“When I thought about Jakob, I realized that his cold dedication to Find helped me get over my separation from Ethan—there was no time for grieving. I had too much work to do.”
“Being a copper I like to see the law win. I’d like to see the flashy well-dressed mugs like Eddie Mars spoiling their manicures in the rock quarry at Folsom, alongside of the poor little slum-bred hard guys that got knocked over on their first caper and never had a break since. That’s what I’d like. You and me both lived too long to think I’m likely to see it happen. Not in this town, not in any town half this size, in any part of this wide, green and beautiful U.S.A. We just don’t run our country that way.”
“Just as I pulled on the lanyard, I heard a shot go off. It took several moments for me to comprehend what had happened. The cop had shot the man I was bartering with! I could see that it hadn’t been a warning shot as blood came from an obvious wound right between his eyes!”
“Two hundred and six were slain during the Joker’s escape from the David Endochrine show including host Endochrine and Dr Bartholomew Wolper. The joker reportedly used his deadly smile gas on the crowd. Commissioner Yindel refused to comment on this, or on the escape of the Batman, which left twelve police officers hospitalized.”
“I’ve just been handed this bulletin--Commissioner James Gordon has been shot and killed--oops! Sorry, folks I read it wrong...Gordon has shot and killed a seventeen-year-old member of the mutant gang...”
“I’m surprised there is a controversy. His actions are categorically criminal. I will have him brought to trial.... I’ll be more specific my first act as police commissioner will be to issue an arrest warrant for the Batman on charges of assault, breaking and entering, creating a public hazard...”
“It is my pleasure to introduce your new police commissioner. I do not envy her the next few years. The job has few rewards. The best you can hope for is that when you’re finished with it, things aren’t as lousy as they would’ve been without you. Ellen Yindel is eminently qualified for this job...She face a city of thieves and murderers and honest people too frightened to hope. She faces life-and-death decisions, every hour to come. Some will torture her. She will face a man who is the living spoirit of...something we need. She may be his enemy. She may learn from him.”
“All, from police forces to armed forces, are rigid hierarchies of salaried employees, and all are necessarily cumbered with incompetents who cannot do their existing work, cannot be promoted, yet cannot be removed.”
“They made such a noise that Michael came running, waving his arms and blowing his whistle. He planted himself in the center of the road, raised one hand to stop the traffic, and then beckoned with the other, the way policemen do, for Mrs. Mallard to cross over.”
“Arthur tied the burglar’s bootlaces together. He had to do it himself because Sampson could only tie granny knots. Then Sampson obliged with his party piece. It was supposed to be the Song of the Nightingale but everyone else thought it sounded like a policeman’s whistle. They counted on the burglar thinking so too.”
“A policeman came and they told him what happened. The policeman looked at Mog. He said, ‘What a remarkable cat. I’ve seen watch-dogs, but never a watch-cat. She will get a medal’. Debbie said, ‘I think she’d rather have an egg’.”
“But now the police have found Johnny’s bicycle abandoned along with others belongings he would never let out of his sight. They want to know what Chris and Johnny did together, where they went and why.”
Everything changes for Chris one August evening when red-haired, freckle-faced Johnny turns up on a bicycle, but who is Johnny and why do the police have his bicycle and other belongings?
“The police, the Home Guard, in fact everybody in authority in Garmouth, knew the gun had been stolen. They were pretty sure the boys had it, but where?”
“But when they want to file a complaint, they only get to hear that this is a minor case because they have no real evidence. It’s one word against the other. The desperate Niklas cannot expect any help against Karl from the police.”
“Elizabeth had formed the Thursday Murder Club with Penny. Penny had been an inspector in the Kent Police for many years, and she would bring along the files of unsolved murder cases. She wasn’t really supposed to have the files, but who was to know? After a certain age, you can pretty much do whatever takes your fancy. No one tells you off, except for your doctors and your children.”
“The older man thinks the most important thing is for a police officer to do the right thing. the younger thinks it’s more important to do things correctly.”
“In truth, it wasn’t the man on the bridge that made the teenage boy want to be a policeman. It was the teenage girl who was standing on the same railing a week later that made him want it. The one who didn’t jump.”
“Of course,” he said at last, “we ought to inform the police, so that they can come here and watch the pond to-night.”
“Of course,” grinned Bill.
“But I think that perhaps it is a little early to put our theories before them.”
“I think perhaps it is,” said Bill solemnly.
Antony looked up at him with a sudden smile.
“Bill, you old bounder.”
“Well, dash it, it’s our show. I don’t see why we shouldn’t get our little bit of fun out of it.”
“Neither do I. All right, then, we’ll do without the police to-night.”
“We shall miss them,” said Bill sadly, “but ‘tis better so.”