Two more pie charts flashed by on the screen.

“Officer Fling,” Hammer said. “Put it back on the logo, please. Let’s talk about this.”

A pin map of handgun seizures filled the screen, little yellow revolvers pointed at the problem areas of the city.

“Go, Fling!”

“Check out COMSTAT for Dummies.”

“Shit,” Fling said when he somehow ended up back at the main menu.

“Go back to your day job, Fling.”

He banged the enter key four times and an error message told him to stop it.

“All right, all right,” Hammer quieted the room. “Captain Cloud? I want to hear what you have to say.”

“Well,” Cloud picked up where he’d left off, “it’s like the city seal, George Washington on his horse. I gotta ask you, what’s George Washington got to do with Richmond? I guess we what? Borrowed that from D.C., from another big city, in other words?”

“Amen.”

“I agree totally.”

“I bet he never even slept here.”

“It’s an embarrassment.”

“D.C., and now we’re swiping ideas from New York. How bad does that make us look?” Cloud said.

“Okay,” Hammer raised her voice. “I’m afraid there’s not a thing we can do about the city seal at this time. So let’s get back to our motto. Captain Cloud, remember that part of accountability is to suggest a solution when you point out a problem. Do you have a new motto in mind?”

“Well, I played around with one a little bit last night.”

Cloud had high blood pressure. His white uniform shirt was too tight around the neck, and his face was almost purple. He was center stage and sweating.

“I was thinking about what would be simple but direct, and, now don’t get your hopes up that this is real creative or poetic or anything, but if you ask the question, what are we all about? I think the answer can be summed up in three words. Tough On Crime.” Cloud looked around the table. “TOC, in other words, which is real easy to remember and doesn’t take up any more room than CPR if we’re gonna paint it on things or add it to our patches.”

“Doesn’t do anything for me.”

“Me either.”

“Naw.”

“Okay, okay,” Cloud rushed forward. “I had a backup just in case. How about Tough In Court and Tough On Crime? TIC TOC.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Ditto.”

“Wait a minute,” Cloud went on with conviction. “Everybody’s always complaining how slow we are getting to scenes, to their house after their alarm’s gone off, right? And how many times do we hear the public bitch about how long it takes to solve a case? I think TIC TOC sends a positive message about a new attitude, about us trying harder.”

“It also makes it sound like we’re watching the clock. Like we can’t wait for shift change.”

“Or something bad’s about to happen.”

“Besides, it would be TOC TIC because being tough on crime is gonna come before you get to court.”