Free Canyon Secret by Patrick Lee Page B

papers in front of him “Pick up the lists from me later.”

    Before Al Sutter became the owner, publisher, editor, and photographer for the Columbian News , four previous publishers in the area saw their newspaper company fail. All he had when he founded The Hungry Horse News was the $4,000 he saved from his career in the United States Navy, a desk, a portable typewriter, and his trademark Speed Graphic camera. Sutter was thirty-one years old in 1946 when he founded his newspaper. In the beginning, he distributed the first editions of his news for free in an effort to attract businesses interested in becoming advertisers. Much of his early advertising arose from the many bars and taverns that catered to the Hungry Horse Dam workers.
    The Hungry Horse News featured black and white photographs mixed in with local news articles and controversial editorial written by Sutter. His newspaper depended heavily on photographs.
    Breaking news events became a large part of his repertoire. His nose for late breaking news allowed him to be first on the scene of a car accident, a burning building, or important event like the first photographs of the building of Hungry Horse Dam. He used the unwieldy Speed Graphic to insure high quality photographs. His photographs allowed for short, concise stories. These photographs portrayed the story.
    Superintendent Scalf kept Sutter informed of all progress in the building of Hungry Horse Dam as he chronicled each phase of construction. He was the only person allowed to see Scalf without an appointment. Sutter greeted the Superintendent’s secretary as he entered her office. “Hello there, Mary. You got any news for me?”
    “No, Al. Pretty quiet as far as I know. But then I don’t know much about what goes on around here.”
    He dressed in a checkered shirt, weathered sport coat, a white hat with a colored band around the rim, and he toted his oversized camera, clipboard, and a light meter. “Is the Supt busy?”
    “I imagine he is, but he seems anxious to see you all the time. Just go ahead and knock on his door as you always do.”
    Scalf motioned him in and managed a smile. “I see you got a copy of my latest memo.”
    “I did. What’s the FBI want?”
    Scalf shook his head slightly as he shuffled the papers on his desk into his briefcase on the floor. “I can’t tell you much at this point, Al. Maybe I’ll have somethin’ for you in a week or two.”
    The young newsman rested his camera on the floor and lifted his clipboard to the desk as he sat down across from the Superintendent. “Did they ask you about the unsolved murders on the Grand Coulee and Hoover Projects?”
    Coffee blurted out of Scalf’s mouth. “How in the hell did you hear about that? The FBI left only twenty minutes ago. Do you have my office bugged?”
    He tilted his head to the left as he measured the light in the room using his light meter. “My old Navy friend in Coulee called me yesterday and asked if anyone had been murdered at Hungry Horse. He filled me in on the unsolved murders.”
    “You gotta keep this quiet, Al. The FBI is all over it and not in the mood for anybody butting in. You’ll get the first crack at a story once they nail it down. Right now, nobody knows nothin’ about nothin’.”
    “I’ll lay low for awhile. But I might snoop around just a little bit.”
    “Shit no, Al! You never just snoop a little bit. Let them do their jobs. We got secret service men and magazine people comin’ around soon in makin’ plans for Truman in early October. We can’t have some high profile murder investigation going on too.”
    Sutter picked up his camera and prepared to take a photo out the front window in the direction of the Dam. Looking through the lens of his camera he said, “First crack at the story, right?”
    “First crack.”

    David drank the lukewarm coffee. He drank enough coffee during the night to last a lifetime. The lack of sleep and the overdose of caffeine dulled his thoughts