The Evening News (56 page)

She added, "When I saw him, it seemed he was in charge
.”

At this point CBA News had the information exclusively
.
(It was not, of course, known that Ulises Rodriguez was using the code
name Miguel or that during the Learjet flight to Peru he employed the
alias Pedro Palacios. But since a terrorist habitually used many names
,
this was not important.)
The discovery was discussed late Sunday at an informal session by four
task force members-Harry Partridge, Rita Abrams, Karl Owens and Iris
Everly, Owens, justly pleased by his breakthrough, urged that the new
development be included in Monday's edition of the National Evening News
.
When Partridge hesitated, Owens argued forcefully
.”
Look, Harry, no one else has this yet. We're ahead of the whole pack
.
If we go on air tomorrow, everyone else will pick it up and have to give
us credit which includes--even though we know they hate doing it-the New
York Times and Washington Post. But if we hold off and wait too long
,
word about Rodriguez may get out and we'll lose our exclusive. You know
as well as I do, people talk. There's the Rhea woman in Larchmont; she
may tell someone and they'll pass it on. Even our own
people blab, and there's a chance of someone at another network hearing
.”

"I second all that
,”
Iris Everly said
.”
You're expecting me to do a
follow-up tomorrow, Harry. Without Rodriguez, I have nothing new
.”

"I know
,”
Partridge said
.”
I'm thinking about going with it, but there are
also some reasons to wait. I won't make a decision until tomorrow
.”

With that, the others had to be content
.
One decision Partridge made privately was that Crawford Sloane must be
informed of the fresh discovery. Crawf, he reasoned, was suffering such
mental agony that any forward step, even though an inconclusive one, would
come as a relief. Late as it was-nearing 10 P.m.-Partridge decided to visit
Sloane himself. O
bviously he could not telephone. All phone calls to
Sloane's Larchmont house were being monitored by the FBI and Partridge was
not ready yet to give the FBI the new information
.
Using a phone in his temporary private office, he ordered a CBA car and
driver to meet him at the news building's main entrance.

"I'm grateful you came out, Harry
,”
Crawford Sloane said after Partridge
made his report
.”
Will you go on air with this tomorrow
?
”

"I'm not sure
.”

Partridge described his reasoning both ways, adding, "I
want to sleep on it
.”

They were having drinks in the living room where, only four evenings
earlier, Sloane thought sadly, he had sat talking with Jessica and Nicholas
after his own return from work
.
On Partridge's way in, an FBI agent had regarded him inquiringly. The agent
was substituting that night for Otis Havelock who was at home with his
family. But Sloane had firmly closed the door connecting with the outside
hallway and the two newsmen talked in low voices
.”
Whatever you decide
,”
Sloane said, "I'll back your judgment. Either way
,
do you have enough reason to take off for Colombia
?
”

Partridge shook his head
.”
Not yet, because Rodriguez is a gun-for-hire
.
He's operated all over Latin America, Europe too. So I need to know
more-specifically, where this operation is based. Tomorrow I'll work the
phones again. The others will do the same
.”

One call in particular Partridge intended to make was to the lawyer for
organized crime figures he had spoken to on Friday, but who hadn't yet
called back. Instinct told him that anyone operating in the U.S. as
Rodriguez appeared to have done would need an organized crime connection
.
As Partridge was leaving, Sloane put his hand on the other's shoulder
.”
Harry, my friend
,”
he said, his voice emotional, "I've come to believe
that the only -chance I have of getting Jessica, Nicky and my Dad back
is through you
.”

He hesitated, then went on
.”
I guess there have been
times when you and I weren't the closest companions, or even allies, and
whatever's been my fault in that, I'm sorry. But apart from that, I just
want you to know that most of what I have and care about in this world
is riding on you
.”

Partridge tried to find words to reply, but couldn't. Instead he nodded
several times, touched Sloane on the shoulder too, and said, "Good
night
.”

"Where to, Mr. Partridge
?
”

the CBA driver inquired
.
It was close to midnight and Partridge answered tiredly, "The
Inter-Continental Hotel, please
.”

Leaning back in the car and remembering Sloane's parting words, Partridge
thought that, yes, he did know what it meant to have lost, or face the
chance of losing, someone you loved. In his own case, long ago, there had
first been Jessica, though the circumstances then were in no way
comparable to Crawf's desperate situation now. Then later there was Gemma
. .
.
He stopped. Not He would not let himself think of Gemma tonight. The
remembrance of her had come back to him so much lately . . . it seemed
to happen with tiredness . . . and always, along with memory, there was
pain
.
Instead, he forced his mind back to Crawf who, in circumstances equally
dire as those affecting Jessica, was also suffering
the loss of a child, his son. Partridge himself had never known what it was to have a child. Still, he knew that the loss of one must be unbearable, perhaps the most unbearable burden of all. He and Gemma had wanted children . .
.
He sighed . . . Oh, dearest Gemma . .
.
He gave in . . . relaxed as the smoothly moving car closed the distance to
Manhattan . . . allowed his mind to drift.

