“Do you know what happens when you get arrested?” – The Blue Suit asked Josh Resnek
By JOSH RESNEK
“Have you ever been searched by the police, told to turn around and to put your hands behind your back, handcuffed, read you rights and arrested, Josh?” the Blue Suit asked me.
“None of the above. Not only have I never been arrested but I’ve never been indicted, tried, and convicted of anything. I’ve also never signed an agreement with the FBI or been involved in any way with a federal investigation into municipal corruption,” I added.
“Why did you ask if I had ever been arrested?” I wondered. “Just curious,” said the mayor’s Blue Suit.
“Did you actually think I had ever been arrested? Are you kidding me? What kind of person do you think I am?”
I implored the Blue Suit to be honest with me.
“Come on. Spit it out,” I said to the Blue Suit. “What’s on your mind?”
He hesitated for a moment as if in suspended animation. “Do you know what it’s like to be put in handcuffs, to be placed in the police car, to be driven to the police station with your hands handcuffed behind your back? As if that isn’t bad enough, do you know the experience gets worse”
“Of course I do.”
The Blue Suit let out a big sigh. He said he had just eaten a huge meal and was having problems with his digestion.
He began again.
“Inside the station, you are walked into the booking room. In the Revere police station of old, many people used to believe the booking room was a place where a bet on a sporting event could be wagered. It isn’t that at all. The booking room is where the police measure your height, take your weight, remove all your valuables from your pockets. Then they pose you in front of a white background and take your headshot, known as the ”mugshot.” Then you are fingerprinted. Finally, an officer walks you to a holding cell in the lock-up where you are placed inside a jail cell. When the door is locked shut, that’s when depression and paranoia explode into a full-fledged panic attack.”
“Believe me when I tell you. Being arrested is about as bad as it gets. It is as low as you can go. It is even worse if you are a public official,” the Blue Suit told me.
“What are you getting at? Are you telling me something about the mayor?” I asked.
“Have I said the mayor’s name?” the Blue Suit shot back. “No.”
“You haven’t said anything about the mayor,” I added.
I thought about it for a moment, that is, the possibility the mayor has been arrested.
“Just thinking about the mayor having been arrested is intriguing to me. If such a thing happened, what a thing to go through,” I added.
“Has he been arrested that you know of, that you went through with him?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“I will not tell you that but I can tell you this … anyone looking for a record of the mayor being arrested will not find any evidence.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“There is a way to make police records disappear.,” the Blue Suit said.
“The records tend to disappear when a public official is involved. I know this firsthand.”
“Tell me about it, please. Don’t leave me hanging,” I urged the Blue Suit.
“It has a lot to do with having friends who will do your bid- ding in the various police departments you have to deal with.”
“What do you mean by that?” I asked.
“I mean the mayor knows people in the courts. He knows just the right lawyer to use. The lawyer knows how to set up a magistrate’s hearing. When that moment finally arrives, the magistrate tosses out the charges. The disaster ends – at least for the moment.”
‘What happens next from your experience?” I asked the Blue Suit.
“A legal and binding agreement is hashed out between the arrested party and the person bringing the charges.”
“Go on,” I said.
“Money is exchanged. An amount of money is paid by the accused to the accuser so the accuser keeps their mouth shut. Everyone is happy after that,” the Blue Suit said.
“This happened to the mayor? Is this what you are telling me?” I asked.
“I never said that. This is just a hypothetical, Josh. It might as well be a fairy tale.”
I know better than that,” I told the Blue Suit.
“You’re telling me the mayor was arrested for something, that he got out of it and that he paid money to keep everyone involved quiet. Is this correct or not?”
“I won’t answer that, Josh. Look, man, I don’t want the mayor taking a knife to my throat and slashing it so you can have a scoop,” the Blue Suit said.
“He would never do such a thing,” I answered.
“Oh yeah? You think so, Josh? Forget about it. I wouldn’t put anything past him when no one is looking,” the Blue Suit said. “What kind of money did he have to pay out to make everyone happy?” I wondered.
“Big money. An insurance company paid a huge sum. The victim got a much smaller amount of money. The victim had to sign a confidentiality agreement.”
“How do you know this?”
“Because…I…was…there,” the Blue Suit said haltingly. “Don’t forget for a second that I am the holder of nearly all the mayor’s secrets. I know everything. I know more than Jerry Navarro about him. You can bank on that, Josh.”
“Why don’t you give me all the particulars?” I asked him. “Not now. Not today. Soon enough,” he added.
“Soon enough I will detail everything to you, dates, time, place, money exchanged, and the victim silenced,” the Blue Suit said.
“I doubt any of this is true. You’re just a tease,” I said to him.
“Right, Josh. You believe whatever you want. Remember this, I know everything about him.”