Private Dick: Chapter 3, Page 48
course, but back then you couldn’t technically become a detective straight out of the academy, so there was a trade off. Instead of walking a beat for three years then taking the detective’s exam, I got to do detective work and carry a detective’s shield from day one, but for the first six years, as far as the bean counters were concerned, I was a patrolman on patrolman’s pay. That’s one thing I’ll never miss about municipal work; enough red tape to wrap around the Anchorage statehouse twice with enough left over to tie a bow.
Truth be told, though, it was the best trade off I could have made, because my partner for those first two years was Lou Sullivan. Sully was the leatheriest, bluntest, hardest son of a bitch that ever carried a shield and he taught me more about detective work in two years than I’ve learned in any two decades since. If there was ever a man who ought to have been called grizzled it was old Sully. He pulled no punches and took no shit. When I first met him he saw my natural talent from the get go, but he was the first one to tell me that unless I learned to use that talent within a methodical system, I’d be no better a detective than any of the others the academy spat out every year.
Sully was the man who gave me the formula. “Every crime”, he said “comes with six questions: What happened? Where did it happen? When did it happen? How was it done? Why was it done? Who did it?” Every crime you investigate comes with at least one of these questions already answered for you, and every investigation begins with at least one question unanswered.
Most of the time the last unanswered question is “Who did it?”. But if that question isn’t apparent you can come closer by answering the others. By finding out where and when it happened you can establish opportunity and eliminate suspects with alibis. By discovering how it was done you determine who had the capability of committing the crime; who had access to a weapon or the necessary skills. And of course “Why?” is usually the last piece of the puzzle before “Who?”. If a man everybody liked gets shot down in the street for no particular reason, you’ve got a real mystery on your hands. If his brother has a little side bet going on with his wife and she just took out a five million dollar life insurance policy on him, mystery solved.
Truth be told, though, it was the best trade off I could have made, because my partner for those first two years was Lou Sullivan. Sully was the leatheriest, bluntest, hardest son of a bitch that ever carried a shield and he taught me more about detective work in two years than I’ve learned in any two decades since. If there was ever a man who ought to have been called grizzled it was old Sully. He pulled no punches and took no shit. When I first met him he saw my natural talent from the get go, but he was the first one to tell me that unless I learned to use that talent within a methodical system, I’d be no better a detective than any of the others the academy spat out every year.
Sully was the man who gave me the formula. “Every crime”, he said “comes with six questions: What happened? Where did it happen? When did it happen? How was it done? Why was it done? Who did it?” Every crime you investigate comes with at least one of these questions already answered for you, and every investigation begins with at least one question unanswered.
Most of the time the last unanswered question is “Who did it?”. But if that question isn’t apparent you can come closer by answering the others. By finding out where and when it happened you can establish opportunity and eliminate suspects with alibis. By discovering how it was done you determine who had the capability of committing the crime; who had access to a weapon or the necessary skills. And of course “Why?” is usually the last piece of the puzzle before “Who?”. If a man everybody liked gets shot down in the street for no particular reason, you’ve got a real mystery on your hands. If his brother has a little side bet going on with his wife and she just took out a five million dollar life insurance policy on him, mystery solved.