1 To Catch a Bad Guy

by Marie Astor

  “Well, she’s dating the owner’s son. They are about to get engaged…”

  “That figures. Leave it to Lisa to sleep her way to the top. Darn it, I should start wearing sexier clothes to the office. Did I tell you that one of the senior partners propositioned me?”

  “No way.” Janet’s eyes flew wide open.

  “One night I was there working late on an assignment for him when the old bugger cruised over to my office and asked me if I wanted to get something to eat. I was starving, so I said yes. We went to a Chinese place close to the office, and he ordered a bottle of wine. I didn’t think anything of it – two coworkers unwinding after a long day at the office. But then, after the second glass, he reached for my hand and told me that he wanted to take our working relationship to the next level. And you should see this guy. He looks like a benevolent grandpa, all proper and dignified, with a handkerchief in his suit jacket. The jerk is in his late sixties, married with two kids who are in their thirties, and, as I found out later, he is also sleeping with his paralegal. I told him that I didn’t date coworkers. I had to be polite – he is a senior partner. The next day, the bugger had the nerve to ask me for the assignment as though nothing had happened. Come to think of it, I should have said yes, taped the whole thing and sued his ass for sexual harassment.”

  “Well, maybe it’s not too late.” Janet literally felt her sides splitting from trying not to laugh. She would not want to be in Katie’s shoes, but the story was hilarious.

  “Sure, go ahead – laugh.” Katie smirked. “But I’m not telling you this just for laughs: life’s no picnic at any job. So you’re working for Lisa now. At least she’s not trying to sleep with you. And who knows, if you play your cards right, she just might promote you.”

  Janet found herself wondering if getting a promotion at the firm of Bostoff Securities would actually be a good thing or not.

  Chapter 8

  Candace Bostoff leaned against the terrace railing while she sipped her iced tea and watched Jon toss the football with Ollie on the beach. Sundays were her favorite part of the weekend. Saturdays were often packed with dinners and charity events, but Sundays were for family. Amber had declined to join her brother and father, and despite it being a lovely day, remained in her room, texting her friends. Still, this weekend had been simply splendid. The summer season was over, and the town of Southampton had been deserted, which alleviated the need for small talk and polite acceptance of invitations from neighbors. Last night Jon had made a bonfire on the beach, and the entire family had spent the evening telling jokes and toasting marshmallows. Even Amber, who always had plans for Saturday nights, had gladly participated. Thankfully, her friend had cancelled at the last minute, and it was just the four of them. Candace wished her elder son could have been there to complete the evening, but Tyler was away at college. Still, last night had been wonderful. Once the kids were off to bed, Jon added logs to the fire and made love to Candace under the inky sky.

  As she watched her younger son and husband, Candace’s thoughts drifted. Thanks to her immense luck with the decorator, the summer house looked superb. Unlike the majority of houses in town, their house had character and warmth. The furniture was still high-end, but the pieces that Candace had selected were functional and comfortable. Sure, they would host high-toned summer parties there, but Candace also wanted the house to be a welcoming place for Ollie and Amber to bring their friends over, and for Tyler to invite his girlfriend, and in due time, when all of their kids would marry, to be a place for family reunions.

  Sometimes it scared her to think just how happy she was. Almost all of her girlfriends had marital problems – husbands who drank too much, husbands who stayed out too late, husbands who fooled around. These were men of stellar pedigrees and sizeable wealth, yet they were failing their wives despite the promises they had given as young grooms. But Jon was not like that. It made Candace as giddy as a sixteen-year-old every time she saw the way Jon still looked at her after all these years of marriage, with the same desire he had in his eyes when they first met. Even back then he had been different from the rest – so serious and intent compared to his classmates at college. Of course, there was a reason for that. In a school where every other student’s father had donated a sizeable sum or even had gone so as a far as to build an entire wing on the school property, Jon had been almost an outcast. Although Jon was far from being poor, the Bostoff money was too new for it to be accepted by the snobbery of Duke. But Candace did not care, for she saw in Jon a way to avoid the fate that befell the women of her family. Instead of marrying a man of her parents’ choice – a man who would regard her as though she were a thoroughbred – she would marry a man of her own choosing, a man whose eyes lit up every time he looked at her.

