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By Root 1207 0

in his urine, resulted in more blood tests and new examinations to assess possible damage. The day after his promotion to sergeant became official, Mike was on his back in another medical office while a urologist inserted a thin instrument called a cystoscope into his urethra and carefully pushed it up into his bladder. It was invasive, but the cystoscope allowed the doctor to look directly into his bladder into areas that typically did not show up well on X-rays. The procedure did not reveal any abnormalities in his bladder, urethra, or prostrate—which was good news. The bad news was Mike began peeing bright red blood and felt pain; the cystoscopy had caused a urinary tract infection. To his daily high dose of Tylenol and other medications, the doctor added antibiotics. It sometimes felt to Mike that he was still getting beat up.

One weekday near the end of February, Mike was walking down the hall at the police academy complex located in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood. He might have been off the street due to his injuries, but that didn’t mean he was off the job entirely. Newly promoted officers had to attend classes. “I was still required while I was out injured to go to the police academy for superior officer training,” he said. It wasn’t heavy lifting, and Mike found time to go “in between doctor appointments.”

It was late morning, and Mike was headed toward the cafeteria.

“Hey, Mike, how are you doing?”

Mike looked up to see who was talking to him. He saw a black officer walking out of the cafeteria. “Mike,” the officer repeated, “how you doing?”

Mike studied the officer, but drew a blank. The man stood a good six inches shorter than Mike. He had a slim build. The face looked vaguely familiar, and he was certainly acting friendly enough. But Mike could not place him.

“What’s your name?” Mike asked.

“Ian,” the officer replied.

“Ian what?”

“Ian Daley, sir.”

It didn’t help. The name meant nothing.

The exchange ended awkwardly. Mike headed home. He worried he was supposed to know the officer but was unable to because of his clouded memory. Then at home that night he thought more about the encounter and experienced an epiphany. He realized suddenly where he’d seen the officer named Ian Daley.

“It came to me about his face,” he said. Daley, he realized, was the officer who’d tried to arrest him at Woodruff Way after he’d been beaten. It was as if Mike’s heart skipped a beat—he’d solved a piece of the puzzle that muddled his mind. He needed to contact Internal Affairs. They’d surely want to follow up on his breakthrough.

CHAPTER 11

Can I Talk to My Lawyer?

When investigators for the Internal Affairs Division of the Boston Police Department sat across from police officer Ian Daley on the morning of March 2, much of the nation was riveted by the daily Court TV broadcasts of the trial of O. J. Simpson, the former football star charged with the murder of his ex-wife and her friend. It was the most highly publicized trial ever—all day with O.J.—with nearly 24/7 coverage. Meanwhile, in Boston, the police probe into the beating of Mike Cox was a local matter unfolding in quiet and secrecy, with barely a mention in the media.

The investigators set up in IA’s interview room on the fourth floor of police headquarters, located on Berkeley Street a few blocks from the Public Garden in downtown Boston. The small room looked out onto a narrow side street and a Bertucci’s pizza restaurant down the way. The lead investigator, Sergeant Detective Luis Cruz, was joined by Lieutenant Detective Jim Hussey. Hussey was in the process of taking over the inquiry from Cruz, who would soon be off the case with his transfer to the police academy.

Hussey was feeling terrible about Mike Cox. He’d met Mike at the academy in 1989 when he was an instructor and Mike was a new recruit. He’d followed Mike’s start on the force and knew about Mike and Craig Jones’s feats on the street. He’d learned recently from Mike that Daley was the officer who’d tried to arrest him after the beating. Mike told him a chance encounter with Daley