janet maple 05 - it doesnt pay to be bad (8 page)

Tina held back, her senses on edge. Something felt off. She took a deep breath and quietly slid through the entrance. She crept down the hallway, listening and wondering if maybe she’d imagined it all—maybe someone had simply been working late and forgot to turn the lights off. She was about to officially declare herself paranoid when she heard a faint sound—as though large stacks of folders were being shuffled around. She steeled herself and headed down the hall. When she reached the office that Dennis Walker and Janet Maple shared, she saw a shadow move—someone was inside and that someone must’ve been rummaging through files—a sound she’d heard earlier. Enough dillydallying—she had to act now.

“What are you doing here?” Tina asked, seeing a small-framed man with longish hair fumbling with the safe lock. Each office had a safe in it for sensitive case documents and papers.

The young man had his back to her and at the sound of her voice, he jumped and turned around. “You startled me. I’m with the cleaning company,” he tried to sound convincing, but Tina could see right through it.

“Cleaning company? What are you doing trying to open the safe?”

“I wasn’t opening it—I was dusting it.”

“Can I see your ID?” Tina asked, not one bit convinced.

“In a minute. I have it in my case—I left it over there.” The man pointed somewhere behind Tina’s back. He must’ve expected her to turn around, but she kept her eyes on him the entire time. He bolted for the exit, trying to knock her over. She stepped aside and he threw a chair at her. She ducked, the chair landed next to her, and she overtook him. It only took a few basic moves to subdue him and land him on the floor.

“Who are you?” Tina demanded, her foot planted firmly on his chest. “And why were you trying to break into the safe?”

“Please. It’s not what you think. Please, let me go.” He tried to wriggle from under her foot, but she pressed it down harder.

“Not until you tell me why you broke in here.” She kept her foot on the man’s chest as she yanked the telephone cord from the outlet. It wasn’t ideal, but it was all she could think of to restrain him.

Once Tina had securely restrained the surprise visitor, she grabbed her phone and called Ham Kirk.

***

“That was a long day.” Dennis yawned as he slumped onto the couch and stretched his feet out on the reading table. Baxter trotted over and curled down by his feet.

“I second that.” Janet took a seat next to him. “Takeout?”

“You read my mind.” Dennis reached down to scratch Baxter’s ear. “Just a nice relaxing evening at home, right buddy?”

“Chinese, Thai, or Italian?” Janet gave him the choices of nearby takeout joints.

“Chinese sounds good. I could go for some wonton soup and sesame chicken right now.”

Janet reached for the phone. “Coming right up.” She dialed the neighborhood Chinese restaurant they always called for takeout.

“What’s going on?” Dennis asked after she’d been on hold for several minutes.

“They’re busy. Apparently we’re not the only ones who want to have dinner this evening,” Janet explained. They’re back on,” she added, as the restaurant receptionist got back on the line.

Janet barely finished giving her takeout order when Dennis’s cellphone rang.

“Who could this be?” Dennis grumbled. “I’m in no mood to talk to anyone.”

Janet noticed the caller ID number on the screen. “It’s Ham. It’s probably important.”

“Our workday never ends.” Dennis picked up his phone. “Hi Ham— What? Yes, we’ll be right there.” He hung up, looking perplexed. “It just keeps coming.”

“What? What happened?” Janet asked.

“Someone broke into our office. Tina apprehended the intruder. Ham wants everyone to come in right now.”

“So much for our dinner.” Janet could feel her stomach grumbling—it had been so busy at the office that she’d worked straight through lunch.

“We can cancel it on our way there,” Dennis said. He went into the kitchen and returned with two power bars. “In the meantime we’ll just have to feast on this.”

“Our job is just too much fun.” Janet headed into the hallway and started putting on her shoes. “Good thing I didn’t have time to change from my work clothes.”

“Same here.” Dennis was shoving his feet into sneakers. “No way I’m wearing dress shoes after hours.”

“Bye, Baxter.” Janet stooped down to pet Baxter who’d trotted over to the foyer, his ears pricked up, clearly disappointed at the sight of them leaving. “I’ll ask Mrs. Chapman to check on you in a bit.”

Twenty minutes later, Janet and Dennis walked through the lobby of their office building. There was only one security guard on duty after hours and he waved them in, instantly recognizing them.