  Jon and Candace had gotten married right after college. By the time the hastily put-together ceremony had taken place in the backyard of her parents’ house on Martha’s Vineyard, Candace was already three months pregnant with Tyler and beginning to show. Her friends thought she was crazy to marry so young – to become a mother when she had barely had a chance to live herself, but Candace was of a different opinion. She had always believed that things happened for a reason, and from the moment she met Jon Bostoff, she knew that she would never find another man who would adore her as much and love her as much as Jon did, and the fact that she had gotten pregnant with their first-born so soon after they met, only proved that Jon and Candace were destined to be together.

  Still, it had been far from easy for them. Jon was so immensely proud that Candace had to be careful with him every step of the way. In the beginning, when money was tight, she had made the foolish mistake of offering a part of her inheritance she had received from her grandmother for the down payment on the house. The look of hurt pride on Jon’s face was so piercing, Candace had never mentioned her inheritance again. But she did help in other ways. Instead of charging her own expenses on the joint credit card, she had opened a credit card in her name and used it to pay for her own expenses and the majority of purchases for the kids. She was careful not to overdo it, lest Jon suspect she was sneaking behind his back. She could have gotten a job, of course, but Jon would not hear of it. Aside from presiding over charity committees, Candace’s mother had never held a job in her life, and neither had her grandmother, and Jon would not hear of his wife breaking the family tradition. In his eyes it would signify his failure as a husband. Not that Candace wanted to work – not really. Aside from being a wife and a mother, she held little ambition for any other occupation in life. Perhaps it had to do with her upbringing or with her financial security, but rather than beat herself up about it or feel guilty, she chose to be thankful for her lucky circumstances. In her set, it was expected of women to do nothing but charity work, but Candace knew full well that the real world was not like that at all.

  In fact, reminders of harsh and merciless reality seemed to be lurking behind every corner recently. A few weeks ago, the house just a few houses over from theirs had been repossessed by the bank. The owner, who had been well-respected and liked by everyone in the area, had been arrested for running a Ponzi scheme and was now out on bail, awaiting trial. Just what had possessed their neighbor to do something so abominably dishonest? Was it the pressure to keep up appearances or just plain greed? Candace was thankful that she had nothing to worry about with Jon. Jon knew first-hand that money had to be earned the hard way. His father was a good and honest man who had worked hard all his life, building a respectable company from the ground up, and Jon was his father’s son. And yet, for reasons beyond her comprehension, Candace had felt a seizure of panic when she found out about their neighbor being arrested. Maybe it was because her neighbor’s disgrace had made her realize just how quickly seemingly perfect appearances could fall apart, or maybe it was because deep down she worried about Jon’s recent success.

  Throughout their marriage, they had had a comfortable living. Candace had loved their first house and their small summerhouse in C
onnecticut. It was close enough to the lake and the ski slopes in the winter. True, Connecticut’s ski slopes did not compare to those of Colorado, but they were just fine as far as Candace and the kids were concerned. But Jon wanted more. No matter how fervently Candace tried to assure him that she was perfectly happy, he never seemed to believe her. Almost apologetic, Jon would surprise her with gifts: a pair of gold earrings or extravagant lingerie, the latter, of course, being more of a gift for him than for Candace. And then, about two years ago, after Mrs. Bostoff passed away, Hank Bostoff had announced that he was thinking about retiring, handing off the company reins almost entirely to Jon. Then the big changes began. First there was the move to Westbury, then the purchase of the Hamptons beach-front summer house, and now Jon was dropping hints about a condo in Colorado. Not that Candace did not enjoy these changes; she would be a liar to say that she did not, but unlike Jon, she did not vie for financial success as fervently as he did. Not because she was supremely virtuous, but because she had never had to prove her worth to anyone. To her, money had always been a fact of life, and to Jon, it would always remain a trophy.

