“Steve, ah,” Corcoran said, and immediately looked at his watch as if to imply that Carella was late, which he wasn’t. “Few people you should meet who weren’t here yesterday,” he said, and introduced a handful of FBI agents and detectives whose names Carella forgot the moment he shook hands with them.
The office itself had undergone something of a transformation since late last night. There was now new equipment everywhere Carella looked. In fact, someone he guessed was an FBI technician was busily testing an electronic device set up on a long folding table across the room.
“Let me tell you what we’ve done here,” Endicott said.
He looked wide awake and alert, wearing this morning a dark gray suit that seemed better tailored than the blue one he’d worn yesterday. Corcoran, in contrast, was wearing brown slacks and a brown V-necked sweater over a plaid sports shirt. Carella himself had worn a suit today. He suddenly felt overdressed for a city detective.
“First off, we’ve installed a direct line to your office. You pick up that green phone there,” Endicott said, pointing, “and you’ve got the squadroom at the Eight-Seven. How’s that for service?”
Carella was wondering How come?
“We figured we’d let you guys do what you do best, am I right, Charles?” Endicott said. “The legwork, the nuts and bolts, the nitty gritty. We get anything to chase, you pick up that green phone, your boys are on it in a minute. Will that work for you?”
“Sure,” Carella said. “Thanks.”
“Regarding all this other stuff,” he said, “we noticed that your telephone guy set up a simple Tap and Tape, with a jack for a single listener, but we’ll be more people working on this, so we’ve installed equipment that’ll accommodate three more sets of ear phones, you can understand why that would be necessary,” Endicott said, and smiled hopefully, as if seeking Carella’s approval.
“More the merrier,” Carella said.
“The other thing…the court orders you got yesterday were for the primary landline carriers…AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, MCI…but there are at least half a dozen other service providers so we’ve taken the liberty of obtaining court orders for those as well, assuming our boy will be calling from landline equipment—which may not be the case.”
“This is all so much easier since 9/11,” Corcoran said.
“Oh
“Used to be probable cause, probable cause,” Corcoran said, and rolled his eyes.
He was referring to the way it customarily worked. Before a judge could approve an application for electronic surveillance and issue a court order, he had to determine that:
a) there was probable cause for belief that an individual was committing, had committed, or was about to commit an offense covered by law…
b) there was probable cause for belief that particular communications concerning that offense would be obtained through such interception…
c) normal investigative procedures had been tried and had failed or reasonably appeared unlikely to succeed or to be too dangerous…
d) there was probable cause for belief that the facilities from which, or the place where the communications were to be intercepted were being used, or were about to be used, in connection with the commission of such offense.
In each of Carella’s applications yesterday, he had cited probable cause. His petitions had been granted in every instance. But Corcoran was saying…
“Judges are a lot more malleable since 9/11. Before then, to get a court order for a pen register…”
“That’s a sort of reverse caller-ID,” Endicott explained.
“Yes, I know,” Carella said.
“We record the numbers dialed
“Yes, I…”
“…you had to show probable cause. Now, you just go in and say the information will be relevant to an ongoing investigation, and by federal law, a judge is required to approve the order. Relevant, can you believe it?”
“Makes it nice,” Endicott said.
“Makes it simple.”
“Anyway,” Endicott said, “since you’d covered only the landline carriers, we went ahead and obtained additional court orders for the wireless companies, too. These computers you see around the room…”
Carella counted four of them.
“…tap into our central computers down at Number One Fed. If our boy uses any of the seven mobile-phone providers servicing this city, we’ve got sophisticated links to all of them, and we’ll triangulate in a second.”
Carella nodded.
He didn’t know what “triangulate” meant. He said nothing.
“Want to try your new toy?” Corcoran said, and handed him the receiver on the green phone.
Carella put it to his ear.
He heard the phone ringing on the other end.
“Eighty-seventh Squad, Detective Hawes.”
“Cotton, it’s me. Just testing.”
“Testing what?” Hawes asked.