“This kind of lax security lets intruders through the door.” Dennis muttered as they headed for the elevator bank. “I’m going to tell Ham about it. He has to speak to the property manager. We can’t have an exposure like this,” Dennis added as they got inside the elevator.

Janet pressed the button for their floor. “I wonder what did they want to steal in our office? Unless they were low on office supplies, I don’t see what’s so damn attractive. We don’t keep any cash in there and even if they got their hands on the company checkbook, Ham could easily cancel the check. Wait a minute—” Janet put her hand to her mouth. “Did you leave our painting in the office overnight?”

“Hmm? What?” Dennis asked, still visibly preoccupied with his earlier rant about lax building security.

“Our painting—you were going to take it to the gallery to get the frame fixed?”

Dennis cursed under his breath. “Dammit, I forgot. I left it in the office. But not to worry—I locked it in the safe.”

Janet’s eyes widened. “Don’t you see?”

“See what?”

“Last night someone broke into our apartment, and today someone broke into the office. Both places have one thing in common—the painting I’m starting to wish we never bought.”

“There’s no need to get so dramatic. Janet, honey, I know you’re convinced there’s something special about that painting.” He paused. “And there is—we bought it on our honeymoon and it will always be special to us. But other than that, and please don’t be angry at me, I really don’t think it’d be special for anyone else but us. And I seriously doubt there’s a burglar hunting for it.”

“But don’t you think it’s strange—”

Dennis raised his hand. “Let’s not get carried away here. It’s a coincidence—nothing more. Stranger things have happened. Doesn’t mean one caused the other. At any rate, let’s not mention it to Ham. I’m sure he’s already worked up as it is and we wouldn’t want to muddy the waters.”

“I hope we won’t have to mention it,” Janet muttered. The bizarre string of break-ins just didn’t add up, but when Dennis got his mind set on something, it was useless to argue with him. He’d just have to come to the same conclusion on his own.

The elevator doors opened and Janet followed Dennis out into the lobby. They were about to make the turn for the offices of Kirk & Associates when they bumped into Laskin. He must’ve taken a different elevator.

“Oh, it’s you two,” Laskin gasped, his eyes wide open. “What a relief—”

“Who else would it be at this hour?” Dennis asked.

Laskin’s cheeks flushed. “I thought it might be the intruder,” he whispered.

“From what I understand, Tina already took care of him,” Dennis said tartly. “That girl is the jack-of-all-trades.”

“Dennis!” Janet tugged at Dennis’s sleeve. “Now’s not the time.”

“We’d better hurry,” Laskin cut in. “Ham is waiting for us.”

The three of them headed for the doors of Kirk & Associates. When they walked inside, all the lights were on, but there wasn’t anyone in sight.

“Hello?” Dennis called out. “Ham, Tina?”

A few moments later, one of the office doors opened and Ham’s head popped out. “In here. He’s in here. Come, quick.”

Janet shot Dennis a look. Of all the offices, the burglar had to pick theirs—coincidences were starting to pile up.

Laskin looked perplexed. “Your office? What was the intruder doing breaking into your office?” He looked at Janet and Dennis in turn.

Dennis shrugged. “You heard the boss—let’s move it and find out.”

A few moments later, Janet was faced with the most bizarre picture: Tina and Ham were standing guard over a slumped male figure in one of the visitor chairs. Upon closer look, Janet saw that the man was young and slim with long black hair tied in a ponytail and a goatee beard. He was wearing skinny jeans and a black fitted shirt. His wrists and ankles were restrained with a telephone cord. Something about him looked vaguely familiar, but Janet couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“Very innovative.” Dennis whistled, pointing at the makeshift restraints.

“I had to improvise,” Tina explained.

“Thank you all for getting here on such short notice,” Ham greeted them. “Sorry for ruining your evening, but as you can see we’ve got a situation on our hands.” Ham shook his head, visibly distressed. “People breaking into offices—what’s this world coming to?” For the first time in all the years they’d known him, their boss looked disheveled. His usually impeccably parted salt and pepper hair was all mussed up, his trademark argyle tie was hanging loosely on his neck, and his shirt collar was unbuttoned.

“No worries, chief,” Dennis assured him. “We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

“What a mess,” Ham groaned. “We’ll need to call the police. I hope we’ll be able to keep this away from the press—I can see the headlines now: Top intelligence agency gets broken into. Are they truly as good as they say they are? Or some gimmicky nonsense like that.”

