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site super who’d paid that bribe. Those men, Larry Manelli and Sonny O’Doul, were also arrested. They were charged and convicted in hasty plea bargains: their lawyers saw the planets aligning. Both were headed for prison as Joe’s trial began.
    But they weren’t enough. The public was outraged and the mayor was out for blood. He held a press conference to prove it. Surrounded by Commissioners and introduced, in a rare moment of civic unity, by Manhattan Borough President Edgar Westermann, the mayor spoke.
    “City agencies will not continue to show citizens this kind of deadly disrespect! Hard-working”— (read: blue-collar)— “New Yorkers like Antwan Moss”— (read: black)— “have a right to expect their children to be safe walking down the streets! We demand accountability from the private sector— why not from government? Everyone responsible for the criminal tragedy that took the life of little Ashley Moss— whether they work for Dolan Construction, or for a city agency— will be brought to justice. We owe that to New Yorkers, and I promise you, we will deliver.”
    Oh, the mayor. Everyone loved the mayor. Joe had watched his rise; he’d even voted for him. A brash, glad-handing former City Council Speaker with a Jackie Gleason accent and an endearingly receding hair-line, Charlie Barr gave it to you straight. He ate street food, spoke plain English, showed up at ribbon-cuttings and funerals in the outer boroughs (where his support was high), and aggressively courted skeptical Latinos and blacks, attending innumerable testimonial dinners, awards ceremonies, and church services. He joked with reporters and made great copy. Running on a platform of disgust with slack and sloppiness, Charlie Barr had declared that New Yorkers deserved better: higher efficiency, lower taxes. Cleaner, safer streets. Fewer rules and regs. He’d promised to cut through the b.s. if they’d just vote for him. Sick of unresponsive, incomprehensible, and self-protective city agencies, New Yorkers did. The newspapers, reviving a tradition that had faded in the reign of Giuliani and died in the days of Bloomberg, called Charlie Barr “Hizzoner.”
    And on the subject of the Dolan Construction disaster Hizzoner was furious. “People being what they are, you can’t help but run up against corruption sometimes. That’s why we have the Department of Investigation: so when the system breaks, we can fix it.” He glared into the TV cameras. “People who work at DOI have a heavy responsibility. Am I saying they have to be better than the rest of us? Yes, I am. Is that unfair? You tell me. But I can tell you this: when it looks like DOI’s where the corruption is, I’m shocked and quite frankly outraged.
    “We’re pursuing this situation aggressively. We’ll find out just how and why little Ashley Moss died and we will punish those responsible. You’ll see.”
    They saw.
    Joe Cole had had Buildings Department inspector Larry Manelli in his sights for months. Joe Cole knew Manelli was taking bribes from Sonny O’Doul, site super for Dolan Construction. Joe Cole had been to the Dolan jobsite many times. Joe Cole was a licensed engineer and an experienced investigator; surely he recognized bad shoring when he saw it. Yet Joe Cole had done nothing. “Mr. Cole’s defense?” asked the prosecutor rhetorically at Joe’s trial (though the real trial had been in the newspapers and the verdict was long in). The rhetorical answer: “He was gathering more evidence! Making a stronger case! Mr. Cole claims he was going to present his evidence to his Inspector General ‘very soon.’ Well, you have in front of you the case file Mr. Cole developed. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s two inches thick! How much more evidence would an honest man have to gather? How much stronger would the case have to be before a conscientious investigator blew the whistle on a situation this dangerous?
    “Ladies and gentlemen, the defense has thrown a lot of engineering jargon at you. But I think we can