from which he feels alienated." "He has a problem with authority and a deep-seated resentment of those who he feels have impeded his progress professionally." "The minimized sexual activity suggests that this is not a primary motive for the killings." "In fact, the bite marks in the last found victim lacking the DNA of saliva, indicate to us possible post-mortem staging." "The suspect has trouble with lasting relationships and is possibly a high-functioning alcoholic, with alcohol being utilized as a trigger in the commission of these crimes." "His resentment of the homeless may stem from a personal relationship with someone in that cohort, or his victimization of vagrants might merely present an opportunity for him to assert his superiority and intellectual prowess." "If you get more, fax it down, and we can update the profile." "Thanks for everything." "Thanks." "So, what do you think?" "They're in the ballpark." "Congressman, I'll do whatever it takes to make things right between us, but running Dobey in the primary is only gonna hurt everybody." " You mean hurt you." " I'm the only viable candidate to beat that Republican prick, and I know you know that." "At the end of the day, isn't that what it's all about?" "Do not waste your breath tellin' me what I already know about our tax-cutting, dump-it-on-the-counties, ass-kiss-every-business-interest governor." "P.G. County has 100 murders a year, school system held together with spit and glue, and worse rush-hour traffic than Atlanta." "And the man in Annapolis wouldn't piss on us if we were on fire." " Don't hold back, congressman." " I'm tired of these fuckin' Republicans." "I fucked up, not coming to see you earlier." "But between the votes I can pull out of Baltimore," "Montgomery and your county, I am gonna take the statehouse." "And then the frustration that you feel is gonna end." "I know you've heard this from every other son of a bitch, but congressman, I give you my word." "You know, you're right." "I have heard that before." "You wanna keep P.G. County in your camp, it's gonna cost you a lot more than your word." "Fuck." "You rang?" "Funny case you got here." "Your victim had an address." "A home." "Paid rent, so we assume." "Maybe even a mortgage." "But not homeless, in any case." "No strangulation, no red ribbon." "A lesser man might get pissy because you jumped the line, Bunk." "Me?" "I remember Partlow's name from all those cases last year." " Congrats." " Yeah." "But... don't fuck with me like this again." "Yeah." "He lied on his mortgage application, huh?" " We have a name for that over here." " The headshot." "I know." "On a mortgage charge, he's certain to plead out." " Billy doesn't plead his clients." " Then he's looking at a lot of years." "A federal jury is a very different animal than what they see on Calvert Street." "I tried to tell him that." "Yeah, but Mr. Bond wanted to try this himself, see if he couldn't grandstand his way to City Hall." "Well, you have the headshot, detective, but no gun with which to fire it." " We can't take this case." " It's all on paper." "You had canceled cheques." "You had bank accounts." "You had his bag man on the stand." "We had a city jury." "We've been gathering string on Clay Davis for six years, detective." "Six years, we've had a file open on that shakedown artist." "And now, after you city sons of bitches have managed, in a single week, to transform Clay fucking Davis into Martin Luther King Jr., you now come to me with this, which you had in your back pocket all along," "looking for the federal jury of mostly white faces to remedy the problem?" "Well..." "I'm sorry." "Thank you." "What's this?" "From the pocket of a dead stick-up boy." "Omar Little." "Omar?" "Dead?" "You stop readin' the 24s?" "Killed yesterday at a grocery." " Slow to the draw, he was." " No shit." "One to the back of the head." "Norris and Crutchfield caught it." "They're looking for a juvenile." "He was hunting Stanfield and crew." " And this was on him?" " Yep." "Thought of you and Lester when I saw it." "Payback for you getting me back some great lab." "Positive DNA on Chris Partlow." "An alley beating, not one of the ones in the vacants." "Motherfucker." "You have all kinds of news today, don't you?" "Going for a warrant right now." "Hey, can you wait to serve it?" " We're right at the edge, Bunk." " How long?" "'Cause this is an honest fuckin' murder prosecution." "I'll talk to Lester." "Congrats." "Yeah." "No shuckin', no jivin'." "Just good ol' police work." "How about that, Jimmy?" "Without my bullshit, you're still waiting on lab work." "Listen, Jimmy, the Conaway shooting from Westport?" "The transvestite?" "I go to ViCAP, there's another one just like it, down in Carolina, four