Catching the Bad Guy (Book Two) (Janet Maple Series) (32 page)

Yes, I imagine it would, Mila thought.
Ania’s husband had more money than the Bauers could spend in their lifetime.
Daniel was not a stingy man. All Ania had to do was say that her cousin needed
help, and he would be happy to oblige, but Ania was too paranoid that Mila
might steal her husband and was desperate to get rid of her cousin as soon as
possible. Not that Mila wanted to go back to school, anyway. As far as she was
concerned she had learned everything there was to learn in a classroom. It did
not take Einstein’s IQ to understand the world of finance. Hell, David was not
any smarter than she was, and he was moving millions of dollars. It was not
what you knew, but the proverbial who you knew. If David’s scheme worked out,
Mila would not have to worry about her future anymore. But if it did not ...
Mila checked her watch again. Where was David?

“Are you in a rush?” Ania asked
pointedly.

Deciding that she had had enough, Mila
finished the last of her latte. “Yes, as a matter of fact I am. I just
remembered that I promised to feed my neighbor’s cat.”

“Your neighbor’s cat?”

“Yes, my neighbor, who also happens to
be a Calvin Klein model, asked me to feed his cat while he’s away on a modeling
gig in Milan.”

Ania’s eyes lit up with jealousy. “You
didn’t tell me that your neighbor was a model.”

“I only just met him.” Mila rose from
her chair, dropping a twenty dollar bill on the table.

“And he already asked you to feed his
cat?” Ania’s eyes widened with anticipation of intrigue.

“Yes.” Mila nodded, barely keeping
herself from bursting into laughter. She had just made the whole thing up on
the spot, and Ania was eating it up. No doubt Ania would spend the rest of the
day being jealous of Mila and her imaginary neighbor model. Serves the nosy bag
right, Mila thought, gleeful of her tiny revenge. “I’d better get going. I wouldn’t
want to disappoint the cat.”

But once Mila got back to her apartment,
her mood darkened. Her apartment—she could scarcely even call it that since
without David’s help she would not even be able to afford the rent—seemed
lonely and desolate despite the expensive furnishings and antiques she had
acquired on David’s credit card. Without David, she had nothing. If he were to
disappear from her life, she would indeed have to pack up and go back to
Prague.

Enough, Mila thought, willing the grim
thoughts away. Most likely David was simply too busy to call her, tidying up
his nifty profit and settling with Finnegan and Magee or, more likely, screwing
Magee and Finnegan out of their shares. David had told her about his entire
plan. It was as simple as it was brilliant, and it did not require a finance
degree to execute it, but merely the confidence of a corrupt attorney general
and a high-ranking company executive.

“Oh, David, where are you?” she tugged
at her hair. “Just call me and tell me that everything is all right.”

To give herself something to do, Mila
grabbed her phone to browse the Internet. She was about to flip from a CNN page
when a headline caught her eyes: “Breaking Story: Charity president arrested in
insider trading scandal.” Mila felt a chill crawl down her spine. She focused
her eyes on the article and began to read: “Today, David Muller, President of
Phoenix Fund, was apprehended in his apartment on charges of insider trading.
State Attorney General Cornelius Finnegan and Kevan Magee, a member of the
board of directors of Rover Enterprises, are charged with collusion in the
insider trading scheme.”

Mila did not bother to read the rest.
Her heart was beating so fast she thought she was going to throw up. Visions of
David being dragged through court flashed before her eyes. And then, jail.

No, she thought; she refused to have her
life ruined. She had to keep her head clear. If she acted quickly there was
still a chance that she might make it. David had rented the apartment under a
fake name, which meant that she had a little bit of time before the authorities
would link it to him.

She raced into David’s study, rushed to
the safe, and began to turn the lock dial in the complicated sequence that
David had given her. Her fingers were shaking as she counted out the sequence.
When she reached the last number on the dial, she held her breath and pulled at
the safe door, praying for it to open. The door remained shut. “Damn it!” Mila
hissed. Could it be that David had lied to her about the code? “Calm down,” she
murmured. “Just be calm.”

She repeated the sequence. This time her
fingers were still and precise, and the safe opened. She grabbed the contents
of the safe and shoved them into a backpack.

Then she raced to her closet and pulled
out the most practical items of clothing: there was no time to pack her
designer dresses and heels.

Twenty minutes later, Mila exited the
building. She was wearing jeans, a leather jacket, and a hooded sweatshirt with
the hood pulled over her head. She ducked her head and reached for her cell
phone. There was only one man who could help her now, and that man was not
David Muller. “Anton? It’s me, Mila. Can I come over?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Anton’s
voice boomed triumphantly.

“I am asking now,” Mila lowered her
voice into a sexy purr. “So, can I come over?”

“You know you can. My door is always
open for you, sweetie pie.”

“I will be right there.” Mila shoved the
phone into her purse.

She had all of David’s accounts and
passwords. Her head spun at the thought of how much money was at stake. There
was still a chance, a real fighting chance that this money could be hers, and
Anton Kovar was the man who could help her get it.

Anton Kovar was young and handsome. He
was just as rich as David—in light of recent events, richer probably. But most
importantly, he could give her the protection she needed. Mila pressed her lips
firmly together. She could learn to love Anton Kovar just as much as she had
loved David Muller.

A week later, Janet Maple and Dennis
Walker stood in the office that used to be Alex Kingsley’s.

“What’s going on?” Janet asked. “I
thought you said there’d be a staff meeting. There’s no one here but us. It’s
after five, so we might as well call it a day.”

“It’s a nice office, isn’t it?
Especially so without Kingsley in it.”

