To Catch a Bad Guy (27 page)

“Hi, Ann.” Janet was
always glad to see Ann, but this morning she was especially so. She was about
to say how horrible it was that Ham had been let go, but Ann interrupted her.

“Janet, Mr. Kingsley
would like to see you.” Ann’s lips were drawn together and her eyes downcast.

The idea of Alex being
addressed as Mr. Kingsley seemed preposterous. “But he wasn’t supposed to start
until next week.”

“Apparently, his start
date has been moved up,” Ann replied matter-of-factly. “He said he wanted to see
you right away.”

Janet was about to ask
her what it was about, but seeing the closed-off expression on Ann’s face,
decided against it. “Very well. Tell him I’ll be right there.”

After Ann left, Janet
took a moment to collect her bearings. The thought of Alex—correction, Mr. Alex
Kingsley—made her cringe. The man was positively evil: suave, ambitious, and
pretentious beyond bounds. The pompous prick did not even have the decency to
say hello. Instead, he had sent his secretary to do his bidding.

On her way to Alex’s
office, Janet stopped by Ann’s desk and immediately understood the reason
behind Ann’s strange behavior: Ann’s cubicle was filled with cardboard boxes.
“Ann, I’m so sorry.” Janet touched Ann’s shoulder.

“I was offered a
generous severance package, and I opted to take it,” Ann replied evenly.

“But he can’t just
force you out! You’ve worked here for years!”

Ann looked away. “I
believe that Mr. Kingsley will be hiring an assistant of his own choosing. My
severance is conditional on the confidentiality agreement that I signed,” Ann
added.

Janet shook her head:
it had not even been twenty-four hours since Alex’s arrival but already he was
reshaping the department according to his needs. “I understand. Good luck, Ann.
I sure will miss you.”

Alex’s office door was
open, but Alex was busy looking at something on his computer screen.

Janet knocked and
waited for Alex to acknowledge her presence. In the few hours that Alex had
been the occupant of Ham’s old office, he had transformed the space into an
unrecognizable state. Ham’s modest office furniture had been replaced with an
antique wooden desk and two plush armchairs that faced it. The chair that Alex
sat on looked like a throne made of leather. The formerly empty walls were now
lined with paintings in heavy frames. Next to Alex’s desk stood a gigantic
bookcase with glass doors; its shelves were filled with law tomes with brand
new bindings.

“Janet, how wonderful
to see you!” With his arms outstretched, Alex rose from his chair.

“Mr. Kingsley.” Janet
smiled brightly, extending her hand.

“Why so formal?” Alex
exclaimed. “That’s no way to greet an old friend.”

Before Janet could say
another word, Alex had her in his embrace. Janet’s head spun from the onslaught
of memories: his scent—he still wore the same cologne—along with the familiar
sensation of his arms around her, transported her to a different time. A time
during which she had been a happy fool, but happy nonetheless.

“You look wonderful,”
Alex remarked.

“Thank you.” Janet
noticed the stray grays on Alex’s temples and the deepened lines on his
forehead: all that climbing up the corporate ladder was beginning to take its
toll on him. Still, she would be a liar to deny that Alex remained a very
handsome man.

“So, how do you like
your work here at the Treasury?” Alex asked. Nothing about his demeanor
betrayed the least bit of discomfort.

Janet found Alex’s
poker face astounding. The man had to feel at least a little bit awkward: he
had, after all, nearly ruined her life. But then it was also possible that Alex
was incapable of remorse. “Great,” Janet answered. “The work is challenging and
rewarding. I’d be happy to walk you through the cases I’ve worked on.”

Alex waved his hand.
“There’ll be plenty of time for that later. I’m going to cut right to the
chase, Janet. You are the first person I called into my office, and the reason
I did that is that I need an ally.”

Janet waited for him to
continue. Alex was even ballsier than she remembered. What on earth made him
think that she would be his ally?

