3 Bad Guys Get Caught (6 page)

“Very nice to meet you too, Mr. Kovar,”
said Janet, lowering her eyes demurely. She had to make him believe that she
actually needed this job.

“My brother, Roman, said good things
about you too. He helps me run the place. Keep up the good work.”

“I’ll see you later, Janet.” Mila
nodded. “Good night.”

“Good night—” Janet stopped short, as
Anton groped for Mila, closing his hungry mouth on her lips. So her slaving
away as a waitress had not been a waste after all; Mila was Anton’s girlfriend.
From now on, Janet and Mila were going to be the best of friends.

Not wanting to disturb the love birds,
Janet made her way downstairs. Janet changed quickly and was about to leave
when Roman blocked her way in the hallway. His arms were crisscrossed on his
chest and he had a toothpick in his mouth.

“You did good today, Janet,” Roman
chewed his toothpick meditatively. “I like you,” he added.

“I’m glad I could be of service,” Janet
replied neutrally. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

To her surprise, Roman stepped aside.
“Playing hard to get? I like that in a girl. I like nice girls,” Roman laughed.

Spurred by Roman’s raucous laughter,
Janet literally flew up the stairs. The prospect of being trapped downstairs
with the beast scared the living daylights out of her. She made a mental note
to buy a mace spray for her next shift.

Half an hour later, Janet dragged
herself into the elevator of her building. Her body was aching for a hot bath.
The thought of doing this all over tomorrow made her want to squeal for mercy,
but she wasn’t going to quit now.

Janet jammed her key into the front door
lock and turned it impatiently, eager to soak her aching limbs in hot water.
She stopped short when she saw that the light was on in the kitchen. Usually,
she left the light on for Baxter not to feel lonely, but not today. She had
arranged it with her neighbor to watch Baxter and distinctly remembered turning
the light off before she left for work.

Janet kicked off her shoes and clutching
her purse in her hand crept into the kitchen. Her mind was working feverishly;
if there was indeed an intruder in her kitchen, she was going to clobber him
with her purse and then call 911. The plan might not have been a very bright
one, but it was the only one she was able to come up with at the moment.

Janet’s hand stiffened as she prepared
to strike.

“So how is it working for Petr Kovar?
Did you make good tips?” At the sound of Dennis’s voice Janet dropped her purse
on the floor.

“Interesting choice of weapon,” Dennis
remarked, glancing at her purse. “Looks deadly.”

“I’ll have you know that my purse weighs
close to three pounds,” Janet retorted. “You scared the crap out of me,” she
collapsed on the chair. “What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for you.”

“Why?”

“To make sure you’re all right.”

“You could’ve just called.”

“That would have been reasonable, but
then I can hardly call your recent actions reasonable,” Dennis paused. “When
were you going to tell me about getting a job at the Panther restaurant?”

“When I got my lead,” Janet retorted.
Dennis wasn’t going to make her feel guilty, not when he crept into her
apartment unannounced.

“Your lead? I thought we were partners.”

“I thought so too, but then you went off
to meet with Libby on your own and left me in the shadow.”

“Is that what this is about? Don’t you
realize—”

“I realize that you like to take the
lead and that you like to be in the limelight, I get that, but that doesn’t
mean that I’m going to sit back and just let you call all the shots. That’s not
how partnerships work.”

“Is that what you think? That I want to
call the shots? Janet, we’re dealing with some really dangerous people here,
and I don’t want you to get hurt. That’s the only reason why I didn’t want you
to meet Libby. I didn’t want you to be exposed.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“I can see that. So tell me, what alias
did you use for the job at Kovar’s? I assume that you’ve arranged for a fake
driver’s license and such?”

Janet felt her face grow hot; she didn’t
think of any of these things. Suddenly, she felt like a school kid being chided
by her teacher. “I used my name.”

“You what?”

“I used my name. What’s the big deal?”

“What’s the big deal? Janet, don’t you
realize it; all they have to do is run a basic background search on you and
they’ll know who you are.”

“All they will be able to see is that I
worked for the Treasury. So what? I could’ve been an accountant there.”

