«   MR. ROBERT BARRY COMPTON

DRUMMOND You stick with a case. You work it hard. You’re going to catch most perpetrators. Thing is, most of them are idiots. Most people don’t grow up aspiring to be a criminal. They get into it sideways. They need quick money or they do something dumb when they’re high. Usually the rest of their life isn’t going very well so they think, why not? This Billup wouldn’t have gotten so twisted if he wasn’t a drunk.       I had a case yesterday. A young guy and his girlfriend were wasted and they stuck up a Fast Way with a damn tire iron. Running out of the store they rammed the door into a logger that was going in to buy some chew. He got up off the ground and pulled the young guy out of his car before he could get it started and pounded the crap out of him right there in the store parking lot. The girlfriend took off and got hit by a car crossing Eureka Way. Squad cars arrive in response to the Fast Way clerk’s call. The perp is bleeding on the ground with a broken nose and broken collarbone, the logger’s got his foot on the kid’s chest. Tens and twentys blowing around the lot with the clerk chasing them. Girl’s stopping traffic lying in the street with a broken pelvis and who knows what else. That’s crime for you.       This Parker case. I knew we were going to crack it. Just a matter of time.

PEGGY DUHEEN   »

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