a greater number of mind readers and psychics and UFO “experts” than did
most talk shows. Prine was a Believer. He was also damned good at his
job, so good there were rumors ABC wanted to pick him up for a
nationwide audience. He was not so witty as Johnny Carson or so homey
as Mike Douglas, but no one asked better or more probing questions than
he did.
most of the time he was serene, in lazy command of his show; and when
things were going well, he looked somewhat like a slimmed-down Santa
Claus: completely white hair, a round face and merry blue eyes.
He appeared to be incapable of rudeness. However, there were
occasions-no more often than once a night, sometimes only once a
week-when he would lash out at a guest, prove him a liar or in some
other way thoroughly embarrass and humiliate him with a series of
wickedly pointed questions. The attack never lasted more than three or
four minutes, but it was as brutal and as relentless as it was
surprising.
Manhattan at Midnight commanded a large and faithful audience primarily
because of this element Of surprise that magnified the ferocity of
Prine’s interrogations. If he had subjected every guest to this abuse,
he would have been a bore; but his calculated style made him as
fascinating as a cobra. Those millions of people who spend most of
their leisure hours in front of a television set apparently enjoyed
secondhand violence more than they did any other form of entertainment.
They watched the police shows to see people beaten, robbed and murdered;
they watched Primarily for those unexpected moments when he bludgeoned a
guest with words that were nearly as devastating as clubs.
He had started twenty-five years earlier as a nightclub comic and
impressionist, doing old jokes and mimicking famous voices in cheap
lounges. He had come a long way.
The director signaled Prine. A red light shone on one camera.
Addressing his unseen audience, Prine said, “I’m talking with Mr. Graham
Hams, a resident of Manhattan who calls himself a ‘clairvoyant,” a seer
of visions. Is that the proper definition of the term, Mr. Hams?”
“It’ll do,” Graham said. “Although when you put it that way, it sounds
a bit religious. Which it isn’t. I don’t attribute my extrasensory
perception to God nor to any other supernatural force.”
“As you said earlier, you’re convinced-that the clairvoyance is a result
of a head injury you received in a rather serious accident.
Subsequent to that, you began to have these visions. If that’s God’s
work, His methods are even more roundabout than we might have thought.”
Graham smiled. “Precisely.”
Now, anyone who reads the newspapers knows that you’ve been asked to
assist the police in uncovering a clue to the identity of this man they
call the Butcher. But what about your last case, the murder of the
Havelock sisters in Boston? That was very interesting too. Tell us
about that.”
Graham shifted uneasily in his chair. He still sensed trouble coming,
but he couldn’t imagine what it might be or how he might avoid it.
“The Havelock sisters.. – ” -two-year-old Nineteen-year-old Paula and
twenty-two year old paige Havelock had lived together in a cozy Boston
apartment near the university where Paula was an undergraduate student
and where Paige was working for her master’s degree in sociology. On
the morning of last November second, Michael Shute had stopped by the
apartment to take Paige to lunch. The date had been made by telephone
the previous evening. Shute and the elder Havelock sister were lovers,
and he had a key to the apartment. When no one responded to the bell,
he decided to let himself in and wait for them.
Inside, however, he discovered that they were at home. Paula and Paige
had been awakened in the night by one or more intruders who had stripped
them naked; pajamas and robes were strewn on the floor. The women had
been tied with a heavy cord, sexually molested and finally shot to death
in their own living room Because the proper authorities were unable to
come up with a single major lead in the case, the parents of the dead