To Catch a Bad Guy (9 page)

“Did you have a nice
weekend?” Lisa stood in the doorway of Janet’s office.

“Yes, I did.” Janet
hoped that Lisa would not ask for details, for Janet would be hard pressed to
come up with a convincing story. She had spent the weekend cooped up in her
apartment, with the exception of morning and evening walks with Baxter.

“So did I.” Lisa
grinned, sliding into one of the chairs that stood opposite Janet’s desk. “Paul
proposed.” Lisa produced her left hand as confirmation of her words. On her
ring finger shone a gorgeous sapphire set in diamonds.

“Lisa,
congratulations!” Janet leaned in to examine the hefty piece of jewelry. One
did not have to be a jeweler to see the stones of stunning clarity and the
exceptional workmanship. “The ring is beautiful.”

“To tell you the truth,
I wanted a diamond, but this was Paul’s mother’s ring, so I kept quiet.”

“So, when is the
wedding?”

“Oh, I think in a year
from now. We’ll need time to get the whole thing organized and to give people
time to RSVP. There’s so much to do. I’ll have to start looking at venues,
seeing caterers, and then there’s the wedding dress…” Lisa clasped her forehead
in a gesture of utter exhaustion. “It almost makes me wish we could elope, but
then I’ve always dreamed of a big wedding…Will you be my maid of honor?” Lisa’s
eyes lit up.

“Yes.” Janet nodded.
Even though she knew that being Lisa’s maid of honor would really mean being
Lisa’s wedding planner, she was happy to take on the task. Lisa might have her
faults, but in moments like these, years of friendship mattered more than petty
grudges.

“Oh, goody!” Lisa
squealed. “I’ll tell my mom; she’ll be so excited! She misses you, you know.
You should say hello the next time you go to see your folks. Remember all those
sleepovers we had in school?”

Janet nodded. Lisa’s
slumber parties had been impressive. Every girl in the class had hoped to be
invited. Lisa’s mother, a marketing executive at Estee Lauder, would give out
makeup sample kits to all of Lisa’s friends – pretty pouches with lip gloss,
perfume, and scented soaps inside them. A slumber party at Lisa’s house was an
event to prepare for. You didn’t just dress in any old pajamas. Every party had
a theme: Lisa had thought that it would be a wonderful idea for all the girls
to wear matching pajamas, and once the invitees were selected, she would reveal
the outfit for the party. Then every girl who had been invited would have her
parents drive her to the mall to buy the pajamas of Lisa’s choice. There was
one occasion when Janet’s parents were not able to drive her to the mall until
the weekend, by which time the pajamas in her size were sold out. Janet’s panic
was replaced by gratitude when Lisa presented her with a brand new spare pair.
Ever the caring friend, Lisa had bought an extra pair specifically for Janet.

They were twelve then,
and it seemed that nothing would ever come between them. But already talk of
boys was finding ways into their conversation, with some girls, including Lisa,
boasting of their first kiss – the having-been-kissed status separating the
popular from the nots, and Janet had to admit that even now, seventeen years
later, she found herself in the latter crowd. Only now the popularity ranking
had been raised from a kiss to an engagement.

“But I digress,” Lisa
sighed. “Believe it or not, I actually have a work-related question to ask you.
I just got this audit notice.” Lisa pushed the fax from the SEC across Janet’s
desk. “Can you believe the nerve of these buggers coming in at a time like
this? How am I supposed to plan my wedding with these jerks hovering over my
back?” Lisa frowned. “Anyways, I’m sure Tom will help us handle most of it, but
we’ve got to pitch in for appearances’ sake. My paralegal, Meredith, will help
you. Let’s start by reviewing the client forms to see if we need to add any
disclaimers. I’ve been meaning to get to it, but I kept putting it off…”

“Sure.” Janet nodded.
As luck would have it, she was very familiar with the subject. She had worked
on several cases on these matters at the DA’s office. “Where are the client
files?”

“The form templates are
on the shared computer drive.”

