Weiss stopped speaking and looked up at the perfect white rounded arches of the church, and down at Bowman’s black coffin. He shook his head sadly and muttered something under his breath that sounded like “Shit.” He took a white handkerchief out of his pocket, blew his nose and then continued.

“People told Arthur so many things over the years. Too many things, I sometimes suspect. Especially after he came back to Washington to be our diplomatic correspondent. I look out at the distinguished officials who have come to pay their respects to Arthur, and I ask you: Was there anything that Arthur Bowman didn’t know? Was there any policy position, internal power struggle, or personality clash that Arthur hadn’t heard about? Most of what he knew wound up in the Mirror, where it belonged. Not all of it. But most of it.”

The executive editor smiled. The publisher, sitting two seats away, laughed and shook his head, and other people chuckled, too. That was one thing Arthur was famous for: he knew all the secrets. I seemed to be the only one who didn’t think it was funny, but that was my problem.

“Arthur Bowman was a great man. He deserved better than what he got. To die like that, so far away …” Ed Weiss paused, and I thought he was just catching his breath. But he looked down at the coffin, choking back tears that had suddenly come to him, and put his fist in the air. “Good-bye, dear friend!” he said gruffly, biting his lip to keep from crying any more.

All around the room, people were weeping now. I think I was the only dry-eyed person in the church. But I knew too much.

Philip Sellinger, the publisher, spoke next. He was a thin man, with tightly curled silver hair and those sparkling blue eyes. There was so much emotion in the room, I wondered what he would say. Arthur had been his best friend since college. He had cried on the phone when I called from Beijing with the news. But he was perfectly calm now, talking about his friend as if he were sitting in the next room.

“I would like to share with you a letter Arthur Bowman sent me several years ago,” he began. “I had so many communications with Arthur over the years, but of all of them I think this was my favorite.