“Why do you think that?”
She glanced back at Frank, lying inert. “He wanted me to photograph the results. Only he knows where and what it is. Now please, get him medical help before he dies.”
The team leader shouted orders that brought a new flurry of activity into the condo. More men in uniforms followed by EMTs and a K-9 bomb team in the form of Brad and Zander.
Zander lifted his head at the entrance, sniffing the air. Then he put his head down and came almost directly to Frank, nudging aside an EMT tech. He sniffed Frank’s hands and then sat, perfectly still.
“That’s the guy. Zander, aus.” Brad signaled to his canine. “Gute hund.” He fed his partner a snack. Only then did he look at Georgie. “You okay?”
“Yes.” Her gaze moved to Frank as he began to moan. “But don’t let them hurt Frank. He’s sick.”
“Stop making excuses for him, Georgie.” Brad’s face was grim.
“But he was doing this for me.”
“He was doing it for himself.” Brad nodded to the SWAT team member holding her ID and then knelt down beside her. “What was the last thing Frank said to you?”
“He was giving me aperture settings for my lens.”
“Why would he do that?”
“So I’d be ready when the—oh, god. The bomb.”
“Do you remember the settings?”
“No. I was so shocked by what he was telling me I just tried to get away.”
Brad took her by the shoulders, squeezing hard. She had never seen a more serious look on anyone’s face. All the men in the room matched it. “Help me find the bomb.”
“I don’t know how.”
“You must know more than you think. Tell me what he told you.”
“He has planted a bomb. He brought me here to photograph the destruction.”
“That means it’s not in this building and that he didn’t expect you to be a victim.”
Brad pulled her to her feet and indicated that her cuffs be removed. When they were, he handed her the camera that had spilled from her bag when she was rummaging through it.
“Get out on that balcony with your camera and tell me what you think he may have chosen as a target.” He handed her a device with an earbud and began positioning it on her ear. “Talk to me through this. The whole FBI team will be able to hear you. You’ll hear only me. I’m going down to street level with Zander. Give me whatever you’re thinking. Talk. Constantly. Start now!”
Georgie nodded and watched as he turned away. Beyond him she saw the EMTs rolling Frank on a stretcher out through the caved-in door. Brad stopped one of them and said something she couldn’t hear. The woman shook her head.
Finally, she glanced at the remaining SWAT team members who were no less alert because they outnumbered her six to one.
One of them stepped forward. “Do your job, ma’am.”
She pushed the hair from her eyes and took a deep breath as she walked out onto the balcony. Somewhere out there in the beautiful morning a deadly explosive device was waiting to go off. She didn’t know where or when. She only knew that Special Agent Brad Lawson and his K-9 partner, Zander, would be among those who led the search to find it before it exploded. Everyone was depending on her to guess the location before that happened.
“Are you breathing, Boots?”
Brad’s voice in her ear surprised her. “Yes. Give me a sec.”
Heart thumping painfully, she lifted her camera to her eye.
She made a slow sweep of the panoramic view through her camera lens, starting from the north. Always before, the view had made her feel connected with whatever that view was. Now they seemed far away and alien, as if she had never before seen this world. Maybe that was because she was looking for likely places where a bomb explosion would have the most impact, and therefore be the biggest news. How did one decide that?
The Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway came into view with the Saturday morning traffic, which was much lighter than it was on weekdays. Theodore Roosevelt Island; the waterfront of Georgetown. Things passed in a blur.
After a moment she lowered her camera. “I don’t know. I can’t choose.”
Brad’s voice came to her as a harsh whisper in her ear. “Try again, Boots. You know something. Frank trusted your instincts. What would make a photo worthy of a Pulitzer? What view would give you the most spectacular shots in the case of an explosion?”
Georgie took a deep breath and tried to steady her thoughts.
“Talk to me, Boots. Think out loud.”
“It’s morning. I’m facing west. My best shots this time of day would be for things north, west, or south of me. That way the sun would light them with the least glare.”