Bob sighed. "His arraignment was postponed. Anyway, the public is tired of serial killers."

The anchorman looked incredulous. "The public is tired of serial killers? Now, where'd you get that?"

"You can read it yourself in the focus groups, Jim. Serial killers are overexposed. Our audience is worried about the economy. They don't want any more serial killers."

"Our audience is worried about the economy so we lead off with Nakamoto and Paris fashions?"

"That's right, Jim," Bob Arthur said. "In hard times, you do star parties. That's what people want to see: fashion and fantasy."

The anchor looked sullen. "I'm a journalist, I'm here to do hard news, not fashion."

"Right, Jim," the producer said. "That's why Liz did the intros tonight. We want to keep your image hard news."

"When Teddy Roosevelt led this country out of the Great Depression, he didn't do it with fashion and fantasy."

"Franklin Roosevelt."

"Whatever. You know what I'm saying. If people are worried, let's do the economy. Let's do the balance of payments or whatever it is."

"Right, Jim. But this is the eleven o'clock news in the local market, and people don't want to hear - "

"And that's what's wrong with America," the anchorman pronounced, stabbing the air with his finger. "People don't want to hear the real news."

"Right, Jim. You're absolutely right." He put his arm over the anchorman's shoulder. "Get some rest, okay? We'll talk tomorrow."

That seemed to be a signal of some kind, because the anchorwoman finished with her notes and strode off.

"I'm a journalist," the anchor said. "I just want to do the job I was trained for."

"Right, Jim. More tomorrow. Have a good night."

"Stupid dickhead," Bob Arthur said, leading us down a corridor. "Teddy Roosevelt. Jesus. They're not journalists. They're actors. And they count their lines, like all actors." He sighed, and took another drink of scotch. "Now tell me again, what do you guys want to see?"

"Tape from the Nakamoto opening."

"You mean the air tapes? The story we ran tonight?"

"No, we want to see the original footage from the camera."

"The field tapes. Jeez. I hope we still have them. They may have been bulked."

"Bulked?"

"Bulk degaussed. Erased. We shoot forty cassettes a day here. Most of them get erased right away. We used to save field tapes for a week, but we're cutting costs, you know."

On one side of the newsroom were shelves of stacked Betamax cartridges. Bob ran his finger along the boxes. "Nakamoto... Nakamoto... No, I don't see them." A woman went past. "Cindy, is Rick still here?"

"No, he's gone home. You need something?"

"The Nakamoto field tapes. They aren't on the shelf."

"Check Don's room. He cut it."

"Okay." Bob led us across the newsroom to the editing bays on the far side. He opened a door, and we entered a small, messy room with two monitors, several tape decks, and an editing console. Tapes in boxes were scattered around the floor. Bob rummaged through them. "Okay, you guys are in luck. Camera originals. There's a lot of it. I'll get Jenny to run you through them. She's our best spotter. She knows everybody." He stuck his head out the door. "Jenny? Jenny!"

"Okay, let's see," Jenny Gonzales said, a few minutes later. She was a bespectacled, heavyset woman in her forties. She scanned the editor's notes and frowned. "It doesn't matter how many times I tell them, they just will not put things in proper... Finally. Here we are. Four tapes. Two limo driveups. Two roving inside, at the party. What do you want to see?"

Connor said, "Start with the driveups." He glanced at his watch. "Is there any way to do this fast? We're in a hurry."

"Fast as you want. I'm used to it. Let's see it at high speed.

She hit a button. At high speed, we saw the limousines pulling up, the doors jumping open, the people getting out, jerkily walking away.

"Looking for anyone in particular? Because I see somebody marked footages for celebrities during the edit."

"We're not looking for a celebrity," I said.

"Too bad. It's probably all we shot." We watched the tape. Jenny said, "There's Senator Kennedy. He's lost some weight, hasn't he. Oops, gone. And Senator Morton. Looking very fit. No surprise. That creepy assistant of his. He makes my teeth shiver. Senator Rowe, without his wife, as usual. There's Tom Hanks. I don't know this Japanese guy.