“Janet, there have been
reports of employees of this office using questionable methods during
investigations. Now, I’m always in favor of personal initiative, but the rules
are the rules. We can’t have vigilante agents compromising the Treasury’s
reputation.”

Janet gulped. She was
fairly certain which employee Alex was alluding to: Dennis Walker did not
always play by the rules. At times he liked to bend them a little. Like the
time when Dennis and Janet had gotten Tom Wyman drunk on straight vodka
martinis while their own martinis were made with olive juice and vermouth by a
well-tipped bartender. While Wyman was out in a drunken stupor, Dennis had
downloaded vital evidence from Wyman’s laptop. That evidence had been the
cornerstone of the Emperial case until the Treasury’s Enforcement Division
postponed the hearing, and finally rejected the evidence as inadmissible.

“I am asking you to be
my eyes and ears, Janet.” Alex leaned across his desk, his eyes locking on
Janet’s face. For a moment his face lost its well-composed mask. “Look, Janet,
I know that you must have plenty of reasons to hate me. I wasn’t exactly a
prince. But a lot is riding for me on this job. If I do well here the sky will
be the limit for me, and trust me, I will not forget you in my next move up.”

Just like you didn’t
forget me before when you dumped me, alone and unemployed, while you were busy
being the DA’s superstar? Janet thought.

“I was sent here to
clean house, and I need to know if you are going to be on my team. Do we have a
deal?”

Janet’s reasoning told
her that she should say yes. She wanted to say yes, but as all the memories of
Alex’s betrayals flashed in her mind, her lips refused to obey her. “Alex, you
may be charming and clever, but you are deceitful and dishonest. So far, you have
been able to fool people into liking you but you won’t always be able to do so.
I’m sure that if you would have been in my place, you would have said yes. But
that’s just it: I’m not like you. I won’t spy on my colleagues who have
supported me and accepted me. We work as a team here, and you have a choice of
either becoming a part of it or not.” Janet rose from her chair. “Should you
have any work-related questions, you can find me in my office.”

Alex’s face remained
impassive, his smile growing ominously brighter. “You are forgetting one very
important thing, Janet. I can fire the whole team, one by one.”

“Not without cause, you
can’t. And the rest of us aren’t retirement age, so you won’t be able to get
rid of any more people by offering them early pension packages.”

Before she said more
things she would regret later, Janet stormed out of Alex’s office. She was so
mad that she barely looked where she was going. There was a man walking toward
her, and Janet bumped right into him. “Whoa, Janet. Are you all right?” Dennis
Walker was standing only a few inches from her, his hands gripping her
shoulders. “You almost knocked me over.”

“Sorry, I just had a
meeting with our new boss. I guess I’m a little rattled.”

“He’s here? I thought
he wasn’t supposed to start until next week.”

“So did I, but
apparently he’s anxious to get a head start.”

“What was the meeting
about?”

“Dennis, I can’t talk
right now. I have a conference call.” Janet used the first excuse that came to
her mind.

Unlike her, Dennis
would have taken advantage of the opportunity to ingratiate himself with Alex.
Truth be told, Janet was now having second thoughts herself. Her bravado was
beginning to evaporate, and she worried that she might have gotten both Dennis
and herself into very hot water.

Chapter
3

Alex Kingsley watched
Janet Maple storm out of his office on her long, shapely legs. Once the door
slammed behind her, Alex leaned back in his chair, locking his hands behind his
head. He did not care for people who crossed him, and he always made sure that
the culprits learned not to repeat their mistakes. In this case, however, he
could not help feeling guilty about his past with Janet. To say that he had
wronged the girl would be an understatement of gigantic proportions, but then
again it was not his fault that Janet never understood that you had to keep
your superiors happy. Take this job, for instance: there was no way Alex would
have been appointed as the head of the Investigations department had it not
been for Cornelius Finnegan’s glowing recommendation.

“Mr. Kingsley, Mr.
Finnegan is on the line for you,” Alex’s assistant informed him through the
intercom.

“Put him right
through.”

