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

by Marie Astor

  What Dennis was not prepared for was the chaos in his personal life. Not that he had not enjoyed the past two nights with Janet; he had—immensely. What he did not enjoy was the realization of how much he liked her, how much he—dare he think the word?—loved her. Dennis dug his fingernails into his palms. What was wrong with him? He was acting like a schoolboy out on a date for the first time. It was bad enough that he had called Janet his girlfriend after only one night together, he was not about to go professing love to her, even if he did feel it in his heart. But then he had known Janet for far longer than one night, and he had been in love with her ever since he had met her.

  ***

  David Muller rang the door of Mila’s apartment.

  “Who is it?” The sound of Mila’s throaty voice made David want to break down the door.

  “It’s me, baby. Open up.”

  The door opened, and David was treated to the sight of Mila in a lacy corsage, complete with garter belt, stockings, and black stilettos. She was holding a bottle of Dom Pérignon. Her fingers were on the cork. “Do I open it?” She looked at him meaningfully.

  “Pop it, baby.”

  Mila popped the cork. The champagne began to spill over. David leaned in and licked the foam off the bottle. He kissed Mila hungrily. He had been waiting for this moment all day.

  “David! The champagne is spilling!”

  “Let it spill,” he mouthed. “We can afford it.”

  He shrugged out of his coat, dumping it on the floor. And then he was holding her, hungry for the taste and feel of her. He scooped her into his arms and carried her into the bedroom.

  After he had finished making love to her, David lay on the bed, spent and elated.

  “So I take it everything went well?” Mila asked.

  “It went swimmingly. One more day and we’ll be in the clear.”

  Mila burrowed her face in David’s shoulder.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “I’m worried. What if something goes wrong?”

  “Nothing will go wrong.”

  “Are you sure, David?”

  “Don’t you trust me?”

  “Of course I trust you. It’s just that …”

  “What?”

  “Whenever something good is about to happen to me, I’m always afraid that things will go wrong.”

  “They won’t. Not this time.”

  “But once the merger is announced, the regulators will start digging around. They’re going to get suspicious about the trades you placed. What if they find us?”

  “You’ve said it yourself: by the time the merger is announced. By that time we will have gotten our money and be gone. Let the dogs snoop around all they want while we’re drinking champagne and eating caviar.”

  “Mmm, sounds delicious.”

  “Not as delicious as you are.”

  David wrapped his arms around Mila, rolling her on top of him. He loved the sensation of her toned body: her soft breasts pressing against his chest and her toned stomach fitting neatly against his. Her hair enveloped him with its silkiness and the warmness of her breath made him feel like he was where he belonged. He loved her. One more day and they would be in the clear. And then he was going to ask her to marry him.

  Chapter 28

  The next day Mila Brabec and her cousin Ania were sitting at a French brasserie on the Upper East Side. Mila watched Ania consume a pear tart with a side of hazelnut ice cream. Ania could stand to lose a good ten pounds. Instead, she was gobbling dessert, while Mila limited herself to a café latte made with skim milk. But then Mila did not have the luxury of Ania’s security. On the contrary, Mila’s situation was anything but secure. She had not heard from David since morning, and it was already after two o’clock. That in itself did not sound like such a long period of time, but when put in the context of David usually calling her five times a day at a minimum, it became exceptionally long. Worst of all was that she knew about the risky venture that David was involved in. The man was walking on a wire.

  “So,” said Ania, pushing the pear tart away and dabbing her lips with a napkin. “When are you and David going to tie the knot?”

  “Soon enough.”

  Ania made a tsking sound. “Soon enough is a very ambiguous time frame, Mila, and you need certainty.”

  “What do you suggest I do? Go back to Prague and slave away as a bank clerk?” Mila snapped.

  “What’s wrong with working at a bank?” Ania shrugged her plump shoulders. “It’s a perfectly respectable job.”

  A perfectly respectable job, Mila resisted the urge to mimic Ania. I bet you would just love to see me wasting away in some dump, wouldn’t you? I don’t see you lifting a finger since you married Daniel. “I want to keep my options open,” was all she said out loud.

  Ania frowned and placed another forkful of the pear tart into her mouth. She chewed methodically for several moments before she spoke. “I hardly think you’re keeping your options open, Mila. If anything, you’re limiting them.”

  “How’s that?” Mila asked sulkily. She had made the mistake of arguing with her cousin, but she was not going to back down now.

  “It’s very simple, really. It’s not as though you are gaining experience in your profession here. Instead, you are wasting your life working as a waitress.”

  Go ahead, why don’t you rub it in, Mila thought. Still, as much as she hated to admit it, she knew that Ania had a point. She sure as hell was not getting any younger, and as far as getting a job in her field, the chances of that were also slim. Not that she wanted to slave away as a bank clerk for the rest of her life. “I could go to school here,” Mila ventured.

  Ania almost choked on her coffee. “Go to school here?” she repeated. “Why, I suppose you could if you qualified for a scholarship. But you’d also need to keep working to cover your living expenses. I imagine that would be difficult.”

  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 expe
nsive 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.

  Chapter 29

  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.