A Brewing Storm

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Special Agent April Showers exited FBI headquarters and made her way to the curb on 10th Street NW at exactly the same moment as Storm arrived in the rented Taurus.

“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.

“You have no proof,” Toppers objected, but her face looked panicked, as if she were an animal caught in a corner.

Storm picked up the four gym bags and carried them over to her. “A hundred-dollar bill weighs roughly one gram,” he explained. “A million dollars in hundred-dollar bills weighs a hundred grams or the equivalent of twenty-two pounds. Six million dollars weighs a hundred and thirty-two pounds.”

“I can count,” Toppers said.

“Yes, you told me that you were good in math.” He dropped the bags at her feet. “I’ve placed the equivalent of one hundred and thirty-two pounds into these four gym bags. When you came out of the bank vault, you were carrying all four bags — two in each hand. You should have no problem lifting all of these bags right now — if the six million was in those bags.”

“What’s this going to prove?” Windslow asked.

Agent Showers answered. “Obviously, newsprint weighs less than currency. If she can’t lift the bags, then it would have been impossible for her to carry six million in hundred-dollar bills out of that vault. That will prove that the bags were stuffed with newsprint — not money.”

“Pick up the bags,” Storm said. “Prove me wrong.”

Toppers didn’t move.

“Damn it, girl. Pick up those bags,” the senator ordered.

She didn’t flinch.

“If you want us to believe you weren’t involved, pick up those bags,” Gloria said sternly.

Toppers rose slowly from the sofa. She looked at each of them and then reached down and put her fingers around the straps on the four gym bags. With a huge grunt, she gave them a tug.

For a second, it looked as if she were going to lift them. But they were simply too heavy and she was too petite, too weak. She nearly fell forward on her face.

Gloria shot from her chair, lunging at Toppers. The older woman slapped the young girl’s face and grabbed her hair. Both women tumbled onto the floor. Storm grabbed Gloria, who was swinging and kicking Toppers. Showers pulled Toppers to one side.

“You little bitch,” Gloria screamed. “How could you do this to us? How could you do this to our son? We treated you like family. Why did you do this?”

Agent Showers said, “Samantha, was there newspaper in those bags when you brought them out of the vault?”

Looking completely defeated, she said, “Yes. I made the switch just like he said.”

Showers handcuffed her and gave Storm an appreciative smile. “Smart thinking putting a hundred and thirty-two pounds in those bags,” she said.

“Actually, there’s two hundred pounds in them. It was a trick. I have no idea how much newsprint weighs.”

Toppers face turned bright red. She burst into tears, overcome with pent-up emotions.

“Who helped you?” Windslow demanded. “Who was your partner? You may have written those notes, but you didn’t make those bombs.”

Between sobs, she stammered, “I never liked you, and your stepson didn’t like you either. You’re a bully.”

Storm removed a cell phone from his pocket and pushed the last number dialed feature. The voice of Rihanna could be heard coming from Topper’s handbag.

“This cell phone belongs to the man who tried to get into the hospital last night to see Samantha,” Storm explained. “I knocked it from his belt just before he fired a shot at me. The last number that he’d called was Samantha’s.”

He hesitated and then said in a sympathetic voice, “This phone belongs to your brother, doesn’t it, Samantha? He was coming to see you because he wanted to get the money.”

“You have a brother?” Gloria said. “I thought you were an only child.”

Between sobs, Toppers said, “His name is Jack, Jack Jacobs.”

“I’ll be goddamned,” Windslow said. “How’d our background investigators miss that?”

“The woman we all know as Samantha is actually Christina Jacobs,” Storm said. “She and her brother were born in Vermont and lived there until the courts took them away from their drug-addicted, abusive mother. I’m not sure how or why, but Christina ended up living with Charles and Margarita Toppers, a wealthy couple in Stamford, Connecticut. They had a daughter the same age whose name was Samantha.”

“You told us the Toppers were your parents,” Windslow said.

“Charles, Margarita, and the real Samantha were killed in a car accident in Spain while on vacation,” Storm explained. “Their bodies were burned beyond recognition. Christina was sick at home that night, and when the police told her that everyone was dead, she decided to assume Samantha’s identity. She told the authorities that the girl killed was a family friend named Christina Jacobs, an orphan.”

“How could she pull that off?” Windslow said.

“She never went back to Connecticut. Margarita had relatives in Spain, so all three bodies were buried there. The 'new’ Samantha contacted the bank that was the trustee of the Toppers estate and told the executor that she was distraught and wanted to live in Europe for a while. He had dealt only with Charles Toppers and had no idea what Samantha looked or sounded like. He sent her monthly checks to a bank in Paris. She stayed abroad for six years, posing as Samantha, only dealing with the Stamford bank by e-mail and letters. By the time that she returned to the U.S., she had transformed herself — adopting the same hair color, the same signature as Samantha. She fooled everyone — it seems — but her brother.”

