He’s running off at the pen again or the word processor or whatever they use these days.”
Maxwell Cole is no friend of mine. Never as been. We met in college when we had the misfortune of being in the same fraternity at the University of Washington. He’s been a thorn in my side ever since. Currently, he’s a thrice weekly columnist for the local morning paper, the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Because of our respective jobs, we frequently stumble into each other. When that happens, you can count on the two of us being on opposite sides of any given issue.
His crime column, “City Beat,” burns me up every time I read it, so I don’t read it. At least I
try
not to, but there are some people, like Peters for instance, who feel compelled to bring it to my attention anyway. I’ve learned to put up with it the same way I used to choke down my mother’s occasional doses of castor oil when I was a kid.
I propped a pillow up behind me and peered at the clock. Seven-thirty. Plenty of time.
“What is it now?” I asked.
“The headline says, ”Murder Moves Uptown.“ ”
I was gradually coming to my senses. “Sounds catchy,” I said. “Maybe somebody should set it to music.”
“You won’t think it’s so funny when you hear what it’s about,” Peters growled. “How does Dr. Frederick Nielsen grab you?”
“Not by name! He didn’t put the name in there, did he?”
“He sure as hell did. Want me to read it to you?”
“That asshole! That goddamned stupid son of a bitch!”
“Do you want me to read it to you or not?”
“You could just as well.”
“ ”A little over a year ago, area dentist Dr. Frederick Nielsen closed his Pioneer Square office and moved uptown. He told his old neighbors that he was sick and tired of his patients being hassled by drunks and panhandlers and petty criminals. He said he was moving his practice to a nicer neighborhood in the Denny Regrade.
“ ”Dr. Nielsen’s patients won’t have to worry about petty crime anymore, because their dentist died Saturday afternoon, brutally murdered in his recently refurbished office on the ground floor of one of Seattle’s newer high-rise condominiums.
“ ”I can’t help wondering why Seattle P.D. has been keeping such a tight lid on this case. Maybe they don’t want people to know that it’s possible to be murdered in broad daylight in one of Seattle‘s posher downtown settings. After all, letting word out could be bad for business. Certainly it’s bad for developers and real estate magnates who are trying to sell the idea of downtown living to a largely indifferent suburban public.
“ ”Those suburbanites have every right to be indifferent. Why should they leave relatively crime-free neighborhoods in the north end or on the east side and come downtown where murders are almost routine?
“ ”For years the Seattle homicide toll has been about one a week. Fifty-two a year. It would be interesting to know exactly how many of those occur in the downtown core.
“ ”Seattle P.D. does acknowledge that Dr. Nielsen’s death is number thirty-one for this year. In case you don’t want to do the math yourself, that means we’re currently running five ahead of this time last year.
“ ”If murders are up that much, it seems reasonable that the police department would be doing something definitive about it. Are they? Not as far as I can tell.
“ ”A check with the Seattle P.D. media relations office revealed that only two homicide detectives are assigned to and actively working on the case of Dr. Frederick Nielsen. Those two, Detectives J. P. Beaumont and Allen Lindstrom, may be long-term homicide veterans, but they do not constitute the Seattle Police Department’s mounting a major, concerted effort to solve this case. Arlo Hamilton, Seattle P.D. public information officer, stated that so far there are no leads in Dr. Nielsen’s case. Not any. None.
“ ”Remember, I’m not talking here about a couple of
Maxwell Cole is no friend of mine. Never as been. We met in college when we had the misfortune of being in the same fraternity at the University of Washington. He’s been a thorn in my side ever since. Currently, he’s a thrice weekly columnist for the local morning paper, the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Because of our respective jobs, we frequently stumble into each other. When that happens, you can count on the two of us being on opposite sides of any given issue.
His crime column, “City Beat,” burns me up every time I read it, so I don’t read it. At least I
try
not to, but there are some people, like Peters for instance, who feel compelled to bring it to my attention anyway. I’ve learned to put up with it the same way I used to choke down my mother’s occasional doses of castor oil when I was a kid.
I propped a pillow up behind me and peered at the clock. Seven-thirty. Plenty of time.
“What is it now?” I asked.
“The headline says, ”Murder Moves Uptown.“ ”
I was gradually coming to my senses. “Sounds catchy,” I said. “Maybe somebody should set it to music.”
“You won’t think it’s so funny when you hear what it’s about,” Peters growled. “How does Dr. Frederick Nielsen grab you?”
“Not by name! He didn’t put the name in there, did he?”
“He sure as hell did. Want me to read it to you?”
“That asshole! That goddamned stupid son of a bitch!”
“Do you want me to read it to you or not?”
“You could just as well.”
“ ”A little over a year ago, area dentist Dr. Frederick Nielsen closed his Pioneer Square office and moved uptown. He told his old neighbors that he was sick and tired of his patients being hassled by drunks and panhandlers and petty criminals. He said he was moving his practice to a nicer neighborhood in the Denny Regrade.
“ ”Dr. Nielsen’s patients won’t have to worry about petty crime anymore, because their dentist died Saturday afternoon, brutally murdered in his recently refurbished office on the ground floor of one of Seattle’s newer high-rise condominiums.
“ ”I can’t help wondering why Seattle P.D. has been keeping such a tight lid on this case. Maybe they don’t want people to know that it’s possible to be murdered in broad daylight in one of Seattle‘s posher downtown settings. After all, letting word out could be bad for business. Certainly it’s bad for developers and real estate magnates who are trying to sell the idea of downtown living to a largely indifferent suburban public.
“ ”Those suburbanites have every right to be indifferent. Why should they leave relatively crime-free neighborhoods in the north end or on the east side and come downtown where murders are almost routine?
“ ”For years the Seattle homicide toll has been about one a week. Fifty-two a year. It would be interesting to know exactly how many of those occur in the downtown core.
“ ”Seattle P.D. does acknowledge that Dr. Nielsen’s death is number thirty-one for this year. In case you don’t want to do the math yourself, that means we’re currently running five ahead of this time last year.
“ ”If murders are up that much, it seems reasonable that the police department would be doing something definitive about it. Are they? Not as far as I can tell.
“ ”A check with the Seattle P.D. media relations office revealed that only two homicide detectives are assigned to and actively working on the case of Dr. Frederick Nielsen. Those two, Detectives J. P. Beaumont and Allen Lindstrom, may be long-term homicide veterans, but they do not constitute the Seattle Police Department’s mounting a major, concerted effort to solve this case. Arlo Hamilton, Seattle P.D. public information officer, stated that so far there are no leads in Dr. Nielsen’s case. Not any. None.
“ ”Remember, I’m not talking here about a couple of
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