Now that he was back in circulation, Dryden could begin to check some of the details Serafin had mentioned in his account of Goldine. Her mother’s accident: there should be something in the files of the Los Angeles Times. The Tamarisk Lodge children’s home: did it exist? What were Serafin’s professional qualifications? That kind of information was easy to verify in a library. It was the second stage of research, the business of visiting people and asking questions, that could raise problems. He would be in a spot if anything got back to Serafin.
Jackie came in again with the calendar. ‘I’ve put off all the lunch dates up to Friday, and I’m working on next week. By the way, Mr. Dryden, did you wear those shirts I bought?’
‘Forgive me, Jackie. I should have mentioned that. They were fine.’
‘Your weekend was okay?’
‘Fine. Just fine.’
‘I’ll get back to the phone, then,’ said Jackie.
She had come to him a year ago with a rave reference from one of the top executives at Gulf Oil. So far, she had measured up to it. Quick, thoughtful and intelligent, she had not given him the least doubt of her integrity. He didn’t like damaging the confidence between them, but he would rather say nothing than fabricate an account of his weekend.
The Times building on West First Street was nearer than the Huntington Library, so he used the Information Service there. He turned to the Directory of Medical Specialists and found:
SERAFIN, William Joseph. Physiologist, b. Salzburg Sept. 16, 1920. s. Anton and Olga (Merttens). M.D. Geneva, 1945; Ph.D. Yale, 1951; Research Fellow, Yale Sch. Medicine 1951-2; m. Jean Dixon, 1952; Calif. Inst. Hum. Sc., 1953-; Prof, of Anthropometry, 1969-; Weinraub Found. Med. Research Fellow, Vienna, 1962-3; Fellow, Amer. Ac. of Phys. Ed.; Member Amer. Assn. U. Profs.; publ. Hereditary Factors in Human Physique, 1964; Anthropometric Data and Human Growth, 1966; address: Calif. Inst, of Human Science, Bakersfield 3105, California.
On a quick inspection, nothing conflicted with the information Serafin had given out at the retreat. A second reference book, Who’s Who in U.S. Medicine, carried the same details with the addition of Goldine’s name among the family particulars.
He looked up another entry:
LEE, San Fen. Psychologist, b. Peiping, China Apr. 18, 1935; ss. Kwok Lo and Hui Tao (Tang); B.Sc. National Central U., Chung Kiang, China, 1956; M.Sc. Peking, 1959; B.Sc. Columbia, 1969; Ph.D. Columbia, 1972; Faculty, Berkeley, Calif., 1972-4; Consultant, Los Angeles County Gen. Hosp., 1974-; Member Amer. Inst, of Psych.; address: c/o L.A. County Medical Assn., 1925 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.
He wasn’t learning anything of importance he didn’t know already, so he went to the room where the Times files were kept, and asked for the April through June volume for 1964. According to Serafin, Trudi’s death from drowning had happened in May. As he turned the pages, he reflected that Serafin himself had handled them in 1964, if his story was reliable.
He found the report in the issue for Saturday, May 25:
KILLER WAVE: FIVE DROWN IN BEACH TRAGEDY
LOS ANGELES, May 25 — A 20-foot wave, described by oceanologists as a ‘one in a million hazard’ caused five deaths on popular Huntington State Beach at 3:16 yesterday afternoon. From a sea so calm that surfers had mostly given up waiting for rides, the wave built into a vast wall of water within seconds. Eyewitnesses described it as ‘terrifying — like a street block coming at you.’ Parents along the crowded beach screamed to their children as it towered above them, but few got clear before it hit them, sweeping them as much as fifty feet up the beach.
Fatalities
The effect of the killer wave was clear seconds later, when scores of bathers were seen struggling in deep water, dragged out of their depth by its undertow. Many were temporarily blinded by the sand in the water. The six lifeguards on duty were assisted by volunteers in the rescue operation. It was thought for a time no fatalities had occurred, but a search of the water by helicopter revealed three bodies. Two more were recovered later. The dead were identified as John Paschal, 15, of Palm Springs; Patrick Lamont, 24, Huntington; Darryl Horn, 20, San Diego; Miss Anne English, 30, Santa Barbara; and Miss T. Hofmann, 22, Inglewood.
The report went on for another column, but there were no other particulars on Trudi. He found those in the issue for May 27 on an inside page under her photograph: the one he had seen in Goldine’s quarters.
BEACH VICTIM DIED RESCUING CHILD
LOS ANGELES, May 27 — A victim of Friday’s tragedy on Huntington State Beach, when a freak wave caused five drownings, actually died going to the rescue of her two-year-old daughter, who survived. She was Trudi Hofmann, 22, a TWA stewardess, of Lincoln Boulevard, Inglewood. The incident was described yesterday by Mrs. Diane Pershore, who was sitting near Miss Hofmann when the 20-foot killer wave reared up unexpectedly in a calm sea. Stated Mrs. Pershore, ‘I noticed the young woman playing with her daughter, and presently the child went down to the water’s edge, leaving her mother sunbathing. As the screaming started along the beach at the sight of the advancing wave, she got up and raced toward her daughter. Next thing they both disappeared in the foam and must have been dragged way out of their depth, as other bathers were. The water was two feet deep where I was sitting, forty feet behind the tideline. In the confusion, I lost sight of those two, but later I saw the little girl carried from the water by a lifeguard. She was just a scrap of a kid.’
Devoted to Child
Miss Hofmann’s body was washed ashore on adjacent Newport Beach late Friday evening. The child, Dean, who will be 3 on June 6, is at present in the care of the Los Angeles County Welfare Service. No relatives have yet been traced.
Neighbours of Miss Hofmann in her Inglewood apartment on Lincoln Boulevard described her as a gentle person devoted to her child. German-born, she had come with her mother to California in 1953. She engaged a babysitter to be with Dean while she was on duty with TWA, but she frequently took the little girl to one of the local beaches. It is understood that Miss Hofmann was a nonswimmer.
Dryden leafed through the next half-dozen issues, but there was no more on the accident. Now that he had confirmed so many details of the story, he would not go looking for the back number of Time that Serafin claimed had first caught his attention. He was prepared to believe it existed. Instead, he turned to the more delicate assignment of digging out more information on Serafin himself.
He used a public phone booth to call the San Diego Union, and asked for the sports desk. ‘I’d like to speak to the guy who wrote the piece on the Metro Track Club Meet in Sunday’s edition. My name is Frank Rademacher, Southern Pacific AAU.’
In a moment a voice said, ‘Grantland Davis here.’
He repeated the bogus name, disguising his accent. ‘I’d like to invite this mystery blonde of yours to our meet at the Coliseum, Saturday. The Metro Club people could only come up with a Bakersfield P.O. box number. I saw your piece on Sunday and figured you must have checked her out by now. It’s getting late to start mailing box numbers. If I could phone Miss Serafin today, I might be able to get her name on the meet program. You don’t mind me asking if you located her?’