Goldengirl

‘Goldine was released at six o’clock this morning on Shore Boulevard, East Cleveland, and phoned me at once. When I picked her up, she was extremely tired and in a state of shock. She was unable to say much about her kidnapers, as she had been kept blindfolded or under sedation throughout the four days and nights of her abduction. Otherwise, she appears to have been treated well. I informed the police of Goldine’s safe return, and she has made a statement to them. She is now resting at an address I shall not disclose, for reasons already stated. As soon as a decision is reached about her participation in the Olympic Games, I shall be in touch with the U.S. Olympic Committee, and a further statement will be issued to the press.’

‘Could we have the name of the guy in Los Angeles?’ asked a reporter.

‘And the others?’ added a second.

‘What were the arrangements for the pickup?’

‘Gentlemen, I have made my statement,’ said Serafin. ‘There is nothing I can usefully add. These last few days have been something of a strain for me, so I must ask you to bear with me when I insist on leaving it at that.’

Whatever Serafin insisted, the press had a job to do. In the next three hours, Cleveland’s transient accommodations — from plush hotels on Euclid Avenue to seedy bed-sitting-rooms downtown — were thoroughly checked for a new arrival. Hospitals, sanitariums and nursing homes were visited. Caradock Lodge, which some bystander had seen Serafin leaving the day before, came in for special attention, but Nurse Piper insisted nobody was staying there, and finally got rid of reporters by allowing them to make their own examination of the rooms. Jefferson College, too, was combed. It was known Goldine had stayed there prior to the kidnaping — a local paper had established that on Thursday — and that Serafin, Klugman, a red-headed secretary, and an unidentified Chinese had been in the party, but none of them could now be traced. By late afternoon, newsmen were talking of a professional coverup. It was thought the police might have taken a hand, but they denied it, seeming put out about the whole affair.

In fact, Goldine and Klugman had left Cleveland in a privately chartered helicopter an hour before the press conference began. In a little over two hours they landed in New York City, where they were met by a senior executive of the Dryden organization and driven to his home. That afternoon, while Cleveland was being scoured, Goldine was walking an Afghan hound in Central Park.

Dryden, with Melody in tow, took the scheduled flight from Cleveland Hopkins Airport at 2:10 P.M. He had masterminded the entire operation. This kind of exercise he performed automatically, laying on a press conference, fixing flight schedules, arranging accommodations. The others had seen the sense of co-operating when he had outlined the plan last evening in Jefferson College. Goldine, convinced she had achieved independence of action, and determined to preserve it, coolly consented to the arrangements so long as they committed her to nothing more than a flight to New York. Serafin, no less convinced that she would run in Moscow, had agreed to go through with the press conference as the best way of resolving the complications of the ‘kidnap’ story. Dryden had written the statement and waited to hear that Serafin read it and didn’t get drawn into questions. Nothing had gone wrong: Serafin was still fanatically interested in the success of Project Goldengirl.

Secure in the plane, Dryden might have been excused for congratulating himself on a smooth operation. In reality, he felt distinctly uneasy. Till yesterday, he had been scrupulous in keeping his participation in the project on a professional basis, avoiding any involvement in what happened to Goldine prior to the Olympics. There were huge risks even in that, but if things got hot before the Games, he had reckoned on pulling out without irreparable damage to the agency’s reputation.

Not now. He was caught up in it with the rest of them. He had conspired to issue a false statement to the police and — potentially more damaging — he had hoodwinked the press. The alternative had been the inevitable collapse of the project. Nothing would have saved it if newsmen had talked to Goldine or Serafin on Saturday.

Then, why hadn’t he washed his hands of it as he had always intended if things went wrong? He could have walked out of Caradock Lodge, taken the first plane to New York and started calling his business contacts in Los Angeles to tell them the deal was off. Instead, he had organised this salvage operation. Why?

It was because he cared deeply now what happened to Goldine. He couldn’t abandon her.