by Marie Astor
“Why is Dennis Walker doing research on board members of Rover Industries?”
“Rover Industries? The name does ring a bell,” Janet improvised. “Let me just check here a moment.” Janet flipped open the folder that kept her past reports to Alex. There was no information there that she could use, but she made the gesture to give herself time to invent a plausible lie. “Oh, yes, I have it in my notes here. This is a new case. Dennis has just told me about it this afternoon. We received an anonymous complaint accusing Rover Industries’ executives of tax evasion. Dennis is investigating it.”
“An anonymous complaint? Are you telling me that you’re squandering company resources on anonymous complaints?”
“The department policy has always been that all complaints have to be investigated. It’s in the procedures manual.”
“That’s been changed effective immediately. No complainant, no inquiry, which means no investigation.” Alex rose from his chair. “I want to see the Rover file closed by tomorrow morning. I trust you will take care of this, Janet.”
“Yes, Alex.”
“That’ll be all for now. And Janet, going forward, I expect you to notify me of any new investigations immediately.”
“Yes, Alex.”
Her heart beating like a sledgehammer, Janet shot out of Alex’s office. At the moment her only desire was to get her hands on Dennis Walker’s neck and squeeze really, really hard. In her enraged state she stormed down the hallway, ready to storm the bastard’s office. Most likely the bugger had gone home already, but she would give it a try anyway. A few steps before Dennis’s office, Janet felt a male arm grip hers and almost screamed from the shock.
“Easy there, Janet. It’s me, Dennis.”
“You!!!” There were several words Janet would have liked to use to address Dennis but at the moment her mind went blank, and all she could manage to say was, “What are you doing here?”
“I work here, remember?”
“Do you?” she fumed.
“Easy there. What’s eating you?”
“What’s eating me? I’ve just been reamed by Alex and I had to stand there and come up with excuses for you.”
“Shhh, calm down.” Dennis grabbed her arm and pulled her inside his office, closing the door behind them. “Lower your voice. Now, what are you talking about?”
“What are you doing poking around Rover executives’ backgrounds?” Janet hissed. “Didn’t Laskin and I tell you to keep your hands off the background search system? Don’t you know that the log-ins are traceable?”
“Actually, I didn’t. I wish you would have told me that.”
“I told you not to use the software!”
Dennis patted his chin. “That means I’m really on to something. Just wait till I tell you what I found—I bet you’ll change your tune then.”
“Change my tune? Now you listen to me, you …” Words failed Janet as she found herself powerless under the gaze of Dennis’s triumphantly shining blue eyes.
“I’ll listen later. Come on, we’re going to see Laskin.” Dennis grabbed her shoulders. “We don’t want anyone to see us leaving together, so I’ll meet you on the corner two blocks over from the office. Wait ten minutes before you leave.”
“Enough! I won’t go anywhere unless you tell me what was it you were hoping to discover through that search, Dennis. Laskin had already run the background search on Rover execs, and he did not find anything. He is the guru on dealing with that software. Do you seriously think that you could find something that Laskin did not?”
Janet might have been mistaken, but it seemed to her that a look of hurt flashed in Dennis’s expression. For a moment she thought she might have been too tough on Dennis, but only for a moment. After the grilling Alex had just subjected her to, she deserved an answer.
“What were you looking for, Dennis?” she demanded.
“You’ll find out soon enough, Janet. Now meet me outside, as we agreed,” was all Dennis said and shut the door behind him.
Chapter 22
“He’d better be there,” Janet muttered as she walked over to the spot where Dennis had told her to meet him. And why was he calling the shots anyway? As if a ten-minute difference in their arrival was a major decoy. This had better not be a ploy to get rid of me, Janet thought, already regretting having let Dennis Walker out of her sight. The man was an irresponsible, cocky know-it-all, and that was putting it mildly. Whatever it was that Dennis had uncovered by running the background searches on Rover executives was not worth the jeopardy he had subjected his colleagues to by drawing Alex’s attention to them. And it certainly was not worth Janet putting herself out on a limb to save Dennis’s inconsiderate behind.