“I have a solution to this predicament that would benefit everyone,” ventured their tied-up guest. “Let me go right now and we can all forget this ever happened. No police, no newspapers, and no negative publicity.”

Dennis gave him a sharp look. “What makes you think you’re a part of this conversation? You’ll speak when you’re spoken to.”

“You have no right to hold me here,” the intruder squirmed in his chair. “Release me immediately or I will sue you for illegal detention and inhumane treatment.”

Dennis put his hands on his hips, towering over the squirmy figure. “My, my—what a fancy vocabulary we’ve got for a thief. In case you’ve forgotten, you’re trespassing on private property. So you’d better shut it and wait your turn to speak.”

Laskin flinched. “Dennis, really, let’s try to remain professional here.

“Sorry, Peter,” Dennis apologized, instantly realizing Peter’s play for good cop, bad cop. Of course they weren’t cops, but the method never failed when questioning individuals with less than sterling backgrounds. “Just trying to set some ground rules.”

“Tina, can you tell us what happened?” Ham asked.

“Sure.” Tina nodded. “I left work around seven p.m. and went to the gym. It took me about two hours to finish my workout, and I was about to head home when I realized I’d left my wallet at the office. So I came back here and noticed that the lights were on. I walked in real quiet—the door was half-open and I saw this man inside this office. He was trying to open the safe—” Tina gestured at the safe that was in Dennis and Janet’s office.

“Did he open it?” Janet asked, realizing that was the safe Dennis had used to lock the painting in.

Tina shook her head. “I beat him to it. I asked him what he was doing here and he got violent—”

“I didn’t get violent!” the man protested. “I was merely startled by you.”

“You threw a chair at me,” Tina said bluntly. “That’s violent in my book. So I had no choice but to subdue him and restrain him with the telephone cord. Then I called Ham and informed him about the break in. I tried to question him before you got here, but he wouldn’t answer any of my questions.”

“Do you want to tell us why you broke into our office?” Dennis asked roughly.

“You have no right to hold me here,” the man retorted. “I won’t speak without my lawyer.”

“This kind of attitude won’t get you anywhere, buddy.” Dennis stared him down. “Looks like it’s going to be a long night.”

Laskin turned his attention to their office guest. “I apologize for my colleague’s behavior. Could I get you anything to make you more comfortable while we sort this out? A bottle of water perhaps?”

“Yes, that would be nice,” the man said quietly.

“Dennis, I remember you had a stash of Poland Spring here,” Laskin said.

Dennis grunted. “Jeez, Peter, what’s next to make our guest more comfortable—the shirt off my back?”

“I’m merely trying to be humane here,” Laskin shot back.

“Under the desk,” Dennis said dryly.

Laskin was about to hand the man the water when Dennis caught his hand in mid-air. “What have we got here?” he asked, leaning in closer. In one swift movement, he yanked at the man’s ponytail, tearing off his wig. Next, he pulled at his goatee, ripping it off.

“Ouch!” The man cowered. “That hurt!”

“Well, I suggest you stop breaking into places you don’t belong. Then it won’t hurt,” Dennis pointed out.

Janet gasped. Without his disguise, the man sitting in the chair looked exactly like the aspiring painter they had met in the airport while waiting for their flight home—the same man who had tried to switch Dennis’s bag that had contained the seascape painting they had bought in Antibes. Only now his heavy French accent had vanished completely. She exchanged a glance at Dennis, wondering if he had remembered—this could hardly be a coincidence.

“Imagine seeing you here,” Dennis said, clearly taken aback. “A struggling artist moonlighting as a thief.”

“You two know each other?” Ham asked.

“I believe we met before,” Janet said. She went over to the safe and opened it. “Is this what you were looking for?” she asked the intruder, holding up the painting.

“I have no idea what that is,” the man retorted, shifting in his chair. “Why would I want some cheap painting?”

“What’s a painting doing in our safe?” Ham demanded, looking baffled.

“I’m sorry, Ham. We were going to drop this off at a gallery to get the frame fixed. But we got so busy, we didn’t have time, so we left the painting in the safe overnight,” Janet said ‘we’ rather than singling Dennis out. “The frame got chipped because someone broke into our apartment last night and tried to steal it,” Janet added. “We should’ve told you about it, but we didn’t.”