The head was bloated and slimy, the eyes ghoulish. So that grisly find, along with the lights and sirens that followed, put an end to our trash collection. The other miscreants were ordered home, but Thelma and I stayed behind to answer questions.
She didn’t have much to say that wasn’t a sob. And all her bravado about being a celebrity came to naught because she no longer had any desire to relive her gruesome moment of discovery for the TV cameras. Not even Channel 3’s.
I’ve smelled the odor of rotting flesh before, the real thing as well as a corpse flower. So I managed to take a closer look at the pale face of the detached head than most people would have under the circumstances. While I couldn’t tell age or gender, I could have sworn the tangled hair was blond.
Predictably, Burrel thought I was trying to horn in on his story. “I’ve been on the case from the beginning,” he said. “It’s mine.”
I understood his being irate—good reporters fight for their stories—but heck, I found the head. And when it comes to news, finders keepers.
“We don’t know for sure that my head is your head,” I said.
“How many missing heads do you think there are in this metropolitan area?” he asked.
“He’s got a point.” Noreen sided with Clay, making it seem like I had a conflict of interest—a big journalism no-no. “Riley, you’re actually part of this story, too, so I don’t think we can have you covering it.”
“But who better to cover it than a person with firsthand knowledge of the event?” I asked. “Isn’t that why sports reporters go to games, court reporters attend trials, and political reporters watch the legislative debates? My being on the scene makes me the best-qualified person for the story. Especially since the cops aren’t talking.”
Not all murders are created equal. The amount of media attention often comes down to that early journalism lesson of who, what, where, when, why, and how.
Who might be the most significant. If someone important or interesting is killed, that pushes the crime to the front page and the top of a newscast. If the homicide is just one gang member shooting another, the public won’t much care. But if the victim is an innocent bystander, perhaps a child hit by a stray bullet, that’s a whole different story.
What is fairly obvious. Murder, what else? Used to be every homicide was assigned a reporter who scrambled to make sure the victim’s name and picture made air. Now, run-of-the-mill murders might get a ten-second mention unless they’re part of a particular trend.
Where can make a big difference. If someone is killed in a school, church, or courthouse, viewers are curious. If murder happens in an alley in a bad part of town, a blame-the-victim mentality might kick in and affect coverage.
When only really counts if it’s a holiday. If someone is slain on Christmas, when news is slow, a camera crew will be knocking on the family’s door, wanting to videotape the unopened presents under the tree. Get killed on your birthday or wedding day, and that can be newsworthy, too.
Why might be the least influential when it comes to weighing how much play to give a murder, at least early in the news cycle, because why goes to motive, and police don’t often discern that until later, when a suspect is in custody. And sometimes not even then. If why is obvious, like in a liquor store robbery, that also lessens the mystique.
How is the most morbid of the criteria and perhaps the most riveting. That’s why a headless body—or bodiless head—trumps most other news of the day.
Noreen offered a compromise in which I’d anchor the newscast, toss to Clay for the report, then ask him a question in a tag.
“Why should I ask him a question?” I said. “What does he know? I’m the one who was there.”
So we struck a deal: Clay would do a live shot from as close to the river scene as the police would allow. He would give the main summary; I would be next to him in the field, where he would interview me as a witness about the gruesome find.
((TWOSHOT/CLAY))
RILEY, DO YOU THINK THE
HEAD FOUND THIS
AFTERNOON MIGHT BE FROM
THE DECAPITATED WOMAN IN
THE WIRTH PARK MURDER?
((TWOSHOT/RILEY))
TOO SOON TO TELL, CLAY.
POLICE WILL HAVE TO WAIT
FOR DNA TESTS. BUT I CAN
TELL YOU THAT TODAY’S
REMAINS DEFINITELY HAD
TEETH. SO THAT MEANS
AN IMPORTANT CLUE FOR
IDENTIFICATION.
Clay and I went back and forth a few times about missing people in the area and our interview was replayed coast to coast. I found myself hoping a 24/7 cable network might hire him. I wondered if he had any outs in his contract that would allow him to leave Channel 3 without much notice. Maybe if I made him look good during this coverage, I could get him out of this market.
But then I remembered that I had a much more serious problem than scooping competitors.
For the last twenty-four hours, distracted by an unidentified head, I had been able to forget the murder of Sam Pierce.