months ago." "For a road car and two nights in a hotel, I can put this down." "What are you talking about?" "Yours is a 9mm, this one's a.32." "Yours was a bar pick-up, this one's a home invasion." "Still worth checking out." "I don't see it." "Sorry." "You're gonna make me spit it out, aren't you?" "You ever played Hilton Head?" "I get a call from my brother-in-law a few days ago." "He managed to swing a tee-time for this weekend." "Jimmy, I'm going, goddammit." "The fuck do I care?" "Go." "You know, this is some real cute shit you're pulling here." "Taking the detail money and doling it around like a priest passing wafers." "I don't know what you're up to but I know this." "If someone picked up a phone around here, your shit is critically fucked." "Two nights and a road car." "Leander, I'm showing 10:55 and 34 from Marlo's phone." "Anybody on the move?" "I got him coming eastbound on Baltimore Street at Calhoun." " Who's on Monk?" " Wait one." "23-06 to 23-11." "Where you at, man?" "23-11." "Southbound MLK, approaching route 40." "That's the meet, Lester." "Monk and Marlo on the westside." "We on it." "Corner of Argyle and Dolphin." "Monk and Marlo, as expected." "Now I got 4:40 and 35 coming into Marlo's phone." "Yeah, he's scoping that, Lester." "We know it ain't Monk calling'." "23-06 to 23-12." " Who do you have eyes on?" " Both my subjects." " They go to their cellphones?" " Negative." " They on the move?" " Negative." " 23-14, nothing moving either." " No one else calling or moving." "Means we got somebody else on this network we don't yet know." "Oh, boy." " Hey, man, let me give you a hand." " All right, you ready?" "I don't have no money in the moment, but I'll be going down to the scales in a hour or two." "You help me out, I'll go ten for your trouble." "Got a rag for that behind you." "Junk!" "Junkman!" "Where the fuck are you going?" "I gotta see Lester about..." "What's all that?" "Parole info on known sex offenders for five zip codes." "I've also got background info on my desk for everyone we picked up at pier five with a cellphone." " You're actually gonna..." " Compare the FBI profile with every person of interest I can find?" "Hell yeah, somebody's gotta." " Come here." " The fuck are you doin'?" "Maurice Dobey?" "For governor?" "Of my state?" "Shit." "That's some cynical politics, right there." "Playin' like you gonna run a man you know can't win to scare people into paying' off." "Dobey could bloody you up, Tommy." "In Baltimore and P.G. Both." "Playin' that race card." "Shameful." "What does Upshaw want to stay out of the race?" " Too much." " Are you going to pay?" "Let's just say I'm in negotiations." "I'll do everything I can to make sure this insurrection doesn't spread." "Wonderful!" "And how much is the loyal support of the Eastside Democratic Coalition going to cost me?" "Only an endorsement, given that this man here is still standing," "I don't believe that Rupert Bond is going to find his way into this office." "Do you?" "And for my endorsement, you will return the favour and ignore our friends in Prince George's." "And the loyalty of the westside is going to cost me what exactly?" "Nothin' big." "You got three seats comin' open on the liquor board." " You get one seat." " Two an' you have me raisin' money for you in the primary." "Sold." "And it scares me to think of the damage you can do with two votes on the liquor board." " It ain't right." " No..." " It just is." " No, I mean, you can't do this." "We're doing it." "Whatever they give us to work the bullshit," "I throw to Lester, or Crutchfield or Norris, anyone else who has a case that ought to be solved." "It's bad enough I wasted your day yesterday going to Quantico." "I can't stand to see you wasting more time." "You should be working your home invasion." " Jimmy, you can't do this." " A couple days more, and Lester gets his best shot at Marlo." "After that, we'll never hear from the red-ribbon killer again." "The bosses will lose interest, I'll pretend to run out a little more string, and then it goes right back to the admin office." "No harm, no foul." "Whatever you need, Kima, to work your triple or any other case that matters to you." "Manpower, O.T., lab work, cars." "Just let me know." "I gotta go." "Man!" "Junk!" "Old papers!" "Sheet metal!" "Junkman!" "Junk!" "Cardboard." " Newspapers." " Hey, Bug, up here." "Whoa, boy." "I get you that ten tomorrow and if you're lookin' for work," "I got what needs lifting'." "You know the stable on Bruce Street?" "Be there before nine." "Dag, Duke, you a-rabbin' now?" "I'm showing 5:15 and 34 seconds." "I'm up Park Heights but I lost him just past the park." "MTA bus clipped the kerb and it knocked down a utility pole." "By the