3 Bad Guys Get Caught (9 page)

Janet woke up from the blaring sound of
the alarm clock. She felt for the snooze button and hit it with all her might.
Maybe her intention to come into the office had been too ambitious. At the
moment, the prospect of getting out of bed seemed impossible, but she knew that
she had to get her butt back to the office, if not to preserve her employment
then to save her love life.

When she had walked through the door of
her apartment last night, there wasn’t anyone there to massage her feet to
alleviate her fatigue and brighten her spirits; Dennis had abandoned his
nightly vigils. Not that she had asked him to keep them in the first place, but
now that he wasn’t there, her apartment felt empty without him. The worst part
of it was that he hadn’t even called. There had been a text message instead:
“Have to be early in the office tomorrow; won’t be able to spend the night.
Will arrange for your neighbor to watch Baxter until the morning.”

Exhausted, Janet had collapsed into her
bed, but only to lie awake, wondering if there was something other than
Dennis’s busy schedule that prevented him from coming over. Lack of sleep had
never stood in his way before. Maybe he was sending her a message; maybe it was
her own fault. Janet kicked back the comforter; she was going to find out what
was on Dennis Walker’s mind.

An hour later, Janet was walking through
the worn wooden doors of Kirk & Associates. Relieved to see that the door
to Ham’s office was locked, she made a beeline for Dennis’s office. Dennis was
sitting behind his desk, his shirtsleeves rolled up, intently staring at his
computer screen.

“Why didn’t you come last night?” Janet
crossed her arms on her chest as she stood in front of Dennis’s desk.

Dennis looked up from his screen. “Well,
you’re up early. How’s the waitressing gig?”

“Fine.” Janet uncrossed her arms.
Dennis’s voice was unnervingly calm, but she could tell that underneath the
cool exterior he was a pot of boiling lava. She didn’t want to fight with him;
not over this case, not over any case. “You still didn’t answer my question
about last night,” she added, almost pleadingly.

“I told you I had to be in the office
early.”

You didn’t tell me, she thought, you
texted me, but she decided not to nitpick. “That’s never stopped you before.”

Dennis clasped his hands behind his
head. “Look, Janet, I don’t know what you’re trying to prove. I know you’re
good at your job. I never doubted that. I don’t know what’s gotten into you,
but if you think that I’m going to tuck you into bed when you come home at all
hours of the night, smelling of liquor, you can count me out.”

“You didn’t even give me chance to
explain. You can’t just shut me out like that!”

“Here’s your chance now. What have you
learned about Libby’s connection to Kovar so far?”

“Well, I haven’t gotten to that part
yet—”

“No? I guess all that drinking gets in
the way, huh?”

“Dennis!” Janet felt her face burn
bright red. “I know what it looks like, but can you please let me explain?”

“You don’t have to explain anything to
me, Janet. You’re a free woman. If you want to go out drinking late, that’s
your prerogative, but don’t expect me to sit around and wait for you.”

Janet bristled with anger. “The reason I
went out drinking was to get closer to Mila Brabec.”

“Anton Kovar’s girlfriend?”

“That’s right.”

“What did you learn about her
boyfriend’s infamous uncle?”

“Not much, but I learned something very
interesting about her ex-boyfriend.”

“Come on, Janet. We have to stay focused
here. Libby and Kovar are the target here, not Mila.”

“Mila used to be David Muller’s
girlfriend.”

“Say what?”

Janet drew great satisfaction from the
stunned expression on Dennis’s face. “You heard me.”

“How did you find that out?”

“Oh, you know, from drinking and staying
out late at night.”

Dennis looked away. “I’m sorry. I
overreacted.”

“You don’t say.” She was enjoying this
now, and she wasn’t going to let him off the hook easily.

“I said I was sorry! But you know that I
only reacted this way because—”

“Because what?” She held her breath,
waiting for him to say it.

“Because I’m crazy about you, you know
that.”

