The Evening News (87 page)

"I don't think any of this matters right now
,”
Kettering ruled
.”
Let's
quit
.”

During the digging, videotaping had been started-initially a sound bite
by Cokie Vale describing her search of classified advertising and how it
led to the Hackensack house. On camera she was personable, expressed
herself clearly and was economical with words. It would be her first
appearance on television, she acknowledged afterward. Those watching had
an instinct it would not be her last
.
Jonathan Mony, it was felt, had earned some camera exposure too and
repeated his showing of the upstairs room where the kidnapped trio had
almost certainly been held. He also was effective
.”
If this endeavor's done nothing else
,”
Jaeger commented to Don
Kettering, "it's brought us some new talent
.”

Mony, having returned from the house, was down in the excavated hole and
had resumed digging when Kettering made the decision to quit. About to
climb out, Mony felt his foot touch something solid and probed with his
shovel. A moment later he had pulled out an object and called, "Hey, look
at this
!”

It was a cellular phone in a canvas outer cover
.
Passing up the phone to Cooper, Mony said, "I think there's another
underneath
.”

Not only was there another, but four more after that. Soon the six were
laid out, side by side
.”
The people who used this place weren't short of money
,”
Cokie observed
.”
Chances are it was drug money; anyway, they had plenty
,”
Don Kettering
told her. He regarded the phones thoughtfully
.”
But maybe-just maybe we're
getting somewhere
.”

Jaeger asked, "Are records kept of all cellular phone calls
?
”

"Sure are
.”

Kettering, who as business correspondent had recently done a
news feature on the booming cellular phone market, answered confidently
.”
There are also lots of other records including a regular phone user's name
and billing address. For these the gang needed a local accomplice
.”

He
turned to Cooper
.”
Teddy, on each phone there'll be an area code followed
by a regular number, just as on a house or office line
.”

,
"I'm tuned in
,”
Cooper said
.”
You'd like me to make a list
?
”

"Please
!”

While Cooper worked, they continued videotaping the house and buildings
.
In a correspondent's standup, Kettering said:

“
Some may believe discovery of the abandoned American base of the
kidnappers is, at this point, too little too late. That may be true
.
But meanwhile the FBI and others will sift evidence found here while
the world watches anxiously, continuing to hope
.”
Don Kettering, CBA News, Hackensack, New Jersey.

Before leaving, they called in the local police, asking them to inform the
FBI.

Even before the National Evening News went on the air, Kettering had
telephoned a friend high in NYNEX Corpora
t
ion, operators of the New York and New Jersey telephone systems. Holding in his hand the list of numbers compiled by Teddy Cooper, Kettering explained what he needed-the name and address of the person or persons to whom the six telephones were registered, plus a list of all calls made to or from those numbers during the past two months
.”
You realize, of course
,”
his friend-an executive vice president-informed
him, "that not only would giving you that information be a violation of
privacy, but I would be acting illegally and could lose my job. Now, if
you were an investigative agency with a warrant-
”

“
I'm not and I can't be
,”
Kettering replied
.”
However, it's a safe bet
the FBI will be asking for the same information tomorrow and they'll have
one. All I want are those answers first
.”

"Oh my god! How did I get mixed up with a character like you
?
”

"Since you ask, I remember your wanting a favor from CBA once or twice
and I delivered. Come on! We've trusted each other since business school
and never regretted it
.”

At the other end, a sigh
.”
Give me the damn numbers
.”

After Kettering had recited the list, his friend continued, "You said the
FBI tomorrow. I suppose that means you need to know tonight
.”

"Yes, but any time this side of midnight. You can call me at home. You
have the number
?
”

"Unfortunately, yes
.”

The call came at 10:45 P.m., just after Don Kettering arrived at his East
Seventy-seventh Street apartment, having stayed late at CBA. His wife
,
Aim6e, answered, then handed him the phone
.”
I saw your news this evening
,”
his NYNEX friend said
.”
I presume those
cellular numbers you gave me are those used by the kidnappers
.”

"It looks that way
,”
Kettering acknowledged
.”
In that case, I wish I had more for you. There isn't a lot.
First, the phones are all registered to a Helga Efferen. I have an address
.”

"I doubt if it's current. The lady's dead. Murdered. I hope she didn't owe
you money
.”

"Jesus! You news guys are cold-blooded
.”

After a pause, the NYNEX man went
on, "About the money, it's actually the reverse. Right after numbers were
issued for those phones, someone made a deposit of five hundred dollars for
each account-three thousand dollars in all. We didn't ask for it, but it
went on the books as a credit
.”

Kettering said, "I imagine the people using the phones didn't want anyone
sending bills or asking awkward questions until they were safely out of the
country
.”

"Well, for whatever reason, most of the money's still there. Less than a
third was used and that's because, with one exception, all calls were
solely between the six phones and not to other numbers. Local interphone
calls get charged, but not all that heavily
.”

“
Everything points to the kidnappers' organization and discipline
,”
Kettering affirmed
.”
But you said there was an exception
.”