Janet eyed the street but saw no sign of Dennis. Typical, she thought, inconsiderate as always. Suddenly, a nasty thought crept into her mind. What if Dennis had indeed stood her up? What if the whole thing was a ploy for him to slip through her fingers so that he would be free to pursue his plans for the night undisturbed? By now he was probably at some bar, romancing the next soon-to-be ex-victim of his charms.
A cab pulled up next to the curb and the passenger door opened. “Get in.”
“Dennis?”
“No, it’s Prince Charming. Get in already!”
Janet climbed into the cab. “Don’t you think we could have taken the train? Laskin is all the way down in Brooklyn.”
“There’s no time for the subway. The cab fare is on me.”
“That’s the least you could do after Alex chewed my butt out because of you.”
Dennis frowned. “Chewed your butt out?”
Janet blushed. “You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t. Did he make a pass at you again?”
Janet resisted the impulse to roll her eyes. For reasons unknown to her, Alex had been making passes at Janet since the day he became her new boss. As much as it would have pleased Janet’s ego to think that Alex had recognized the error of his ways and wanted her back, she knew better. Besides, she would not take the two-timing bastard of a snake back if he begged her on his knees, not that he did, incidentally. But at any rate, Alex’s sudden lust for her was not the issue at hand; rather, it was the motivation that drove Alex’s attention back to Janet. What did the man want?
“No he didn’t. But he really wanted to know what the hell you were doing running background searches on Rover’s execs. And as a matter of fact I’d like to know as well. In fact, I think I have the right to know since I was the one who had to save your ass.”
“You’ll find out in due time.” A grin of self-satisfaction glinted on Dennis’s face, making Janet seethe with irritation.
“And when, pray tell me, might this due time be?”
“When we get Laskin to tell us what he’s found out so far. And you won’t even have to wait that long since we’re already here,” Dennis added smugly, handing the cab fare to the driver.
Dennis swung open the car door and jumped out on the pavement, holding a hand out for Janet to lean on. “My lady.”
This time Janet permitted her eyes to roll, pushing his hand out of the way. If Dennis thought that his lame attempts at gallantry were going to get him off the hook, he had another thing coming.
This had better be worth it, thought Janet as she followed Dennis toward the stoop of the brownstone where Laskin lived.
Dennis pressed the intercom button. A few moments later, a tentative “Who is it?” was heard in response.
“Hey there, Peter. It’s Janet and Dennis. Let us in.”
Agitated shuffling erupted from the receiver. “I wish you would have called me. This isn’t a good time for me, guys.”
Dennis winked at Janet, as though implying that he knew something she did not. “We won’t take long, Peter. Come on, you’re not going to leave your colleagues standing out in the cold, are you?”
The intercom buzzed, and Dennis pushed the front door, holding it open for Janet. “Which is Laskin’s apartment?" Janet asked.
“No elevator? Great.”
“Trust me, if my instinct is correct, and it usually is, the exercise will be well worth it.”
“Trust you? That’s the one thing that’s becoming increasingly difficult to do,” Janet retorted.
“After you, my lady.” Dennis beamed, pretending not to have heard her.
Five minutes later Janet was panting for breath, unpleasantly aware of the perspiration mist on her back.
“Ready?” asked Dennis, who somehow managed to look as cool as a cucumber.
“I need to start doing more cardio,” Janet gasped.
“See? There are benefits to this little excursion already.”
The sign on the wall listed the location of the apartments by letters. A was on the right side of the floor.
Dennis rapped his knuckles on Laskin’s door.
“I think we’ll get a quicker response if we use the bell.” Janet pushed the doorbell button.
“Have it your way.”
There was a sound of hurried footsteps on the other side of the door, after which the door opened slightly, revealing Laskin behind it.