“Yes, I do,” Janet kept the
disappointment out of her voice. He’d told her repeatedly that he cared for
her, that he was crazy about her, but he had never told her that he loved her.

“So tell me all about Muller’s
ex-girlfriend.” Dennis’s eyes lit up, as he reached for Janet’s hand across the
table.

“Mila’s friend, this girl Amy, also came
with us and she told me the whole story. Apparently, Mila and David Muller had
been together up until Muller was arrested.”

Dennis rubbed his chin with his other
hand. “Do you think she’s the link to Muller’s missing money?” Dennis asked.
“Imagine killing two birds with one stone.” Solving David Muller’s insider
trading scheme had been the last investigation of Janet’s and Dennis’s career
at the Treasury before they started working for Ham’s agency. It had also been
the most difficult case to crack. Muller had the protection of a corrupt
district attorney, Cornelius Finnegan, and inside tips from a high-ranking
corporate executive, Kevan Magee. While Janet and Dennis had managed to get
proof to put Muller and his gang behind bars, the profits from the scheme had
vanished without a trace. The FBI had taken over the case and posted a ten
percent reward of the missing sum as a reward. Ten percent of ten million
dollars was a good chunk of change, but so far, there hadn’t been any leads.
Muller swore up and down that he had no idea where the money went and so did
Finnegan and Magee. There was of course the possibility that the money was well
hidden and the three culprits were covering for one another, but the fact that
each one of them had been offered a reduced sentence in exchange for the
information about the missing funds eliminated this possibility. After all,
loyalty only went so far when it came to saving your own skin.

“I think Mila might know where it is,
but I don’t think she has access to the money. Or else she wouldn’t be hanging
around Anton Kovar, working at Panther.”

“Maybe she’s crazy about the guy. Maybe
he made her a partner in the business.”

Janet shook her head. “Trust me, Mila is
not in love with Anton. From what she told me, she pretty much can’t stand him.
She’s a hostess at Panther. She was all excited about getting fifty percent of
my tips, which means she isn’t doing that well.”

“Mila takes a portion of your tips?”

“Yeah, it was a deal we made in exchange
for her showing me the ropes and giving me better tables. I made six hundred
dollars last night; of course three hundred of that went to Mila.”

Dennis whistled. “That’s a good chunk of
change. You must be getting really good at it.”

Janet groaned, “Trust me, it wasn’t easy
to earn.”

Dennis frowned. “Are they treating you
okay there? Any fresh customers? You can still quit this whole thing, Janet.
You don’t need to do this.”

“Quit now? When we stumbled on a
possible lead to Muller’s money? I don’t think so. Like you said, here’s our
chance to kill two birds with one stone, and I’m not letting it go. I’m a big
girl; I can handle tough customers. So did you find anything new on Libby?”

Dennis shook his head. “Nothing. I paid
a visit to his office to check out the usual suspects: mistress, embezzlement.
At first I thought I’d struck gold with his sexy receptionist—”

“Libby has a sexy receptionist?” Janet
cut in, arching an eyebrow.

“It was a purely objective observation,”
Dennis hurried to explain. “You know that for me there’s no one sexier than
you, Janet.”

“I was just messing with you.”

“So, where was I … Oh, yes, Libby’s
receptionist—nothing there—she turned out to be a distant relative of the
mayor, interning there for a few days a week. Libby’s full time assistant is a
guy, so that’s out. I requested copies of office records for the past three
years and looked through most of them; there wasn’t much to begin with. So far
everything looks squeaky clean. I’ll go back a few more years, but I’m pretty
sure there’ll be nothing there.”

“So maybe he is clean.”

“Do you really think so?”

“No.” Janet shook her head. “Or Ham
wouldn’t be asking us to look into it.”

“That’s what I think, but I’m starting
to worry that we’ll end up disappointing him.”

Just then the phone rang. Dennis picked
up. “Peter? How the heck are you?” Dennis covered the receiver with his hand.
“It’s Laskin,” he whispered. “Sure, yes, we can swing by your office now. See
you in a few.”

