Never Let Go
Phil Burton can't forget his last corruption case. Even though everyone else would like to.
Cover Story
Phil Burton has his reasons. He has his reasons for uncorking the attic stairs, goading me up those steps the size of baby feet, into that slanting slope of musty heaven, to stumble around in the dark. He has his reasons for hemming me into this room, still dark, with no place for fear of heights. He has his reasons for lunging into a crevice to pick up a light bulb attached to an electric cord, flicking it on, and waving the bare bulb over his stash--the rows and rows of boxes.
Burton has his reasons for showing me this little cardboard refuge. A 22-year veteran investigator with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), three years into cozy retirement, Burton has parked much of his career here. These 30 boxes brim with old case folders, notes, and sentencing reports. Endings. All in various hues of beiged bureaucracy. All that he has left of the job--paper.
Years ago, Burton reasoned that these boxes had a purpose: to bolster his bad memory, to guide him toward self-improvement, and maybe to help someone solve a murder case some day. Now, these moments wrapped in Manila just prove that he existed. Was a cop. A damn good cop. They're up in the attic, if you want to fact-check his life.
Burton, 54, has his reasons for waving the bulb in a quick, nervous ceremony, accompanied by a sense of embarrassment. When I point to the awards and plaques crammed into one box, he goes gruff.
"Those don't mean anything," Burton says. He has his reasons for thinking awards to be horseshit.... Continued 
Issue of Feb. 23 - Mar. 1, 2001
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