Corpus Corpus (23 page)

"Our policy regarding taming over our news tapes and out-takes to the police, or to any other government agency, is to refuse to do so unless we are served with a subpoena," Rose said firmly. "And then only on the advice of the company's attorney that we must comply."

"I'm not asking that the tape in question be turned over," Bogdanovic asserted. "I merely want to look at it here and now." 

"The effect is the same."

"The effect of your refusal, Ms. Rose," Bogdanovic said in a bristling tone of voice, "might be construed by District Attorney Vanderhoff as illegal interference with a murder investigation. A further effect could be a contempt citation with your name on it. You could find yourself sitting in a cell in the Women's House of Detention on Riker's Island until I'm allowed to see the tape."

Rose turned to Dane. "I fail to grasp what relevance a video tape of a news conference with Mr. Janus and you, Miss Dane, has to the investigation of the murder."

"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to divulge the relevance. I can only tell you that Sergeant Bogdanovic's viewing the tape at the earliest possible moment may be crucial to solving the case."

Rose allowed herself a slight smile. "What do you expect to find on the tape, Sergeant? Might it be a shot of the murderer?"

"All I can say about that," Bogdanovic replied quietly, "is that if there is a shot of the murderer, you've got yourself one hell of a hot piece of tape. That picture would be an even bigger scoop than the one the Graphic bragged about in today's edition."

Rose scowled. "I must admit that shot of the corpus delicti with the cigar in his mouth was quite a coup. Did you know that Abelman had the damn thing copyrighted and then had the balls to demand twenty thousand bucks for permission to use it?"

"As a matter of law," Dane said, suppressing a laugh, "the copyright does not belong to the Graphic, unless Abelman bought the rights from the person who took the picture."

Rose's eyebrows arched. "May I gather from what Ms. Dane just said, Sergeant, that you suspect the person who took the picture was the murderer?"

"No comment."

"Since you trashed the First Amendment by keeping the press away from the murder scene until after the body was gone, it is logical to conclude that the person who got that amazing photo must have committed the murder."

Bogdanovic grinned. "Nice try, Ms. Rose."

"Try this, Sergeant. Why shouldn't I conclude from your interest in seeing our video of the news conference that the person who took the picture—namely the murderer—might have been caught on our tape of the news conference?"

"As I said, if he is, you've got a valuable tape. I imagine that the proper hype before you run it on your ten o'clock news would result in a healthy boost in the show's ratings. You might even turn the tables on Abelman by charging him for the right to lift a picture of the murderer from your tape."

"You know Jerry Abelman as well as I do, Sergeant. The rat would pirate the picture."

"All this conjecturing is moot, unless I see the tape and it leads to identification and arrest of the murderer."

"For that to happen, you will need more than a look at the tape. You'll require a copy of it so that you and your experts at One Police Plaza can study it. Therein lies the rub."

"Then I suggest you pick up your phone and dump the rub in the lap of your legal eagle. If he says I may see the tape, the issue is settled."

"My legal eagle is a she."

"Should she say nay, I'll take the matter to the district attorney and he can thrash it out with your lawyer. But keep in mind that if they fail to reach an accommodation, it could be you who lands in the pokey."

"Sergeant Bogdanovic, in the course of my career in news I have been caught in the crossfire between Serbs and Muslims in Bosnia and Israelis and Palestinians in Manger Square in Bethlehem. I was also held hostage for a day by leftist rebels in Peru in conditions that would make sitting in a cell at Riker's Island a Cakewalk. So you can rattle your detective's badge at me all you want. I stand behind the shield of the First Amendment, unless the station's lawyer tells me otherwise. Now, while I place the call to her, you may wait outside. There are coffee and soda machines in the newsroom."

A few moments later, Dane selected a diet cola.

Mindful of the curious looks directed at her by the men and women in the newsroom. Bogdanovic whispered, "How's it feel to be a celebrity prosecutor, Maggie?"

"I'll be glad to get back to blessed anonymity."

"I'm afraid that's highly unlikely. Television let the genie out of the bottle and there's no putting it back."

"How can you be so certain they're not looking at you?"

