Helms arrived at Dulles’s house with the original and copy of Zapruder's assassination film. Dulles set up a projector in his workroom. They loaded the copy; not chancing accidental damage to the original. The first scene showed a crowd standing along Bowie Avenue, followed by twelve seconds showing exactly what Dulles feared most. The limousine came into view and moved towards the camera. The passengers waved to the crowd. After passing behind a road sign, it reappeared and continued rolling towards the camera. Something happened to Governor Connally. As the limo passed in front of the camera the President's head seemed to explode--he fell to his left. The First Lady tried to climb out onto the trunk, but an agent pushed her back into her seat. The limo drove away. After that, the screen went blank. Zapruder had put the lens cap on his camera and run the remaining film.

"This's real bad news," said Helms. "We're screwed! I can't believe it--he actually captured the murder on film."

Dulles fumbled with the projector and rewound the film. "This's absolutely the worst thing that could've happened."

"We gotta burn it," demanded Helms. "Those pictures'll lead to a thousand questions."

"If we destroy it, Zapruder's gonna ask a thousand questions."

"We'll just kill him," retorted Helms.

"That's no good. The Dallas Police Chief knows about the film. Do you wanna kill him, too?" They ran the film again in slow motion. "See that sign?" said Dulles. "I pulled the trigger before the limo got there." They ran it backwards and forward, over and over, looking for an indication the President had been hit.

"He looks okay before he goes behind it."

"Let's see how he looks after he passes it," suggested Dulles. They gradually began to perceive reality. "When he comes out from behind the sign, he clenches his fists and grabs for his throat. His facial expression's unusual--looks like he's in pain."

"Yeah, that's when he gets hit," said Helms.

"Actually, he's reacting to it. He musta been hit when he was behind the sign. That's good, the sign helps us cover-up," reasoned Dulles.

Helms pointed at the screen. "What's that?"

"What's what?"

"Look right above the sign when he passes behind it," said Helms.

Dulles looked closely and spotted a fuzzy white blip along the top edge of the sign, "It’s only there for a split second, then it’s gone."

"Could be defective film," guessed Helms.

"Wrong!" said Dulles. "That's a puff of smoke from one of the limo weapons. That confirms he got hit while he was behind the sign."

"Oh, great, now we have film of the murder and a smoking gun. We're cooked! We gotta destroy it."

"That'd just create new problems," said Dulles. "We're just gonna destroy part of it."

Dulles ran it back to the frames showing the puff of smoke, stopped the film from advancing, but left the projector light on. It took about five seconds for the heat from the bulb to melt a hole in four of the incriminating frames.

"There," he said, "one puff of smoke gone forever."

Helms shook his head and radiated frustration. "Don't forget, it's still visible on the original."

"We'll destroy the original," said Dulles decisively. "When they make a copy of the copy, lots of detail will be lost."

"This's gettin' complicated."

Dulles smiled. "That's good, we want things so complicated that everybody's confused." He advanced the film a few frames. They focused on Governor Connally.

"Looks like the Governor got hit about a second after the President," speculated Helms.

Dulles agreed, "Makes sense. The radio signals reached the limo instantaneously. It took the sabot about a second to get there." They rolled the film again. "Watch his right shoulder. The impact of the sabot makes it drop."

Helms saw more problems. "There's only one second from when the President gets hit until the Governor gets hit. Impossible to work the bolt action and fire another shot that fast--timing doesn't make sense. How are you gonna explain that one?"

"I don't know." Dulles groped for answers, "Maybe we can blame it on a second shooter. We'll figure somethin' out, we have to." Helms shook his head and frowned.

Dulles advanced the film to the point where the President's head seemed to explode. Dulles winced, Helms groaned. "I see one big problem," said Helms, "the President falls backwards. If he got hit from behind, he'd get pushed forward--simple physics."

Dulles analyzed the impact sequence closely. "Actually, he moves forward first. Remember that he really got hit from the front and rear at the same time. He goes forward a little bit then gets knocked backward."

Helms studied the sequence. "There's only a tiny bit of forward movement, the main movement is back. We're gonna have to explain the backward motion."

"We'll say he fell back because the limo accelerated, or blame it on a neuromuscular spasmodic reaction."

Helms were glad to have at least one good explanation for something. "Those both sound reasonable. That's better than blamin' it on a second shooter. We need to close doors and nail 'em shut. A second shooter opens up a whole new can of worms. We gotta get a lid on this thing."

"Sooner the better." Dulles rolled the film again.

"That puff of smoke in front of his face is as plain as day. We gotta burn a hole in that frame," argued Helms.

"That'd look too suspicious. We'll say the blur is blood and brains gettin' blown out the front of his head. That makes sense if he got hit him from behind."

"Yeah, there's blood in the limousine."

Dulles said, "They're not gonna find anything there. I had the Secret Service wipe the interior clean."

"That was a good move."

"We gotta totally sanitize the limousine," said Dulles. "I'll pick the limo up this afternoon. We’re gonna have to move real fast. I’ll need the badge."

Helms handed Dulles a drawing. "The doctors concluded he got hit twice."

"They think one shot hit him in the back, but didn't penetrate very far--guessed that it was a defective bullet. They were confused because the X-rays showed a body with no bullets in it. They even took a second set of X-rays. A doctor poked his finger into the hole in the back, but it wouldn't go in very far. They used a whole bunch of ten dollar words. I didn't understand everything they said. A Bethesda doctor called Dallas. The Dallas doctors found a bullet at Parkland."

"That's the bullet Hunt planted," said Dulles.

"They had a bunch of guesses about the Dallas bullet. They finally decided it hit him in the back, went in a little bit, then fell out."

"What's the story with this other sketch?" asked Dulles.

