After a moment Andy came back into Stahl’s office. “He’s already on his way to Room Two Thirty-Nine.”
Stahl got up. He hurried along the broad corridor toward the pressroom. When he spotted Ogden and his aide, Perkins, up ahead, he trotted to catch up. Ogden said, “Great to see you, Dick. I haven’t dropped by because you’re doing a great job. I don’t have time for people like you.”
“That’s okay. But we need to talk for a second.”
“And congratulations on that that incredible girl you’ve got.”
Stahl froze. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“You know,” said Ogden. “What’s her name.” He looked at his aide, Perkins.
“Hines,” said Perkins. “Sergeant Diane Hines.”
“Right,” said Ogden. “She’s going to be a real help in this fight. Right now people are still thinking about the fourteen men we lost. But sympathy doesn’t lift people’s spirits. We need the people to know we still have officers like her. She’s a hero, and she looks like LA: young—half athlete, half actress. And the other one too—who dragged his partner out of danger. He gives us diversity.”
“Elliot,” said Perkins. “Sergeant Robert Elliot.”
Stahl said, “Look, Dave. That’s a problem. We can’t have members of the Bomb Squad at press conferences.”
“Not normally,” said Ogden. “Not unless one of them earns a medal. But this time we can’t wait for that. The city has been in fear for four days. There’s been growing talk in the city council that we aren’t prepared for terrorism, and we have a mayor with ears like a rabbit. He’ll turn on the chief in a heartbeat. Having Hines and Elliot on the stage with the chief will raise department morale and reassure the city that we’re not defeated. We need to make people admire and identify with the police, and keep their eyes and ears open to help.”
Stahl turned to Perkins. “Would you give us just a second?”
Perkins glanced at Ogden, who shrugged at Perkins, who then walked alone toward the pressroom. Stahl stepped close to Ogden. “Dave, you know better than this. Putting their faces on television would tell this bomber who they are. None of us should be on television now. The department never used to do this.”
“The chief was the one who called this conference. Look, Dick. I haven’t forgotten that you can walk away from the department whenever you feel like it, and nobody could blame you. But Hines and Elliot can’t. They’re career officers. And they’ve behaved heroically about three times in four days. They’re perfect. And they’re subject to the lawful orders of the chief.”
“It’s too dangerous. I think this bomber is a guy who sees everything as a battle between him and us. If we start showing off the people who deflected his attacks, he’ll want to punish them. When this guy is in custody or dead, I’ll put all these officers up for commendations and decorations before I resign. I promise.”
“They’re already targets.”
“But until they get on-screen, they’re still nameless, faceless cops to the bomber.”
“You think he hasn’t seen them?”
“Not close enough to recognize them. They’ve been in bomb suits or in the squad truck or too far away for the news cameras to distinguish their features.”
“He won’t know where to find them,” Ogden said. “Addresses are never released. We’ve never had a cop attacked at his home during my time on the force.”
“Maybe it’s because they were mostly kept anonymous until there was a trial,” said Stahl. “Look, let’s postpone this. If we had a day or two, we could think of a way to use a press conference to mislead or trap the bomber. We could dream up an imaginary event he’d want to hit. Or we could tease him with the press conference itself. If he knew about it in advance, and it were somewhere other than police headquarters, he might try.”
“The conference is in three minutes, Dick. This is the plan we’ve got.” He stared at his watch. “Make that two minutes.”
Ogden walked off toward the press conference while Stahl hung back for a moment and then ducked into a restroom. He took out his phone and dialed Andy.
“Captain Stahl’s office.”
“Andy, I need to have a bomb call come in right away. I don’t care how. And it must be assigned to Team One.”
Stahl walked into the pressroom just in time to beat the chief. There were about twenty television reporters, a dozen camera operators, and a few print reporters seated or standing around the room.
The various aides and deputy chiefs and other police dignitaries stood in a row along the wall at the rear of the stage. The chief moved into place on the podium and looked out above the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he said.
The audience sat up straight and there were quick movements to aim microphones and cameras in his direction.
“We’re all painfully aware that the people of this city and this department suffered a terrible loss a few days ago. Fourteen noble and courageous officers of our Bomb Squad lost their lives in a cowardly and vicious ambush. Since then the surviving officers of the squad and the temporary reinforcements from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have thwarted the attacks of this murderer. The latest was only a few hours ago. I’d like to show you some video recordings of the incident, taken from the bomb truck’s cameras and the camera in the robot they use.”
The large projection screen above the chief’s head lit up, and Stahl recognized the video of this morning’s bombing. He saw Elliot and Crowell approaching the bomb on the sidewalk wearing their EOD suits. They knelt before the bomb vest and then came under fire. At that point the truck’s camera began to bounce up and down as Hines drove into the line of fire. From there, the video switched to the robot’s camera, taken from where Hines had left the robot on the street. It showed Elliot dragging Crowell away from the bomb, the truck arriving to shield them and the bomb from the rifle fire, Diane’s window being blown in, and Diane diving out the passenger door and scrambling to take cover behind the front wheel of the truck. The intensity of the rifle barrage was evident as the bullets pounded the pavement and the truck. The video stopped and the screen went black.
The chief said, “Because of the bravery and quick thinking of the Bomb Squad members, there were no casualties, and the device was removed and destroyed safely. And now I’d like—”
Deputy Chief Ogden appeared at his side and whispered something with his hand over the lectern’s microphone. The chief nodded and replied and then said to the crowd: “This is inconvenient. I was going to introduce the two officers and one agent you just saw on camera. But it seems they had to leave to answer another emergency call. The squad has received reinforcements, but we’re still short staffed, and must continue to rely on our regular officers to keep the city safe. I hope to make them available soon.” He looked around. “I see we’ve got acting captain Richard Stahl of the Bomb Squad with us. I’d like to give him the job of answering any questions you might have.”
The chief waited while Stahl made his way to the podium. He shook hands with Stahl and then joined the others at the back of the small stage.
Stahl looked out over the audience of reporters and camera operators. “I’ll try to answer any questions now.”
A blond woman reporter Stahl recognized as Gloria Hedlund from Channel Ten said, “Can you give us the full names of the officers involved in today’s operation?”
“As a rule, departmental policy is not to release personal information about individual police officers, particularly when they’re engaged in very dangerous cases. It can put them in jeopardy from unknown suspects, and open them to retaliation later. I’ve been back on the force for exactly four days, so I’m not aware of how much I’m allowed to say.” He glanced behind him to look at the chief, but the chief had already left. “I’d like to defer that question for now, and let the press office provide what they can when we’re done here.”
She said, “Follow-up?”
“Sure.”