But alas, a second look shows the twelve photos to be unremarkable. The first four photos on the camera’s memory disk are of various tourists glancing at popular park attractions. According to the camera’s electronic time-stamping feature, these pictures were probably taken well before the shooting. The fifth photo, taken at dusk, shows some shrubs. On the photo’s top right corner is what could be a discarded old suitcase. The next photo taken ten minutes later shows the same location except the suitcase no longer shows.

Unfortunately because these two photos were taken close-up, there are no clues to identify where in the park they were taken. The only thing certain about the pictures is that they were not taken where police believe the murder occurred. The next five pictures show several sparrows flying on and off tree branches. The very last picture shows an out of focus empty branch.

The two officers print all twelve photos to show the brother-in-law, on the outside chance this will bring about a lead they can pass on to the case detectives. As luck would have it, the writer is able to identify where the odd looking pair of shrubs-pictures were most likely taken. This is because he had taken a tour in Central Park of a small fenced off area known as Hallet and the Pond situated just north of the Artist’s Gate at 6th avenue and Central Park South. After taking the tour the writer had gone back and found a place near the pond where you can duck under the fence to gain access to the small, restricted park area.

When inside he took an assortment of pictures of a pond, hill, and shrubs, hoping this would stimulate a crime- story idea (a method he sometimes uses when at a loss for ideas). One of the pictures he took shows the same park nook as do pictures five and six of the just printed set of twelve on the camera now stored in the police evidence locker. Moreover, in comparing the pictures one thing looks odd. Picture six, which does not show the suitcase, does show the ground to be disturbed. But picture five, which does include the suitcase, shows the ground as smooth. In addition, the writer’s much older personally taken pictures show that ground to be hard and smooth.

So, a disappearing suitcase and some suspicious looking park soil may offer an intriguing lead. Does the disturbed soil shown in one of the pictures mean a hole was dug and then covered over? Was the suitcase buried in that hole? Well, if you bury a suitcase in a hole, you will end up with some extra dirt, unless you remove it to another location or make a mound over the just-refilled hole. There is no mound showing in the picture with the missing suitcase and disturbed soil. But there seems to be loose soil particles near the roots of surrounding brush. In the writer’s older picture no loose soil particles show near the roots of the surrounding brush.

Why hadn’t the case detectives noticed these anomalies? They might have, but they didn’t have the older picture to use for comparison. They also had no idea where the two pictures on the retreived camera had been taken. Central Park is a very big place.

But why bury a suitcase? Could the suitcase contain dead body-parts or maybe a fortune in stolen jewelry? Either explanation might provide a motive for someone to shoot the victim, who might have been caught taking incriminating photos from behind the bushes.

The two Central Park assigned police officers show the writer’s older pictures to the case detectives on the park murder so they can compare them with the stolen camera pictures. One of the detectives asks why the bird photos and out-of-focus empty tree-branch photo were the last that were taken? If someone catches you taking incriminating pictures and chases you down and shoots you, you would hardly have time to take five pictures of birds.

But a second detective supposes that the victim could have sensed the person digging the hole was aware of spying photography taking place. The victim might have tried to create the impression he was taking bird pictures. But sensing his ruse had failed, did he then run for his life toward what would become the crime scene, where he was caught up with and shot dead?

Of course, all this assumes that the camera in police possession belonged to the victim. The only thing known for certain on that score is that no camera was found at the crime scene even though the victim had a reputation for taking disreputable pictures at night in the park.

The detectives ask the Central Park officer’s brother-in-law writer to accompany them to the Hallet where they will get a park employee to open the locked gate. Once inside this restricted park area the detectives quickly locate the site where the crucial pictures were taken. They dig up a dirt-encrusted suitcase. One detective predicts they’ll find dirty laundry, the other predicts body parts.

But to everyone’s shock, the shabby suitcase contains what looks like a small nuclear bomb of the type popularized in an early James Bond movie. The police bomb squad, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents (ATF), the FBI, and government experts on nuclear devices are quickly called. A nuclear bomb technician gently performs several tests and concludes they are looking at the real thing.

The nuclear weapon’s casing measures 36 x 24 x 12 inches. Apparently, it is a single critical-mass type bomb weighing 50 pounds. Inside are a battery, conventional explosive material, a “bullet-and-gun” device, two

neutron generators, an arming switch with timer, and a compartment for the critical-mass action to take place that results in a nuclear explosion. This bomb would have caused damage similar to that of a 100-ton TNT explosion. The physical damage caused directly by the bomb would have been modest although secondary explosions and fires caused by exploding gas mains, petroleum tanks and electric power line devices would be unpredictable. But, more troubling would be the deadly radiation. And crucially important would be the ensuing panic in the streets. Fortunately they deactivate the bomb after several tense minutes.

But worry sets in among the now numerous investigators that the public might still panic if the story gets out. The timer had been set for three days and would have devastated Midtown Manhattan had the bomb not been discovered. One investigator then reminds everyone that Inauguration Day for the newly elected president is 72 hours away in Washington.

A manhunt immediately ensues to locate the person or persons who buried the bomb and who presumably still expect it to detonate by timer in three days. But have the perpetrators also buried a bomb somewhere in the nation’s capital?

A day later federal investigators using top-secret radiation detection equipment say there are no nuclear bombs hidden near the inauguration site. Still, the president is advised to take the oath of office at a secret air force base squirreled somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. But, the newly elected president insists that the inauguration be held at its usual location in the Capitol’s West Front, either inside or out, depending on the weather.

