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.
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
“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?”
