Catching the Bad Guy (Book Two) (Janet Maple Series) (2 page)

“Thank you, Ham.” Janet tried not to
read too much into the “wherever it might be” part.

“Dennis, I don’t mean to sound
patronizing, but you were truly like a son to me and you always will be. I know
I busted your chops at times, but that was only because I wanted to see you
reach your full potential. You are a damn good investigator, and if it were up
to me I would name you as my successor. But, as things stand, it’s no longer up
to me. I hope there won’t be any hard feelings.”

“None, sir. Thank you, sir. It has been
an honor and a pleasure to have worked with you.”

Ham nodded. “Thank you, son. I’d better
get packing: they want me off the premises by five.”

“Goodbye, sir.” Janet took one last look
at Hamilton Kirk. Unlike Dennis, she had not worked with the man for long, but
in the brief time that she had known Ham she had grown to respect him greatly.
Ham was honest, principled, and fair. These were qualities that were rare in
any man and were certainly not among the traits that Alex Kingsley possessed.

Janet Maple stared at her cup of coffee
and untouched bagel. She did not have much of an appetite this morning, but
neither would most people in her situation: having your ex as your new boss was
not exactly a heart-warming prospect.

There was a knock on the door of her
office. “Come in,” Janet called out.

“Janet?” Ann Smith, Ham Kirk’s former
secretary, walked into Janet’s office. Ann had worked for Ham for the past ten
years. The shock of the previous day’s events was written on her face.

“Hi, Ann.” Janet was always glad to see
Ann, but this morning she was especially so. She was about to say how horrible
it was that Ham had been let go, but Ann interrupted her.

“Janet, Mr. Kingsley would like to see
you.” Ann’s lips were drawn together and her eyes downcast.

The idea of Alex being addressed as Mr.
Kingsley seemed preposterous. “But he wasn’t supposed to start until next
week.”

“Apparently, his start date has been
moved up,” Ann replied matter-of-factly. “He said he wanted to see you right
away.”

Janet was about to ask her what it was
about, but seeing the closed-off expression on Ann’s face, decided against it.
“Very well. Tell him I’ll be right there.”

After Ann left, Janet took a moment to
collect her bearings. The thought of Alex—correction, Mr. Alex Kingsley—made
her cringe. The man was positively evil: suave, ambitious, and pretentious
beyond bounds. The pompous prick did not even have the decency to say hello.
Instead, he had sent his secretary to do his bidding.

On her way to Alex’s office, Janet
stopped by Ann’s desk and immediately understood the reason behind Ann’s
strange behavior: Ann’s cubicle was filled with cardboard boxes. “Ann, I’m so
sorry.” Janet touched Ann’s shoulder.

“I was offered a generous severance
package, and I opted to take it,” Ann replied evenly.

“But he can’t just force you out! You’ve
worked here for years!”

Ann looked away. “I believe that Mr.
Kingsley will be hiring an assistant of his own choosing. My severance is
conditional on the confidentiality agreement that I signed,” Ann added.

Janet shook her head: it had not even
been twenty-four hours since Alex’s arrival but already he was reshaping the
department according to his needs. “I understand. Good luck, Ann. I sure will
miss you.”

Alex’s office door was open, but Alex
was busy looking at something on his computer screen.

Janet knocked and waited for Alex to
acknowledge her presence. In the few hours that Alex had been the occupant of
Ham’s old office, he had transformed the space into an unrecognizable state.
Ham’s modest office furniture had been replaced with an antique wooden desk and
two plush armchairs that faced it. The chair that Alex sat on looked like a
throne made of leather. The formerly empty walls were now lined with paintings
in heavy frames. Next to Alex’s desk stood a gigantic bookcase with glass
doors; its shelves were filled with law tomes with brand new bindings.

“Janet, how wonderful to see you!” With
his arms outstretched, Alex rose from his chair.

“Mr. Kingsley.” Janet smiled brightly,
extending her hand.

“Why so formal?” Alex exclaimed. “That’s
no way to greet an old friend.”