“But where are the
actual files?” Janet inquired. “I might as well take a look to make sure
everything is in order.”

Lisa perked up. “Oh,
sure, that’s a good idea. The Operations group handles all of that. My
paralegal, Meredith, can show you where they sit.”

“Sounds good. I’ll get
right on it.”

“Thank you, Janet.
You’re a lifesaver. Without you, I’d be in a pickle.”

After Lisa left, Janet
opened the shared computer drive that Lisa had mentioned. She was relieved to
see that the client agreements and disclosures were up to the industry
standards. So far, things looked good. Now, if she could also confirm that
these forms were diligently completed and maintained, she would be in lawyer’s
paradise.

Janet noticed several
folders with the names of the employees of the legal group, including Lisa’s
and was interested to see a folder entitled Fred Rossingram. The name did not
ring a bell; she clicked on the folder and found a variety of letters and documents
with dates predating Lisa, leading her to conclude that Fred Rossingram had
been Lisa’s predecessor. The last of the documents with his name dated a little
less than two years ago, which was shortly before Lisa’s start date. Janet
thought that it was strange that Lisa had never mentioned Fred Rossingram, but
even more peculiar was the caliber of work that Rossingram did for the firm –
the work that was now being outsourced to Tom Wyman. But as interesting as this
discovery was, Janet had a pressing assignment to attend to.

Janet picked up the
phone to call Lisa’s paralegal, Meredith.

Half an hour later,
Janet was walking down the trading floor accompanied by Meredith.

“So, how do you find
working here so far?” Meredith inquired.

“I’m learning a lot.” Janet
prided herself on being an honest person, but she could not very well answer
Meredith’s question truthfully. “How about yourself? Do you like it?”

“Can’t complain,”
Meredith chuckled. “I worked for a senior partner at a law firm for fifteen
years; the pace is much calmer here, so that’s the good part.”

“Do you miss your old
place?”

“I do,” Meredith
admitted. “I used to know the entire firm like the back of my hand. It was a
small firm with only three partners, and they all retired and sold off the practice.”
Meredith sighed. “I’ve been here for a year, and between you and me, I still
can’t seem to make heads or tails of things. That Tom Wyman fella sure likes to
convolute things.”

Tell me about it, Janet
thought.

“Let me introduce you
to the Operations folks,” said Meredith after they had reached the far end of
the trading floor.

“Rosemarie, I’d like to
introduce our new assistant general counsel, Janet Maple. Janet, this is
Rosemarie March. She is in charge of the Operations group.”

“Hi, Janet, it’s a pleasure
to meet you.” Rosemarie rose from her chair. She looked to be in her
mid-forties and was rail-thin, with red hair pinned up haphazardly. “So you’re
working for Lisa, huh?”

“Yes.” Janet nodded.
“And I was wondering if you could help me with the audit request we received.”

“Sure, love, I’d be
glad to. Lisa usually never makes it to our neck of the woods. What do you
need?”

“If you could just show
me where the customer files are.”

“I’ve got the hard
copies right here.” Rosemarie motioned at a filing cabinet behind her desk.
“How far back do you need to go?”

“Oh, just this year.”

“Here you go, honey.”
Rosemarie pulled out a large stack of manila folders. “This is for the past
three months. Once you’re done with these, just holler, and I’ll give the next
three months.”

“Great, thank you,
Rosemarie. I’ll look over these at my desk and will bring them back to you when
I’m done.”

“No problem.”

Janet stuck the files
under her arm. As she walked down the floor, she opened one of the folders and
skimmed through its contents. The client was a hedge fund called Emperial – a
recently opened account. The first thing that caught Janet’s eye was the
missing address and ownership information, but that did not make any sense. It simply
had to be in the folder somewhere. She would just have a closer look once she
got back to her desk.

Suddenly, Janet heard
running footsteps and felt a rough push. Good thing she was wearing flats;
otherwise, it would have been impossible for her to maintain her balance. But
while Janet managed to stay on her feet, half of the files dropped out of her
hands and fell to the floor.