time I detoured, he slipped me." "Well, let me know." "Big news." "Bunk has a murder warrant on Chris Partlow." " The hell you say." " Not one from the vacants." "DNA match on an alley beating." "He lets this go now, these guys are gonna go to ground." "We're right at the edge of something here." "He's giving us a couple of days." "He owes me." "I expedited his lab work for it." " And Omar Little?" "Stick up boy?" " What about him?" "Caught one in a Korean joint over westside." "Bunk pulled that out of his pocket." "Mean anything at all to us?" "Looks like he was after Marlo's crew." "Cheese." "Cheese Wagstaff?" "In addition to their corners, these guys are wholesaling all over town, so I figured Cheese was just one of many." "The note reads like Omar had him under Marlo's wing." "A lieutenant, at least." "Anyway, I gotta go, do more pretending for the rest of the city." "Oh, by the way, I" " I told Greggs." "McNulty, how many more people..." "She was about to jump into the serial murders." " I couldn't stand to spin her like that." " How'd she take it?" "23-06 to any 23 sequence." "Trying to reconnect with my subject." " Anyone who can assist?" " 23-15 to 23-06." "I'm in the 2800 block, Edgecombe Circle South, sitting on the female subject." "Maybe that's the other end of your meet." "Edgecombe Circle?" "Where's that 20?" " It runs off Pall Mall." " Where's Pall Mall?" " I'm not too good up in the northwest." " Between Pimlico..." "Never mind, I got a map book." "OK, see what we got here." "Map 34, grid E3." "Three." " Whaddya got?" " What'd that last clock show?" "And these people that I share the stage with tonight are here as representatives of the hundreds, no, the thousands of citizens without shelter, without protection, in this city tonight." "Why does this have to be?" "Certainly, the last seven years have not brought the same levels of federal commitment to American cities as from previous administrations." "And certainly, our governor has in the last year placed severe restrictions on whatever stopgap state programs were in place." "And what little remained of our so-called safety net was simply shredded, and more and more of our fellow citizens found themselves living life at the broken edges, in the street." "Well, I say that this is not only tragic, it is unforgivable!" "And I am here to say that no longer can these people with whom I share this stage tonight be invisible, just as all of those without shelter in this city, in this country, can no longer be invisible to us." "And it is regrettable that it has taken the actions of a remorseless predator to make us reflect." "But we in Baltimore have been tested, and we have been taught that all of our citizens deserve the full protection of the law, and the full support of the community." "And we are saying to this senseless killer, and to all the other ills that prey on those without shelter in our city, not tonight can you prey on them." "And not tomorrow." "Not any longer." "We will protect you!" "Thank you." "She asked you keep that one stirred." "You were on my thing, right?" "I guess I owe you a drink on that." "What's your poison?" "I'm OK, senator, thank you very much." "Obonda, huh?" "That's a good one." "You know, that was mostly my evidence you beat back there, right?" " You think you could do that again?" " Excuse me?" "Except this time, the jury's a federal one." "Say, nine white, three black." "Time for you to tip on out, detective." "Bank records on that mortgage application you made on the Calvert county property years back." "Now, why don't you take that back to Billy Murphy?" "Ask your attorney what you're exposed to." "At this point, this is just between us two gentlemen here, senator." "And no one else till I make it so." "What?" "You tryin' to sell a case back to me?" "Motherfucker, if you don't get..." "I don't get paid like that." "I get paid when I come back in a couple nights time with questions and you, sir, have answers." "Or my next call will be to the US Attorney's office, and we will go again." "But for real." "You can keep that copy." "Ma'am." "Just to let you know, before the fireworks start, I'm spiking this lead." " But you got my back?" " As best I can." "I'm spiking your lead." "I'm not running a story about a public gathering, a candlelight vigil at City Hall, in fact, where the lead anecdote and quote is from an unnamed homeless woman." "She doesn't want to be known as homeless." "I explained that." "Scott, there were hundreds of homeless down there tonight." "People who voluntarily attended this event." "And I'd guess that any number of them would've let you put their names in the paper." "But her story is great." "Look at that quote." "It's a perfect quote." "Best