Before Janet could say another word,
Alex had her in his embrace. Janet’s head spun from the onslaught of memories:
his scent—he still wore the same cologne—along with the familiar sensation of
his arms around her, transported her to a different time. A time during which
she had been a happy fool, but happy nonetheless.

“You look wonderful,” Alex remarked.

“Thank you.” Janet noticed the stray
grays on Alex’s temples and the deepened lines on his forehead: all that
climbing up the corporate ladder was beginning to take its toll on him. Still,
she would be a liar to deny that Alex remained a very handsome man.

“So, how do you like your work here at
the Treasury?” Alex asked. Nothing about his demeanor betrayed the least bit of
discomfort.

Janet found Alex’s poker face
astounding. The man had to feel at least a little bit awkward: he had, after
all, nearly ruined her life. But then it was also possible that Alex was
incapable of remorse. “Great,” Janet answered. “The work is challenging and
rewarding. I’d be happy to walk you through the cases I’ve worked on.”

Alex waved his hand. “There’ll be plenty
of time for that later. I’m going to cut right to the chase, Janet. You are the
first person I called into my office, and the reason I did that is that I need
an ally.”

Janet waited for him to continue. Alex
was even ballsier than she remembered. What on earth made him think that she
would be his ally?

“Janet, there have been reports of
employees of this office using questionable methods during investigations. Now,
I’m always in favor of personal initiative, but the rules are the rules. We
can’t have vigilante agents compromising the Treasury’s reputation.”

Janet gulped. She was fairly certain
which employee Alex was alluding to: Dennis Walker did not always play by the
rules. At times he liked to bend them a little. Like the time when Dennis and
Janet had gotten Tom Wyman, who was a retained legal counsel, drunk on straight
vodka martinis while their own martinis were made with olive juice and vermouth
by a well-tipped bartender. While Wyman was out in a drunken stupor, Dennis had
downloaded vital evidence from Wyman’s laptop. That evidence had been the
cornerstone of the Emperial case until the Treasury’s Enforcement Division
postponed the hearing, and finally rejected the evidence as inadmissible.

“I am asking you to be my eyes and ears,
Janet.” Alex leaned across his desk, his eyes locking on Janet’s face. For a
moment his face lost its well-composed mask. “Look, Janet, I know that you must
have plenty of reasons to hate me. I wasn’t exactly a prince. But a lot is
riding for me on this job. If I do well here the sky will be the limit for me,
and trust me, I will not forget you in my next move up.”

Just like you didn’t forget me before
when you dumped me, alone and unemployed, while you were busy being the DA’s
superstar? Janet thought.

“I was sent here to clean house, and I
need to know if you are going to be on my team. Do we have a deal?”

Janet’s reasoning told her that she
should say yes. She wanted to say yes, but as all the memories of Alex’s
betrayals flashed in her mind, her lips refused to obey her. “Alex, you may be
charming and clever, but you are deceitful and dishonest. So far, you have been
able to fool people into liking you but you won’t always be able to do so. I’m
sure that if you would have been in my place, you would have said yes. But
that’s just it: I’m not like you. I won’t spy on my colleagues who have
supported me and accepted me. We work as a team here, and you have a choice of
either becoming a part of it or not.” Janet rose from her chair. “Should you
have any work-related questions, you can find me in my office.”

Alex’s face remained impassive, his
smile growing ominously brighter. “You are forgetting one very important thing,
Janet. I can fire the whole team, one by one.”

“Not without cause, you can’t. And the
rest of us aren’t retirement age, so you won’t be able to get rid of any more
people by offering them early pension packages.”

Before she said more things she would
regret later, Janet stormed out of Alex’s office. She was so mad that she
barely looked where she was going. There was a man walking toward her, and
Janet bumped right into him. “Whoa, Janet. Are you all right?” Dennis Walker
was standing only a few inches from her, his hands gripping her shoulders. “You
almost knocked me over.”

“Sorry, I just had a meeting with our
new boss. I guess I’m a little rattled.”

“He’s here? I thought he wasn’t supposed
to start until next week.”

“So did I, but apparently he’s anxious
to get a head start.”

“What was the meeting about?”

“Dennis, I can’t talk right now. I have
a conference call.” Janet used the first excuse that came to her mind.