"Yes---on September 13, an international direct-dial call to Peru
.”

"That's the day before the kidnap. Do you have a number
?
”

"Of course. It was 01 1-that's the international access code -51, which is
Peru, then 14-28-9427. My people tell me that '14' is Lima. Exactly where
is something you'll have to find out
.”

"I'm sure we will. And thanks
!”

"I hope some of that helps. Good luck
!”

Moments later, after consulting a notebook, Kettering tapped out a number
for another call: 011-51-14-44-1212
.
When a voice answered, "Buenas tardes, Cesar's Hotel
,”
Kettering requested
,
"Mr. Harry Partridge, por
favor
.”

It had been a discouraging day for Harry Partridge. He was tired and, in his hotel suite, had gone to bed shortly before ten o'clock. But his thoughts were still churning. He was brooding on Peru
.
The whole country, he thought, was a paradox-a conflicting mixture of
military despotism and free democracy. In much of the republic's remoter
regions the military and so-called antiterrorist police ruled with steel
fists and frequent disregard of law. They were apt to kill wantonly
,
afterward labeling their victims "rebels
,”
even when they were not-as
independent inquiry often showed
.
A U.S. human rights organization, Americas Watch, had done a creditable
job, Partridge believed, in seeking out and recording what it called "a
cascade of extrajudicial executions, arbitrary arrests, disappearances
and torture
,”
all "central features
”
in the government's
counterinsurgency campaign
.
On the other hand, Americas Watch did not spare the rebels. In a recently
published report, open beside the bed, it said Sendero Luminoso
"systematically murders defenseless people, places explosives that
endanger the lives of innocent bystanders and attacks military targets
without minimizing the risk to the civilian population"-all "violations
of the most fundamental rules of international humanitarian law
.”

As to the country generally, "Peru now has the sad privilege to be
counted among the most violent and dangerous places in South America
.”

An inescapable conclusion, confirmed by other sources, was that little
difference existed between rebel and government forces when it came to
random slaughter and other assorted savagery
.
Yet, at the same time, strong democratic elements existed in
Peru-more real than mere faqades, a word sometimes used by critics. Freedom of the press was one, a tradition seemingly ingrained. It was that same freedom which allowed Partridge and other foreign reporters to travel, question, probe, then report however they decided, without fear of expulsion or reprisal. True, there had been exceptions to the principle but so far they were rare and isolated
.
Partridge had come close to that subject today during an inter-view with
General Raftl Ortiz, chief of anti-terrorism police
.”
Does it not concern
you
,”
he had asked the erect, unsmiling figure in plain clothes, "that
there are so many responsible reports of your men being guilty of brutality
and illegal executions
?
”

"It would concern me more
,”
Ortiz replied in a half-contemptuous tone, "if
my men were the ones executed-as they would be if they did not defend
themselves from those terrorists which you and others seem to care so much
about. As to the untrue reports, if our government tried to suppress them
,
people like you would raise great howls and keep repeating them. Thus a
one-day news trifle, forgotten twenty-four hours later, is usually
preferable
.”

Partridge had requested the interview with Ortiz, believing he should cover
the ground, though doubting that much would be gained. Through the Ministry
of the Interior the meeting was arranged promptly, though a request to
bring a camera crew was denied. Also, when Partridge was searched before
being allowed to enter the police general's office, a mini
-
tape recorder in
his pocket, which he had intended to ask permission to use, was removed
outside. Nothing was said, though, about the talk being off the record and
the general made no objection to his visitor's taking notes
.
General Ortiz's unpretentious wood-paneled office was one of a warren of
similar offices in an old, massive raw-cement building in downtown Lima
.
High walls surrounded the structure, half of which had once been a prison
.
Getting inside had entailed clearance by a succession of suspicious guards;
then, walking across a courtyard within the walls, Partridge had passed
rows of armored personnel carriers, as well as trucks
with anti-riot water cannon. While talking with the general, Partridge was aware that beneath them in the building's basement were cell blocks where prisoners were often held for two weeks without any outside contact, and other cells where interrogation and torture regularly took place
.
At the outset of the Ortiz interview, Partridge asked the question
uppermost in his mind: whether the anti-terrorism police had any idea where
the three Sloane kidnap victims were being held
.”
I thought you might have come to tell me that, judging by the many people
you have seen since coming here
,”
the General responded. It was an
admission and perhaps a not-so-subtle warning, Partridge thought, that his
movements were being watched. He guessed, too, that CBA's satellite
transmissions to New York, as well as those of other U.S. networks were
being monitored and recorded by the Peruvian Government, press freedom
notwithstanding
.
When Partridge declared he had no information about the location of the
American captives despite his efforts, Ortiz said, "Then you are aware how
devious and secretive those enemies of the state, Sendero Luminoso, can be
.
Also that this is a country far different from your own, with vast spaces
where it is possible to hide armies. But, yes, we have ideas as to areas
where your friends might be and our forces are searching those
.”