“I never thought I’d see him again,” Samantha said. “After the accident in Spain, I sent word to him that his sister was dead. I’d heard he enlisted in the marines and had been to the Persian Gulf to fight in Iraq. He was Army Intelligence. Then out of nowhere, he showed up at my apartment on the very night that Matthew was kidnapped. I was an emotional wreck and I told him about what I’d done and how I was engaged and about how Matthew had been kidnapped. I thought he would be sympathetic, but he told me this was his big chance. He said, 'You had your chance to start over. I want mine.’”

“It was your brother’s idea to write that first ransom note, wasn’t it?” Storm said.

“He thought if we acted fast, we could beat the real kidnappers to the punch. He told me if I didn’t help him, he would expose me and I would go to jail. But then, I told him the FBI was everywhere in Union Station. There was no way for him to get the money. I thought he’d give up on the entire idea after that, but I made a stupid mistake.”

“You told him about the real kidnappers’ note, the one with the teeth in it,” Storm said.

“I wanted him to know the kidnappers had contacted the Windslows. I told him the CIA had brought in a real expert to help the FBI. I wanted to scare him. But instead he realized the kidnappers weren’t after money. They were trying to get the senator to do something else. That’s when he came up with the idea of getting money out of the safety deposit box and making everyone think it got blown up.”

“How did you know about the six million hidden in the safety deposit box?” Agent Showers asked her. “Did Matthew tell you about it?”

“He did more than tell me. Matthew took me to the vault and showed me all that cash. He told me it was bribe money that his stepdad got from some Russian.”

“Wait a minute, girl!” Windslow exclaimed. “Bribe money? There’s no proof that I took a bribe. You need to watch your tongue!”

Gloria said, “What have you done, Thurston? Are you responsible for Matthew getting kidnapped? Who are these Russians and why did they pay you a bribe?”

Nervously eyeing Agent Showers, Windslow said, “This is not something that we need to be discussing right now, Gloria.”

Showers said, “Senator, I can help you if you tell me the truth about that money. We can work out a deal. It’s not too late to do the right thing.”

Windslow’s face became flush. “Don’t you dare tell me what I can and can’t do. I have no idea what this woman is jabbering about. I’ve never taken a bribe in my political career.”

Addressing Toppers, Showers said, “Did your brother rent the second safety deposit box where you put the newspapers or did you?”

“He did. The six million is still there, or most of it is. You can get it as evidence against him.” She nodded at Windslow. “Matthew told me it was bribe money. My brother told me that taking it was like ripping off a drug dealer. I kept thinking, 'OK, if I do this for Jack and he gets the six million, he’ll be set for life. He’ll leave me alone. Jack gave me the key to the second box on the day that we went to the bank. He told me nothing could go wrong. I thought the kidnappers would free Matthew as soon as the senator did what they wanted.”

“This is outrageous!” Windslow declared. “She’s trying to implicate me to make herself look good. How do we know that her brother didn’t kidnap Matthew? All this talk about Russians is nothing but speculation and hearsay.”

“Where’s Jack now?” Storm asked Toppers.

“In a motel in Virginia. After Matthew was killed, I was never alone. So he was waiting until after the funeral to get the key back from me so he could go get the money. He came to the hospital to get it last night, but he couldn’t get in. He never cared about me. All he wanted was that stupid money.”

Agent Showers said, “I’m going to send a team to arrest your brother.” Looking at the senator, she added, “I think you better call your lawyers.”

“That money was in a box rented by my stepson,” Windslow said. “You can’t tie it to me. You can’t prove where it came from.”

“Don’t you dare try to blame this on my son,” Gloria snapped. “You selfish son of a bitch, how could you let this happen.” She turned to speak to Storm. “If Samantha — or Christina — or whatever her name is — and her brother didn’t have anything to do with actually kidnapping Matthew, then who are these Russians and why did they kill my son?”

Storm looked at Senator Windslow. “About time for you to come clean, isn’t it, Senator? Tell your wife what you did. Tell us all.”

Windslow rose from his desk. “I am a United States senator and you are in my office. I think it is time for all of you to get out of here. You think you’re so smart. You’ve got it all figured out, don’t you? But you really don’t.”

Gloria screamed, “Did you get my son killed?”

A darkness settled on Windslow’s face. “This is so much bigger than you know. None of you have any idea who you are dealing with or how high this goes. These people are—”

But a thunderous crack and the crash of shattering glass cut the senator’s sentence short as the window behind him exploded. His right shoulder jerked forward as the lone sniper bullet burst from his chest. The stunned look on his face lasted only a millisecond before his body gave way and he collapsed in a jumbled heap.

Almost without thinking, Agent Showers threw Toppers to the floor, out of harm’s way, while Storm leaped behind the senator’s desk, where Windslow was now gasping his final breaths. As blood gushed from the exit wound and Storm peered into the eyes of a man who knew he was only seconds away from death, Windslow whispered: “Midas. Jedidiah knows.”

Just as those words had barely escaped his lips, Storm watched as the life left Windslow’s eyes. The senator was dead.

Screams and shouts filled the room, but all Storm could hear were those last couple words of Windslow’s, echoing over and over in his head.

Jedidiah knows.

To be continued in A Raging Storm, available in July 2012