“I told you this isn’t a good time!” Laskin mumbled, keeping the door half closed. “Can’t this wait till tomorrow?”
“Procrastination is the mother of all vices.”
“Huh?”
Before Laskin could react, Dennis jammed his foot in the doorway and shoved the door to the side with Laskin still clinging to the doorknob.
“Thank you for your hospitality, Peter.” Dennis took off his jacket and hung it on a coat hanger. “Please, allow me,” Dennis took Janet’s coat off her hands.
“Take off your shoes!” Laskin demanded. “I just vacuumed.”
Dennis strolled into the living room, ignoring Laskin’s request. “Your obsession with cleanliness is unhealthy, Peter.”
Janet had expected Laskin’s apartment to reflect the man’s personality, and in many ways it did. From the simple couch that occupied the majority of the living room, to the TV stand, to the small bookcase in the corner, everything was in pristine order with not a single object out of place. What Janet did not expect to see was a dining table romantically set with candles and crystal champagne flutes.
“Planning a party, are we? Or perhaps a tryst?” Dennis lifted one of the flutes and twirled it in his fingers.
“Put that down! It belonged to my grandmother.” Laskin leapt across the room and attempted to pry the crystal out of Dennis’s hands.
Dennis nimbly averted Laskin’s grasp. Turning his back toward him, Dennis lifted the flute to his eyes. “Indeed, the workmanship is remarkable,” he added, still holding the glass in his hand. “So, who is the lucky lady?”
“No one of any interest to you,” Laskin snapped.
“You are being extremely rude, Peter.”
“I’m being rude? You’re the one who barged into my apartment, and now you’re threatening to ruin my date.”
Janet felt bad. From the amount of hours that Laskin spent at the office, she knew that he rarely got out. He was always taking on extra projects or volunteering to help other analysts on their cases. Janet guessed that Laskin did it so that he would not have to go home and be alone, and now that the poor guy had finally gotten a break, they were ruining Laskin’s chances. “I’m sorry, Peter. We didn’t know you were so busy. We’ll come back later.” Janet grabbed Dennis’s arm. “Let’s go.”
Dennis took Janet’s hand into his own and slowly loosened her grip. “Hold on, Janet. Tell me, Peter, why did you say that the search on Rover executives did not produce any leads?”
Janet was still recovering from the sensation of Dennis’s hand holding hers, so it took her a moment to notice the crimson color of Laskin’s face.
“Because … Because it didn’t,” Laskin replied.
Peter Laskin was an excellent analyst who had many skills, but bluffing was not one of them. Janet glanced at the triumphant grin on Dennis’s face—the man definitely knew something that she did not.
“Do you really like her that much, Peter?” Dennis glared at Laskin. “Is she more important to you than your friends?”
“Who?” Laskin’s voice cracked. Obviously these two knew something that Janet did not; her eyes dashed from Dennis’s stern face to Laskin’s flabbergasted one.
“You are insulting my intelligence, Peter. But I’ll spell it out for you if you wish. Eileen Finnegan.”
“What about her?” Laskin whimpered.
“You’ve got the hots for her, that’s what, and you’re willing to jeopardize this operation to get laid. But I won’t let that happen.”
Janet eyed Dennis dubiously. Perhaps the man was getting paranoid. To think that the straight-laced, do-it-by-the-book Laskin was dating Aileen Finnegan was too much to believe.
“How did you guess?” Laskin croaked.
“It was not that difficult, Peter. The background search on Rover’s executives showed that Kevan Magee and Cornelius Finnegan went to the same Catholic school.”
“You ran the background search?” Laskin’s voice was filled with reverent awe. “But you hate that software. You never use it.”
“So you thought that you could hide the fact that Kevan Magee went to the same school as Finnegan?”
By now Janet had had enough. The entire situation was beginning to sound like an Agatha Christie mystery. “Who is Kevan Magee?”
