“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
About the Author
Richard Castle is the author of numerous bestsellers, including Heat Wave, Naked Heat, Heat Rises, and the critically acclaimed Derrick Storm series. Castle currently lives in Manhattan with his daughter and mother, both of whom infuse his life with humor and inspiration.
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