For always, after that simple marriage ceremony in Panama City when he and
Gemma stood before the municipal juez in his cotton guayabera and took
their unpretentious vows, Partridge nursed a conviction that simple
ceremonies produced the better marriages and
flamboyant, ritzier circuses
were more likely to be followed by divorce
.
He admitted it was a prejudice, based heavily on his own experience. His
first marriage, in Canada, had begun with a "white wedding
”
complete with
bridesmaids, several hundred guests and incantations in a church-the
bride's mother insisting on it all-and preceded by theatrical rehearsals
which seemed to rob the ceremony itself of meaning. Afterward the marriage
simply didn't work, something Partridge conceded to be at least
fifty
percent his
fault, and the rhetorical pledge of "until death us do part
”
was-by mutual agreement, this time in court before a judge-shortened to a
year
.
The marriage to Gemma, however, from its unlikely beginning aboard the
Pope's airplane, had strengthened as their love had grown. At no point in
his life had Partridge ever been happier
.
He continued to be the network's correspondent in Rome where foreign
journalists were able, as a colleague working for CBS expressed it, "to
live like kings
.”
Almost at once after returning from the papal flight
Partridge and Gemma found an apartment in a sixteenth-century palazzo
.
Located midway between the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, it had
eight rooms and three balconies. In those days, when networks consumed
money as if there were no tomorrow, correspondents found their own
accommodation and were reimbursed More recently, with leaner budgets and
accountants in catbird seats,
the network supplied living quarters--of lesser quality and cheaper
.
As it was, on looking over what would be their
first home, Gemma declared
,
"Harry, mi
o amore, it is heaven now. I will make it seven heavens for
you
.”
And she did
.
Gemma had a gift
for imparting laughter and
joy and love of living. As
well, she ran the home proficiently and was a superb cook What she could
not do, as Partridge quickly learned, was manage money or balance a
checkbook
.
Wh
en Gemma wrote a check she often forgot to fill in a
counterfoil, so the balance in their account was invariably less than she
believed Coupled with that, even when she remembered the counterfoil her
arithmetic was unreliable-she would sometimes add instead of subtract
so
that Gemma and the bank were constantly at odds
.”
Harry, tesoro
,”
she
complained after one stern lecture from the manager, "bankers have no
tenderness. They are . . . what is that English word
?
”

He said, amused, "How about pragmatic
?
”

"Oh, Harry, you have such a clever mind! Yes,
“
Gemma said decisively
,
"bankers are too pragmatic
.”
Partridge
found the solution easy. He simply took over their
household
finances, which seemed a small contribution in return for the
many agreeable condiments now added to his life
.
Another problem with Gemma required more delicate handling. She adored
cars, owned a dilapidated Alfa Romeo and, like many other Italians, drove
like a crazed fiend There were times when Partridge, seated beside her
either in the Alf
a or his own BMW, which she enjoyed driving too, closed
his eyes, convinced that disaster was about to happen. Each time it
didn't, he equated himself with a cat having lost one more of its nine
lives
.
He was down tof
our when he summoned the courage to ask Gemma if she would
consider not driving anymore
.”
It's because I love you so much,
“
he
assured her
.”
Wh
en I'm away I have nightmares, dreading something may
happen with the car and you may be hurt when I get back
.”

“
But Harry,
“
Gemma protested, not understanding at all, "I am a safe
,
prudent driver
.”
For the moment Partridge left it there, though managing to
bring the subject up again from time to time, his revised strategy being that Gemma was indeed a safe driver but he himself was neurotically nervous. The best he could get, though, was a conditional promise
.”
Mio amore, as soon as I am pregnant I will not drive a car. That I swear
to you
.”
It was a reminder of how much they both wanted children
.”
At least three
,
“
Gemma announced soon after their marriage and Partridge saw no reason
to disagree
.
Meanwhile he traveled away
from Rome periodically on CBA News assignments
and, at the beginning, Gemma continued with her stewardess job. Very
quickly, though, it became evident they would see little of each other
that way because sometimes when Partridge returned
from a trip Gemma would
be
flying; at others the reverse was true. It was Gemma who decided she
would make the adjustment for them both by ceasing to fly
.
Fortunately, when she let it be known at Alitalia that she was prepared
to quit, the airline assigned her to ground duties that kept her
permanently in Rome. Both Gemma and Partridge were delighted because now
they had much more time together
.
They used their spare hours to explore and enjoy Rome, dipping into its
millennium of history about which, Partridge discovered, Gemma's mind
held a treasure trove of bric-a-brac
.”
The Emperor Augustus, Harry
.-he was Julius Caesar's stepson-started
a
fire brigade of slaves. But there was a big fire they didn't
put out, so
he got rid of the slaves and had
freemen as firemen, vigiles, who were
better. That's because people who are free want to put out fires
.”