Connor said, "Hiroshi Masukawa, vice-president of Mitsui."

"There you go. Senator Chalmers, hair transplant looking good. Congressman Levine. Congressman Daniels. Sober for a change. You know, I'm surprised Nakamoto got so many of these Washington people to attend."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, when you get down to it, it's just the opening of some new building. An ordinary corporate bash. It's on the West Coast. And Nakamoto is pretty controversial right at the moment. Barbra Streisand. I don't know who the guy is with her."

"Nakamoto is controversial? Why?"

"Because of the MicroCon sale."

I said, "What's MicroCon?"

"MicroCon is an American company that makes computer equipment. A Japanese company named Akai Ceramics is trying to buy it. There's opposition to the sale in Congress, because of worries about America losing technology to Japan."

I said, "And what does this have to do with Nakamoto?"

"Nakamoto's the parent company of Akai." The first tape finished, and popped out. "Nothing there you wanted?"

"No. Let's go on."

"Right." She slid the second tape in. "Anyway, I'm surprised how many of these senators and congressmen felt it was acceptable to show up here tonight. Okay, here we go. More driveups. Roger Hillerman, under secretary of state for Pacific affairs. That's his assistant with him. Kenichi Aikou, consul general of Japan, here in L.A. Richard Meier, architect. Works for Getty. Don't know her. Some Japanese..."

Connor said, "Hisashi Koyama, vice-president of Honda U.S."

"Oh, yeah," Jenny said. "He's been here about three years now. Probably going home soon. That's Edna Morris, she heads the U.S. delegation to the GATT talks. You know, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. I can't believe she showed up here, it's an obvious conflict of interest. But there she is, all smiling and relaxed. Chuck Norris. Eddie Sakamura. Sort of a local playboy. Don't know the girl with him. Tom Cruise, with his Australian wife. And Madonna, of course."

On the accelerated tape, the strobes flashed almost continuously as Madonna stepped from her limousine and preened. "Want to slow it down? You interested in this?"

Connor said, "Not tonight."

"Well, we probably have a lot on her," Jenny said. She pushed the very high-speed fast-forward and the image streaked gray. When she punched back, Madonna was wiggling toward the elevator, leaning on the arm of a slender Hispanic boy with a mustache. The image blurred as the camera swung back toward the street. Then it stabilized again.

"There's Daniel Okimoto. Expert on Japanese industrial policy. That's Arnold, with Maria. And behind them is Steve Martin, with Arata Isozaki, the architect who designed the Museum - "

Connor said, "Wait."

She punched the console button. The picture froze. Jenny seemed surprised. "You're interested in Isozaki?"

"No. Back up, please."

The tape ran backward, the frames flicking and blurring as the camera panned off Steve Martin, and went back to record the next arrival from the limousines. But for a moment in the pan, the camera swung past a group of people who had already gotten out of their limousines, and were walking up the carpeted sidewalk.

Connor said, "There."

The image froze. Slightly blurred, I saw a tall blonde in a black cocktail dress walking forward alongside a handsome man in a dark suit.

"Huh," Jenny said. "You interested in him, or her?"

"Her. "

"Let me think," Jenny said, frowning. "I've seen her at parties with the Washington types for about nine months now. She's this year's Kelly Emberg. The athletic modelly kind. But sophisticated, sort of a Tatiana look-alike. Her name is... Austin. Cindy Austin, Carrie Austin... Cheryl Austin. That's it."

I said, "You know anything else about her?"

Jenny shook her head. "Listen, I think getting a name is pretty good. These girls show up all the time. You see a new one everywhere for six months, a year, and then they're gone. God knows where they go. Who can keep track of them?"

"And the man with her?"

"Richard Levitt. Plastic surgeon. Does a lot of big stars."

"What's he doing here?"

She shrugged. "He's around. Like a lot of these guys, he's a companion to the stars in their time of need. If his patients are getting divorced or whatever, he escorts the woman. When he's not taking out clients, he takes out models like her. They certainly look good together."

