FILTHY RICH

CHAPTER 6

: a bank president than a cop. of formality and discretion. But on the job. Decades earlier, he tsburgh. Then he rose, steadily, moving up from patrol officer tics, and organized crime, then ajor, and assistant chief-a job becoming chief of police. Reiter hough chief of police in Palm s political skills as much as his

e, things do happen.
are murders-though these are
mbered for decades.
es to contend with, and, when the

sea calms, human cargo washes up on the shore. Sometimes traf- fickers aim the bows of their boats at the glow of the Breakers resort, order their passengers to go overboard, then tell them to swim.

Most of the passengers are Haitian-men, women, and children who stake all they have on a chance at a life in America. From time to time, Palm Beach cops have to retrieve their bodies from the surf.

Things get busier during the wintertime, or, as the locals call it, the season. It's when the very rich come to town, throw par- ties and balls, shop, and tangle traffic at the intersections around Worth Avenue. The population booms, and the men and women who work under Chief Reiter deal with fender benders, shoplift- ers, and snotty skateboarding teenagers. There are DUIs. Domes- tic disturbances. Choking victims and heart attacks. It's routine stuff, but there's always lots of it. Enough to keep the men and women who work for Reiter busy.

Chief Reiter's proud of the team he has built. And, the team knows, they're lucky to have him. Reiter's extremely well qualified for the job. If anything, he's overqualified, with a certificate from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and anti- terrorist training at Quantico, courtesy of the FBI. It's not brought up often at cocktail parties in Palm Beach, but several of the 9/11 hijackers lived in Palm Beach County. They took flight lessons at local airstrips. A few, including the mastermind, Mohamed Atta, had been regulars at 251 Sunrise, a chic nightclub in Palm Beach. There they had regaled any woman who would listen with made-up stories about their adventures as pilots.

But 251 Sunrise is shuttered now. The joint was shut down in 2004, after an avalanche of noise complaints. For the moment, Palm Beach is as quiet and calm as any place Reiter has dreamed about.

For the moment.

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