Richard Castle - A Brewing Storm

“I’m crazy for doing this,” she said as soon as she got into the car.

“You made the call for me?” he asked.

“Yes, the senator and his wife will meet us at six-thirty in his office, and they promised that Samantha Toppers would be with them. She was discharged early this morning from the hospital.”

Agent Showers was not as angry as she’d been during their last meeting. That was good. He’d told her earlier today on the phone that he’d uncovered evidence about the kidnapping and murder, but he’d not revealed it. He’d only asked her to get everyone together. He told her that what he had to say might redeem her with her bosses. She might not have to go to Tulsa.

“Are you going to tell me now,” Showers said, “or is this another secret?”

“There won’t be any reason for secrets after this meeting.”

“Does that mean you’ll tell me your real name?”

Storm shook his head, indicating no.

He had misspoke. There were parts of his life that would always be secret, especially if he wanted to remain dead and return to Montana.

Storm made a left onto Pennsylvania Avenue and drove east toward the U.S. Capitol, whose brilliant white exterior looked slightly pinkish from the orange sun setting behind them.

Agent Showers entered the Dirksen SOB office first, with Storm trailing behind her carrying four heavy gym bags.

“What’s this about?” Senator Windslow said, rising from behind his desk. “Why are you carrying those bags?”

Storm dropped them on the carpet.

“He knows who kidnapped Matthew,” Showers said.

Gloria rose from the sofa, where she had been sitting next to Toppers, and hurried over to Storm. “Is it true?” she asked. “Have you found the men who murdered my son? Tell me, please!”

“I will,” he replied, “but it is complicated.” He took Gloria’s hand and led her to a chair. “Why don’t you sit here while I explain it.” Gloria was now to his right. Toppers was on his left, and he was facing Windslow, who was seated behind his desk. Agent Showers was standing behind him near the door.

He had everyone where he wanted them. Divided.

Storm began. “Agent Showers already has solved half of this kidnapping.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Windslow asked incredulously.

“Yes,” said Gloria. “What is half a kidnapping?”

“Let’s start at the beginning,” Storm said. “The day after Matthew was kidnapped, you received a ransom note demanding one million dollars. The note was handwritten in block letters. The writing on that note was completely different from the writing on the second note, which you received the next day. The second note didn’t include a demand for money, but it did contain Matthew’s teeth.”

“We know that,” Windslow said impatiently. “Get to the point. Who killed Matthew?”

“Let him talk,” Gloria said.

“The second note contained a mistake,” Storm recalled. “It identified Matthew as the senator’s son. The differences in these two notes were the first tip-off that you were actually communicating with two different groups.”

“Two kidnappers?” Windslow bellowed. “How could two different groups kidnap one person?”

“Please, Thurston, stop interrupting,” Gloria chided.

“Let’s call one group the real kidnappers,” Storm said. “They are the armed men who actually abducted Matthew. The second group was trying to take advantage of his kidnapping. They didn’t have anything to do with his actual abduction. Their goal was to get your money. That’s why they sent you a third handwritten note demanding six million in cash.”

Senator Windslow glanced nervously at Agent Showers and then gave Storm an angry look. “That third note was supposed to be kept confidential,” he said. “You weren’t authorized to discuss it. I’m going to have my lawyers—”

Gloria cut him off. “You can threaten him later. I want to know who killed my son. Go ahead.”

“Thank you,” Storm said. “It was this second group — the criminals who wanted your money — that had me confused at first. I knew it was someone inside your inner circle, because they mentioned my name in the third note.”

“Someone close to us betrayed us?” Gloria said.

“I had a hunch but wasn’t certain until Samantha and I were delivering the money.”

“Samantha?” Gloria repeated. Everyone looked at Samantha, who locked eyes with Storm and then looked at Gloria and said, “It’s not me.”

“During our ride,” Storm said, “Samantha used the word stashed . That was the same word printed in the third kidnap note, ordering the senator to use the six million stashed in the safety deposit box to pay the ransom. It’s slang that Russians don’t use.”

“What Russians?” Gloria asked. “Are you saying that Samantha was helping Russians?”

“I don’t even know any Russians,” Samantha said. “He’s not making any sense.”

“I’ll explain the Russians in a minute,” Storm said. “Let’s get back to the night when Samantha and I were making the deliveries. She told me that she was studying mechanical engineering.”

Agent Showers jumped in. “Which means she knows how to write in block letters on blueprints like the ones on the ransom notes.”

“Lots of people know how to do that,” Samantha protested.

Gloria fixed her eyes on Samantha and said, “Is this true? I thought you loved my son.”

“Yes, I do, I did,” she stammered. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“This is ridiculous,” Windslow complained. “Why would she steal money from us?”

Storm continued. “The most obvious clue was that each time I dropped off one of the gym bags, the kidnappers called Samantha’s phone. It was as if someone was telling them exactly what I was doing. Someone who was sitting in the van waiting while I was dropping off the bags. Someone sending text messages.”

“Why are you attacking me?” Samantha exclaimed. “Why are you lying about me!” She stood from the sofa. “I want to leave. I don’t feel well.”

“No one is leaving,” Agent Showers said. “Not yet.”

With a frustrated look on her face, Toppers sat back down. “This isn’t fair,” she said and pouted.

“The first time,” Storm said, “when Samantha took a million dollars to Union Station, she knew Agent Showers had flooded the train depot with agents. So she warned her partner. That’s when the two of them came up with a new scam. They thought of an ingenious way to get the money.”

“What money?” Windslow said. “The kidnappers blew it all to pieces.”

“No,” Storm said, “they didn’t. Again, let’s look at the facts. The third note instructed Samantha to take six million from the safety deposit box and put it into four gym bags. But that’s not what you did when you were alone in that vault, is it, Samantha?”

“That’s exactly what I did,” she protested. “You saw me come out of that vault carrying the gym bags. You looked in the bags and saw the stacks of bills there.”

“I did. But I didn’t look deep enough,” Storm replied. “Here’s what happened. When Samantha was alone in that vault, she opened a different safety deposit box — one that she had rented. She had newspapers cut in the same shape as hundred-dollar bills hidden in her box. She put those fake bills in the bottom of each gym bag and covered them with a top level of actual hundred-dollar bills. Then she put the rest of the six million into her safety deposit box.”

“My six million wasn’t blown up in those trash cans?” Windslow said.

“Those explosions blew up counterfeit bills made of newsprint,” Storm said.