Shattered Lies (Web of Lies #3)(13)

Thurmond froze and then cleared his throat. “Who?”

“Silly me. I get things messed up easily with so much going on,” Humphrey laughed at himself. “Mollia Domini wouldn’t go after Sandra. Not when she’s one of them.”

“I . . . I . . . I’m sorry,” Thurmond stuttered shaking his head. “I don’t understand. Who is Mollia Domini and why would they be or not be after Sandra?”

“You’re not sorry, Thurmond. You know all about them. The question is, did you pass intel along to them so they could attack the president? Did you know they were trying to kill him? Were you helping them do it?”

Thurmond’s fake tanned skin paled. “No! I don’t even know—”

“Cut the bullshit you’re famous for spewing. We both know who and what Mollia Domini is, and we both know Sandra is up to her eyeballs in it. You always wanted to make a name for yourself, Thurmond. Now you’ll be remembered as the first person executed for treason since the Civil War. The history of treason is actually very interesting, but that’s for another time. The question is: do you want to die now or serve life in prison?”

“There’s no evidence such a group even exists and certainly none that shows I helped,” Thurmond sputtered.

“That’s where you’re wrong. Does the name Branson Ames ring a bell?”

Thurmond looked ready to faint. “But Branson is gone . . . um, car crash I think.”

“You mean helicopter crash in Syria and he’s gone because Sandra put a hit on him? Luckily we got to him first, and he had a lot of things to say about you and Sandra.” Humphrey paused. “Oh! I forgot the second witness who saw you and Sandra putting cash in the locked briefcase for Branson to take. Cash that would be used to fund terror on behalf of Mollia Domini. Cash I am betting we can prove came from a small bank in Mexico owned by Manuel Hernandez.”

Thurmond froze for one second before leaping up. His eyes were wild. He turned to run but smacked into a solid growling wall that was Jason Wolski. Thurmond screamed as Jason wrapped his fingers around Thurmond’s thin arms and squeezed. Jason shook him like a ragdoll as Humphrey waited for Thurmond to stop screaming.

“Do shut up, Thurmond,” Humphrey snapped. Thurmond immediately shut his mouth. “Thurmond, look at the man holding you. Mollia Domini killed his wife. Do you believe he’ll kill you?”

Jason sneered and Thurmond pissed his pants.

“Good. Now, I advise you to start talking and I won’t let Jason kill you and leave your dead body in the alley here.” Humphrey waited as Thurmond began to cry. It was always the bullies who broke the fastest. Hidden within every bully was nothing but a coward. “Are you going to talk?”

Thurmond nodded and Jason turned him around and shoved him onto the bench. “Talk,” Jason growled.

Thurmond wiped his hand across his nose, smearing snot across his cheek. “Sandra recruited me. She knew I wanted to climb the ladder and dangled that in front of me. One day she caught me doing something slightly unethical to get some information so I could impress her and called me into the office. She talked to me for hours about my beliefs and thoughts on politics, political leaders, and the state of the world. Over the course of months, she asked me to do little things here and there that were off the books and I knew were wrong. I was rewarded after doing each one. I was promoted. I began to have a staff of my own.”

“You were given what you craved—power,” Humphrey said with understanding.

Thurmond nodded.

“Tell me about George Stanworth.”

Thurmond’s brow creased. “The media mogul? I don’t know much about him besides he has a young wife, his daughter runs a lot of the empire, and his granddaughter, Blythe, is popular in the gossip columns. What does he . . .? Oh.”

“You didn’t know he was part of it?”

“No. I didn’t know anyone but Sandra. She told me it was better that way. Sometimes she’d give me orders and I would leave them in a fake rock and someone would pick them up. I guessed that Phylicia Claymore was one of those people after her death.”

“How did you make that connection?” Humphrey asked.

“Sandra was supportive of the rebel leader Phylicia was found dead with.”

“Where has Sandra been?”

Thurmond shook his head. “I don’t know. She said she had a meeting and would be off the grid for a couple days. She told me if anyone needed her to say it was a family emergency. I got her fake identification—”

“Sally, yes, we know.”

“How?” Thurmond asked, wide-eyed.

Humphrey just smiled. “Was it Sandra who ordered the bombing of the president?”

“I don’t know. I just know I knew nothing about it. I didn’t pass any notes, any intelligence, nothing dealing with the bombing.”

“What has Sandra had you looking into recently?”

“Nothing about the president,” Thurmond defended. “Mostly she had me researching catastrophic regulations for various departments.”

Humphrey felt a chill go down his back. “Which departments?”

“The securities and exchange, the energy commission, the environmental protection agency, and the transportation department. Sandra had me compile their regulations and protocols in case of a major disaster. I assumed she had evidence of a terror attack and wanted to be prepared just in case.”