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“Your ht Except for his tooth”

“He’s a tough chap, but he did say colliding with you was like hitting a brick wall”

Stone continued to focus on the feed The suit and wo; the security bollards on Pennsylvania retracted into the street and police cars and Secret Service vans raced away Blair House was quickly sealed off

“Can you show ain?”

She hit a couple of keystrokes and Stone watched the explosion happen again He sat back puzzled

“What’s the problem?” said Chapman as she stopped the video

“Can you slow it down even more?”

“I’ll try” She worked some keystrokes “This is the best I can do, I’m afraid”

They watched it again with everything in ultraslow motion

Stone followed the path of the jogger as he passed by a pair of unifor the park

“Fat chap to be in trainers,” noted Chapman “Doesn’t look like a runner, does he?”

“People ear jogging suits aren’t always runners He ht have just been out for a walk”

“If you say so”

“Bomb could have been on that iPod”

Chap C-4 or Se even more powerful If so, there will be evidence of that in the debris field”

“Yes and no Yes, the iPod will be blown apart, but it would be regardless of whether it was part of an explosive device or not”

“But they’ll be able to tell,” said Chaples of the parts, outward as opposed to inward, and so on”

Stone turned to her “You know about explosives?”

“Another reason they sent forsoned a peace treaty They liked to o boom Learned a lot”

“I’m sure” Stone looked back at the screen “He dove into the planting hole”

“And the explosion happened a few seconds later Maybe a suicide bomber, then”

Stone looked skeptical “Who kills only hi in a hole?”

“So what do you think the lay of the land is, then?”

He looked at her curiously “Lay of what land?”

“Your land of too encies I’ve only been on this case less than a day and already I feel claustrophobic”

“Ever heard of Hell’s Corner?”

Chapman shook her head

Stone leaned forward and tapped the frozen screen, which showed Lafayette Park “This is Hell’s Corner,” he said “Pennsylvania Avenue, the actual street, belongs to the DC metro cops The sidewalks around Lafayette Park are the Secret Service’s turf and the park itself comes under the jurisdiction of the Park Police Secret Service agents are actually taught to grab a person of interest from the street or park, carry him to the sidewalk and then arrest hi contest over jurisdiction”

“Okay,” Chapman said slowly

“Hell’s Corner,” he said again “The Feds and cops hate it, but they all have to dance to the sa The explosion is a case in point The Park Police will control the scene, but the FBI, and the ATF, because an explosive was involved, will control the investigation And Ho like vultures”

Chapman took a sip of tea “So what now?”

“We’ll have to go to the park, talk to the investigators and track down the jogger’s identity and that of the wouy? Where is he?”

“Available for questioning But we have his full report He saw less than you”

“All right”

She reached for her jacket “So on to the park?”