Authors: Arthur Hailey
Miguel was uneasy about going back because of the risks involved. He
remembered Godoy's offhand reference to the second casket being for a
child. So was there a chance, Miguel wondered, that Godoy had connected
yesterday's kidnapping of a woman and boy with the earlier purchase of the
caskets? It wasn't likely, but one reason Miguel had survived so long as
a terrorist was by weighing every possibility. However, having
decided to transport the third captive to Peru, at this point there was no alternative to Godoy. The risk had to be taken
.
Slightly more than an hour after leaving the United Nations, Miguel
instructed Luis to park their hearse a block from the Godoy Funeral Home
.
Again Miguel used his umbrella in the pouring rain
.
Inside the funeral home a woman receptionist spoke to Godoy via an
intercom, then directed Miguel to the proprietor's office
.
From behind a cloud of cigarette smoke the fat man regarded Miguel warily
.”
So it's you again. Your friends didn't tell me you were coming
.”
"No one knew.!'
"What do you want
?
”
Whatever Godoy's motivations in doing business with
Miguel in the first place, it was clear he now had reservations
.”
I've been asked to do a favor for an elderly friend. He's seen the caskets
I bought for my parents, likes the idea, and asked if I would . .
.”
"Aw, cut it out
!”
An old-fashioned cuspidor was beside Godoy's desk
.
Removing his cigarette, he spat into it
.”
Listen, mister, don't waste time
with what both of us know is a potful of crap. I said what is it you
want?”
"One casket. To be paid for as before
.”
Godoy peered forward through shifty eyes
.”
I run a business here. Sure
,
sometimes I oblige your friends; they do the same for me. But what I want
to know from you is: Am I setting myself up to land in some shit
?
”
"There'll be no shit. Not if you cooperate
.”
Miguel let his own voice take
on menace and it had an effect
.”
All right, you got it
,”
Godoy said, his tone more moderate
.”
But since
last time the price has gone up. For that same adult model, four thousand
.”
Without speaking, Miguel opened the pressboard wallet
Jose
Antonio
Salaverry had given him and began counting hundred-dollar bills. He handed
forty to Godoy who said, "Plus two hundred 'n' fifty New York tax
.”
Re-tying the tape of the the pressboard wallet, Miguel told
Godoy, "You and New York go fuck yourselves
.”
Then: "I have transport outside. Get the casket to your loading dock
.”
On the dock, Godoy was mildly surprised to see a hearse appear. The two
previous caskets, he remembered, had been taken away in a truck. Still
suspicious of his visitor, Godoy memorized the numbers and letters on the
hearse's New York license plate and, when back in his office, wrote them
down, though not really knowing why. He pushed the piece of scratch paper
into a drawer and promptly forgot it.
Despite a belief that he had been involved in something it would be safer
not to know more about, Godoy smiled as he put away the four thousand
dollars in an office safe. Some of the previous cash his recent visitor had
paid a month ago was also in the safe, and not only did Godoy have no
intention of paying New York sales tax on either transaction, he did not
intend to declare it on his tax returns either. Juggling his business
inventory to make the three caskets disappear from his books would be easy
.
The thought so cheered him that he decided to do what he often did-go to
a nearby bar for a drink
.
Several of Godoy's cronies at the bar welcomed him. A short time later
,
mellowed by three Jack Daniel's whiskeys, he related to the group how some
punk had bought two caskets and put them-so he said-in his parents' home
,
ready for the old folks to croak, and then come back for another casket
,
all of it like he was buying chairs or saucepans
.
As the others roared with laughter, Godoy further confided that he'd
outsmarted the dumb punk by charging three times the caskets' regular
price. At that, one of his friends added a cheer to the laughter, prompting
Godoy-all his worry now dissipated-to order another round
.
Among those at the bar was a former Colombian, now a U.S. resident, who
wrote a column for an obscure Spanish
language weekly published in Queens
.
On the back of an envelope, using a stub of pencil, the man wrote the gist
of Godoy's story, translating it to Spanish as he did. It would make a good
little item, he thought, for next week's column.
At CBA News it had been a frantic day, especially for the Sloane kidnap task force
.
Producing a comprehensive report on the kidnapping for the National Evening
News continued to be the focus of activity, though other events, some
major, were happening elsewhere in the world
.
The kidnap story had been allotted five and a half minutes -an
extraordinary duration in a business where fifteen-second segments were
fiercely fought over. As a result, almost the entire effort of the task
force was devoted to that day's production, leaving virtually no time for
longer-term planning or reflection
.
With Harry Partridge anchoring the opening portion of the news, the evening
broadcast began:
"After thirty-six hours of agonized waiting there is no fresh news about
the family of CBA anchorman Crawford Sloane, whose wife, young son and
father were kidnapped yesterday morning in Larchmont, New York The where-
abouts of Mrs. Jessica Sloane, eleven-year-old Nicholas, and Mr. Angus
Sloane remain unknown
.”
