Arthur Hailey - Evening News

Salaverry would then have sprayed the single word on the wall, a pathetic message describing what he felt himself to be. (If the investigating police officers did not speak Spanish, someone would quickly enlighten them that the English version of the word was "cuckold.”

There was even a touch of artistry in that crudely printed parting cry. While not, perhaps, the kind of thing an Anglo-Saxon or native American might do, it bespoke the volatile frenzy of a Latin lover.

A final assumption: In despair, unwilling to face the consequences of his act, Salaverry killed himself, the powder bum on his forehead being typical of a self-inflicted head wound.

As the experienced planners of the scene well knew, in New York City where unsolved homicides were commonplace and the police detective force severely overburdened, little time and effort would be spent investigating a crime where the circumstances and solution were so plainly in view.

The hit man surveyed the apartment living room, making a final check, then quietly left. When he walked out of the building unhindered, he had been inside less than fifteen minutes. A few blocks away, he peeled off his gloves and threw them into a sidewalk trash can.

Norman Jaeger asked, "Do you think Teddy Cooper will come up with something?”

"It wouldn't surprise me,” Partridge said.”He has before.”

It was after 10:30 and they were walking south on Broadway, near Central Park. The dinner meeting at Shun Lee West had broken up a quarter of an hour earlier, shortly after Cooper's declared opinion that the kidnap gang's headquarters was within a twenty-five-mile radius of Larchmont. He had followed the first opinion with a second.

The kidnappers and their victims, he believed, were at that operating center now, the gang members lying low until the initial searching eased up and police roadblocks were decreased or abandoned—both of which would inevitably happen soon. Then the gang and prisoners would move to some more distant location, perhaps in the United States, possibly elsewhere.

Cooper's reasoning had been considered seriously by the others. As Rita Abrams put it, "It makes as much sense as anything so far.”

But Karl Owens pointed out, "That's an enormous area you're talking about, densely populated, and there's no way of searching it effectively, even with an army.” He added, needling Cooper, "That is, unless you have another brilliant idea breezing up behind.”

"Not right now,” Cooper had answered.”I need a good night's kip. Then maybe I'll come up with—as you so kindly put it—something 'brilliant' in the morning.”

They ended the discussion there, and though the next day was Saturday, Partridge had summoned another task force meeting for 10 A.m. For tonight, most of the group went their separate ways by taxi, though Partridge and Jaeger, enjoying the night air, decided to walk to their hotels.

"Where did you latch on to this guy Cooper?” Jaeger asked.

Partridge told him about discovering Teddy at the BBC, being impressed with his work and, soon after, finding him a better job with CBA.

”One of the first things he did for us ir London,” Partridge continued, "was in 1984, at the time the Red Sea was being mined. A lot of ships were getting blown up and sunk all over the place, but no one knew who the hell was laying the mines. Remember?”

"Sure I remember,” Jaeger said.”Iran and Libya were prime suspects, but nothing more. Obviously a ship was doing the filthy work, but no one knew what ship, or whose it was.”

Partridge nodded.”Well, Teddy started researching and spent days and days at Lloyds of London, patiently going through their records of ship movements. He began by believing that whatever ship had done the mine laying had passed through the Suez Canal. So he made lists of all the ships that had gone through Suez since just before the mine sinkings started—and that was a helluva lot of ships.

”Then he went through more records and traced the subsequent movements of each ship he'd listed as it went from port to port, comparing those movements with the dates of mine sinkings in particular areas. Finally—and I mean after a long, long search—he came up with the name of one ship, the Ghat. It had been everywhere where other ships had struck mines, and in each case just a day or two before. Talk about a 'smoking gun. Teddy found it.”

Partridge went on, "As we know now, the ship was Libyan and once the name was in the open, it didn't take long to put proof together that Qaddafi was behind it all.”

"I knew we were ahead of others on the story,” Jaeger said.”But I didn’t know the rest of the yarn behind it.”

"Isn't that usually the way?”

Partridge grinned.”We correspondents get credit for work that guys like you and Teddy do.”

"I'm not complaining,” Jaeger said.”And I'll tell you one thing, Harry—I wouldn't change places with you, especially at my age.” He ruminated, then went on.”Cooper's just a kid. They're all kids. This has become a kids' business. They have the energy and the smarts. Do you have days like me when you get to feeling old?”

Partridge grimaced.”Just lately, all too often.”

They had reached Columbus Circle. To their left was the formidable darkness of Central Park where few New Yorkers ventured at night. Immediately ahead lay West Fifty-ninth Street, beyond it the brighter lights of mid-Manhattan. Partridge and Jaeger carefully crossed the confluence of thoroughfares as traffic swirled about them.

”You and I have seen a lot of changes in this business,” Jaeger said.”I guess, with luck, we'll be around for more.”

Partridge asked, "What do you think's ahead?”

Jaeger considered before answering.”I'll tell you first what I don't see happening, and that's network news disappearing or even changing much, despite some dire predictions. Maybe CNN will move into top rank—it has the distribution; all that's needed is network quality. But the important thing is, there's an enormous appetite out there for news, more than ever before in history, and in every country.”

"Television did it.”

"Damn right! TV's the twentieth-century equivalent of Gutenberg and Caxton. What's more, for all of television's failings, its news has made people hungry to know more. It's why newspapers are stronger and will stay that way.”

"I doubt they'll give us credit,” Partridge said

"They may not give credit, but they give attention. Don Hewitt at CBS has pointed out that the New York Times has four times as many people assigned full-time to television as they have reporters covering the United Nations. And a lot of that writing is about us—TV news, its people, what we do.

”Turn it around, though,” Jaeger continued.”When was there anything important enough about the Times to be featured on TV? All of that applies to the rest of the print press, and so you ask yourself, which is being acknowledged as the more important medium?”

Partridge chuckled.”Color me important.”

"Color!” Jaeger seized the word.”That's something else TV has changed. Newspapers are looking more like television screens—something USA Today began. You and I, Harry, will live to see four colors on the New York Times front page. The public will demand it and the old gray Times will heed the writing on the tube.”

"You're full of homespun tonight,” Partridge said.”What else do you foresee?”

"I see the weekly newsmagazines disappearing. They're dinosaurs. When Time and Newsweek get to subscribers, much of what's inside is a week to ten days old, and nowadays who wants to read stale news? Incidentally, the way I hear it, advertisers are asking the same question.”

Jaeger went on, "So despite their dishonest cover dates and classy writing, eventually the weekly newsies will go the way of Collier's, Look and the Saturday Evening Post. Incidentally, most kids working in news nowadays have never heard of those.”