Unlike her, Dennis would have taken
advantage of the opportunity to ingratiate himself with Alex. Truth be told,
Janet was now having second thoughts herself. Her bravado was beginning to
evaporate, and she worried that she might have gotten both Dennis and herself
into very hot water.

Alex Kingsley watched Janet Maple storm
out of his office on her long, shapely legs. Once the door slammed behind her,
Alex leaned back in his chair, locking his hands behind his head. He did not
care for people who crossed him, and he always made sure that the culprits
learned not to repeat their mistakes. In this case, however, he could not help
feeling guilty about his past with Janet. To say that he had wronged the girl
would be an understatement of gigantic proportions, but then again it was not
his fault that Janet never understood that you had to keep your superiors
happy. Take this job, for instance: there was no way Alex would have been
appointed as the head of the Investigations department had it not been for
Cornelius Finnegan’s glowing recommendation.

“Mr. Kingsley, Mr. Finnegan is on the
line for you,” Alex’s assistant informed him through the intercom.

“Put him right through.”

Even though Finnegan could not see him,
Alex straightened up in his chair. “Mr. Finnegan?”

“Alex, my boy! How many times do I have
to tell you to drop this Mr. Finnegan nonsense?”

“How are you, Cornelius?”

“I’m well, thank you. And how is your
first day on the job?”

“It’s going well, sir, thank you very
much. Settling in; I’ll be meeting with the staff shortly.”

“Yes, that would be a very good idea.
Make sure to keep an eye on that Dennis Walker character. Make sure that he
doesn’t pull any more stunts like he did with Wyman’s laptop. It’s a good thing
Wyman didn’t press charges—just imagine the liability!”

“I’ll make sure that nothing of the kind
ever happens again, sir.”

“Good. That’s why I recommended you for
the job. Hamilton Kirk clearly was not up to it. At least the Enforcement
Division had enough sense to reject the evidence and dismiss the charges
against Muller. It was clear that Bostoff was the culprit.”

“Yes, sir, I agree completely.”

“I’m glad that you do, Alex. Tell me, is
Janet Maple one of the investigators who helped Walker on this case?”

“Yes she is, sir,” Alex replied
laconically, thinking it best to omit the details of his earlier altercation
with Janet.

“I remember her from when I was the New
York County district attorney. She worked on the Borrelli Capital
investigation, didn’t she? A bright young thing. Too bad she got downsized. I’m
glad to hear that she’s doing well now. I understand that she, too, was
involved in that whole Wyman escapade. You’ll make sure that she doesn’t get
into any more trouble, won’t you, Alex?”

“Yes I will, sir. You needn’t worry
about anything, sir.”

“Oh, I’m not worried. It just pains me
to see scum like Walker break the rules and think that he can get away with it.
But even worse than that is the effect he has on other employees—it could be
downright toxic. Before you know, you’ve got the whole organization going
rogue. But look at me carrying on. I know that I’ve got nothing to be concerned
about because I’ve got you there to put things back in order.”

“Absolutely, sir. That’s what I’m here
for.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Well, I’ve got
to get going. We’ll talk soon, Alex. You keep an eye on that Janet Maple girl.”

“I will, sir.” Alex hung up the phone.
Just how was it that Janet always managed to get in the middle of it, was
beyond him: first Borrelli and now David Muller.

Alex closed his eyes. Janet Maple. While
most women were nothing more than a paragraph, or at most a page, in his life,
Janet had been an entire chapter. They had started dating toward the end of his
senior year of law school. At the time he had just broken up with another one
of his girlfriends and needed a quick replacement. With final exams only a few
months away and the tedious bar exam looming before him, he needed a girl with
substance. When Alex took a second look at Janet’s long chestnut hair, the luster
of which could not be diminished even by the drab ponytail she usually trapped
it in, her green eyes surrounded by full, long lashes that were lowered
studiously, while her long, elegant fingers gripped a pen with furious
determination and frantically scribbled every word uttered by their boring
professor, he had decided that Janet Maple was the girl for him. They studied
for all the exams together. Alex’s grades soared, and he aced the bar exam.