Dennis sighed. “An accountant? I would
give Kovar’s people a little more credit than that. This is crazy. What’s
gotten into you?”

Suddenly, Janet felt her eyes welling
up. Maybe Dennis was right; maybe she was crazy and reckless, the very
qualities she so often accused Dennis of. All she wanted to do was show him
that she could hold her own, but instead she had made one hot mess. “I’m
sorry,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to jeopardize our cover. I just wanted to
help the case. It was supposed to be a surprise for you ...”

“Hey, it’s all right. I’m the one who’s
sorry.” Dennis wrapped his arms around her, his protective warmth calming her.
“I didn’t mean to come down on you like this. It’s just that if anything ever
happened to you, I’d go crazy.”

“Nothing is going to happen to me. I
have you to protect me.”

“That you do. You don’t make my job any
easier by poking your nose into places where it might get chopped off,” Dennis
grumbled, but Janet could see that he was running out of steam.

“So, do you want to hear what I learned
today?” she asked proudly.

“I’m all ears.”

Forcing herself to ignore her fatigue,
Janet summarized what she had found out during her shift at the Panther
restaurant.

“Wow,” Dennis whistled after Janet
finished. “So Kovar has his kin run the place for him. That’s good, that’s real
good. One of them is dating the hostess, even better. What’s her name again?”

“Mila, Mila Brabec.”

“I’d like to meet her. You could
introduce me as your cousin …”

“Yeah, sure. We can talk about all of
that later, but right now I’m beat. I would kill for a hot bath,” Janet
concealed her annoyance with a yawn. Sure, she wanted to get the dirt on Kovar
and Libby, but her work dedication only went so far. Mila Brabec looked like a
super model, and there was no way in hell Janet was going to introduce her to
Dennis.

“You just stay here.” Dennis dashed off
to the bathroom.

Janet heard the sound of running water
and leaned back in her chair. Even the thought of taking off her clothes seemed
exhausting. If she could just be magically transported into the hot water … She
heard Dennis’s footsteps back in the kitchen.

“I can’t move,” Janet groaned.

Dennis kneeled beside her and took her
foot into his hands. His strong fingers began to knead the sore muscles. “How
does that feel?”

“Ohh, that feels orgasmic!” Janet
exclaimed.

“Well, if I knew you were that easy to
please,” Dennis chuckled, starting to work on her other foot.

Janet closed her eyes. This was heaven
indeed.

“Come on, time for your bath.” Dennis
helped her to her feet, undoing the zipper on her dress and sliding it off her
body. Then he undid her bra and slid off her panties, lifting her into his
arms. “Here we go.”

He carried her to the bathroom as though
she weighed nothing at all. Gently, he lowered her into the water.

The water was just hot enough to
pleasantly tingle her skin. “Ahhhh,” Janet inhaled the scent of the lavender
bath foam. “You are an angel,” she murmured.

“An angel with ulterior motives,” Dennis’s
voice grew husky. “You’re looking mighty sexy in that bath, my lady.”

“Dennis!” Janet groaned. “Not tonight.
I’m too exhausted. I can’t move a single muscle.”

Dennis shook his head. “So that’s how it
starts.” By the tone of his voice she knew he was kidding.

“I’ll make it up to you in the morning,
I promise,” Janet laughed. Their relationship hardly suffered from a lack of
sex.

“I’m counting on it. Enjoy your bath.
I’ll be back in a few to make sure you don’t fall asleep in the tub.”

“An angel,” Janet murmured. She closed
her eyes and drifted away, lulled by the relaxing lavender scent.

Janet was not sure how much time had
passed, but some time later, she was vaguely aware of Dennis lifting her out of
the tub, rubbing her down with a towel, and carrying her to bed. “Good night,
baby,” Janet murmured.

“Good night, Janet. You did well today.
Sleep tight.”

When Janet woke up the next morning the
sun was shining brightly through the window shades, way too brightly. She felt
as though she had been hit by a truck; every muscle in her legs and lower back
ached. Up until now she had considered herself to be in pretty good shape, but
apparently she had been mistaken. Waitressing kicked her butt.

