A good reporter is, in many ways, a good detective. He often starts with only scraps of information, a tip or a hunch; he must use his skills, his experience, his instincts to find the story that lurks behind sometimes apparently unrelated facts. It can be a laborious task. But, as the pieces of a puzzle come together, it is rewarding.

Even eight months after his death, Howard Hughes remains a puzzle. This week, however, TIME discloses new and compelling insights, including exclusive excerpts from Freelance Writer James R. Phelan's upcoming book, Howard Hughes: The Hidden Years. Phelan is singularly familiar with the facts behind the fantasy. He has been following the mystery of the bashful billionaire for two decades. TIME Associate Editor David B. Tinnin, who wrote the cover story that ac companies the book excerpts, has been on the same trail almost as long. He first crossed paths with Phelan in 1968, when Tinnin was doing research on the eccentric Texan's financial and legal troubles for his book, Just About Everybody vs. Howard Hughes. To prepare for the cover, Tinnin drew upon his own large fund of information; in collaboration with Los Angeles Bureau Chief Jess Cook, he also tapped old contacts anew and questioned the two main sources in Phelan's book.

Coincidentally, Hughes' name cropped up in another TIME exclusive last week: the disclosure that the Glomar Explorer, a CIA ship purported to have been built for him, had fulfilled a secret mission to recover a sunken Soviet submarine. The story was part of TIME's long standing practice of investigative reporting, which flourished during Watergate and has continued since. Earlier in the year, TIME readers were the first to learn about Israel's possession of 13 atomic bombs, J. Edgar Hoover's use of Government funds for illegal purposes and the top-level Mafia meeting that followed the death of New York God father Carlo Gambino. These and other stories reflect TIME'S commitment to provide significant information that is unavailable any where else.

A legion of friends, as well as TIME staffers round the world, were saddened last week by the news of the death of John Scott, 64, a former correspondent and assistant to the publisher of TIME. A generous and witty man, uncommonly articulate and enthusiastic, John was born in Philadelphia, the son of Scott Nearing, the economist and socialist. (John dropped his last name during the 1930s.) After studying at the University of Wisconsin, he learned welding and traveled to the Soviet Union in 1932 to work in a Siberian steel mill for five years and as a journalist for the next three. John joined TIME in 1941 and first served as correspondent and bureau chief in Sweden and postwar Berlin. From 1952 to 1973, as special correspondent for the publisher, he traveled to every continent and never left without gaining new friends and a host of admirers. He regularly spoke to audiences all over the world about what he found on his travels. John was the author of eight books, including Behind the Urals (1942) and Hunger: Man 's Struggle to Feed Himself (1969). His passing will be mourned by all of us who were fortunate to have been touched by his talent and his friendship.

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