John puts on his leather jacket. He’s out of time. A radio crew is arriving for an interview.

“Ooh, can I have one with the jacket?” Leibovitz asks.

The shot captures him turning up his collar, launching a determined stare directly into the camera lens.

*  *  *

RKO radio announcer Dave Sholin and his crew are escorted into Lennon’s apartment. They follow house rules and take off their shoes before they begin setting up their recording equipment.

“I hope to God that I die before Yoko,” he tells Sholin and his crew. “I don’t know what I would do if she left before I did.”

Over the next three hours, conversation covers a wide swath of topics. “He was just bubbling over with enthusiasm with everything in his life,” Sholin recalls. “He felt like that was it; he had turned the page and was starting another chapter.”

“I’m ready to start all over again and get this thing going,” John tells them. “Who knows what’s going to happen next?”

The late afternoon sun gives way to twilight. John and Yoko depart with the radio crew. It’s after 4:00 p.m., and the Dakota is shrouded in darkness.

—

December 8, 1980

Jude Stein has given up any hope of seeing Lennon today.

“Good luck getting your album signed,” she tells Mark.

“You sure you won’t have dinner with me?”

“I’ve gotta go, Mark. Good luck!”

“I plan to stay for as long as it takes.”

Mark is now alone with Paul Goresh. The fat cameraman is doing his best to ignore him.

John Lennon emerges from the Dakota. Yoko is with him, along with a small group of people—reporters, Mark thinks. They’re all holding cassette recorders.

Mark’s heart is pounding, his hand dripping with sweat as he glares at Lennon. The man he’s admired and scorned is finally here, just a few feet away, wearing dark sunglasses and a brown bomber jacket over his thin frame.

Mark can’t talk.

Can’t move.

Goresh is looking at him now. “Hey, man, I thought you wanted your album autographed. What the heck are you waiting for? There he is!”

Lennon and Yoko look past them, out to the street, at the traffic.

They’re looking for their limo.

The night watchman moves up next to the famous couple and says, “I’m sorry, but your car hasn’t shown up yet.”

Lennon glances at his watch, displeased. Then he turns to the bearded man standing next to him and says, “Can we get a lift?”

“We’re headed to the airport,” the man replies. “You both are welcome to hitch a ride with us.”

As the group begins loading their recording gear into the trunk of a car, John and Yoko walk into the street.

Mark follows.

Waves his copy of Double Fantasy in Lennon’s direction.