As each name was mentioned, a still photo appeared over Partridge's
shoulder.
"Also unknown are the identities, objectives, or affiliations of the
kidnappers.
A fast cut to Crawford Sloane's troubled face filling the screen. Sloane's
distraught voice pleaded, "Wh
oever you are,
wherever you
are, for god's sake make yoursel
f known
!
Let us hear
from you!
”
Partridge's voice returned over an exterior shot of FBI headquarters, the
J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington
.”
“
Wh
ile the FBI, now in charge of the
investigation, is withholding comment . . -
“
Briefly the scene changed to the FBI press office and a spokesman saying
,
"At this moment it would not be helpful to make any statement
.”
Partridge again:
privately, FBI officials admit no
progress has been made
.”
Since yesterday an outpouring of concern and anger have come from highest
levels - - -
“
A dissolve to the White House press room, the President speaking: "Such
evil has no place in America. The criminals will be hounded down and
punished
.”
Partridge: ". . . and in humbler places
From Pittsburgh, a hard-hatted black steelworker, his face shining in the
light from a fiery furnace: "I'm ashamed something like this could happen
in my country
.”
In a bright Topeka kitchen, a white housewife: "I cannot understand why no
one foresaw what's happened and took precautions. My heart goes out to
Crawford
.”
Gesturing to a TV set: "In this house he's like family
.”
Seated at her classroom desk in California, a young, softvoiced Eurasian
girl: "I'm worried about Nicholas Sloane. It isn't fair they took him
.”
During the day, camera crews of CBA and affiliated stations across the
country had sought public reactions. The network had viewed fifty and
selected those three.
The scene shifted to the Sloane house at Larchmont that morning in the
rain-a long shot of the waiting crowd in the street, then, moving in close
,
a pan across their faces. Over the image, Partridge's voice: "In part
because of intense public interest, today new tragedy intruded
.”
The voice-over continued, alternating with natural sound,
more pictures: emergence of the two unmarked FBI cars from the driveway . . . the surge of onlookers into the first car's path . . . the first car braking, then out of control and sliding a shriek of tires followed by screams from the injured . . . others frantically scrambling clear of the second car, which then continued on . . . a close-up of Crawford Sloane's bewildered face . . . the second car speeding away
.
During editing, some objections had been raised about including the shots
of Sloane's face and the disappearing car. Sloane himself claimed, "It
gives a wrong impression
.”
But Iris Everly, who put most of the spot together, working through the
day with one of CBA's best tape editors, Bob Watson, argued for its
inclusion and won
.”
Whether Crawf likes it or not
.”
she pointed out
,
"it's news and we should stay objective. Also, we're looking at the only
piece of action since yesterday
.”
Rita and Partridge had supported Iris.
The tempo changed to a skillful recap of the previous day. It began with
Priscilla Rhea, the frail and elderly ex-schoolteacher, again describing
the brutal seizure of Jessica, Nicky and. Angus Sloane outside the
Larchmont supermarket.
Minh Van Canh had used his camera creatively, going in for an extreme
close-up of Miss Rhea's face. It showed the deep lines of age with every
wrinkle in sharp relief, but also brought out her intelligence and sturdy
character. Minh had coaxed her with geride questions, an occasionally
used procedure. When no correspondent was present, experienced camera
people sometim
es asked questions of those they were photographing. The
questions were erased later from the audio recording, but the answers
remained for use as statements.
After describing the struggle on the parking lot and the Nissan van's
departure, Miss Rhea said of the kidnappers, her voice rising, "They were
brutal men, beasts, savages
!
”
Next, the Lare
mont police chief confirmed that there had been no
breakthrough in the case and the kidnappers had not been heard from.
Following the recap was an interview with the criminologist, Ralph Salerno.
With Salerno in a Miami studio and Harry Partridge in New York, the
interview had been recorded via satellite late that afternoon. The
recommendation by Karl Owens proved a good one and Salerno, an
authoritative figure, was eloquent and well informed. He so impressed Rita
Abrams that she arranged for him to be available exclusively to CBA for the
duration of the crisis. He would be paid $
1,000 for each broadcast appear
ance, with a minimum guarantee of four
.
Although TV networks claimed not to pay for news interviews-a statement not
always true-a consultant fee was different and acceptable.
"The progress of investigation after any efficiently executed kidnap,
“
Ralph Salerno declared, "depends on hearing from the kidnappers. Unless
and until that happens, there is usually a stalemate
.”
Answering a question by Partridge, he continued: "The FBI has a high
success ratio in kidnappings; they solve ninety-two percent of cases. But
if
you look carefully at who was caught and how, you'll
find most solutions
depended on first
hearing
f
rom the kidnappers, then trapping them during
negotiations or payment of a ransom
.”
Partridge prompted, "So the likelihood is that not much will happen until
these kidnappers are heard
from
.”
Exactly.
”