Severe Clear (Stone Barrington 24)

Herbie and Har

p, having been surprised to meet Ms. Gotham, were now stunned and nearly speechless.

“I hope your talks went well,” Stone said to Will Lee.

“Indeed they did. We’re signing our agreement tomorrow morning, and then I’m on vacation for a couple of days.”

“You deserve it,” Stone said.

The president and first lady fell into conversation with Immi Gotham, and Holly managed to cut Stone from the herd and get him in a corner.

“I heard about the gloves,” she said.

“Yes, that was disturbing.”

“Fortunately, the bomb specialist’s lab was unable to detect any trace of radiation.”

“Let’s hope they were being used as oven mitts,” Stone said.

“How did this come about?”

“The NSA managed to locate the site, an apartment in Palo Alto, and Mike Freeman’s people searched it and found the gloves. This fellow Shazaz had apparently been living there and made some bombs, one of which, as you’ve probably heard, was found in the wine storage room today.”

“Yes, but what was that name again?”

“Shazaz? I think that’s it.”

Holly blanched. “First name?”

“Mo, for Mohammad.” Stone looked at her closely. “Is something wrong?

“Excuse me,” Holly said, “I need to talk to the first lady.”

45

Holly stood at the edge of the group around Immi Gotham, waiting for a moment to get Kate Lee away from them. Finally, as a waiter invaded the crowd with a tray of canapés, she was able to touch Kate’s elbow. The two retreated to a corner.

“Don’t look so concerned,” Kate said, smiling, “you’ll scare everybody.”

Holly forced the frown away from her face. “Something disturbing has just arisen,” she said, then she told Kate about the name. “Does Hamish have any siblings?” she asked.

Kate’s smile had disappeared. “As I recall, after his parents were divorced his father remarried and had a son and a daughter, so they would be some years younger than Hamish. Why don’t you call Langley and have them run their names?”

“Apparently, the brother’s first name was Mo, short for Mohammad, but I don’t know the girl’s name.”

“Well, see what you can come up with.”

Holly excused herself, went into the study, and called Langley. Twenty minutes later, she returned, and the first lady rejoined her.

“There’s nothing on them,” she said. “There were hits on the father’s name, but that’s it.”

“Did the search produce anyone else at all named Shazaz?”

“No.”

“Try to get in touch with Hamish,” Kate said. “Ask him for the whereabouts of his brother for the last month. If he can give us that, we’ll have something to go on.”

“Right,” Holly replied. She went back to the study and called the number she had for Hamish. There was a long pause before she was connected.