quote I could ever ask for." "That's my concern at this point." "Jesus Christ." "To hell with you if you think I made it up." "We have a standard that we follow here." "And I'm gonna follow it." "Here it comes, Gus." "Yep." "Gus, you're retopping Scott's vigil copy?" " I am." " But I thought..." "Anonymous attribution in a public setting." "There's no need for it." " Gus, let's discuss this." " Actually, I did discuss it with the metro editor, and he agrees." "Now, the story's on the copy desk, and as a line editor working this story, I feel I've done my job." "Now, you as the M.E., if you want to go another way, you pull the story back and re-edit." "But we have a sourcing policy here, and I know it, and I do not feel comfortable bending the rules in this instance." "Night." "Yeah?" "McNulty, it's Christeson." "Listen, my case is down an' I wanted to thank you." "I couldn't have done it otherwise." "No problem." " It went great." " Kids asleep?" "Yeah, but they saw you on W.B.A.L." "Anna said your hair looked funny." "Well, just so long as she was impressed." "C.N.N. Was there." "I wonder if they'll cycle any coverage through tonight." " A good day for hizzoner, huh?" " I don't know." "Nerese shook me down for a mayoral endorsement, and Clay Davis, back from the grave, took a couple of liquor board seats." "Just so as they won't join in Upshaw's war party in Prince George's." "You're gonna endorse Nerese?" "You told me you prefer Bond." "I do, but this thing with Upshaw..." "Shit, I might even have to give him a bump just to calm him down." "God." "What's he asking?" " There." "Look." " What's Upshaw asking?" "Half of any extra school or anti-crime money" "I get outta the legislature for Baltimore would go to P.G. County." "You take that deal and Baltimore's out half of what you want to bring back to the city schools." "Yeah, but if I don't win, Jen, I bring back exactly nothing." "Look." "And we are saying to this senseless killer, and to all the other ills..." "Go on." "Straight to bed." "Hey, kiddo." "Where'd you go to?" "None of your business really, Jimmy." "And next time, I'm not going anywhere." "Next time, you're gonna be out on your ass, because that's my fucking house." "That's police work, son." "I pull the A.D.C. Book to find a location, and I'm on the same page number as the second hand." "And I remember we had a lotta clocks with 34 seconds." "That's the page for West Baltimore." "Right." "Now, the second hand is always the map page." "Longitude, A-through-K, is the hour, and for the latitude, they go by five-minute intervals." "Now they know the meeting spot in advance, and they code it by the grid square." "But if the clock has nothing to do with time, how do they know when to meet?" "Everything's less than a half hour of driving, even in traffic." "My guess is that the standing logic is that they meet within an hour or so." "You know what else makes sense?" "This clock face when no one was on the move?" "The times are all at 35 seconds." "And that's the page for East Bawlmer." " Cheese." " Cheese Wagstaff?" "Marlo's wholesaling westside through Monk, and eastside with Cheese." " He's got the whole goddamn city." " How do we know it's Cheese?" "You, too, huh?" "You all are good with this?" "Not me." "All the guys at the bar, Jimmy, all the girls, they don't show up at your wake." "Not because they don't like you but because they never knew your last name." "A month later, someone tells 'em, "Oh, Jimmy died."" ""Jimmy who?" "Jimmy the cop."" ""Oh," they say. "Him."" "And all the people on the job, all the people you spent all those hours in the radio car with, the guys with their feet up on their desk telling stories, who shorted you on the food runs, who signed your overtime slips." "In the end, they're not gonna be there either." "Family." "That's it." "Family, and if you're lucky, one or two friends who are the same as family." "That's all the best of us get." "Everything else is just..." "There is no serial killer." "There are no murders." "I made it all up." "They were shutting us down." "They were just..." "It's hard to explain." "I don't even know where the anger comes from, I don't know how to make it stop." "They fucking task me, they do." "We took the money from the bullshit investigation, and rerouted it to Lester." "Now he's got the cake to take down Marlo Stanfield." "And now that I've done all this, now that I've watched myself do it," "I can't even stand to..." "Lester says he's close." "Time will pass, and I'll be able to shut this thing down." "If you don't go to jail." "You had no fucking right." " I know." " This is my life, too." "You start to tell the story;" "you think you're the hero." "And then, when you get done talking, you..."