Catching the Bad Guy (Book Two) (Janet Maple Series) (5 page)

“Meet you in the lobby at five?”

Dennis merely stared back at her, and
Janet understood her mistake immediately. With Dennis Walker things were never
simple. Apparently, he considered their meeting to be worthy of undercover
protocol. “I’ll meet you there,” Janet corrected herself.

“I’ll be waiting at the bar.”

Great, Janet thought after Dennis had
left her office, another meaningless pseudo-date with Dennis Walker. The man
was a womanizer and a flirt, but somehow Janet’s knowledge of Dennis’s flaws
did not make it any easier to resist him.

***

At five twenty p.m., Dennis Walker was
seated behind the bar stand of The Vine. As he waited for Janet, Dennis eyed
the crowd, looking for pretty women. This was a habit of his, and even though
at the moment his heart really was not into flirting, he thought the
distraction would do him good.

His attention was drawn to an attractive
brunette surrounded by four suits pawing for her attention like eager puppies.
Junior associates, Dennis thought, probably marketing or consulting of some
sort, but she’s way out of their league—she’s the kind of girl who goes for the
top brass.

The brunette seemed oblivious to her
companions’ inept attempts at conversation:

“You nailed that account today,
Roxanne.”

“Hugh is going to be thrilled.”

“I bet you’re going to get an office
soon.”

Dennis’s assessment had been correct. He
spotted two middle-aged men making a beeline for the brunette siren. One was
rail-thin with sour complexion, and the other had ruddy cheeks and a chubby
stomach hanging over the belt of his pants. From the pompous and proprietary
way the two carried themselves, it was clear that they belonged to that highly
coveted club called Senior Executives.

At the sight of the older men, the
puppies obediently dispersed their circle, disappearing into the background.
The two old goats practically dribbled when the young beauty didn’t reject
their oily gazes.

The thin one droned on, “Yes, surely,
teamwork is important, and today you have proved just how important it is,
Roxanne.”

“A job well done,” the fat one chimed
in.

The girl widened her eyes as though she
was being imparted some great wisdom, looking at the two imbeciles with
expertly crafted adoration.

Dennis was enjoying the spectacle so
much that he forgot his usual reticence and stared openly, unwilling to miss a
piece of this circus.

Sensing Dennis’s glance, the brunette
shot him a direct look and their eyes locked for a moment. If he had not been
waiting for Janet, Dennis might have explored this highly enticing opportunity.
As it were, he would have to pass. But then whom was he kidding? Ever since he
had met Janet Maple, all the women he knew and any new women he met became just
that: random women. Of course he knew that he had no one to blame but himself.
Janet liked him; he was sure of it. The only problem was that he liked her too.
The intense sensation he felt whenever he was in the presence of Janet Maple
was an emotion that ran much deeper than mere attraction. Such emotions were
against Dennis Walker’s code of conduct. When it came to women, he liked to
keep things simple, with no strings attached. Besides, Janet and he were
coworkers, and no other combination had the makings of disaster written all
over it like two dating coworkers.

Dennis had hoped that his latest
conquest, Shoshanna, would free him from Janet. An heiress to a gym chain,
Shoshanna was a twenty-seven-year-old voluptuous brunette. Dennis had met her
in one of those swanky lounges. Surrounded by a pack of girlfriends, she was
obviously bored by the types of men who were trying to gain her attention. Most
men would have been intimidated to single out a woman surrounded by a fleet of
girlfriends, but Dennis Walker was not most men. He had a gift when it came to
picking up women in bars. A big part of this gift was his ability to guess a
woman’s favorite drink—a skill that mostly consisted of keen powers of
observation and generous tips to the bartenders. After supplying the bartender
with a twenty, Dennis learned that Shoshanna had been drinking lychee martinis
all night. Just as her glass was about to become empty, Dennis had the
bartender place another lychee martini in front of her. As Shoshanna’s eyes
lazily scanned the crowd for the source of this sign of attention, Dennis
raised his glass to her from his corner of the bar. She smiled back, and within
minutes Dennis was sitting next to her, chatting. That had been two months ago,
and they had just returned from a trip to Turks and Caicos. The only problem
was that Dennis had spent the entire vacation picturing Janet in a bikini.

