Catching the Bad Guy (Book Two) (Janet Maple Series) (20 page)

“How did you—” Janet broke off. “You
know, Dennis, I thought that you were too mature to eavesdrop on people’s
conversations. But if you must know, I’m no happier about Alex’s attention than
you are. I told you that I hate the dirtbag, and nothing has changed since
then. I still can’t stand him, and I sure hope that we’ll be able to come up
with a way to expose him for what he is: a lying, cheating scoundrel. But if
you continue acting the way you are acting, I doubt we’ll be able to succeed.”

“Acting the way I’ve been acting? Why
didn’t you tell me about the Bostoff wedding? I should have been your date, not
Laskin.”

Janet lowered her eyes, a barely
perceptible smile lurking on her lips.

Dennis cursed his outburst. Making Janet
aware of his attraction to her was not part of his intention, at least not at
the moment.

“If you must know, I was going to ask
you,” Janet replied. “But you seemed to be otherwise engaged, so I asked
Laskin.”

“Otherwise engaged?”

“I believe her name is honey boo.”

Dennis could not help smiling.
Apparently, he was not the only one with a penchant for eavesdropping. “Guilty.
But it’s over now, and it was never anything serious. For what it’s worth, if
you had asked me to be your date for the Bostoff wedding, I would have been
glad to be there.”

“Thanks, Dennis, I appreciate that. Now,
if you’ll let me finish, I’ll tell you what Laskin and I learned when we were
there.”

After Janet had finished giving the
account of the wedding, Dennis stared at her from across the table. “Muller
actually had the nerve to show up at the wedding? And he is dating the state
attorney’s daughter?”

“Yep. Now do you see why the case
against him got dismissed?”

“Crystal clear.”

“Wait, it gets better. Finnegan used to
run the Manhattan DA’s office. He was Alex’s boss’s boss. The three of them
used to be real chummy, with Finnegan calling Alex ‘my boy’ and inviting him
for drinks after work, that sort of thing.”

“Did they ever invite you?”

Janet shook her head. “It was boys
only.”

“And now Finnegan is state attorney
general and Alex is our boss,” Dennis concluded.

“Call me paranoid, but I think there’s a
connection between Finnegan, Ham being fired, and Alex being put in charge of
our department.”

“It certainly does not seem farfetched
to me. Alex must have served his master well, and now Finnegan has placed him
at the Treasury as his trusted watchdog.” Dennis drummed his fingers on the
table. “And Muller told you that he is a philanthropist now?”

“Yep,” Janet nodded. “But I don’t
believe it for a second. This whole thing stinks to high heaven. Alex’s
interest in the matter makes it even more suspicious. Laskin and I are
determined to get to the bottom of it. You’re welcome to join if you’re
interested.”

“If I’m interested? Of course I’m
interested, Janet. You know that there’s nothing I’d like more than to see
Muller face justice.”

“Then, you trust me again?”

Dennis hung his head. “Yes. I’m sorry
about what I said earlier. It was uncalled for.”

A flicker of a smile passed over Janet’s
lips. “All is forgotten. No apologies needed among friends.”

“So what’s the plan?” Dennis could
scarcely believe his own words. Usually, he was the one giving instructions,
but in this case he had to give Janet her due—she had kept her cool while he
had let his emotions get the better of him.

“Laskin is running the check on Muller’s
charity as we speak. He has also alerted the Market Watch department to keep
him posted of any unusual stock moves. Sooner or later Muller will make a
mistake, and we’ll be there to catch him.”

***

Alex sat back at his desk, mulling over
his conversation with Janet. He was good at reading people, and he was certain
that Janet had told him the truth. There was a reason he had pulled a Romeo
routine on Janet: he’d held her hand during the entire conversation and if she
had been lying, her quickened pulse would have given her away.

Besides, Alex was not merely relying on
Janet’s words. He had done some checking on Bostoff himself and had come up
empty. He understood that Finnegan wanted Bostoff shut down, but as long as
Bostoff was not doing anything illegal, Finnegan would just have to back off.
So far, Bostoff had limited his business engagements to giving speeches on the
evils of corruption and white collar crime. There was nothing any regulatory
agency could do to sanction him for that. Now, if Bostoff cheated on his taxes
or began poking his nose into matters that were outside of his purview, such
as, for instance, gathering evidence against Muller, there would be ample
grounds to shut Bostoff down. But until Alex became aware of such conduct, he
was going to steer clear of Bostoff. Sure, Alex wanted to keep Finnegan happy,
but Alex was not stupid enough to do it at the expense of his own skin.

Alex dialed Cornelius Finnegan’s private
number. “Cornelius, it’s Alex.”

“Always glad to hear from you, my boy. I
trust you have some good news for me?”

Alex ignored the insufferable “my boy.”
He was sick of Finnegan’s patronizing ways. “Yes, sir,” he replied pleasantly.
“I ran the check on Bostoff’s new business venture, and I am glad to report
that everything is in order.”

“You mean you shut him down? That’s my
boy! I knew you were perfect for this job.”

Alex shook his head with annoyance. For
such a sharp man, Finnegan could be unbelievably obtuse. “No, sir. I meant to say
that Bostoff is not doing anything wrong. He’s just trying to make an honest
living by giving speeches on how to catch crooks like himself.”

“And you’re glad about that?”

“Forgive my poor choice of words, sir,
but Bostoff is not doing anything illegal, and until he does I don’t see what I
can do about it.”

There was a brief pause on the other end
of the line. “It certainly sounds like you’ve done your homework. Continue
keeping an eye on him and notify me as soon as you see anything foul.”

“I will, sir.”

“And how about that Walker reprobate? No
more rogue investigations?”

“Not that I am aware of, sir. I’ve told
him to focus on analytics to get him away from fieldwork.”

