“A good retreat is better than a bad stand.”
Irish Proverb
Five years ago in the fall of 1991, the City of Brotherly Love went through a rude awakening when the Top Cop, his pick for Internal Integrity Commander, and a prominent Chief Inspector touted to be the next Philly PD Commissioner all had their careers curtailed. What followed was a six-month trial leading to multiple convictions, lengthy prison terms, and national humiliation for the City and the Philly PD.
According to court testimony, it was the mayor’s race-based agenda that prompted a small group of active officers “overwhelmed by political correctness and weak leadership in their ranks” to conceive a plan for dealing with what they believed to be the ruin of the Philly PD.
The eventual leader and ultimate architect for “taking back the police department” was Chief Inspector Michael Odysseus, a multi-degreed, highly respected, twenty-year veteran of the PPD. Some called him “The Greek,” referencing Homer’s Iliad in which Odysseus was one of the Greek heroes of the Trojan War. His followers called themselves “We the People.” Odysseus used this group of “marginalized cops” to settle his own twenty-year grudge with the Philly PD.
It was only through the untiring efforts of a street-savvy police sergeant, Mickey Devlin, and his team, that “We the People” and the corrupt leadership of the city were exposed and purged. But during the investigation, veteran police officers lost their lives and the image of the PPD was permanently damaged.
But the incident didn’t end with the last swing of the gavel. Mysteriously, Chief Odysseus managed to “walk away” from a federal facility. Prison rumors and a lackluster federal investigation maintained that his escape was accomplished through unidentified “Odysseus disciples.” His baffling escape has been a thorn in the side of the PPD, especially for now-Captain Mickey Devlin. Just how Odysseus escaped from a federal prison with an untarnished security record remains a mystery.
Almost immediately after Odysseus escaped, he began a series of “bizarre correspondence” to Michelle Cunay, a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter and now senior editor for the city’s largest daily newspaper. His utterances began with a brief passage from another of Homer’s books, The Odyssey, the tale of the mythological Greek hero Odysseus’ ten-year journey after the Trojan War back to his beloved wife, Penelope.
A common theme was for ex-Chief Odysseus to predict his return to the city. For example, “In ten, I will make my return.” Over the years, he continued this correspondence, all basically threatening to return to finish what he’d begun on Constitution Day 1991. However, in his most recent correspondence to Michelle Cunay, Odysseus’ threats expanded his “circle of adversaries” to include “that liberal president and his congressional majority.”
In the last year, there have been several so-called “Odysseus sightings” throughout Europe, most recently in France and Ireland. These “sightings” coupled with the reported departure of Odysseus’ wife, Penelope, have stirred the omnipresent investigative juices of Mickey Devlin.
More recently, an obscure security report and a few black-and-white photos being circulated by the Garda in Dublin, Ireland, have Mickey once again thinking about “The Greek.” The report was brought to Mickey’s attention by Michael O’Leary, a childhood chum from “the old neighborhood,” Kensington and now owner of O’Leary’s Pub in Dublin, Ireland. They share deep family ties stretching back to the Great Famine in Ireland.
Familiar with the “We the People Trials” and Mickey’s unfinished business with Odysseus, Michael O’Leary, contacted him, “Just for the hell of it, on a hunch.” For the Irish, a hunch is as close to a fact as you can be without a stitch of evidence. It falls somewhere between “I heard it in church” or “My mother, God bless her soul, wouldn’t say it if it weren’t true.” It’s another one of those Irish things that has stood the test of time. For Mickey, O’Leary’s hunch is good enough for him to dig a little deeper.
The black-and-white surveillance photographs were printed from security cameras inside Dublin’s National Museum on Kildare Street and the Bank of Ireland on Dame Street a few days earlier. Both show a man wearing a French beret, carrying a canvas backpack with several police patches attached from around Europe. Prominently displayed in the center of the diverse exhibit is a Philly PD uniform patch.
The man in the photo had a long ponytail, a close-cropped beard, and appeared to be six foot to six foot two. The man was accompanied by a female with long light hair and a waist-length leather jacket. According to museum and bank security guards, “the couple spoke like Americans” and asked several questions about security at both locations. He supposedly showed one of the guards at the museum the backpack patches and said he used to be in law enforcement and was now in private security.
Michael O’Leary was visited by the Director of Security at the National Museum, Liam Flanagan, who is a regular at O’Leary’s Pub. It was the director who originally showed O’Leary the photos. He classified the couple as “persons of interest,” then added that when they were approached by his men, the couple made their way to a side exit and “disappeared into the midday street traffic along Schoolhouse Lane.”
When O’Leary saw the photos and the Philly PD patch on the backpack, he asked the director for copies so he could “ask around” about the couple. Flanagan reluctantly gave in to O’Leary’s request. The following day, O’Leary contacted Mickey Devlin and arranged to fax the images to Mickey’s home along with the private phone number for Superintendent Kevin O’Clooney, Special Detective Bureau, Dublin Garda Headquarters. The super showed interest in talking to Mickey about the possibility that the man in the photos may be an American professor at Trinity College teaching classes in Greek Mythology and American History Through Film using the name Michael Collins.
The super was alerted to that possibility by his son who saw his father looking at the surveillance photos at his home office. The super’s son, a student at Trinity, told his Da that Collins’ classes all seem to have an anti-government slant. For the Irish and American transfer students, Mr. Collins was “a bit daunting.”
After viewing the faxed photos and having a short conversation with Director Liam Flanagan, Mickey was “kinda convinced” that his old nemesis, Michael Odysseus “The Greek,” had taken up residence in Dublin, Ireland. How long he’ll remain there is the million-dollar question. From Mickey’s perspective, the only way to find out is to travel to the country of his ancestors. All that’s left for Mickey to decide is if the trip will be on “Official Police Business” or on “holiday leave.” Regardless, the mission will be the same. Bring Michael Odysseus to justice, extracting the thorn.