Mystery novelists -- and smart journalists -- know the value of tension. When Jonathan Dube of The Charlotte Observer put this lead on top of a crime story, an editor nominated it for an in-house writing award with this comment: "You could have seen this sentence as the opening of a mystery novel."

Three bodies, two counties, one case, no suspects.

Just eight words, but each one so familiar, especially in these pairs, that this lead has the intrigue of a mind-twister. In addition, note the tension in the descending order of numbers: 3-2-1-0. But the professional knows that the news consumer, however fascinated, doesn't have the patience of a mystery reader. In the very next paragraph, Dube lets the reader in on the secret:

Tuesday morning, investigators found two burned bodies in the trunk of a smoldering car in southern York County and a 17-year-old boy shot to death in northern Lancaster County.

"The next big question would be how these murders are related to each other," said York County Sheriff Bruce Bryant. "We can't say. We don't know yet. But we believe there's a connection, and that connection would be their affiliation with each other. They were acquaintances."

But, he added, "We don't believe they did this to each other."

 -- The Charlotte Observer, March 4, 1998