On the monitor, Cheryl and her escort walked toward us in intermittent jerks: one frame every thirty seconds. Stepping slow. I noticed they never looked at each other. She seemed tense, expectant.

Jenny Gonzales said, "So. Plastic surgeon and a model. Can I ask what's the big deal about these two? Because at an evening like this, they're just, you know, party favors."

Connor said, "She was killed tonight."

"Oh, she's the one? Interesting."

I said, "You've heard about the murder?"

"Oh, sure."

"Was it on the news?"

"No, didn't make the eleven o'clock," Jenny said. "And it probably won't be on tomorrow. I can't see it myself. It's not really a story."

"Why is that?" I asked, glancing at Connor.

"Well, what's the peg?"

"I don't follow you."

"Nakamoto would say, it's only news because it happened at their opening. They'd take the position that any reporting of it is a smear on them. But in a way they're right. I mean, if this girl got killed on the freeway, it wouldn't make the news. If she got killed in a convenience store robbery, it wouldn't make the news. We have two or three of those every night. So the fact that she gets killed at a party... who cares? It's still not news. She's young and pretty, but she's not special. It's not as if she has a series or anything." .

Connor glanced at his watch. "Shall we look at the other tapes?"

"The footage from the party? Sure. You looking for this particular girl?"

"Right."

"Okay, here we go." Jenny put in the third tape.

We saw scenes from the party on the forty-fifth floor: the swing band, people dancing beneath the hanging decorations. We strained for a glimpse of the girl in the crowd. Jenny said, "In Japan, we wouldn't have to do this by eye. The Japanese have pretty sophisticated video-recognition software now. They have a program where you identify an image, say a face, and it'll automatically search tape for you, and find every instance of that face. Find it in a crowd, or wherever it appears. Has the ability to see a single view of a three-dimensional object, and then to recognize the same object in other views. It's supposed to be pretty nifty. But slow."

"I'm surprised the station hasn't got it."

"Oh, it's not for sale here. The most advanced Japanese video equipment isn't available in this country. They keep us three to five years behind. Which is their privilege. It's their technology, they can do what they want. But it'd sure be useful in a case like this."

The party images were streaming past, a frenetic blur.

Suddenly, she locked the image.

"There. Background camera left. Your Austin girl's talking to Eddie Sakamura. Of course he'd know her. Sakamura knows all the models. Normal speed here?"

"Please," Connor said, staring at the screen.

The camera made a slow pan around the room. Cheryl Austin remained in view for most of the shot. Laughing with Eddie Sakamura, throwing her head back, resting her hand on his arm, happy to be with him. Eddie clowned for her, his face mobile. He seemed to enjoy making her laugh. But from time to time, her eyes flicked away, glancing around the room. As if she was waiting for something to happen. Or for someone to arrive.

At one point, Sakamura became aware he did not have her full attention. He grabbed her arm and pulled her roughly toward him. She turned her face away from him. He leaned close to her and said something angrily. Then a bald man stepped forward, very close to the camera. The light flared on his face, washing out his features, and his head blocked our view of Eddie and the girl. Then the camera panned left, and we lost them.

"Damn."

"Again?" Jenny backed it up, and we ran it once more.

I said, "Eddie's obviously not happy with her."

"I'd say."

Connor frowned. "It's so difficult to know what we are seeing. Do you have sound for this?"

Jenny said, "Sure, but it's probably walla." She punched buttons and ran it again. The track was continuous cocktail party din. Only for brief moments did we hear an isolated phrase.

At one point, Cheryl Austin looked at Eddie Sakamura and said, "...can't help if it's important to you I get..."

His reply to her was garbled, but later, he said clearly to her, "Don't understand... all about the Saturday meeting..."

And in the last few seconds of the pan, when he pulled her to him, he snarled a phrase like "...be a fool... no cheapie..."

I said, "Did he say 'No cheapie'?"

"Something like that," Connor said.

Jenny said, "Want to run it again?"

"No," Connor said. "There's nothing more to be learned here. Go forward."

"Right," Jenny said.

The image accelerated, the party-goers becoming frenetic, laughing and raising glasses for quick sips. And then I said, "Wait."