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Only they took that away from you, didn’t they, I reminded myself

I had beco, the cause célèbre of every anticop faction in the Twin Cities, a sy with police departments everywhere Most of my fellow cops were on my side, and those that weren’t--the politicians at the top orried about things like iuaranteed in the union contract with the St Paul Police Federation They didn’t have grounds I hadn’t done anything wrong; the grand jury cleared eant stripes, toward a gold shield, and suddenly I was nudged into pit row, going nowhere fast The depart a controversial officer that many citizens called a killer So when I found Thomas Teachwell and the millions he embezzled from a national restaurant chain, I quit the department and took the reward offered by the insurance colass in ever widening circles, enlarging a wet smear on the dark wood, when I heard a man’s voice

"Man, it’s hot," he said "I almost melted out there"

Michael Piotrowski leaned across the bar in front of

"You lookin’ for ly, with a mouth twisted in a perh he had h time to do them

I introduced myself, then asked, "Do you remember a man named Robert St Ana? He died about--"

"Fuck yeah, I reot hisself killed in a car accident and they bla in my place"

I had met plenty of people like Piotrohen I worked the streets of St Paul, people who loved to give lary, assault--it didn’t et six pages’ worth of answer in reply Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing

"Fucker was sitting right where you’re sitting noear to God," Piotrowski recalled "Kept hae back then, Long Islands, and he sure liked ’euy, but he could handle his booze You could tell he had been drinking illegal for years I tell him after six, ‘Hey, you’re done’ I cut hiet a ride’ I said, ‘I’ll believe it when I see it,’ and he goes over to that phone, right over there"--Piotrowski pointed at the pay phone on the wall between the two restrooms--"and he makes a call, comes back, says, ‘It’s okay, I have a ride’ Fine withAn hour later, less than an hour, a woht over there, start talkin’ I’ custoood look, okay? But the woonna have to card her That’s what I need--a drunk and a’ underage drinker But when I look up, he’s following her out the door End of story, that’s what I’uy dead Drove his car off the road in a snowstorm, passed out in the car Fucker dies of carbon monoxide Who’s to blame? Him? Fuck no The wooddamn blizzard? Uh-uh Me" Piotrowski poked hiuy I killed hi the brief pause that followed, I asked, "This was sixteen years ago How coot my ass sued, that’s why You want another one?" He was pointing at ful death," Piotrowski continued after he poured my beer "A kid Fuck A sixteen-year-old kid sued me, claimed that this St Ana fucker was the father of her child She’s suing et pissed just thinking about it"

"Do you remember the woht and I wasn’t payin’ attention Christ, it would’ve saved my ass if I kneho she was"

"Do you re dark reddish hair That’s all I ‘member"

"Not Merodie Davies?"

"Knohat? That was ht, cuz the kid, she had the hair ‘Cept my lawyers said it couldn’t be, insisted the kid didn’t even have a fucking driver’s license I mean, shit"