“So?” Janet asked impatiently.

“It was Laskin. He asked if you could
swing by this morning. I said yes.”

“I figured that much. What else did he
say?”

“Nothing much and I have a feeling that
he won’t have much to tell us when we see him.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You know how Laskin is. Every time he
gets a lead, he sounds like a cat that’s swallowed a canary. The man can’t help
himself.”

“How did he sound now?”

“Beaten.”

“Maybe he’s just tired. You saw how
overworked he was.”

“I hope so. We’ll find out soon enough.”

Twenty minutes later, Laskin’s
assistant, Ann, escorted Janet and Dennis along the familiar halls of the
Treasury office building. “Just give me a moment,” said Ann, rapping on
Laskin’s office door.

“Come in!” Laskin’s voice carried
through the door.

“I will see you later,” said Ann,
opening the door for them and taking her leave.

Laskin rose from his chair to greet
them. “Dennis, Janet! Aileen stopped by.” He motioned at the redhead seated in
the chair across from his desk. “She didn’t know you’d be coming.”

“Hello!” Aileen Finnegan greeted them,
rising from her chair.

“We were just going over some of the
wedding arrangements,” Laskin explained, blushing.

“Yes!” Aileen exclaimed. “I brought over
samples of the wedding invitations. What do you think, Janet? We’ve decided on
this one.” Aileen produced an elaborate ivory card from her purse.

“It’s beautiful,” Janet confirmed,
glimpsing the ring on Aileen’s finger, reminded of how nervous Laskin had been
about proposing. Good for you, Peter, she thought.

“Well, I’ll be going now,” said Aileen.
“I have a client meeting.”

“I’ll see you tonight, honey,” said
Laskin. “I’ll make pasta for dinner.”

“See you later, honey.” Aileen blew him
a kiss, but Laskin drew her into his arms for a long, wet one.

Dennis and Janet exchanged silent
glances: Laskin … mousy, straight-laced Laskin, was full of surprises.

“Please, have a seat,” said Laskin after
Aileen had gone. He gathered the papers on his desk. “I’m afraid I don’t have
good news for you, guys,” he said apologetically.

“If you need more time, we understand,”
said Dennis.

“I’m afraid that’s not going to help,
unless you can wait three months or so.”

“Three months?”

“That’s the average timeframe Czech
financial authorities have for document requests from Czech financial
institutions.”

“Czech financial authorities? What on
earth are you talking about, Peter?” Dennis asked.

“Kovar’s U.S. bank account leads to a
network of accounts in a small Czech bank. To see the whole picture, we need to
see records showing where those transfers are going from the Czech bank.”

“Did you send them a request?” Dennis
asked. “Typically, foreign banks will cooperate with the Treasury.”

“That’s right, typically, but not this
particular bank. I was told to contact the Czech financial authorities, which
is what I did and was then told that the reply would take at least three
months.”

“Damn it,” Dennis muttered. “I guess we
should’ve expected as much. It was naïve to think that a man like Kovar would
use a bank that freely gave access to its records.”

“So I’m afraid you’ll have to find some
other way to get close to Kovar,” said Laskin. “Sorry I couldn’t help.”

“Thanks, Peter,” said Janet. “We’ll just
keep plodding along.”

“Well, we don’t want to keep you,” said
Dennis, motioning at the pile of folders on Laskin’s desk. “Are these all the
cases you have to review?”

Laskin nodded. “I wish I had a clone.
You’re coming to the wedding, right?”

“Jesus, Peter, you just got engaged.
You’re planning the wedding already?” Dennis exclaimed.

“That’s the way it usually works,
Dennis.” Laskin grinned, but then grew serious. “You see, with her father being
in the news and all, Aileen’s going through a very difficult time … And I
wanted to be by her side as her husband, her family. I’ve removed myself from
the case, which really wasn’t even all that necessary since the Feds took over
the investigation anyway—”