Janet nodded. Alex’s stint as the head
of the Investigations department at the Treasury had turned out to be a brief
one. He had been relieved of his duties pending further investigation of his
conduct at the Treasury as well as his work on the Borrelli case at the DA’s
office. “It is a nice office, but you still didn’t answer my question. What are
we doing here?”

Dennis looked around conspiratorially,
mischief flashing in his eyes. He took a step closer to Janet so that he was
only a few inches away from her. He ran his fingers along her neck, stopping at
the collar of her blouse. “Maybe I wanted to see what it would be like to make
love to you at the office.”

“Dennis! Stop that! Do you want to get
us both fired?”

Instead of answering, he slid his hand
down to her breast and nibbled on her ear.

Janet trembled with pleasure. “Fine, but
why does it have to be in this office? Can’t we use your office or my office?”

“We could. But right now you might want
to gather your bearings. Ham Kirk will be here at any moment.”

“You!” Janet mock punched Dennis in the
chest.

“But I do like the office idea though. I
think my office will work just fine.”

Janet ran her hands over her hair and
straightened her blouse. “I’ll get you for this!”

“Am I interrupting?” Ham Kirk stood in
the doorway.

“Ham! How wonderful to see you!” Janet
exclaimed a shade more enthusiastically than she intended.

“It’s wonderful to see you too, Janet.
It’s been a long time, and believe me it was not because of my choosing.”

“It could have been shorter if you had
been taking my calls,” Dennis cut in.

“Cut an old man some slack, will ya?”
Ham squeezed Dennis’s shoulder. “But seriously speaking, Dennis, Janet, thank
you for getting my job back.”

“I think we are the ones who should be
thankful, sir. Had it not been for your swift action, Muller could have gotten
away.”

Ham smiled. “I appreciate it, Dennis,
but I never take credit for other people’s work. You and Janet solved this
case. All I did was call my friend on the senate subcommittee to make sure that
the case got priority.”

“And he was just in time. We raided
Muller’s apartment the next day, and there were suitcases all over the place. A
few more hours and it would have been too late. You should have seen the look
on his face. He went all white.”

“I wish I had seen it,” Janet retorted.

“I was told that it would be too
dangerous for you to come,” said Dennis.

“But it wasn’t too dangerous for you.”

“I had the FBI to protect me.”

“And they could not have protected me?”

“If I didn’t know any better, I would
say that the two of you bicker like an old married couple,” said Ham,
chuckling.

“It’s too bad we couldn’t find Muller’s
money,” Janet hurried to change the subject. “He agreed to give up his profits
in exchange for a reduced sentence. He even gave us his offshore account
numbers, but they had all been emptied out. The money is not there.”

“And I really believe that Muller has no
idea where the money went. He looked ashen when he heard that all the money was
gone,” Dennis added. “I wonder who took it.”

“It might still turn up. Besides,
neither Muller, Magee, nor Finnegan will be able to use it now. At least not
for a very long time.”

“So, are you checking out the grounds before
your first day back on the job?” Dennis asked.

Ham rubbed his chin. “I wanted to talk
to you about that. To both of you—that’s why I came here today. How would you
and Janet like to go into a private venture with me?”

“Huh?”

“During my early retirement I started a
small consulting business, and it seems to have taken off.”

“What kind of business?” asked Dennis.

“A discreet investigations agency
specializing in confidential matters. Discreet and confidential are the key
words in the job description.”

“Do you mean working for Washington?”

“Possibly, and the Feds. That sort of
thing. Mostly white collar crime and occasional background checks. Your skills
would fit right in. What do you say?”

Dennis and Janet exchanged glances.

“Thank you, Ham. But Janet and I would
like to have some time to mull it over,” said Dennis.

“Can’t we talk about it now? What’s
bothering you? I assure you that the benefits will be comparable—in fact
better—than those at the Treasury.”

Dennis rocked back on his heels. “Would
dating coworkers be against your policy?”

Ham’s eyebrows rose as he eyed Janet and
Dennis in turn. “Oh?”

Dennis nodded, and Janet blushed.

“My only policy is to get the job done,”
said Ham. “Now, are you up for it? It’ll be a hell of a lot more exciting than
working for the Treasury and a lot less red tape. Oh, I almost forgot the most
important part: you’ll both get a twenty percent raise, plus a discretionary
bonus at the end of the year.”

“In that case, I’m in,” said Janet.

“So am I,” added Dennis.

“Very well. Shall we say you start in
two weeks then?”

“Sounds good to me,” Janet agreed.

“Works for me.” Dennis nodded. “But now,
if you’ll excuse me, Ham, I’ve got a date, and I don’t want to be late. You’d
better come too, Janet.”

“Good for you, Dennis. You’ve made the
right choice,” said Ham. “I’ll see you both soon.”

Once they were standing outside, Dennis
put his arm around Janet’s shoulders. “Where do you want to go and celebrate?”

“Anywhere you chose,” Janet replied.
There was one thing bothering her.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s just that I feel bad for Laskin.
Do you think he’ll patch things up with Aileen?”

Dennis frowned. “Look, Janet, I know it
was a tough decision for him, but he made the right choice, and he knows it.
The case will take a while, and Aileen will need all the friends she can get.
Laskin can be that friend. And who knows? Their friendship could turn into
something more.” Dennis paused. “Just like ours did,” he added and drew Janet
into a long, passionate kiss.

“Yes, it did.”

Janet felt a surge of happiness run
through her. She had many reasons to feel on top of the world: she had busted a
conspiracy involving a top ranking government official with the added benefit
of revenge on her ex-boyfriend, and had just been offered an exciting new job.
But the joy from these accomplishments paled in comparison to the way her heart
swelled from the knowledge that Dennis Walker was her man. Not a coworker, not
just a friend, but her man.