“I don’t want to apologize for him, but this is an unusual situation.” Leland did not really care if it was or not. Perhaps his father had noticed something about him, for he had taken an opportunity to probe. Leland wanted to draw him out. His father would not say what he thought until he was sure—and he did not respond to straightforward questioning. Leland had thought he had shaken off the worst of the effects of what had happened with Betty Kaminsky. If something showed, he wanted to know it.

His father sat back and put his foot in the bottom drawer of the desk. “In the old days a man couldn’t dream of even being a sergeant until he was forty. There’s something to be said for that way of doing things. Years of routine seasons a man. He understands himself, or he should. With this setup of test-taking and a minimum of experience, you don’t really know what’s going to happen under pressure. You have a man who knows how to take tests. Yet this is the way we have to do it. The force is expanding. We have to find good men and bring them up. I don’t like the way Schoenstein tried to handle the arrest. All right, he was told to do it, but there is the book. It’s the best way of doing things. This guy is innocent until proven guilty. You have to treat him that way. Not even all the guilty behavior in the world makes him guilty. You agree with that, don’t you?”

“Of course.”

“If Schoenstein were a couple of years older, with a few more years of experience under his belt, he’d have been able to tell them what to do in their hats and pull them over their ears. They can push all they want if they’re dealing with mature men—that’s only maybe. To hell with that. If we all stayed with the procedures, the procedures would protect us. Like union work rules.” He laughed. “And I’d rather choke than see a cop join a union and surrender the little professional status he has.”

One of the telephones rang. “What is it? … Oh, yeah? … Who supplies the power for the lights? … Okay, put them over on the far side so they won’t be in your way. I won’t have any interference with the police function.” He hung up. “The sergeant has television people on the other line. They’re on their way and they want to set up in the muster room. This is the first time for this precinct. Where were we?”

Leland laughed. “You were telling me that I was too young to have been an effective cop.”

“What? Cut it out. You know I didn’t mean you.”

“I know.”