The news of the tragedy spread quickly through London, then onto wire services across the world. The story was confused, the details conflicting, and for forty-eight hours reporters crowded the waiting room at City Hospital, questioning doctors in an attempt to find out what had happened, and how. On the morning of the second day a group of hospital spokesmen filed into the room, waiting for television cameras to start grinding before issuing their statement. It was a South African doctor who had been flown in for specialized surgery from Groote Schuur Hospital in Capetown who made the final announcement.

"I would like to announce ... that death came at eight-thirty a.m. this morning. Every effort was made to salvage life, but the wound was such that its damage was irreparable."

A moan of sorrow went up from the assembled reporters, and the doctor waited until all was quiet.

"There will be no futher announcements at this time. Memorial services will be conducted at All Saints Church where the tragic incident occurred ... the body will then be returned to the United States for interment."

In New York City the line of limousines was waiting at JFK, the two caskets lowered into a single hearse that bore them to the cemetery on a crowded highway; motorcycle policemen forged the way. The cemetery was mobbed by the time they arrived; the curious and the mournful were held back^by security guards as the official burial party was led to the open graves. A priest in flowing white robes officiated beneath the stanchion of an American flag, and taps was played as the coffins were placed upon the straps, a maintenance man testing the machinery and lowering them slightly just before the eulogy began.

"We grieve together today," the priest intoned, "for the untimely deaths of our brethren, two among us, who take a part of us with them as they travel onward into eternity. Let us grieve not for them who now go to their rest, but for ourselves who will miss them. No matter how short a life, it is a life complete, and we must be grateful for the brief time they spent among us."

The crowd was silent, some of them weeping, others shading their eyes from the sun.

"We say good-bye to the son of a great man ... born into wealth and security . . . into every earthly benefit a human being could possibly have. But in this example we see that earthly benefits are not enough."

Outside the cemetery gates, reporters watched and photographed through telephoto lenses. Among them, a small group stood apart, pondering the confusion of the reported events that had led them here.

"Weird one, huh?"

"What's so weird. Not the first time people were murdered in the streets."

"What about the guy who saw them fighting on the stairs? The guy who called the police?"

"He was a drunk. They tested him for blood alcohol and it was loaded."