Shattered Lies (Web of Lies #3)(26)

“Mr. President, Tate,” Sandra said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe this. How are you feeling?”

Tate smiled kindly. “Thank you for your concern, Sandra. We’re getting there.”

Birch frowned. “Although two very good men of mine and fifteen civilians were killed. But, you know that, don’t you?”

Sandra blinked and then looked sympathetically at them. “Yes, I read that. Are you sure you should be running the nation at a time when you should be focused on getting better? I’m sure the vice president can take of things while you heal.”

“I’m quite all right to run the country. After all, that’s why I asked you here. To get down to business.”

“Right. We need to address the executive order for contracting private security that President Mitchell proposed. Some key embassies have received terror threats recently, and we don’t have enough soldiers to increase security and go after the terrorists. So the State Department has already called in some National Guardsmen to help, but now the states are lacking in security. New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles have all asked for funds to hire private security to help replace the National Guard.”

“Good point. What else do we need to address?” Birch asked, keeping his suspicions hidden. Like hell he would authorize that much power to private security.

“I think we need to address the rumors of our collapsing stock market. I have foreign leaders contacting me about pulling out of their investment in American companies,” Sandra said as she took out her notebook and scribbled some notes.

“Yes, yes. That’s no good at all,” Humphrey bumbled. It seemed to put Sandra at ease.

“Great. Since Tate is here, I’ll put out a press release through her assistant. How is the investigation going on the explosion?” Sandra asked with such concern Birch would almost think she cared. But he knew better.

“Thank you for asking. We’ve made big strides in the investigation.” Birch watched Sandra’s reaction. She seemed surprised but covered it quickly.

“I have heard the Chinese are angry about our ships keeping the peace in the South China Sea. Is it them?”

“No. It’s not the Chinese. In fact, it’s a new group I’ve never heard of before that has been responsible for a number of bombings and assassinations around the world. I’m just their next target.”

Sandra looked shocked. “A new group? Who are they? Syrian?”

Birch shook his head. “No.” Birch looked thoughtful for a second. “We know who they are, but we don’t know how they knew about my plans for that night. They were rather spur-of-the-moment.”

Humphrey bobbed his bald head up and down in agreement.

Sandra looked confused and then horrified. “This group has a mole in the White House?” Her eyes shot around the room. “Who is it?”

“We don’t know yet,” Birch told her sternly. “But we will find out soon enough.”

“How?” Sandra asked.

Birch blinked his eyes at her. “Why, you’re going to tell us who it is.”

“Me?” Sandra asked puzzled. “Oh no. You don’t think it’s Thurmond, do you?”

Humphrey stopped bobbing his head. “Thurmond? Why do you think it’s Thurmond?”

Sandra leaned forward and lowered her voice. “Well, he’s a great assistant, but he is very power hungry. Everyone knows that. I was waiting until the end of the term to replace him. He knows so many people; I have to admit I was lax in letting him go. But I’ve caught him in my office a couple times. I’m suspicious enough that I started locking my office and desk, but I had no real proof.”

“Interesting that you say that because we’ve already talked to Thurmond,” Birch told her, never taking his eyes off hers. Sandra swallowed and closed her notebook.

“You have? Is he the one?”

Birch nodded. “He told us everything.” Sandra went white. He could see her moving her feet to better leap up. She was going to make a run for it. “But here’s the thing. We didn’t need him to tell us anything. We already knew.”

“You knew he was the mole?”

“No. That you were in the inner ring of Mollia Domini.”

Sandra made her move. She threw her notebook at Humphrey as she leapt from her chair. Humphrey let her go. She yanked the sliding door open only to be met with a punch to the face by Jason. Sandra’s head snapped back as her body followed. Gone was the nice, polite Jason. In his place was someone so empty and lost that Birch had had second thoughts about including him in the group. Sandra shrieked as she looked around like a caged animal. Blood trickled from her split lip as she crab-crawled away from Jason.

“Shut up, Sandra,” Birch yelled over her. Sandra leapt up and grabbed at him. Birch grunted with pain as she tried to pull him from the bed. In one long stride, Jason had his hand around her throat and was dragging her off Birch.

“You killed my wife,” he said so softly between clenched teeth that Birch barely heard him. But Sandra did. She stopped struggling and began shaking her head.

“No. You have the wrong person. I didn’t kill anyone.”

Jason squeezed tighter, and Sandra opened her mouth in a feeble attempt to get air into her lungs. “Don’t lie. Phylicia Claymore got orders from you. You are responsible for what happened.”