  Jon was never one to talk about business at home. In the beginning, Candace had tried to get him to talk about work, not because she was particularly interested, but because she wanted Jon to be able to share his burdens with her. Yet he had made it clear that he did not want to bring shop talk home. Still, over the years, Candace had gleaned enough information about the operations of Bostoff Securities to know it was a fairly simple business – an agency brokerage operation with its profits coming entirely from commissions. Hank Bostoff had started as a floor broker, and in the beginning, Bostoff’s floor broker unit had brought the majority of the revenue, but as the markets became increasingly electronic, that revenue source dried up. Candace had gathered from conversations between Jon and his father that in order to make up for the lost revenue piece, Bostoff Securities needed to garner the favor of hedge funds, which made up a large bulk of institutional order flow, but many of which also, according to Hank Bostoff, employed unsavory business tactics. Now that Jon had the majority of the control over the company, he boasted about convincing his father to change the business direction: Bostoff’s sales force was wining and dining hedge fund managers in an effort to gain new accounts, and according to Jon, things were looking up.

  But Candace worried. For the first time during her marriage to Jon, she found it difficult to fall asleep at night. Perhaps she would try to broach the subject gently with Jon tonight, or maybe she could have a quiet talk with Hank. If all else failed, she could always try to talk to Paul, not that he would be much help…Candace liked Paul, she really did, but one did not have to be a financial guru to see that Paul Bostoff had no head for business. An artist at heart, he had gone to Vassar to major in acting, but upon his father’s insistence had agreed to double-major in marketing. When Paul’s stage career failed to take off, Hank gave him a job in the marketing department of Bostoff Securities, and Paul excelled at his new role. But Hank must have worried about there being hurt feelings between the siblings, so when he decided to make Jon the company president, he made Paul chief operating officer despite the fact that Paul knew little about operating a business.

  “Hi, gorgeous.” Jon came up on the terrace and put his arms around Candace’s shoulders.

  “Hi.” Candace leaned her head against Jon’s chest. The sound of her husband’s beating heart lifted her worries away: her dependable, steadfast husband was there to take care of her.

  “Do you want something to drink?”

  “I’m fine with this.” Candace lifted up her iced tea. “Would you like some?”

  “Thanks, honey, but I think I’ll go for something stronger.”

  Candace resisted a frown: it was not even one o’clock yet. Her worries had returned, taking away her uplifted mood like clouds obscuring sunshine. Jon had never been a big drinker, but lately, he seemed to constantly have a glass of alcohol in his hand.

  “I’ll go get a beer.” Jon patted her shoulder.

  Candace looked down at the ocean. She could tell Jon to wait until dinner, but then he would get all surly, and she did not want to ruin the remainder of the weekend. Monday – she’d talk to him on Monday.

  “We’re all out of beer,” Jon called out, as he rummaged through the wine cooler. “And wine. I thought you gave the housekeeper the shopping list before we came down here. I’m going to have a talk with her. Sam? Samantha!”

  Candace walked into the kitchen. “Samantha is out today, Jon. I gave her the day off.”

  “Well, then, I’ll call her to come in.”

  “It’s all right, Jon.” Candace hurried to think of an excuse. It really was not the housekeeper’s fault. She had deliberately left liquor off the list. “I’ll go into town myself.”

  “That’s nonsense! That’s why we have hired help – to do these things for us.”

  “Really, honey, it’s all right.” Candace placed a soothing kiss on Jon’s cheek. That was another recent change in him: as of late, her usually calm, measured husband had acquired a temper. “I wanted to stop by the gallery and look for a few remaining touches for the house anyway.”

  “If you insist.” Jon nodded and pressed Candace’s hand to his lips. “But don’t take too long.” He grinned and traced the edges of his teeth against the inside of Candace’s palm.

  Chapter 9

  Half-awake, Lisa Foley stretched languidly in bed and looked at Paul sleeping contentedly next to her. The events of the previous night sprang up in her mind, as a contented smile spread over her lips. She surveyed her surroundings through half-closed lids. She knew the furnishings of the room of the prestigious B&B in Southampton where they were staying by heart. It was the same room Paul rented for their summer weekends, but there was something incredibly special about the Hamptons in the fall. The town was devoid of the pesky summer crowds, and the beach was deliciously deserted. But all of that paled in comparison to the events that had transpired last night, making Southampton forever Lisa’s favorite destination. Last night, after a quiet dinner at Pierre’s followed by dessert, Paul had asked her to be his wife just as Lisa was contemplating a forkful of strawberry shortcake.