The last thing she remembered was Dennis
tucking her into bed, but he wasn’t in the bed with her now. Alarmed, she
groped for the clock; it was eleven a.m. How could he have let her sleep this
late? Frantically, Janet groped for the phone and dialed Dennis’s number.

“Good morning sunshine,” Dennis greeted
her cheerfully.

“Dennis! Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“Believe me I tried, but you wouldn’t
budge, so I decided that the best thing for you to do was to get some rest. You
do have another shift at the Panther tonight.”

“What did you tell Ham? I don’t want to
get fired, you know. Waitressing is definitely not the right career choice for
me.”

“I told him—”

“You told him about me getting a
waitressing job at the Panther?” Janet cut him off.

“I told him that you’re doing some
undercover work in the field. When the time comes, we’ll tell him the whole
thing.”

“I just hope you won’t get me fired,”
Janet mumbled.

“What time does your shift start today?”

“Six o’clock, but I have to be there at
five. I’m still in training.”

“Good luck.”

“Thanks. I’m going to need it. Waitressing
isn’t exactly my forte.”

“Janet, you listen to me,” Dennis’s tone
grew serious. “Anything happens, anything at all, you call me. I don’t want you
to take any chances.”

“I can handle it, don’t worry. As long
as I’m decent at my job, they won’t suspect anything. A waitress recently quit
and they were pretty desperate for a replacement. I’m going to use the day to
memorize Panther’s menu. I’ll be the best waitress they ever had. Well, I’ll
try to be.”

“All right. Be safe. Call me if you need
me.”

“I will.” Janet hung up the phone,
hoping that she wouldn’t have to, not until she got some good leads.

All right, Janet thought, where did I
put that menu? She was going to shower, have breakfast, and then spend the day
memorizing the ingredients in the sauce for the chateaubriand and the glaze for
the roasted duck, along with the rest of the pretentious dishes served at
Panther, but first …. Janet longingly glanced at her bed. The softness of the
pillows and the mattress was too beckoning to resist, and she plunged back into
bed. It’d be nice to spend the day lounging, but no such luck. “There’s no rest
for the weary,” Janet grumbled, forcing herself to get up.

***

Careful not to wake Anton, Mila slid out
of bed. Over the past few months, she had perfected the art of making her
movements quieter than those of a mouse. She threw one more glance at Anton
just to make sure. Sex always made him sleepy, and now he was snoring loudly,
his lips smacking, probably dreaming of some vivid sexual fantasy Mila wanted to
know nothing about. Anton’s after sex naps were deep but brief, so Mila figured
that she had half an hour at best. She raced to the den where Anton kept all
his business papers. The room was sparsely furnished: a computer desk, a
leather couch, and a safe. Both the computer and the safe had coded access, and
Mila had been unsuccessfully trying to break into both. She had even gone as
far as calling up her second cousin in Prague who prided himself on being a
hacker, but the kid turned out to be completely useless.

She had tried to watch Anton open the
safe, hoping to figure out the combination that way, but every time she came
near the safe, Anton shooed her away. He didn’t like her being in his “business
room.” Mila strained her ears, waiting for the reassuring sound of Anton’s
raspy snores. He was still asleep. Think, Mila murmured, racking her brain for
numbers that were important to Anton: his birthday, his father’s birthday, his
brother’s birthday. Definitely not her own birthday; despite her artful reminders,
Anton had missed it and didn’t even bother to get her a gift as an apology. He
knew that he needn’t apologize to her: the ties that bound her to him were
strong enough to make her forgive him any offense. The only way to change
things was for her to get into that damn safe and break into Anton’s computer.

“Mila!” Anton’s hoarse voice erupted
from the bedroom.

Mila resisted the impulse to spring away
from the safe, and instead tiptoed out of the room.

“Yes, darling?” she spoke in her sexiest
voice, as she walked into the bedroom.

“Where did you go? You know I like
waking up with you next to me. I had a dream about you, and then I woke up and
you weren’t here.”

“Sorry, honey. I couldn’t sleep, but I’m
going to make it up to you.” Mila slid on the bed, sliding her hand over
Anton’s hairy chest.

“That’s what I like to hear.” Anton
pressed his hands into Mila’s flesh a little too roughly for her taste, but she
knew better than to object. “Come to papa.”