Even though Finnegan
could not see him, Alex straightened up in his chair. “Mr. Finnegan?”

“Alex, my boy! How many
times do I have to tell you to drop this Mr. Finnegan nonsense?”

“How are you,
Cornelius?”

“I’m well, thank you.
And how is your first day on the job?”

“It’s going well, sir,
thank you very much. Settling in; I’ll be meeting with the staff shortly.”

“Yes, that would be a
very good idea. Make sure to keep an eye on that Dennis Walker character. Make
sure that he doesn’t pull any more stunts like he did with Wyman’s laptop. It’s
a good thing Wyman didn’t press charges—just imagine the liability!”

“I’ll make sure that
nothing of the kind ever happens again, sir.”

“Good. That’s why I
recommended you for the job. Hamilton Kirk clearly was not up to it. At least
the Enforcement Division had enough sense to reject the evidence and dismiss
the charges against Muller. It was clear that Bostoff was the culprit.”

“Yes, sir, I agree
completely.”

“I’m glad that you do,
Alex. Tell me, is Janet Maple one of the investigators who helped Walker on
this case?”

“Yes she is, sir,” Alex
replied laconically, thinking it best to omit the details of his earlier
altercation with Janet.

“I remember her from
when I was the New York County district attorney. She worked on the Borrelli
Capital investigation, didn’t she? A bright young thing. Too bad she got
downsized. I’m glad to hear that she’s doing well now. I understand that she,
too, was involved in that whole Wyman escapade. You’ll make sure that she
doesn’t get into any more trouble, won’t you, Alex?”

“Yes I will, sir. You
needn’t worry about anything, sir.”

“Oh, I’m not worried.
It just pains me to see scum like Walker break the rules and think that he can
get away with it. But even worse than that is the effect he has on other
employees—it could be downright toxic. Before you know, you’ve got the whole
organization going rogue. But look at me carrying on. I know that I’ve got
nothing to be concerned about because I’ve got you there to put things back in
order.”

“Absolutely, sir.
That’s what I’m here for.”

“I’m glad to hear that.
Well, I’ve got to get going. We’ll talk soon, Alex. You keep an eye on that
Janet Maple girl.”

“I will, sir.” Alex
hung up the phone. Just how was it that Janet always managed to get in the
middle of it, was beyond him: first Borrelli and now David Muller.

Alex closed his eyes.
Janet Maple. While most women were nothing more than a paragraph, or at most a
page, in his life, Janet had been an entire chapter. They had started dating
toward the end of his senior year of law school. At the time he had just broken
up with another one of his girlfriends and needed a quick replacement. With
final exams only a few months away and the tedious bar exam looming before him,
he needed a girl with substance. When Alex took a second look at Janet’s long
chestnut hair, the luster of which could not be diminished even by the drab ponytail
she usually trapped it in, her green eyes surrounded by full, long lashes that
were lowered studiously, while her long, elegant fingers gripped a pen with
furious determination and frantically scribbled every word uttered by their
boring professor, he had decided that Janet Maple was the girl for him. They
studied for all the exams together. Alex’s grades soared, and he aced the bar
exam.

After graduation, both
of them got positions as assistant district attorneys at the New York County
District Attorney’s Office. The job did not pay much, but then it was mostly
nine to five and Alex did not relish the idea of long hours that young lawyers
were subjected to in private law firms. He would much rather try his hand at
politics, and the DA job was the perfect launching pad for his ambitions. All
he had to do was play his cards right.

He had kept his
relationship with Janet secret at work. The DA’s office did allow coworkers to
date, but not in the same department, and he sure as hell was not transferring
out of Investigations, which was the most prestigious department in the
organization. Besides, he had liked being assigned to the same cases as Janet.
The girl had killer instincts. She had cracked every single investigation that
she and Alex had been assigned to. Alex was happy: not only was Janet great in
the sack, she also did his work for him. All he had to do was report to his
boss and wait to be noticed.