Another Chance
Chapter 50
The hotel conference room J.B. Johnson rented for his meeting with Micah and Alexis is well appointed. The seats are well padded, and the table is solid and contains not only pens and writing pads but upscale bottled water and mints. Alexis, however, is not impressed. She's been to more hotels than she can count and seen better. She's beginning to think Micah was right about Johnson, too. Her father has a lot of rich friends, but they rarely go out of their way to discuss their means. If anything, quite the reverse. With her father, it is usually the same way, except when it involves the pile of poker chips in front of him, and even when gambling, he's just as enthusiastic if they're playing for gummy bears or jelly beans.
Johnson, on the other hand, is bragging that he could write a check for $20 million now if he wanted to. That doesn't track. He doesn't look right either. Expensive clothes are made of good quality fabrics and well-constructed but don't tend to have much flash. His suit is far from classic. She's also noticed that the higher someone is ranked in a company, the more casually they may dress - even if the sneakers cost several hundred dollars. Johnson looks like an up and comer trying to impress the executive suite. Since he's supposed to be the one with the money, he shouldn't have to.
Alexis and Micah exchange looks several times during Johnson's presentation when he seems to have a poor grasp of the technical jargon that anyone familiar with Silicon Valley should know. The whole thing stinks to high heaven, but Alexis puts on her best book party smile to thank Johnson for coming and Micah noncommittally tells the scammer they'll consider his proposal.
Kate sits with Alexis and Micah across a small table from Jim Beckett while he looks over the paperwork left by Johnson. Jim pulls off his reading glasses and lays them down while shaking his head. "It's boilerplate, and not very good boilerplate at that. It looks like it was copied from somewhere with a word changed here and there and names inserted. I believe you are right to conclude that Johnson is not what he pretends to be. I've been involved with corporate law in various forms for decades, and this is not what a legitimate proposal would look like. This agreement is designed to grab the money and run." He shifts his gaze to Kate. "What have you found out about Johnson?"
"I wanted to hear what you had to say first. It's such a common name that a background search turns up thousands of people."
"I have something better than that," Alexis announces, pulling a water bottle in a plastic bag, out of her boho purse. "I took this from the conference room after Johnson left. We have DNA and fingerprints. And if we can't do anything with those, he put a big color picture of himself on his website."
Micah grins. "Reverse image searching."
"Right," Kate agrees. "If he tried to pull anything like this under another name, those images would still be on the web to give him away."
Jim pushes up from the table and smiles at his daughter. "Looks like you're well on your way down the path to tracking down a predator. I'll get back now to trying to pull out a win for my own clients."
Castle presses his lips to the soft flesh of Kate's neck as she hunches over her computer. "You're really enjoying this, aren't you?"
Kate thrusts her arms over her head and stretches. "Not enjoying so much as being enlightened. Working for homicide, I usually help one family at a time get closure on the death of a loved one. If it's a serial killer, maybe more than one. But guys like Johnson, and much bigger fish than he is, leave massive wreckage in their wakes. Hundreds, thousands, sometimes millions of people are affected. No one may be shot or stabbed, but if you count in the heart attacks, suicides and the other ripple effects, highly skilled and totally amoral con artists may be as bad or worse than any mass murderer. Finding and stopping them could do a lot for this country, even the world."
"Sounds like the very definition of doing more. So is this epiphany going to change your plans?"
"For law school, no. I think you have to understand a crime to solve it. The process involved with preying upon large numbers of people can be very complex. But once I've got my foundation, I want to be somewhere I can investigate massive crimes and be in on making the perpetrators pay."
"Sounds exciting and to no small extent, it may be literary as well, when given the proper angle and interesting enough characters. It looks like your ambition could be the start of a new adventure for both of us."
Kate reaches up for his hand. "It just might, Castle."
He kisses her knuckles before regarding her screen. "But more to the case at hand. From what slime pit did J.B. Johnson rise?"
"First of all, his name isn't J.B. Johnson, it's Fredrich Strom. He grew up in Flint, Michigan. I don't know much about his life there except that he was a kid when the first recession hit in the eighties."
"So he probably got an impression of how people trying to pull themselves up from the depths will grasp at straws."
"Could be," Kate agrees, "because when everything fell apart again in 2008, he was ready to take advantage. He started soliciting money to invest in dot-coms, which tanked, but not before he'd rooked a lot of marks out of what little money they had or could borrow."
"I resent your use of the word 'rooked,' but I get the point. He's still going after hapless victims hoping to build themselves a nest egg, and it looks like he wants to use Thera to do it."
"Looks like. Johnson hasn't committed a crime yet where Micah and Alexis are concerned because they didn't take the bait, but it appears that there may be a string of others. I'll pass on anything I find to the FBI, and the Securities and Exchange Commission since some stock fraud is involved. And if Micah and Alexis can keep him on the hook for a while, they may just be able to snap the jaws of the trap closed on him, once and for all."
"Mixed metaphor, but I like it. And the publicity that could stem from helping to catch a crook wouldn't hurt if Alexis and Micah want to attract legitimate investors either."
Kate reaches for a handful of his butt. "Especially after all the faithful Richard Castle fans finish spreading the story around."
"There is that," he acknowledges. A demand sounds from the speakers of the baby monitor. "Sounds like there's a Kate Beckett fan who wants some attention, with maybe a little Richard Castle thrown in. You feed her, and I'll change her?"
"Sounds good, especially if you feed me afterward. I could really go for one of those ribeyes you love to grill."
"With hand cut steak fries, a salad and my new batch of brownies for dessert?"
Kate puts her arm around his waist for the short walk to the nursery. "Castle, I might just have to marry you."