“Hey there.” Janet’s voice brought
Dennis back to reality. He flashed her a smile, hoping that his face was not
betraying his thoughts.

“What will it be?” Dennis asked,
drumming his fingers on the bar stand.

“A Bloody Mary.”

“Sounds like a good choice. I think I’ll
join you.” He gave the order to the bartender.

While they were waiting for their
drinks, Dennis turned his attention back to Janet. She had taken off her suit
jacket, unwittingly giving him a tantalizing view of her lovely breasts through
the two opened top buttons of her blouse. It was more suggestion than an actual
view, but Dennis enjoyed it when things were left to his imagination. Not
wanting to be too obvious, Dennis quickly shifted his gaze to Janet’s face. He
was glad to see that tonight they were a shade of deep green, which meant that
she was happy. The color of Janet’s green-gray eyes always changed with her
mood: when she was happy they were deep green, but when she was angry or upset,
her eyes would turn almost gray. During the past few days, Janet’s eyes had
been a bleak shade of gray.

“Have you heard from Ham?” Janet asked,
saving Dennis from the need to come up with small talk.

“No. I tried calling him several times
but kept getting his voice mail. I gave up after my third message.” Dennis
sighed. Despite having occasionally butted heads with Ham, Dennis missed his
old boss. And most of all, he was angered by the unceremonious manner in which
Ham had been ousted.

“Maybe he’s away on a trip or
something,” Janet suggested, but the look on her face made it clear that she
did not really believe her own suggestion. “Or maybe he doesn’t want to be
reminded about everything that happened.”

“I can’t say that I blame him. If I were
in his place, I wouldn’t want to hear from any of us either. And that pompous
prick they sent in to replace Ham!” Dennis clenched his fingers into a fist.
“Do you know that he had the nerve to tell me that the evidence we obtained on
Wyman was inadmissible and was the reason for the case being shut down? Does he
take me for a complete idiot?”

Janet hastily looked away, busying
herself with her drink.

“I, for one, am not giving up that
easily. Kingsley reeks of foul play, and I intend to find out whom he’s working
for.” Dennis fixed his eyes on Janet. “What exactly do you know about the guy?
Please, I need to know.”

Janet shook her head. “I don’t want to
talk about it, Dennis, okay? It won’t make any difference anyway.”

Dennis halted. Ever since Kingsley
became the new department head, Janet seemed constantly on edge. She said that
she had worked with Kingsley at the DA’s office, and Dennis intended to find
out just what was it that Janet knew about their new boss, but he had to tread
lightly. On several occasions he had tried to get Janet to talk but she had
snapped at him, which was incredibly uncharacteristic of her. There had to be a
reason for Janet’s reaction, and Dennis was determined to find out what it was.
At the moment, however, it was difficult for Dennis to concentrate on the task
at hand. It had been a while since he had been out with Janet alone. Usually,
whenever they went out for drinks after work either Laskin or Ham Kirk would
join in. But now, alone with Janet, Dennis was suddenly as nervous as a
schoolboy. Objectively speaking, this was not a date at all, but this knowledge
did not stop Dennis from wishing that it were.

Dennis forced himself to focus. “Come
on, Janet. Don’t you want to get back at the guy? If not for our sake then for
Ham’s? We can’t let Kingsley destroy everything we’ve worked for. Granted, some
of the evidence was not exactly procured by the book, but until Kingsley came
into the picture no one gave a rat’s ass. And now, all of a sudden, all the
blame’s been put on Bostoff, Muller’s been exonerated, and we’re being told to
shut up. Don’t you want to know who’s behind all this?”

Janet downed the rest of her drink in
one long swallow. “Fine, I’ll tell you, but if you hate me afterwards, blame
yourself.”

