them had an olive complexion, dark hair, muscular build. The sandwich shop had a security camera. I thought we lucked out. I confiscated the video.' He must have seen the anticipation in Maggie's eyes as she sat up, because he was shaking his head.
'The video disappeared before I had a chance to even look at it. Don't even ask,' he told her. 'Over twenty witnesses saw McVeigh with someone other than Terry Nichols. The descriptions were amazingly similar.'
'But there was a sketch that was released early on.'
'Here's the thing.' Kunze hesitated. 'Most of the interviews were done before that sketch was even made. Eyewitnesses are often unreliable. That's what we're told, right? But over a dozen people describing what sounds like the exact same guy?'
'So what are you telling me? That John Doe #2 was real? That he may be the Project Manager?'
'I can't tell you whether or not he was real. We were never given the opportunity to find out. Are you familiar with Occam's razor?'
'A little.' The exhaustion made it difficult to concentrate. She rubbed at her eyes as she said, 'It has something to do with the simplest explanation being the correct one.'
He nodded, looking at his hands before folding them together on top of the table. He intertwined the fingers.
'That's what we were told to follow,' he finally said. 'Occam's razor is the principle that if you have two or more theories and the conclusion is the same, the simplest of the theories is usually the correct one. All of our theories, no matter how many men McVeigh was seen with or whether he was seen over and over again with this same olive complexion man, the conclusion always included McVeigh. So you razor out all the things you can't explain, all the stuff that requires speculation, any hypothetical conclusions.'
'In other words, you were held back from finding out who John Doe #2 really was.'
'Certain people weren't interested in a complex plot. As soon as they had McVeigh there was an urgency to tailor our investigation to ensure his prosecution. We had to at least nail him, right? Anything beyond that?razor it down.' He paused, watching her eyes as if he needed to know how all this information was registering.
Maggie simply waited.
'Look, I have no idea if this Project Manager could even be the same man,' Kunze said. 'That doesn't really matter. But the reference to Oklahoma City is unsettling. I think it means that this is something more than a greedy security corporation. It's something more than causing a commotion, a wake-up call by switching jamming devices with bombs.'
'You don't think this Project Manager is a rogue terrorist taking advantage of the opportunity?'
He shrugged.
'After Oklahoma City there was a journalist?' Kunze's voice got quieter and he leaned closer '?who suggested McVeigh and Nichols were actually duped by a federal informant acting as a provocateur.'
'Are you suggesting the government provoked the Oklahoma City bombing?'
'Not the government as in the administration. God no. But maybe someone within the government. Someone with enough power and political ties. Someone upset that we virtually ignored the warning of the first World Trade Center bombing in '93. Someone who thought there should be a wake-up call. Sound familiar?'
'You believe Henry Lee's secret group exists?'
Another big-shouldered shrug.
'You thought it was CAP,' she reminded him.
'He told you it was a smokescreen, a distraction. He didn't deny a connection. Could be how they recruited those college kids. They may have used CAP just like they used those kids.'
'And they being??'
'Is it so far-fetched to believe there might be other businessmen like Henry Lee who started with honorable intentions then got sidetracked? He mentioned business contracts. There were a helluva lot of contracts that came after Oklahoma City to reconstruct federal buildings, add security equipment, personnel.'
'I have to tell you,' she told Kunze. 'I'm not much for conspiracy theories.' Perhaps she was simply exhausted but she couldn't connect the dots Kunze was laying out in front of her.
'Just keep in mind, there's some major legislation coming down concerning Homeland Security. Not just the dollars for Phoenix. There're a couple of huge bills coming up for a vote, maybe before the holidays. I don't know all the details but it reinstates some stiff regulations for security, regulations that need to be in place before the beneficiaries receive any of the federal dollars attached to the bill.'
'Let me get this straight.' She braced her elbows on the table and laid her chin in her hands. 'You think this Project Manager, by making a reference to Oklahoma City, was tipping his hat, so to speak? Perhaps revealing that, just like Oklahoma City, these bombings are being orchestrated as a government conspiracy?'
Kunze started to interrupt but she put up her hand. 'Correction, not the government but a group of businessmen with political ties, have hired a professional terrorist to carry out two fatal attacks just to move a bill through Congress?'
A.D. Kunze sat back and released a sigh. 'You're right. It does sound far-fetched.' He stood and stretched his arms above his head, rotating his thick neck back and forth and definitely putting an end to their conversation whether or not he was finished. Then as if it was an afterthought, he pointed to the file folder. 'Do me a favor. Just skim through that.'
CHAPTER 71
Patrick had never been on a private jet before. The huge leather captain chairs swiveled and reclined. The walls were paneled, the floor carpeted. They were being served beverages in crystal glassware. The pewter coasters were indented into the wooden side table and had the Senator's initials, A.F., engraved. It was pretty amazing and yet all he could think about was his phone conversation with Rebecca.
It was short, way too short.
'I'm so sorry,' was one of the first things she said. After all she had been through and she was apologizing to him.
'Dixon made me think you might be involved somehow,' she explained. 'He was scared. He made a mistake. I was scared. Can you ever forgive me?'
He was simply relieved to hear her voice, to know she was finally safe. He couldn't, however, tell her about Phoenix. Couldn't explain what was going on, except that he would see her in a couple of days.
He looked around the inside of the plane, wondering what exactly he had gotten himself into. A couple of days ago he would have steered clear, content to be on the sidelines. He still wasn't sure why he wanted to do this, needed to do this.
Deputy Director Wurth and Mr. Morrelli were at the back of the plane. They had a map of Sky Harbor spread out on a table and were going over details. Assistant Director Kunze had taken one of the chairs on the other side of the aisle and was stretched out, fast asleep, or at least it sounded like it from his heavy breathing.
Maggie sat directly across from Patrick, staring out the window into the night. She had been reading what looked like poor photocopies of documents that had black rectangles stamped throughout the pages. Classified stuff, no doubt. He didn't think the documents held all her attention. She looked preoccupied, thinking about something else. But then how would he know? He kept telling himself that Maggie didn't know him at all. Yet how hard had he tried to get to know her?
One thing he did know?she wasn't happy that he was coming along.
'I guess I really just want to help,' he said, out of the blue, almost as if he had only now found the answer for himself.
She looked over at him as if she had forgotten he was there.
'I don't want you to get hurt.'
He smiled at that. Couldn't help it. He caught himself trying to hide it with a swipe of his fingers to his mouth. If she'd only seen what he had already gone through in the last twenty-four hours.
