Sea of Shadows eBook - Navy Thriller.com

180 JEFF EDWARDS
Harrington laid his hand on top of the little stack. Everything was right
here, in those three little bits of paper, as difficult to miss as the fox in the
proverbial henhouse. How was it possible that no one else had seen it?
The carpet cleaning company, WizardClean, had dispatched a threeman
crew to the British Embassy. But only two men had shown up to do
the job. The Washington police were still searching for the third man, the
missing Sailor, who hadn’t been seen since the night of the attack.
But Seaman Apprentice Jerome Gilbert was not the key to the puzzle.
He had been added to the work crew just an hour or so before the attack. It
was extremely unlikely that he could have been in on the plot. In all
probability, Gilbert had been dead well before the two attackers had
reached the embassy.
That meant the real third man was still missing, the regular third man
for the WizardClean work crew assigned to the embassy. A twenty-eightyear-old
Arab American named Isma’il Hamid. According to the shift
supervisor from the carpet cleaning company, Hamid had reported for
work with the rest of his crew, but he’d been too sick to go out with the
truck.
Harrington picked up the transcript of the supervisor’s interview with
the Arlington police, flipped to the fourth page, and scanned down to the
relevant section.
Detective Scot J. Barnes:
ARLINGTON PD [3127]
Witness Larry S. Burke:
WTN-16/CA-23077
Detective Scot J. Barnes:
ARLINGTON PD [3127]
Witness Larry S. Burke:
WTN-16/CA-23077
Detective Scot J. Barnes:
ARLINGTON PD [3127]
Witness Larry S. Burke:
WTN-16/CA-23077
Detective Scot J. Barnes:
ARLINGTON PD [3127]
You said Mr. Hamid showed up for his shift, but he
was too sick to work?
That’s right. Sick as a dog, the poor bastard.
Throwing up all over the place, and you could tell
he was in major pain. He was trying not to show it,
that whole macho Arab thing, but his stomach was
hurting him so bad he could hardly breathe. He
couldn’t even walk right. He was in rough shape.
But he tried to work his shift anyway?
Yeah. Hamid tried to play it off like he had the
stomach flu. Said he’d taken some Pepto Bismol,
and it was getting better. He wanted to go out with
the truck.
And you wouldn’t let him?
Hell no, I wouldn’t let him. His crew was assigned
to the embassy. That’s a big contract. Important
people. I couldn’t have him puking all over the
fucking place. I sent the new guy, the Gilbert kid,
out with the truck in Hamid’s spot.
Did Hamid seem to get upset about that?