The Evening News (41 page)

They had the feeling he had said it many times before
.
Both then and later, Partridge wondered how Gemma, who unhesitatingly
agreed to a civil ceremony, reconciled it with her religion. She had been
born Catholic and her early education,
she had told him, was at a Sacre
Coeur school. But each time he asked, she merely shrugged and said, "God
will understand
.”
It was, he supposed, typical of a casualness many
Italians had about religion. He had once heard someone say that Italians
always assumed God to be Italian too
.
Inevitably, aboard the papal airplane the news of the marriage spread---as
the London Times correspondent put it, quoting Revelation, faster than "the
four winds of the earth
.”
In the press section, after
take
o
ff
from Panama
,
a celebratory party was held with great quantities of champagne, liquor and
caviar. As much as their duties allowed, the pursers and cabin crew joined
in and told Gemma there would be no work for her through the remainder of
that day. Even the Alitalia captain left the flight deck briefly to come
back with congratulations.
Amid the revelry and good wishes, Partridge sensed strong doubts by some
that the marriage would last, but also among the men, a feeling of envy
.
Notably, but not surprisingly, there was no representation at the party
from
the ecclesiastics, and
for the remainder of the trip Partridge was aware of
their coolness and disapproval Whether or not the Pope was ever informed
of what had happened was something none of the journalists learned, despite
inquiries. However, on that
journey the Pope did not visit the press section
again
.
In the limited time they were able to spend together, Partridge and Gemma
began planning
for their
future.

In a New York hotel room . . . slowly, sadly . . . the image of Gemma
faded. The present replaced the past. At last, exhausted, Harry Partridge
slept.

In the kidnappers' Hackensack base Miguel received a message by telephone at 7:30 Saturday morning. He took the call in a small room on the first floor of the main building, which he had kept for himself as an office and for sleeping
.
Of the six portable cellular phones the group had used, one was earmarked
to receive special calls, the number known only to those with authority to
make them. Miguel always kept that phone close to him
.
The caller, following orders, was using a public pay phone so the call
could not be traced, in or out. I Miguel, alert and waiting, had been expecting the call for the past hour. He picked up the handset on the first ring and answered, "ISP
”
The caller then challenged him w
ith a prearranged code word, "j
iempo
?
”

to
which Miguel responded, "Reldmpago
.”

There was an alternative reply. If Miguel's answer to the query
"weather
?
”

had been "thunder
”
instead of "lightning
,”
it would have meant
that, for whatever reason, his group required a twenty-four hours' delay
.
As it was, "reld
mpago
”
conveyed: "We are ready to go. Name place and
time
.”

The crucial message followed: "Sombrero profundo sur twenty hundred
.”

Sombrero was Teterboro Airport, slightly more than a mile away, profundo
sur the airport's southern end gate. The words "twenty hundred
”
indicated
the time-2000 hours or 8 p
.m.when the kidnap victims and those to
accompany them would board a Colombia-registered Learjet 55LR which would
he there, waiting. The 55, as Miguel already knew, was a larger model
with a more spacious interior than the familiar 20 and 30 series Lears
.
The LR signified Long Range
.
Miguel acknowledged curtly, "Lo comprendo,
“
and the conversation ended
.
The caller had been another diplomat, this time attached to the Colombian
Consulate General in New York; he had been a conduit for messages since
Miguel's arr
ival in the United States a month earlier. Both the Peruvian
and Colombian diplomatic corps were riddled with defectors, either
Sendero Luminoso sympathizers or on the Medellin cartel payroll
,
sometimes both, and performing their double-crosses for the large amounts
of money which Latin American drug lords paid
.
After receiving the call, Miguel walked through the house and buildings
and informed the others, though preparations for departure were already
in hand and each group member knew what was required. Those to travel on
the Learjet, accompanying the kidnap victims in their caskets, were
Miguel, Baudelio, Socorro and Rafael. Julio would remain behind in the
United States, resuming his previous identity and becoming, once more
,
a Medellin cartel sleeping agent. Carlos and Luis would quietly leave the
country within the next few days, flying separately to Colombia
.
Julio, Carlos and Luis, though, had a concluding duty after the Learjet
had gone: to disperse the remaining vehicles and abandon them.
Miguel had given considerable thought about what to do with the Hackensack
hideaway. He had considered, as a final act, burning the whole place down
,
vehicles with it. The collection of buildings was old and would go up like
a furnace, especially with the help of gasoline
.
But a fire would draw attention and, if investigated, the ashes might yield
clues. While in some ways it wouldn't matter since everyone would be gone
,
it went against reason to make things easier for the American law agencies
.
So the idea of a fire was out
.
If they simply vacated the building, leaving it as it was, their use of the
place as a kidnap way station might not be discovered for weeks or months
,
perhaps never. But that required the disposition of the vehicles-driving
them all in different directions for a good distance and then abandoning
them. True, there were risks involved,
specifically
for those who would
drive the three cars, the GMC truck and the hearse, but Miguel believed
they weren't great. In any case it was what he had decided on
.
He encountered Rafael first and told him, "We leave here this evening at
7:40
.”