After she had finished the account of
her relationship with Alex, Janet felt Dennis’s searing eyes upon her. “You
dated the guy, and you’re just telling me now? Don’t you think it would have
been prudent to tell me ahead of time?” Dennis glared at her.

“I didn’t think that my personal life
was any of your concern,” Janet snapped, wishing she could disappear. It was
not her fault that Alex had dumped her and while he was at it had taken credit
for her work, but for some inexplicable reason she felt like someone stung with
social leprosy. But then she knew the answer why: Alex was the victor and she
was the loser. Alex’s career was soaring, and from the smug, cocky way he
carried himself, Janet guessed that he was doing equally well in the personal
life department. By comparison, Janet’s fortunes were bleak. The direction of
her career was once again uncertain, and the status of her personal life was
equally nebulous. A fact that was made painfully obvious by her spending Friday
night in a bar with a coworker. A very handsome coworker, but still only a
coworker.

“Your personal affairs do not concern
me,” Dennis replied coolly. “But when it comes to work matters, I think that
professional courtesy behooves you to keep me in the loop.”

Janet felt her face burn. So there it
was: she was of no concern to Dennis Walker.

“I’m sorry,” Dennis retreated. “I didn’t
mean for it to come out the way it did.”

In spite of herself, Janet’s heart
quickened. Did that mean that he really cared? Could it be that he too, just
like her, yearned for them to become something more than whatever it was that
they were to each other?

Dennis finished his drink and signaled
to the bartender for another round. “Janet, don’t you realize the importance of
everything that you just told me? Alex is a crook, and what’s worse, he is
working for even bigger crooks.”

“Yes, but what’s to be done?” Janet
struggled to hide the disappointment in her voice: Dennis only cared about work
after all.

“Don’t you see it?” Alex asked.

Oh, I see it, Janet thought. It’s
crystal clear. You only need me when it’s work-related. Like when you got me to
get all that evidence on the Bostoff case.

“Alex sabotaged your work on the
Borrelli case because his superiors told him to do so, and he got promoted in
return. Now, the same thing is happening with Emperial. David Muller must have
friends in some very high places,” Dennis continued, oblivious to Janet’s mood.
“But this time”—Dennis paused, placing his hand on Janet’s arm— “you’ve got me
by your side. I won’t let Alex destroy everything we’ve worked for.”

Under the direct gaze of Dennis’s eyes,
Janet felt something inside her shift. He looked so sincere, so concerned. But
he didn’t care about her; work was the only thing that mattered to him. Work
and one night stands. Part of her wanted to storm right out of there, but she
knew that she had to finish her story since Dennis was bound to find out
anyway. “Dennis, I haven’t told you everything.” Janet gulped, anticipating
another outburst from Dennis.

Instead, his voice softened. “What is
it, Janet?”

“During my meeting with Alex he asked me
to be his eyes and ears … He wanted me to snitch on you.”

“It seems that I’m rather high on
Kingsley’s list. I presume that you agreed? This is going to be fun,” Dennis
added, rubbing his hands.

“What do you mean agreed? Of course
not.”

“You refused?”

“Yes,” Janet mumbled. Not only had she
refused Alex’s task, she had told him exactly what she thought of him, which
was not much.

Dennis fixed his eyes on her. “Janet,
tell me exactly how the conversation went.”

Janet took a long sip of her drink. “I
told him that I wasn’t going to spy on my colleagues, to which Alex replied
that he had the power to fire the whole team, one by one. And I told him that
there wasn’t anyone else left of retirement age on the team, so he wouldn’t be
able to bully people into retiring like he did with Ham and Ann.”

Janet braced herself for Dennis’s
indignation; instead, she saw a smile on his face, and what looked like a glint
of awe in his eyes. “Janet Maple, you’ve got guts.” Dennis squeezed her arm.
“Don’t get me wrong, I think it was very brave of you to tell Alex off that
way, but perhaps—”

“Perhaps it was not the smartest thing
to do?”

“Look, I’m not here to criticize you. If
anything, I’m grateful. You could have taken Alex up on his offer and not told
me anything about it. But instead you warned me. Thank you for that.”