To Catch a Bad Guy (Book One of the Janet Maple Series)

by Marie Astor

“Full skirt or figure-fitting?” Lisa’s voice pierced through Janet’s thoughts.

  They were at the Vera Wang salon on Madison Avenue, Upper East Side. Janet stared at the blindingly white fabric. Betray your friend and save your own skin, or go down with the sinking ship, was all she had been able to think of since Dean had dropped the bomb on her. The charming IT guy was not charming at all. In fact, he was a deceitful snake, and Janet was an idiot to have fallen for his act.

  “Full or fitting? Wake up, Janet!” Lisa added imperiously. “God, if this is how you are now, what’s going to happen to you when the wedding plans will be in full swing?”

  That’s just it, Janet thought glumly. If Lisa knew what she knew, she would not be worrying about the wedding - she would be worrying about her fiancé’s being investigated by the Treasury and possibly the SEC, as these days regulatory agencies jumped on the bandwagon of one another’s investigations. Janet knew. She had worked for one. She had to tell Lisa. Granted, Lisa had done many things during the course of their tumultuous friendship that could justify revenge, but the decision that Janet had to make now was beyond revenge or loyalty. It was about being a decent human being. Janet might have fallen victim to Dean Snider’s conniving schemes, but she was not about to become a backstabbing snoop herself.

  “Lisa, I think they both look great. You’ve got a figure that can carry off any dress,” Janet added. Anything to get out of the stupid bridal salon so that they could finally talk about things that mattered.

  “Now, Janet, do you really want Lisa to merely ‘carry off’ her wedding gown?” Emily Foley clicked her tongue. “A bride is the center of the wedding. She is supposed to shine in her dress, not carry it off.”

  Janet reddened. She was, after all, the maid of honor, even if there were much more pressing matters at hand, extremely pressing.

  “That’s not what I meant, Emily. Both dresses are lovely; it’s just a matter of preference.”

  “Lisa has a small frame. A full skirt will drown her, but a fitted gown will accentuate her figure." Emily Foley pointed to a column dress of ivory silk. “How about this one, Lisa? You will look like a Grecian goddess!”

  “Yes, Mother, I like it,” Lisa acquiesced. “But I also want to try the full-skirted one. I’ve always dreamed of wearing a full-skirted gown at my wedding.”

  Emily pursed her lips. “But, honey, there’s just too much material in that dress. It will overpower you. Listen to your mother. Mother knows best.”

  “I want to try the full-skirted one.” Lisa pouted. “Janet liked it, and I trust her judgment.”

  At the sound of Lisa’s words, Janet lowered her eyes. Would her friend still be of the same opinion if she knew what Janet knew?

  “Speaking of Janet.” Emily swung around. “We might as well start thinking about the maid of honor and the bridesmaids’ dresses. “Janet, how about this one?” Emily selected an off-the-shoulder gown in pale lavender. It was simple, but graceful.

  Janet exhaled with relief. She had seen some truly horrible bridesmaids’ dresses, but at least, she had been spared in this regard. Mrs. Foley had too much taste to mar her daughter’s wedding with bad fashion. Bridesmaids dresses! Janet wanted to pull her hair out as her mind returned to matters of real importance. She had a major decision to make, and she was worrying about bridesmaid dresses.

  “What size are you?” Emily eyed Janet as though she were a specimen under a microscope.

  “I’m a six,” Janet announced self-consciously. Six was a perfectly good size, but next to Lisa’s dress size two, it sounded ginormous.

  “Ah, well, that will probably make you a ten in Vera’s dress size chart.” Emily made a prompt calculation.

  Janet had been wrong. Emily Foley might be too classy to clad her daughter’s friends into unflattering fashions, but she had plenty of humiliating tricks up her sleeve.

  “Lisa, what about your bridesmaids? I know they couldn’t make it to today’s fitting, but what size do they wear?” Emily asked.

  Lisa stalled. “Oh, I’m not sure. Janet, what size does Katie wear?”

  “A six also.”

  “Ah, that makes it easy: size ten all around, with the exception of our Lisa, of course. Janet, let me see if the store has a size ten for you to try on in that lavender dress, and then we’ll get things moving!” Emily waved at the rail-thin sales attendant who had been standing by attentively ever since the three of them had been ushered into the salon.

  Seizing the distraction, Janet tugged on Lisa’s arm. “I need to talk to you.”

  “What about?” Lisa perked up. “Let me guess. Wedding shoes. That’s next on the agenda.”

  “Actually, it’s work-related; it’s really urgent.”

  “Janet, you need to learn to relax. It’s Sunday, for crying out-loud,” Lisa groaned, holding up her hand in protest. “I have an important favor to ask you. It’s about Katie. I haven’t exactly asked her to be my bridesmaid, but I’m sure she’d want to be in the wedding, right?”

  “I’m sure she would, but Katie’s calendar is pretty busy. She’s got depositions scheduled back to back,” Janet rattled off the first excuse that came to mind.

  “Perhaps you could ask her for me?” Lisa smiled sweetly.

  “Oh, I don’t know. I think it would sound better coming from you.”

  “And I thought you were my maid of honor! Can’t you do this little thing for me?”

  Janet gulped. Bridesmaid recruitment was not exactly part of the maid of honor’s responsibilities – at least not the way she understood them.

  “Look, Janet, you know that I don’t have that many girlfriends, but I’ve got to have bridesmaids in my wedding party. Now, I realize that Katie is your friend, but couldn’t you get her to be in the wedding for my sake?” Lisa’s voice was almost pleading, as she shot a worried look at her mother who was busy questioning the sales attendant.