The burly handyman-mechanic, who was in the outbuilding they used as a
paint shop, grunted and nodded, seeming more interested in the GMC truck
,
which he had repainted the day before. The former white truck with the
legend "Superbread
”
had been transformed to an almost totally black one
with the name "Serene Funeral Homes
”
in discreet gold lettering on both
sides
.
Miguel bad ordered the change himsel
f. Satisfied, he told Rafael, "
Bien
hecho
!
A pity it will only be used once
.”

The big man swung around, clearly pleased, a slight smile on his scarred
and brutish face. It was strange, Miguel thought, that Rafael who could be
so savage in action, taking demoniac delight in inflicting suffering or
killing, at other moments behaved like a child in need of approval
.
Miguel pointed to the truck's New Jersey license plates
.”
These are fresh
ones
?
”

Again Rafael nodded
.”
From the last set. Ain't been used yet, an' I
switched the others
.”

It meant that all five remaining vehicles now had license plates which
could not have been seen during the Larchmont surveillance, so that
driving and abandoning them would be that much safer
.
Miguel went outside to where, within a cluster of trees, Julio and Luis
were digging a deep hole. The ground was wet from yesterday's rain and
the work heavy going. Julio was using his spade to sever a rugged tree
root and, seeing Miguel, he stopped, wiped his swarthy, sweating face
with a sleeve, and cursed
.”
Pinche cabron!
This is shit work-for oxen, not men
.”

On the point of snapping back an obscenity, Miguel checked himself. The
ugly knifing scar on Julio's face was turning crimson, a signal of the
man's foul temper and that he was spoiling for a fight
.”
Take a rest
,”
Miguel said curtly
.”
There's time. We all leave at 7:40
.”

Brawling in these last few hours would be a stupid waste. Besides, Miguel
needed the men to finish digging the hole in which they would bury all
the cellular phones and some medical equipment Baudelio would leave
behind
.
Burying the phones, in particular, was not an ideal arrangement and
Miguel would have preferred to dump them somewhere in deep water. But
while there was plenty of water in the New Jersey-New York area, the
chances of doing something like that without being observed were not
good-at least in the short time available
.
Later that day, when the hole was refilled, Julio and Luis should be able
to rake leaves over the surface, leaving no trace of what was beneath
.
Carlos, to whom Miguel went next, was in another of the outbuildings
,
burning papers in an iron stove. Carlos, young and well educated, had
organized the month-long surveillance records and photos of visitors to
the Sloane house, all of which was now feeding the fire
.
When Miguel told him about the evening departure, Carlos
seemed relieved. His thin lips twitched and he said, "iQue buenol
”
Then his eyes resumed their normal hardness
.
Miguel had been aware of the strain of the past forty-eight hours on
everyone, Carlos especially, perhaps because of his youth. But commendably
the younger man had kept himself under control and Miguel foresaw a command
terrorism role for Carlos before too long
.
A small pile of what appeared to be Rafael's clothing was beside the stove
.
Miguel, Rafael and Baudelio would all wear dark suits during the departure
process by air when, to anticipate a possible U.S. Government inspection
,
they would pose as mourners, using a carefully designed cover story
.
Everything else would be left behind
.
Miguel pointed to the clothes, "Don't bum those-too much smoke. Go through
the pockets, take everything out and remove any labels. Then bury the
rest
.”

He gestured in the direction of the digging outside
.”
Tell the
others
.”

"Okay
.”

When he had attended to the fire again, Carlos said, "We should
have flowers
.”

"Flowers
?
”

"Some on the casket that goes in the hearse, maybe on the others. It's what
a family would do
.”

Miguel hesitated. He knew Carlos was right and it was something he hadn't
thought of himself in planning their exit from the U.S., first via
Teterboro, then aboard the Lear
jet to Opa Locka. Airport, Florida, from
where they would fly directly to Peru
,
Originally, when Miguel had expected only two unconscious captive%, he had
planned to make two journeys with the hearse between the Hackensack house
and Teterboro Airport, conveying one casket at a time, which was all the
hearse would hold. But three journeys with three caskets were too many and
would entail too great a risk; therefore Miguel had devised a new plan
.
One casket-Baudelio would decide which-would be transported to Teterboro
in the hearse. The repainted GMC truck of "Serene Funeral Homes
”
would
carry the other two
.
The Lear 55LR, Miguel knew, was configured with a cargo
door that allowed plenty of room for loading two caskets. Getting a third in might be difficult, but he was sure it could be done
.
Still weighing Carlos's suggestion, he thought: The addition of flowers
would make their cover story more convincing. At Teterboro they would have
to pass through airport security. Probably, too, there would be
supplemental police because of the kidnap alert, and questions were almost
certain to be asked about the caskets and their contents. Some tense
moments were likely and Teterboro, as Miguel saw it, was the key to their
safe departure. At Opa Locka, from where they would actually leave the
U.S., he anticipated no problems
.
Miguel decided to take a small risk now to help offset the large one later
.
He nodded
.”
Yes, flowers
.”