“Kevan Magee is on Rover’s board of directors,” Dennis announced triumphantly. “Every single large contract that Rover signs has to be approved by the board of directors. Magee is leaking tips to Finnegan, and Muller is trading for them through his charity.”
“But how do we prove that Magee is actually leaking the information to Finnegan and Muller?” Janet cut in.
“The timing of Muller’s trades, for one,” Dennis replied. “Phoenix Fund made killer profits on every single trade in stocks of companies that Rover awarded big contracts to.”
“That’s not enough,” Janet argued. “We had far more evidence on Muller’s shenanigans through Emperial and the case still got thrown out for lack for evidence. And now we won’t just be going after Muller, we’ll be going after Finnegan too, and we’ll need bulletproof evidence.”
“Precisely. And I think that Peter can help us with that.”
Laskin threw up his arms. “What do you want me to say? I can’t tell you anything more than you already know.”
“Perhaps we should wait for your date to get here. She might have something to contribute to the matter.” Dennis sat down on the couch. “Make yourself comfortable, Janet,” he added, patting the seat next to him, “it’s going to be a long night.”
“Fine! I’ll tell you,” Laskin sighed. “But you have to promise to get out of here. And you have to promise not to hurt Aileen.”
“Oh, man up, Peter! Do you think you are the only one who ever had to make a decision like that? How do you think I felt when I was doing undercover work at Bostoff? Janet was the assistant general counsel there. Do you think I liked the prospect of her being hurt by the investigation? No, siree, I didn’t, but I did what I had to do, and things worked out in the end. You have to do what’s right, Peter, even if it goes against your personal wishes.”
“I’ll tell you everything tomorrow. Aileen is coming over in less than half an hour. You’ve got to leave.”
“So you’ll have to make it quick then.” Dennis clasped his hands behind his head. “What did she tell you so far?”
“Muller is being really mean to her. I think he’s using her to get to her father. She said that sometimes she’s not sure whether Muller is dating her or her father.” Laskin slapped his mouth, looking like a man who said something he should not have.
“Really? How interesting. Did she by any chance say when they will be meeting next?”
“I don’t know.”
Dennis frowned. “Don’t lie to
me, Peter.”
Laskin sighed with resignation. “Yes, she did. Her father is supposed to meet Muller this Saturday.”
“Do you know where?”
“I don’t know exactly, but I suspect that it might be at Keens since Aileen had mentioned that it’s Finnegan’s favorite restaurant.”
“Do you think you could confirm that with her tonight?”
“I don’t know. I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything. She might not want to talk about it.”
“Now, Peter, have a bit more faith in your powers of persuasion. If she doesn’t want to talk about her father, convince her to.”
“I’ll try.”
“If you really like this woman, I hope that you’ll be persuasive. On the other hand, we could forward the investigation to the Feds, and they will most definitely subpoena Aileen Finnegan for evidence.”
Janet regarded Dennis with a shocked glance. He sounded so cold-blooded, so indifferent that she found it hard to believe that this was the same man she thought she knew.
Laskin hung his head with the look of a resigned man. “You’ll get your information, but you have to promise me that you’ll spare Aileen the indignity of being questioned by the Feds. She has no idea about the scheme that her father and Muller are running, so leave her out of this.”
“I will do my best, Peter. But you have to get us the information that we need to solve the case.”
Janet shifted her seat across the couch to be as far away from Dennis as possible. She did not want to be a part of any of this. As far as she was concerned there was no “us” when it came to her and Dennis Walker.
Laskin shook his head. “I guess I should have seen that one coming. In our line of work there are never any concrete promises. Serves me right for signing up for this charade in the first place.”
Dennis got up from his seat and patted Laskin on the shoulder. “Cheer up, Peter. Things have a funny way of working out. There was a time when I had thought that Janet would hate me forever, but now we are not only colleagues but friends.”
