“That’s the guy?” Charles Grantham asked, staring at the sixty-inch screen.
The shaky images rattled on, the sound tinny and thin: “You took money to help a vicious killer get free so that he could kill again! You took money from a psychopath so that he could rape and murder young girls. ‘I was just doing my job’ is not a defense you disgusting excuse for a human being!”
“Big guy, isn’t he. What is he, six-two, six-three?”
“Ahhh, I don’t know. I can find out if you’d like.”
“Nah, not important,” Grantham said, clicking the pause button and turning away from the screen. “He looks like something of a loose cannon.”
“He’s got a good record, Mayor. No disciplinary actions or reprimands in his file, until this,” Fineman nodded toward the frozen video, “but if you’re concerned he–” Grantham waved his assistant to a stop.
“Kick-ass is good. I’m sick of paper pushers. A kick-ass, take-no-prisoners guy is just what I need.” Grantham glanced back at the frozen screen. “Has he ever shot anybody?”
Fineman leafed through the file. “Uhh, twice.”
“Did he kill them?”
“One dead, one seriously wounded,” Fineman replied, running his finger down the page.
“Good, good,” Grantham said, turning to stare at the screen for a couple of seconds longer, then looking back at his Chief of Staff. “Get together with the Chief and the City Attorney and figure out what paperwork we’ll have to push to make this happen.”
“Are you sure, sir? As you said, he might be a loose cannon. He could end up making things worse, especially since he once had a relationship with Captain Tanner.”
“Sammy Theriot is killing me over these ‘Mad Dog’ murders and I am not going to lose this election. This guy,” Grantham hooked a thumb over his shoulder toward the screen, “is going be my dog catcher. I don’t give a damn what his relationship with Tanner was or is. He can fuck her on the courthouse steps for all I care as long as he catches those bastards before the election. Make it happen.”
“Yes, sir,” Fineman said, jotting down a note before grabbing the next file on his stack.