  “Oh, all right.” Janet caved in, weighed by the heavy guilt of the monstrous secret she was harboring, albeit unwillingly. “But first, can we please talk about that thing I mentioned…”

  “Oh, thank you!” Lisa interrupted. “And why not invite Joe’s fiancée as well? What was her name? Daphne – yes, I think that’s it. She would round off the wedding party nicely, don’t you think?”

  Immediately Janet regretted her impulsive weakness. That was classic Lisa: give her an inch, and she would take a mile.

  “Lisa, I really need to talk to you about work: it’s important,” Janet tried to make her voice sound steely.

  “What’s that I hear? Talk about work during a wedding dress fitting?” Emily Foley cut in. “Into the fitting room, you two. Janet, I’m afraid they don’t have a size ten on hand, so you’ll just have to try on a size four. That’s the largest size the store had for this dress, but if the overall shape fits, we’ll go ahead and order the correct size.”

  “Thank you, Emily.” Janet eyed the tiny gown, thinking that most likely it would not even slide past her hips.

  “This way, please.” The sales clerk carried the gown into the fitting room. “Would you like assistance with the dress?” The skeletal blonde eyed Janet almost fearfully.

  “I’ll call you if I need you,” Janet snapped. There was only so much bullying a girl could take in a day.

  Once alone in the fitting room, Janet stood in her tights, eyeing the dress with the grim determination of a soldier contemplating the enemy. At least she had been proactive enough to wear control-top underwear. That ought to ease things up by a few inches. Gingerly, Janet pulled the zipper on the gown. Here I come. Janet stepped into the silky skirt, cautiously pulling it up her legs and towards her hips, ready to cease at the slightest resistance.

  A few tense moments later she exhaled with relief. Her hips had made it into the dress without any trouble, and she was even able to get her arms into the bodice of the gown. The blasted thing was on. Now, all she needed was to zip it up. If such a feat were possible.

  “A little
assistance please,” Janet called out, hoping that the sales girl would come to the rescue.

  “Janet, how is it going in there?” Emily Foley’s voice pierced the dressing room silence.

  “Fine, almost done. I’ll be out in a minute. I just need help zipping this thing up.”

  “No matter, it’s good enough that you were able to get into it. Come on out, let’s have a look at you!” Emily urged.

  Can this day get any worse? Oh, yes, it can – just wait until your friend hears what you have to tell her and calls you a backbiting snake, Janet answered her own question, hobbling out of the fitting room. She might have been able to squeeze herself into the dress, but walking in it was an entirely different matter.

  Emily Foley eyed her appraisingly. “Under the circumstances, I’d say the result is much better than expected.” Mercifully, Emily’s observations were interrupted by Lisa stepping out of the fitting room. “Oh, my!” Emily gasped, bringing her hand to her mouth. “You look stunning.”

  “Don’t I?” Lisa’s eyes lit up as she twirled the heavy skirt around her.

  “Like a princess,” Lisa’s mother confirmed.

  “I told you that Janet wouldn’t steer me wrong. Don’t you think the dress looks great, Janet?”

  Janet nodded. “I do.” As she looked at Lisa standing there starry-eyed, clad in a strapless gown of silk and chiffon, Janet felt an involuntary lump in her throat. This was Lisa’s big moment, but all Janet could think of was the ultimatum Dean Snider had given her on Friday night: I would appreciate an answer by Monday morning, he had said, as though two days were all it took to make up one’s mind about stabbing one’s friend in the back.

  “And you look great too,” Lisa offered. “Lavender is definitely your color.”

  Janet eyed her reflection in the full-length mirror. The dress was supposed to be a flowing off-the-shoulder gown, but instead, it fitted her like a sausage casting. Still, despite the wrong size, the color was flattering.

  “The next time we come in, please make sure to have this dress in Janet’s size,” Lisa instructed the sales assistant.

  “Of course,” the assistant nodded stiffly. “Would you like to try the next dress now?”

  “I don’t know,” Lisa deliberated. “I think this is the one.”

  “We could always come back to look at more dresses,” Janet offered, thinking that if she would not get to talk to Lisa soon, she was liable to burst from all the tension that was mounting up inside her.

  “Do try the one I picked out for you, honey,” Emily urged.

  “All right then.” Lisa smiled brightly. “This is fun.”

  An hour and half and five dresses later they had finally emerged from the bridal salon. Much to Janet’s relief, Lisa had not committed to a dress, but had decided to come back for additional fittings. The way things were going, Lisa might need the money she intended to spend on the designer wedding gown for her lawyer fees, but Janet did not want to think about that just yet. She wanted to believe that there was still a way out.

  “Well, Janet, I’m afraid we must leave you now,” Emily Foley announced. “Lisa and I have a spa appointment.”

  “Lisa, I was hoping we could have a quick word?” Janet eyed her friend meaningfully.

  “What time is our appointment?” Lisa asked her mother hesitantly.

  “I’m afraid there’s no time. Your conversation can wait until Monday, but Lisa’s cellulite treatment cannot. She’s got to get in top shape for the wedding. Unless, of course, Janet you’d like to come along?” Emily eyed Janet’s hips. “I could make a call and squeeze you in.”

  “No, thank you.” Janet shook her head, eager to bid goodbye before she lost her much-abused temper and strangled Lisa’s mother.

  “Thanks for everything, Janet,” Lisa mumbled sheepishly. “We’ll talk on Monday, okay?”

  “Sure.” Janet nodded. Short of yelling at the top of her lungs, a different reply was not an option.