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X - Chapter Thirty Seven "The Thirty Percent Solution"

  "The Thirty Percent Solution" Chapter Thirty Seven - Mike Stein        This account is drawing to a close.        Yes, life goes on, and we can’t stop time. There are very few clear lines or boundaries in life, and there are very few sharp beginnings or endings. Most of the time, life crawls along at its own pace between some rare life-changing events.       The story I tell in “The Thirty Percent Solution” was an important time in my life, and I was greatly impacted by the people who surrounded me and influenced my conception of life. Now, those people and I are bumping up against some of those life-changing moments.        But my relating of our stories can’t go on forever. I have to choose a moment to close the narrative. That moment’s now. Still I want to explain some of the things I’ve learned and point to the future.        Three of the main personages in this tale shared an important moment when the New York City District Attorney’s Office announced two plea bargains
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X - Chapter Thirty Six "The Thirty Percent Solution"

  "The Thirty Percent Solution"  Chapter Thirty Six         Bill Voldman loved ham and eggs with hash browns for breakfast – the mixture of the different tastes, sopping up the runny yolk with his hash browns, the sips of searing black coffee. Of course, he combined that with a healthy glass of orange juice. The president of the prestigious Winshire Associates would certainly never discuss these private tastes in public. But he admitted to himself that ham and eggs was what got him out of bed in the morning.        It was seven in the morning, and Beatrice – his regular waitress at The Warwick – slid his plate onto the table and then refilled his coffee cup. Bill picked up his fork and knife and was ready to attack, when he looked up across the table at Maggie and put his utensils back on the table.        “You know, it’s better for me than a glass of Bourbon. You gotta admit that.”       “Bill, I didn’t say a word.” Maggie smiled. “But if you ask me, I’d tell you that you ne
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X - Chapter Thirty Five "The Thirty Percent Solution"

  "The Thirty Percent Solution"  Chapter Thirty Five        It rises like a massive monument of beige veined marble from its park-like grounds in lower Manhattan. That cube structure houses the main offices of the New York District Attorney’s administrative and operational functions, most importantly enforcing the law and prosecuting lawbreakers. Located at 1 Hogan Place, it is surrounded by other government offices, judicial courts, green parklands and a network of highly trafficked roadways.        Shortly after nine-thirty in the morning, a white police van pulled into the entrance of the rear parking garage. With its tires squealing over the slick surface, the vehicle passed through the rows of official vehicles directly to the secure internal elevator.        There, two NYPD officers opened the rear doors, climbed inside the vehicle, and unlocked the handcuffs securing one small man in orange prisoner’s overalls to the bench on the right side. They pulled him from the ve
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X - Chapter Thirty Four "The Thirty Percent Solution"

  "The Thirty Percent Solution" Chapter Thirty Four - Mike Stein        The big oak benches in the Federal District Court in downtown Manhattan were already filling up when I got there more than an hour before the court session’s two o’clock opening.           I didn’t realize that the arraignment would be such a draw until I thought about the front-page story that morning in The New York Times about murder at Winshire Associates. I should have put two and two together and realized that scandal and murder in high places would capture so much attention.         I took a place in the fifth row over on the right side, so I’d have a good view of the defendants and their counsel; they all hadn’t arrived yet. But from my seat I could see that Assistant DA Clive Stewart and Special FBI Agent Vince DuBois had already taken their places at the prosecution’s table and looked like they were in some kind of a deep discussion. Captain Jimenez wasn’t there yet, either.           I have to
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X - Chapter Thirty Three. "The Thirty Percent Solution"

  "The Thirty Percent Solution" Chapter Thirty Three        Over the years Detective Sergeant Wendell Barnes served in the NYPD’S Detective Bureau, he enjoyed a reputation as a methodical and meticulous investigator.        Even Barnes’ buddies, who knew he could easily make captain, never directly asked him why he never took the exams to climb the department’s hierarchy. Probably it was because his buddies knew the answer: Barnes loved the mental exercise of solving a tough case, but he didn’t want to be distracted by the responsibilities of a leader, like imposing discipline for poor performance and helping direct reports with personal problems.        But there was more. The NYPD detectives and other officers who worked with Barnes respected his humility. Despite his success in so many cases, he never got on the high horse by playing the role of the “brain” or the team’s “intellectual.” Rather, he understood he was one member of a team with a distinct role to play, and he
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