  Careful not to wake Paul, Lisa extended her left hand in front of her eyes and admired the ring on her finger. It was indeed a gorgeous ring. She had been expecting a diamond, but a five-carat sapphire of perfect clarity would do. The ring had belonged to Paul’s mother, and he had made a big deal about it, so Lisa had pretended to be impressed. Personally, she would have preferred Paul to shell out the cash for a new ring. What better way could there be for a man to demonstrate his affection for a woman? But Paul could be sentimental at times – a quality that Lisa adored about him. She had never lacked for male attention, but dating was a far cry from marriage, and Lisa had found that unless a girl had a sizeable trust fund to supplement her good looks, it was not an easy task to snag an eligible bachelor. And while Lisa’s family was comfortably middle class, her parents were far from wealthy, and she did not have rich grandmothers or aunts bequeathing her unexpected millions, so marrying a capable provider was the only option. In Lisa’s definition, an eligible bachelor was handsome, agreeable, and capable of taking care of his future wife. Thankfully, Paul was all of these things, for Lisa had kissed her share of frogs. In high school, she had dated for fun, basing her selections on the amorous candidate’s looks and popularity. Needless to say, she expected her suitors to manifest certain attributes of financial standing, such as a nice car and an ample allowance, but back then Lisa did not trouble herself with long term plans or her boyfriends’ social standing.

  In college, Lisa got serious. She did not cram to get into Brown University to marry a plumber. But after a few enthusiastic, yet brief amorous liaisons, Lisa was chagrinned to discover that while the blue bloods were happy to date a girl of her background, they were leery of making long term commitments. Still, she had managed to build a reputation of a femme
fatale. Never once had she been dumped by any of her boyfriends. Having been endowed with a sharp sense of intuition, Lisa had a knack for sensing an oncoming break-up and always one-upped her boyfriends. But before she could bat an eyelash, college was over, and Lisa was faced with the grim reality of joining the work force.

  She had elected to major in English and minored in Philosophy in her undergraduate studies, reasoning that fluid knowledge of these subjects would serve her well in a career as a socialite. There was just one tiny snag. Her senior year boyfriend had just announced that he was taking a job in Chicago, and there was no foreseeable husband candidate in sight. Frantic, Lisa sought solace in Janet. When it came to matters of the heart, Janet was utterly inept, but on such mundane subjects as school and career, Janet was the authority. In high school Lisa had relied on Janet, frequently copying her friend’s projects and homework assignments. The two of them even crammed for the SATs together, using Janet’s personally developed system, and Lisa was convinced that had it not been for her friend’s help, she would have never gotten into Brown. But unlike Lisa, Janet had her social priorities all mixed up. No sooner had the two of them arrived at Brown that Janet started dating Jason Kristy. His parents were high school teachers, and he was on a full scholarship ride, majoring in pre-med to boot. He wanted to become an anesthesiologist. Just what Janet saw in him, Lisa could never comprehend. The guy spent most of his time either cramming biology or stuck in a lab, smelling of formalin. When he did take Janet on a date, they would go to a local Starbucks. At first Lisa decided not to interfere – she was plenty busy with her own affairs, but Janet’s foolish infatuation carried into the junior year, which was when Lisa had to step in. She was known for the parties she threw with her sorority sisters, and for the next bash she made sure to invite several eligible candidates for Janet. One thing lead to another and after one too many beers, they started playing Spin the Bottle. Sure, it was juvenile, but it was also loads of fun, and Lisa swore that she saw sparks fly when the beer bottle stopped spinning and Janet kissed one of the guys Lisa had invited her friend to meet. The trouble was that in the general confusion of things, no one noticed Jason standing by the far wall. He must have snuck in a few moments before, and when he saw Janet kissing another guy, he just stormed out of there. Janet, the idiot that she was, ran right after him, and the prick had the audacity to call her promiscuous and chide her for drinking too much, saying that he could not afford to lose his concentration on someone who was not serious. Needless to say, the guy Lisa had picked for Janet was freaked out by the whole scene and immediately lost interest. Not that Janet cared. She moped over Jason for months and did not really see anyone seriously for the rest of college. There was no denying that Janet was clueless on the social front, but when it came to the programmatic matters, Lisa would be the first to say that Janet was the expert.