“They could see over the trees on the right side too. They could fire through the tree canopy for that matter. Why did they need a clear field of fire? They obviously weren’t aiming at anyone.”
Chapman started to say something and then stopped.
“But that’s not the most important question,” he said.
“Okay, what is the most important question?” she asked.
“What was the test?”
She looked confused. “What test?”
“I think I know what Tom Gross was going to ask Steve Garchik. Garchik said bombers like to test their equipment, to make sure it works. I think Lafayette Park was the test. But what was tested? We ori
ginally thought the bomb was meant for another time, another event, but was accidentally triggered. Then we thought it might have been a test run. But those two hypotheses are incompatible. It’s either one or the other. Not both.”
Chapman started to say something again, but once more stopped.
“A test run? Like Garchik said, the bomb part always works. It’s the connections that fail. But would you risk detonating in Lafayette Park just to test your connections?”
“No,” said Chapman automatically. “They went to way too much trouble.”
“That’s right, way too much trouble.”
“So what then? You mentioned it was about the dogs. I’m assuming you meant the bomb sniffers.”
“I did. Where’s your laptop?”
Chapman pulled open her bag and slid it out. They walked over to a bench and sat down.
“Bring up the video from the night of the bombing,” he instructed.
She did so.
“Run the feed that happened before the gunfire started.”
Chapman pushed some keys and brought that image up.
“Hold it right there.”
She hit the pause button.
Stone rose and pointed to the northeast corner of the park. “Padilla entered the park at that spot.”
Chapman glanced down at the screen and then at where he was pointing. “That’s right.”
“Why that spot?”
“Why not that spot?”
“There are lots of places to enter the park. Remember Carmen Escalante said that her uncle was going to eat at a favorite restaurant on Sixteenth Street. That’s on the west side of the White House, not the east. If he were walking from Sixteenth Street he would have reached the west side of the park first, not the east. So why did he come in on the east side?”
“Maybe he went somewhere else. We never followed up on the restaurant where he actually ate. Or maybe he did eat there and then went somewhere else for a drink that was on the east side of the park.”
“Or maybe,” said Stone as he pointed at the screen. “Or maybe he had to enter the park on the east side because of that.”
Chapman looked where his finger was. “Because that’s where the police were stationed, you mean?”
“No, because that’s where the bomb dog was stationed. Run the video.”
Chapman hit the play button. Padilla walked within a foot of the dog. In fact it seemed as though he went out of his way to walk near the dog.
“But why would that matter? The dog didn’t do anything.”
“You’re a Brit. Ever read the Sherlock Holmes story entitled ‘Silver Blaze’?”
“Sorry, never got around to those.”
“Well, in that story Holmes was able to make much of the fact of the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.”
“Why, what did the dog do?”
“Absolutely nothing. And as Holmes pointed out, that was the curious incident.”
“No, they did it for a reason. A very good one. Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“To see Carmen Escalante. And let’s get there before they kill her too.”
CHAPTER 84
NO ONE ANSWERED THE KNOCKS at Carmen Escalante’s home. Chapman backed away from the front door and eyed the windows. “Do you think she’s gone for good? Or someone’s taken her?”