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Chapter One

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Chapter One

MURDER ON THE SIX O'CLOCK NEWS
by
Chuck Staley

It was the Fourth of July, 1993. Early, before six A.M. But the sun was already warm and George Heffelfinger knew that it was going to be hot and steamy in the nation's capitol by mid-afternoon. The gray-haired senior anchorman for INN was once again departing for his annual trip by air from Washington to Boston, where he would ride as a guest of honor in the festive holiday parade, just as he had for the past twelve years. Heffelfinger had no idea that his own violent death moments from now would be the lead story that night on every television newscast in America.

After shooting down the runway at an exuberating speed, Heffelfinger expertly pulled back on the wheel of his sleek new Gulf Stream Turbo Commander and cleared the bright, green-leafed trees that grew at the outskirts of the airport, then banked the twin engine plane to the left and was soon flying above the rippling waters of the Potomac River.

Life was good, he told himself. Sure, he was getting older and would have to relinquish his position behind the network anchor desk to some young upstart soon, but right now he had nothing to complain about. At least he wasn't rotting away in some Mid-Eastern prison like Gray Sanders, the network's foreign correspondent who was missing for... what was it now... over three months? Sanders had simply disappeared one day while on assignment in Baghdad, and while the entire nation kept a watchful eye on The Six O'clock News each night hoping to learn of the newsman's whereabouts, no one in the federal government would admit knowing anything. It was as though the journalist had simply vanished into the atmosphere.

But Heffelfinger knew better. Or at least he thought he did. He glanced to his right where below him was the prosperous Virginia suburb of McLean, home of the CIA. When he returned after the holiday, he planned on making some inquiries of his own there. It was on that thought that the plane exploded in a blinding flash of light and a deafening sound and George Heffelfinger's life and career ended forever.