"Because at least half of the people in this newsroom have known me for years. The rest pride themselves on spotting a cop a mile away, so I'm just another flatfoot. But you are the woman who won a moral victory over Theodore R. Janus in what they and their like across the nation branded the trial of the century. You are the darling of the press."

"Elaine Rose didn't seem to share that opinion."

"Only because you caught her off guard by showing up with a guy who is determined to trample the First Amendment."

"You have to admit she is a gutsy woman."

"In keeping me from viewing the video tape, that gutsy woman is inhibiting a murder investigation. Were you the DA on this case, you would be hightailing it to a judge's chambers to apply for a subpoena, and if Ms. Rose didn't fork over the tape forthwith, you'd lose no time in ordering me to slap on the cuffs." "True. But I'd still admire her guts."

As she spoke, Rose stepped from her office and signaled them to return.

"That didn't take long," said Bogdanovic.

Stepping aside as they entered the office, Rose said, "Because we have no desire to delay the apprehension of a murderer, and in as much as there is a possibility that our raw tape of the news conference may provide a clue to the killer's identity, you may review the tape at this time, Sergeant. However, should you decide that you need a copy of the material, you will be required to present a subpoena. Locating the tape and setting it up will take a few minutes. You're in luck, by the way. The man who shot the tape is on the premises."

"That would be Bobby Fields?"

"Yes. I gather you know him."

"We're old friends professionally."

"I expect you'll find him not quite so friendly. Because of your dirty trick of keeping cameras away from the scene while you spirited away the body, we had to run the murder as the second story on last night's broadcast. The decision to keep the cameras away until the body was removed thwarted the basic precept of TV news. If it bleeds, it leads. We were forced to use file footage of Janus and a small portion of the video of the news conference. With all due respect to you, Ms. Dane, it wasn't very exciting."

WEARING A RED-AND-BLUE plaid shirt and faded blue jeans and seated before a row of television screens and a bank of video tape machines, the portly cameraman gently stroked the walrus mustache with obvious pride, turned slowly in a red swivel chair, fixed ice blue eyes on Bogdanovic, and said, "Well, well, if it isn't Mr. Screw-the-First-Amendment."

Bogdanovic made a slight bow. "It's nice to see you again, too, Bobby."

Lifting himself slightly from the red chair, Fields gave a nod of greeting to Dane. "It's only because you are here, Miss Dane, that I'm restraining myself from fulfilling the desire of every cameraman in this town to let this guy have it in the jaw for keeping us away from that crime scene till there was nothing worth getting on tape. I presume that it is too optimistic of me to expect that an apology might be forthcoming for his outrageous conduct early Sunday morning in Gramercy Park."

"Bobby, I believe you have the same rule in the news trade that we coppers live by," Bogdanovic said. "Never apologize. Your friends don't need it, and your enemies won't believe you."

Fields picked up a video cassette and shook it at him. "You owe me for this, Johnny."

"Duly noted, Bobby."

The tape went into a playback deck. "If you'll tell me what you're looking for, it might save us a lot of time."

Bogdanovic said, "I'm looking for shots you may have gotten at the news conference in the hotel lobby of anybody who had a camera."

"Practically everybody had one."

With the punch of a button, Fields started the tape.

"I'm interested in thirty-five-millimeter cameras," Bogdanovic said. "Ones equipped with a flash."

Fields pondered this a moment, then exclaimed, "I get it! It's that picture in the Graphic. You think somebody at the news conference followed Janus to his car, shot him, photographed the corpse, and sent it to the Graphic. I wondered where that picture came from. It never dawned on me that it might have come from the killer. Does that take the cake for chutzpah, or what?"

The screen above the tape deck filled with a shot of Wolfe Pack members milling on the sidewalk in front of the hotel.

"As soon as I arrive at a story," Fields explained, "I get an establishing shot. I was hoping to catch Janus and Miss Dane as they arrived, but they were already inside the lobby."

Onto the screen came a close-up of a sign:

BLACK ORCHIDS BANQUET

 SECOND FLOOR DINING ROOM

Oh my gosh," Dane said. "How could Wiggins have missed that mistake?"

