The Choirboys by Joseph Wambaugh Page A

rhythm, an instinct and sent a picture left hook whistling through the air Roscoe Rules woke up three minutes later in the lap of luscious Officer Reba Hadley who said to him, "You dumb shit."
    Clickety-clack Reilly was of course buried by five or six blue uniforms and ended up with a badly cut lip and three more stitches in his eyes which made no difference at all to that caved in, monstrous face.
    But now he sat, calm and secure and happy in the jail of Elwood Banks who knew exactly how to pacify him, thereby eliminating the possibility of further problems for himself."
    "You okay, Mister Reilly?" he asked when Spencer and Father Willie entered the jail with Murray Fern. "Mind if I book this prisoner for these officers so they can get back out on the street?"
    "No, Officer, I don't mind," the derelict smiled painfully to the black jailor. He looked as though he would love to hear it again, that word applied to him so seldom in his bitter lonely life.
    "Thanks a lot, Mister Reilly," Elwood Banks said. "We'll just be a minute."
    "Glad to hear you quit eatin in those greasy spoons down on Jefferson," Elwood Banks said to Spencer without even looking at Murray Fern. Then to Father Willie, "Once we was eatin in this soul kitchen and we caught a momma cockroach and three babies crawlin on his plate. Spencer just told them to fry it. It was free."
    "My tastes've changed since those days," Spencer remarked.
    "I knew you wasn't the soul food type at heart, Spencer," Elwood Banks said. Then he turned to Murray Fern and said, "Name?"
    "Go to hell," the arrestee answered.
    "Man, your face is red as a bucket a blood," Elwood Banks said. "Calm down, make it easy on yourself."
    "I'm including you in the lawsuit," said Murray Fern. . "You're sure lucky you got these easy goin officers here," Elwood Banks said. "You was busted by an officer named Roscoe Rules he'd a been up side your head long ago. They'd a needed a sewing machine to put in the stitches."
    "I demand an attorney."
    "After you're booked you can call one," said Elwood Banks.
    "I demand an MD. I'm on medication for a serious allergy."
    "Ain't none here," Elwood Banks said. "Boys can take you to the hospital if you want, right now before they book you."
    "That'll take too long. I'm bailing out of here at once."
    "Then why do you want a doctor?"
    "Because I do. I demand an MD be brought here."
    "Well there ain't none here."
    "Then I demand an RN."
    "You keep this shit up and you're gonna get an RIN," the black jailor informed him.
    "What's that?" asked Murray Fern.
    "A rap in the nuts. Now gimme your full name and address."
    "I refuse to answer."
    "That does it," Elwood Banks said, his lip curling as he came out from behind the counter. "I usually search after booking but I'm gonna make an exception. Strip down."
    "What?" Murray Fern asked nervously. "What are you gonna do?"
    "Nothin. If you do like I say." Elwood Banks wore crisp jail khakis, his LAPD badge was highly polished, his feet were spread as he stood before the fat white man whose courage and insolence were in direct proportion to what was on his body and in his pockets. Or as Elwood Banks often put it, "Strip em down and show em what they are: nothin!"
    "You want me to take off all my clothes?" Murray Fern asked, looking from one policeman to another as Elwood Banks reached roughly into his pockets, removing his wallet, keys, handkerchief, cigarettes and chewing gum.
    "Turn em inside out," Elwood Banks said, and Murray Fern obeyed, trying to beat the jailor to the pockets, fearing he would rip them.
    "Satisfied?" Murray Fern asked, when everything including his Patek Philippe wristwatch was on the counter.
    "No way, baby," said Elwood Banks. "Get them fancy threads off that chubby body and on the counter. I mean strip and do it now!"
    Thirty seconds later, Murray Fern stood before the three policemen wearing only ninety dollar boots of imported Swiss leather, knee length blue silk socks, and silk boxer shorts dotted