Penumbra (Spook Squad 3)

“Computer on,” he said.

“ID required,” the metallic voice intoned.

“AD Stern. Badge number 5019.”

“Voice patterns correct. Please proceed.”

“I want a search done on Les Mohern. All details, including immediate family.”

“Search proceeding.”

He glanced at his watch, then resumed his steering-wheel tapping. He was going to be late, no doubt about it.

“Details onscreen,” the computer intoned after several minutes.

He studied the rap sheet. As Illie had said, Mohern had a long history of minor crimes. But it wasn’t him, specifically, that he’d remembered, but his brother Frank. Like Les, Frank was a small-time crim, but he’d also been listed as a source for Jack Kazdan, Sam’s former partner.

That’s where he’d seen the name before. Sam had purloined Jack’s phone records and diary the day she’d been suspended from State under the suspicion of murdering him. Of course, it had been a clone she’d killed—a clone sent to test her—and it had been deemed self-defense in the end. Yet Jack had still ended up dead at her hands—killed in the process of trying to kidnap the Prime Minister and replace him with a clone.

Frank Mohern was one of two phone calls Jack had made just before he’d disappeared, but now he, too, was dead—he’d been killed in a drive-by shooting, according to the report.

But why would someone like Les visit someone like Kathryn Douglass? Hell, she was more likely to be his target than his friend or even business associate.

He’d have to have a closer look at both the diary and the transcripts to find out not only why the Mohern brothers had been involved with Kazdan, but why Les might be involved with Douglass. He had an itchy feeling it just might provide some much needed clues as to what Douglass was really involved with at the Pegasus Foundation.

As O’Hearn’s green-glass office building came into sight, Gabriel took the car off auto-drive, sped into a side street and parked illegally. Then he flipped his ID onto the dash, just to ensure the car wasn’t towed away, and ran the rest of the way to O’Hearn’s office.

Karl was already seated on one of the waiting-room sofas when Gabriel arrived, his bearlike frame dwarfing the seat. His blue Hawaiian shirt and the red-and-gold bandana restraining his brown hair looked totally out of place in the muted, soothing colors of the waiting room.

Sam wasn’t in the room, but Finley, the SIU’s resident research doctor, was.

“I didn’t realize you were involved in this, Finley,” Gabriel said as he sat next to Karl.

“O’Hearn called me in.” The young doctor pushed his thick glasses up the bridge of his nose. “She thought I might be able to sort out some of the test results.”

“And did you?”

“Some.” Finley cleared his throat. “Karl here proved of more use than me.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow and glanced at his friend, but Karl merely smiled and patted Gabriel’s knee.

“Wait until your partner comes; then I will explain all.”

“You’d better.” Gabriel stretched out his legs. “And she’s not my partner anymore.”

“More the fool you, then,” Karl said. And when Gabriel glanced at him, he grinned and added, “Well, she’s pretty and she’s single, and you haven’t exactly got a social life.”

A mix of amusement and annoyance ran through him. He got this sort of lecture from his brother, his mom and his sister. He didn’t need it from his friends as well. “And this is important to you because?”

“Because you’re my friend, and I care about your emotional well-being.”

“I’d almost believe that if it weren’t for the insincerity in your voice.”

Karl chuckled. “Well, let’s just say that a man your age needs a good woman to look after him.”

Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “A man my age? You make it sound like I’m old.”

“Well, you are rolling rapidly toward the big four-o…”