Unknown to investigators is that an American-born individual has just met with the pilot of a recreational sailboat at Manhattan’s West 79th Street Boat Basin. The man is taken out beyond the twelve-mile limit in the Atlantic Ocean to rendezvous with a commercial fishing boat flying a Canadian flag, where he receives a second suitcase nuclear-bomb.

The individual now in possession of this second bomb is an unregistered member of SNARE, a worldwide activist group that secretly seeks the downfall of America. SNARE has an East Village branch office that says it wants justice for its adherents in America.

The next afternoon, on a day off walking around town with her writer brother-in-law, the Central Park assigned police officer thinks she’s recognized the man she and her fellow officer almost arrested carrying a possibly stolen camera on Central Park West. The suspect has just entered the front door to the SNARE office. Within several minutes of the officer’s called-in alert, an FBI-NYPD arrest team arrives. But, the suspect has somehow fled the scene. The massive manhunt continues, although by now its target could be anywhere.

At this point of course, neither the uniformed police-officer nor the crime novelist is privy to the panic that has set in at the highest circles because the manhunt has faltered as Inauguration Day draws nearer.

Nonetheless, the crime-story writer has been mulling over the incident that took place in front of the SNARE office. He’s now just remembered something that had seemed unimportant and unrelated to what had happened to start the manhunt. A woman with a baby stroller had been exiting the office at the same time that the suspect had entered it. As she reached the sidewalk, the stroller’s front wheels accidentally struck the writer’s shin. The writer began admonishing her to be more careful when her companion exited the building and stared aggressively as if ready for a physical confrontation.

The woman pushing the stroller was dressed like many of the liberal young women of the East Village. And yet the SNARE organization represents a part of Middle Eastern culture that discourages women from dressing in sexually provocative ways. Actually she had been perhaps Irish or German in appearance. But, her companion’s complexion was swarthy and olive toned. He also had a small fluffy white dog in tow on a leash.

Now having remembered the couple with the stroller, the novelist again pesters his sister-in-law, but this time to pass on the lead to investigators that a couple with a small child, a white dog, and a stroller may be involved. Yes the lead is very thin, just as the suitcase-picture lead had been thin. But investigators have made no progress with their imminent national security problem. So upon getting this second “stroller lead” they discretely follow up and learn from locals that the couple lives a block from the SNARE office. However, the pair with the stroller has disappeared leaving behind an empty apartment. It turns out that the male is on a “persons of interest” watch-list kept by the FBI. And, the female was once arrested at a demonstration against alleged police profiling of Middle Easterners.

Inauguration Day arrives. The President elect is but 20 minutes away from being sworn in by the Chief Justice of The Supreme Court. Suddenly the security communication channels are crackling with an alert. A family matching the stroller-lead has been spotted casually walking in nearby Arlington, Virginia on the waterfront that overlooks the federal buildings of DC.

They have a young child in a stroller adorned with American flags. An older child walks alongside, as does a small fluffy white dog on a leash. The two adults wear jeans and tennis sneakers. He wears a navy-styled coat with metallic buttons and she wears a North Face ski jacket. They both have on Washington Nationals baseball caps and are munching on MacDonald’s French fries and sipping Cokes from straws in containers.

Within minutes, additional computer images of the couple sought in the East Village for questioning are downloaded onto agents’ communication devices. Other agents using video cameras with powerful zoom lenses visually locate the couple on the waterfront. An agent monitoring the screens yells, “We’ve got a match!” In minutes top-secret detection equipment is activated from patrolling security vans to scan for the presence of nuclear materials. Technicians in the vans ominously report the presence of a bomb.

But, what exactly do you do when someone can just press a button to detonate a nuclear device in an urban location? The decision is made at the highest level to gamble with a team of snipers who will use sound-muffled, muzzle-flare suppressed 50-caliber rifles from a distance of a quarter of a mile. The snipers’ aiming will be assisted by hand-held ballistics computers that calculate a “firing solution” that takes into consideration known firing characteristics of the weapon used and its ammunition. The computers also consider the distance the bullets will travel, the effects of wind, temperature, humidity, time of day, and other factors that can affect a bullet’s path to a target. With 50-caliber bullets, the bodies of the targets will be torn apart before they hear or see anything. But, will the snipers get in position in time?

The plan is to take out the two adults and the older child, but to spare the infant in case it is booby-trapped in some way to detonate the bomb. The dog will also be spared, unless it makes suspicious moves toward the stroller, where it may have been trained to pull a lever of some type.

With the takedown teams connected by earphones, the command is given to shoot. In an instant the bloody remains of two adults and a child sag to the pavement. The staccato crying of an infant eerily fills the air, as does the pitiful whimpering of the fluffy little white dog. A team moves in confirming that a live nuclear bomb is cleverly concealed in the stroller designed not for one but for two or three children. It is carefully deactivated.

The government now has a news dilemma regarding how much of the story can be given to the public. The newly inaugerated president gives orders that the story be told, but to say that a powerful conventional bomb had been involved. Of course, the surviving infant and small fluffy white dog will not be able to dispute this unwieldy explanation.

But, had the SNARE operatives been successful all hell would have broken loose, especially when it was learned that Manhattan was hit on the same day. Perhaps midtown Manhattan would have looked liked Hiroshima, Japan after the 1945 atom bomb. Wall Street would have shut down tight for the foreseeable future, and up to 16 million Greater New York area survivors would have run for their lives in all directions. Second waves of people further out might have run in fear of the stampeding first wave.