“Sorry, miss!” The man
who had just rammed into Janet called over his shoulder. “I’ve got to get back
to my desk!”

“Are you okay?” Dean
Snider had materialized out of thin air and was scooping the files from the
floor.

“Hi.” Janet blushed. It
seemed that every time she ran into Dean, she needed rescuing. “I’m fine, thank
you. It was my own fault. I wasn’t looking where I was going.” She bent down to
pick up the rest of the folders.

“That guy is a jerk for
running you over like that and not even stopping to make sure you were all
right.” Dean looked at her. They were both kneeling on the floor. Dean smiled
and Janet felt her entire being tingle. It was not an alarming tingle like she
got when Tom Wyman’s knee brushed past her thigh, but a pleasant one. She did
not know much about Dean Snider, but she wanted to get to know him.

“These look important.”
Dean peeked at the folders, as he handed them to Janet.

“They are.” Janet
confirmed. “These are customer files; I was taking them back to my office to
make sure everything is in order for the upcoming audit.”

“And are we in good
shape?” Dean grinned.

“I think so,” Janet
answered. “At least I hope so.”

“That doesn’t sound very
promising,” Dean probed.

“I haven’t really
looked through them yet, as I was interrupted,” Janet alluded to the
embarrassing incident.

“Well, I hope that you
find everything up to your satisfaction.”

A yell from one of the
desks interrupted them. “Dean, over here, my computer email won’t open up!”

“I’ve got to get back
to work.” Dean shrugged. “It was nice seeing you again, Janet.”

Janet smiled: it was
nice seeing Dean as well. “You too. Thanks for your help.”

***

After showing a trader
with the attention span of a three-year-old how to reset his email password for
the umpteenth time, Dennis Walker settled behind his desk. A smile was playing
on his lips. It seemed that circumstance had a way of bringing him and Janet
Maple together. He found his encounters with Janet most entertaining, but now
Dennis realized that Janet Maple could be a lot more than a flirtation. While
Dennis was certain that he could gain access to Bostoff’s customer files,
navigating Bostoff’s systems on his own was a lot like trying to find his way
in the dark. Turning on the light would make things so much easier, and Janet
Maple could be the light switch he needed. Dennis had spotted a very important
detail while helping Janet to gather folders off the floor: one of the customer
files was entitled Emperial.

The Treasury
Investigations unit had been trying to get its hands on the Emperial hedge fund
for a long time. While Bostoff Securities had enough violations to build a
solid case, Bostoff’s clients were the main reason why Dennis had jumped on the
assignment. For the past two years, the Treasury Investigations division had
been tracking several notorious hedge funds that were suspected in a number of
infractions, including tax evasion and insider trading. Getting access to the hedge
funds had proven to be next to impossible: all attempts at turning former or
current employees into informants had failed, and getting Treasury
investigators inside as undercover employees had proved impossible as well.
Bostoff Securities had appeared on the radar because of its client base, which
included Emperial and other shady hedge funds. With Janet’s help, Dennis could
bring the Bostoff investigation to closure much more quickly. His boss’s
recognition aside, the added bonus of this achievement would be retirement of
Dean Snider’s persona. For as much as Dennis loved his job, he was getting
tired of wearing ill-fitted clothes and being snapped fingers at as though he
were a maid.

Now that Dennis had a
valid reason to get close to Janet, he had to devise his plan, which would not
be too difficult given the fact that Janet and he were located on the same
floor. There were a number of places where they could run into each other – the
kitchen, the employee cafeteria, or the copy room. Of course, Dennis would have
to tread lightly lest he risk compromising his cover. He would become Janet’s
office buddy, and gradually, he would become her confidant. For any other man,
these plans might have sounded overly ambitious, but not for Dennis Walker. He
had tested his powers of persuasion on many occasions. Granted, the persona of
Dean Snider was not the most advantageous one when it came to the art of female
seduction, but Dennis was not planning on seducing Janet Maple – at least not
while he was on the assignment. Instead, he planned to become her friend, and
Dean Snider was just the sort of man women tended to trust.