"They wrestled with the no bullets in the body problem," explained Helms. "The top of the head was blown clear off and the right half of the brain was gone. They figured a tangential hit to the head was the only explanation."

"Whadaya mean?"

"A tangential hit accounts for a massive head wound with no bullets in the head or body. One of the doctors wanted to shave the head for a better look at the wound. We got lucky--they decided not to--cosmetic considerations."

Dulles smiled. He figured that the tangential head shot conclusion was a lucky break. He wrestled with the labyrinth of facts and struggled to blend all the information into a coherent and plausible version of reality.

"The neck wound really confused 'em," said Helms. "The Dallas doctors reported a neck wound and a tracheotomy incision. The autopsy doctors saw the incision plain as day. They didn't see any other wound on the neck--that's what got 'em confused. They wondered if the Dallas doctors were calling the incision a neck wound.

"That is confusing."

"It gets even worse."

"Good," said Dulles. "Confusion is our friend."

"They thought the tracheotomy incision and the neck wound might both be in exactly the same location--incision on top of the bullet wound. It made sense because they only found one wound on the front of the neck."

"How'd they resolve the confusion?" asked Dulles.

"One of the doctors wanted to dissect the back wound and tracheotomy incision to see what path the bullet took. We got lucky again--I told ‘em the family would prefer it if they didn’t. Once they found out about the loose bullet in Dallas they decided it fell out of the shallow back wound. They concluded the neck wound was just the incision. It got so confused that everyone was half lost."

Dulles schemed and dreamed of ways to turn the confusion to their advantage. "Anything else happen?"

"They checked the coffin. Didn't find any bullets but did find a piece of skull. They used it to reconstruct the head, then took a third batch of head X-rays. There must be fifty X-ray pictures."

"Try to remember everything you can," said Dulles.

"Late in the autopsy, the Secret Service brought in a bullet fragment. They found it in the limousine."

"Gotta be a fragment from the sabot slug," said Dulles.

Helms continued. "A doctor asked to check the clothes, to see if the clothing holes and the body holes matched."

"Did they?" asked Dulles anxiously.

"They couldn't find the clothes."

"Where are they?"

"I don't know, and I don't know who does know."

"We've gotta find 'em and see what they show," said Dulles. "If they're a problem, we might help 'em get lost again--or alter 'em."

"They took quite a few photographs."

"Are you in any of the pictures?" asked Dulles.

The question bothered Helms. "I might be."

"We gotta get the pictures. We need to suppress and sanitize as much autopsy information as we can."

"Yeah, we gotta get those X-rays," said Helms.

"Tell Bethesda you need to impound them and the photos. Give 'em the National Security spiel. Tell 'em the family's worried about the pictures ending up in the newspaper, Tell 'em something, just get the evidence," demanded Dulles.

"I'll call 'em right now." Helms dialed.

"Hello Director Helms, is there a problem?" asked Dr. Galloway.

"No problems," said Helms. "Your doctors did excellent work. I'm calling about the X-rays and photographs taken by your lab techs. I'd like to drop by and pick them up."

"We don't usually allow those materials to be taken out of the hospital--except for teaching seminars."

"The autopsy information's classified," said Helms. "The family doesn't want those gruesome pictures to end up in the newspapers. I think it'd be best if the CIA took responsibility for the security of the evidence."

"I suppose you're right," said Dr. Galloway.

"I'll pick 'em up this afternoon."

"That'll be fine." Dr. Galloway knew it was foolish to challenge a National Security issue. "I can understand the family's concern." Helms hung up and relayed the news.

"We've got a busy afternoon ahead of us," said Dulles. "If we can get the limousine sanitized, and control the X-rays and photos, we might be able to get a lid on this thing."

"It didn't seem so complicated when we first planned it,"

They turned their attention back to correlating the home movie with the autopsy information. "We've been gettin' good breaks so far," said Dulles. "The doctors concluded the President got hit twice from behind. That's a huge break."

"Connally obviously got hit in the back," said Helms. "That adds up to three hits--all from behind--matches the number of shell casings we planted. It's perfect."

"We have one and a half projectiles recovered. It's better to have too few than to have too many. The clothes're still a potential problem. We gotta hope our stooge doesn't come up with an alibi--that'd cause huge problems. We've gotta come up with something to explain the timing problem on the Zapruder film," said Dulles. He sounded extra worried. "We can't destroy the film. We've got to come up with something better."

"If we go with the second shooter scenario, that explains two hits at the same time."

"Simultaneous shots implies coordination," said Dulles. "Coordination implies conspiracy. Investigators won't rest until they find a second shooter. They'll never find one and the investigation'll never end. We need solid and believable closure."

"I got an idea," said Helms. "It's kinda far-fetched, but it'd solve the problem. We could say the President and Governor got hit by the same bullet. Explains 'em gettin' hit at the same time."

Dulles paused to think, "That creates a new problem. The shot to the head doesn't fit that scenario--shot's too high. The wound in the back'd work better, but then we'd have to come up with an exit wound on the front of the body."

"Don't forget, the doctors in Dallas reported a wound in the front of the neck." Helms started to believe the new idea might just fly.

"Let's run the film and see if it looks reasonable," said Dulles skeptically. They studied the film.

"It's hard to tell exactly when the President gets hit because he’s behind the sign. It's obvious when the Governor's hit," said Dulles.

Helms suggested, "We can say the President got hit a few frames after he actually got hit. We'll say the Governor got hit a few frames before he actually got hit. That brings the two impacts close together."

Dulles was almost sold on the idea. "Let's run the film at regular speed and see how it looks." They watched.

"Looks good to me," said Helms.

"If we go with that story, we're gonna have to get the doctors to change their autopsy conclusions," said Dulles. "When you go to Bethesda, find out who's responsible for writin' the report. We need to pay 'em a visit."