“I like that. Good thinking. I’m
counting on you, Alex. Don’t disappoint me.”

Have I ever? Alex was tempted to retort,
but bit his tongue. He did not have a career death wish to get snippy with
Finnegan. “I won’t, sir.”

“Good.” Finnegan hung up.

Alex put down the receiver. He had been
faithfully carrying out Finnegan’s orders, but everything had its limit. He had
checked out Bostoff and put a muzzle on Walker, but Finnegan was starting to
become unreasonable, and Alex was not going to be a blind tool in Finnegan’s
hands. Even Finnegan was not invincible, and if he were replaced, Alex did not
want to be left out in the cold. From now on Alex was going to temper the
reports he gave to Finnegan.

Aileen Finnegan checked her reflection
in the bathroom mirror. She had just closed a very important contract with a
new client, and she felt like a winner. She had dressed carefully for the
occasion, choosing a tailored sheath and a matching jacket in periwinkle. The
color of the cloth highlighted her blue eyes, and the smart cut of the clothes
showed off her newly slim figure. She had been working hard at being pretty for
David, and all the hard work was finally paying off. Over the course of the
past six months she had lost almost twenty-five pounds, which resulted in her
getting a whole new wardrobe, but this was the kind of expense she was glad to
have. Sure, she was still no model, but she liked the way she looked, and more
importantly she felt good. Things were definitely looking up. It seemed that
good things, just like bad things, came in phases, and finally, for the first
time in her life, Aileen could say that things were going well for her.

Her recent transformation had also
improved her professional life. No matter what anyone said, one’s appearance
mattered, especially in a business like public relations. Aileen’s clients paid
her for representation, and they wanted someone who looked the part for the
job. Aileen had always been good with people. In fact, up until recently the
only feature she liked about herself was her voice, which was why she had
chosen public relations as her occupation in the first place. A large part of
her job was done over the phone, and she was really good on the phone. She had
good people skills as well and was pretty good at in-person meetings—God knows,
she had to compensate for what she lacked in looks with a cheerful
personality—but now she was even better. Over the past month, Aileen had
secured three new accounts. She had already accumulated a good nest egg by
living with her parents, and now she was doing even better. It was time to make
one last change: it was time to move out of her parents’ house. Yesterday, she
had signed the lease on a one bedroom apartment in West Village. She would be
moving in on the first of next month. The reality of the change was still
sinking in, and she was yet to break the news to her parents who were bound to
object, especially her mother.

Aileen’s mother was the president of the
local women’s club and was on the board of several local charities. It was her
dream for Aileen to one day succeed her mother as president of the women’s
club. While Aileen’s high school friends were out dating, her evenings and
weekends had been occupied with helping her mother with charity auctions,
dinners, and other social functions her mother organized. At first, Aileen had
not minded—her calendar was far from being booked up with dates—but as the
years went by, these occasions became more of a burden than a joy. Sure, she
wanted to contribute to all the good causes her mother supported, but it
bothered her that most of the women in the club, including her mother, cared
more about the social status that their involvement with the charities gave
them than the causes they so ardently rallied to raise awareness of. And now
that she had David in her life, Aileen refused to surrender her evenings and
weekends to her mother. Her mother had already chided Aileen for not being
available for several events, but Aileen stood her ground. She was as
charitable as the next person, but that did not mean that she had to sacrifice
her social life at her mother’s whim.

At the thought of David, a smile
appeared on Aileen’s face. She could not wait to tell him the news about her
apartment. Deep down she hoped that the two of them would not have to reside in
separate apartments for too long, but at the same time she did not want to go
straight from living with her parents to living with David. She wanted to live
on her own for a while. Not for too long—a year would most likely suffice—and
then she would marry David. The prospect of becoming Mrs. David Muller made Aileen’s
heart flutter; she would do anything to make it a reality. At first she had not
even dared to allow such thoughts into her mind, but as the months went by and
David remained by her side, the previously unreachable possibility began to
seem feasible.

If only things would not change, Aileen
thought, suppressing a frown. For as much as she hated to admit it, things had
changed. Lately, the previously attentive David seemed to grow more distant. On
several occasions David had canceled their dates, and his behavior at the
Bostoff wedding had been downright atrocious. David had apologized to Aileen
afterwards, presenting her with a lovely pair of gold aquamarine earrings.
“They will go nicely with your eyes, lovey,” David had said. “I am sorry for
losing my temper, Aileen, and I’m sorry for not being around as much. It’s just
that I’ve been so busy lately. The charity fund is a lot of work, but once I
have it set up, it should pretty much run itself.”

The earrings’ blue stones had sparkled
with icy shine, and Aileen nodded, deciding not to remark on the fact that
David always found the time to meet with her father. Indeed, the two of them
met on a regular basis, and at times Aileen wondered whom it was that David
really wanted to date. “Don’t you like them?” David had asked.

“Yes, I like them.” Aileen nodded. The
earrings were beautiful, and David’s voice was so tender, just the way it used
to be when they had first met.

“Am I forgiven?”

“Yes.”

“Well, are you going to try them on?”

Aileen did as David asked. The cool blue
stones did go with her eyes, but it was not the earrings she yearned for David
to give her; it was a ring with a solitaire diamond. Still, the earrings were a
good start, and they had brought her luck. She had been wearing them to client
meetings and she had closed every deal since then.

Aileen checked her watch. It was six
p.m. She had planned to stop by her new apartment to measure it for furniture.
From a bed to a kitchen table, she would need to furnish the entire place from
scratch, and she only had about two weeks to do it. But, on the bright side,
moving out of her parents’ house would be a breeze, as she would only be taking
her clothes. Well, at least the physical process would be a breeze, for Aileen
could already foresee the emotional ploys her mother would use to get Aileen to
stay.