With a puzzled look, Fields asked, "What mistake?" "It's Black Orchid. Singular."

The screen showed the crowded lobby with Janus's white hat seemingly afloat on a sea of backs of heads. Then came a jiggling shot of the lobby's carpet.

"Ever since I didn't have my camera ready and missed getting a shot of Bobby Kennedy being gunned down in that hotel kitchen in Los Angeles," Fields said, "I always keep the camera rolling whenever I change position."

Next on the screen was the news conference itself with rude reporters asking rude questions.

Throughout these questions and the answers, Fields' lens remained on Janus and Dane. But now he changed his position, moving behind them for the reverse angle.

"This is the shot I'm interested in," Bogdanovic said.

A young man with a camera slung from a shoulder and grasping a traditional reporter's notebook who politely addressed Janus as mister was asked by Janus, "Is my father here?"

As the crowd laughed, Fields' lens zoomed into a close-up of the unamused youth as he demanded, "How do you sleep at night?"

"I sleep in the raw!"

"What I meant was, how can you sleep at night knowing that you make it possible for so many guilty people to go free? Do you ever think about the feelings of the people who loved the victims of these criminals that you got off?"

"I don't free anyone, young man. Juries do. And when they have rendered their verdict of not guilty, I sleep with the clear conscience of a baby."

The broad back of Wiggins thrust into the picture. "Time for only one more question."

A young woman asked, "Theo, were you surprised to find out that you'd be getting this award from Maggie?"

Janus tipped back his hat as he replied. "To paraphrase Nero Wolfe, there are two ways for a man to ruin a friendship. One is to lend a pal a lot of money. The other is to question the purity of a woman's gesture."

The picture widened to show the crowd dispersing.

"And that is all of it," Fields said. "Did you find what you were looking for, Johnny?"

Bogdanovic's eyes were still directed to the screen. "Could you show me the reverse-angle shot again?"

"I'm glad to. It was the best part of story," Fields said as a touch of a finger restored a picture to the screen and sent it spinning crazily backward. "It got Janus at an angle for the best of the questions—the one that wanted to know how Janus slept at night after getting a guilty person off."

The tape stopped, then ran forward at regular speed.

"Even from behind you can see by Janus's body language that he was really irritated," said Fields, touching the screen.

"It was a nasty question," Dane said, "and obviously one the reporter intended to use to embarrass Theo."

"I wouldn't know about that," Fields said, stopping the tape and freezing the scene on the screen. "But if that's what the kid had in mind, he blew the opportunity. When he asked his question he didn't have his camera ready to get Janus's angry reaction."

"Have you ever seen that reporter at other news events?"

"Nah. And I'd be surprised if he was a reporter. He's certainly not a professional photographer. Look at his camera. It's what you'd take with you on vacation. It shoots thirty-five millimeter, but the lens is fixed. And then there's the flash. It's built right into the camera. No pro would go on assignment with that. My guess is this kid was staying at the hotel, or maybe he was passing by. He also could have been a student at the School of Visual Arts. It's only a block from the hotel. He could have seen the crowd and the press outside the hotel and decided to get in on the excitement by pretending he was a reporter. It's ironic that he asked the best question of the night."

"I may need a copy of this tape, Bobby."

"If you want your own copy, you'll have to get in the ring and duke that matter out with my boss. But don't be misled by her size. She looks like a lightweight, but she packs a wallop."

"Having had a preliminary bout with Ms. Rose, I am not looking forward to a rematch. But if I have to go to the mat to get this tape, I will."

"What's on it that's so important? Is it some kind of clue?" "Possibly. So please take care that it doesn't get erased."

WHEN THEY REACHED their car Bogdanovic said, "Maggie, I'm going to take you to lunch at my favorite restaurant, and then I'll try my hand at telling a mystery story."

"Why shouldn't you? Everybody else seems to be doing it."

"Of course, as a storyteller I am not in the same league as Arthur Conan Doyle and Rex Stout," he said, starting the engine. "Or Marian Pickering Henry, for that matter."

"Who the hell is? May I assume that your story will be based on one of your actual cases?"

"It will be part fact, part conjecture, part imagination."