***

At five o’clock sharp Janet walked
through the door of the Panther restaurant. She exchanged a friendly hello with
the busboy who had let her in, and made her way downstairs to change. Just
then, Roman intercepted her.

“Hello, sunshine.” Roman smiled at her.
Today he had taken greater care of his appearance, having shaved and put on a
crisp, white shirt and removed the toothpick from his mouth.

“Hi Roman,” Janet replied, ducking her
head as she tried to pass him.

“You call that a hello? Where’s my kiss?
It’s the rule here that all the waitresses are supposed to kiss the manager.
Didn’t Mila tell you?”

Janet stared straight into Roman’s eyes.
Maybe he was kidding, or maybe he was serious; there was no way for her to
know, and the truth was that she really didn’t care. She was here for one
purpose and one purpose only: to learn about Petr Kovar’s connection to Libby.
“Well, I don’t like this rule,” she retorted. “So you’ll just have to settle
for hello.”

Roman laughed. “Feisty! I like that in a
woman. I’ll see you later, Janet.”

Her cheeks burning, Janet literally flew
down the stairs. She had enough trouble memorizing Panther’s menu; she didn’t
need the added aggravation of Roman’s harassment.

She changed quickly and went back
upstairs. Mila was already waiting there for her.

“Good, you’re on time,” Mila greeted
her. “They really don’t like people being late here. Don’t give Roman an excuse
to chew you out, if you get my drift.”

“I sure do,” Janet sighed.

Mila looked at her sharply. “What
happened? Was he coming on to you or something?”

“Oh, it’s nothing I can’t handle. He’s
just a pest, that’s all.”

Mila smirked. “A giant cockroach, if you
ask me. He is really the bad apple in the family, but they let him stick around
here and pretend that he’s important.”

“The family?”

Mila looked at her as though Janet had
two heads. “The Kovars. Don’t you know that Petr Kovar owns this place?”

“Does he? I had no idea,” Janet lied.
“Who is Petr Kovar?”

Mila rolled her eyes. “Only one of the
richest men in Eastern Europe and probably the whole world. Anton and Roman are
his nephews. Anton is the one who really runs the place. Roman’s power only
extends to bossing the waitresses around.”

Janet nodded. “Now it makes sense.”

“So even though he’s a cockroach, try to
be nice to Roman, but keep your hands off Anton. He’s spoken for,” Mila added
sharply.

“I noticed. You’ve got nothing to worry
about.”

Mila gave Janet a once over. “Honey, I
know.”

Under a different set of circumstances
Janet would have given Mila a piece of her mind, but right now buddying up with
Mila was more important than her pride.

“All right, let’s get to work before
Roman gets on your case again,” said Mila. “Here are the specials for today. Be
sure to memorize all the ingredients.”

Janet spent the next hour learning the
specials of the day: roasted quails, seared venison, mussels in tarragon broth,
and pistachio cream cake. The waitresses were also required to try a small
sample of each dish, so as to better explain the menu to the patrons. Normally
these dishes would have piqued her appetite, but right now she would kill for a
burger and fries.

Before she knew it, it was the start of
her shift. “Janet, you’re on table five,” Mila said.

“I’ll be right there.” Janet
straightened her back and headed to her table. As ridiculous as it was, she was
inwardly pleased with such a quick promotion. Junior waitresses were assigned
to less important tables. Yesterday, she had covered tables one through three,
but today she was already moving up to five. Mila must like her, which meant
that Janet was one step closer to her aim. It was either that or Mila was
simply after the bigger tips left by more important clients; she was getting
half of Janet’s tips after all.

“Good evening, my name is Janet. I will
be taking care of you tonight,” Janet greeted the diners, relieved to see that
table five’s patrons were a couple. She was in no mood for anymore sexual
innuendos tonight. “Would you like to start with a cocktail?” Janet prompted,
remembering Mila’s advice on peddling drinks.

“Yes, please,” said the man, adjusting
the cufflinks on his expensive-looking shirt. “I’d like a martini with a lemon
twist.” He was wearing a tailored dark navy suit and a matching tie. He
probably thought he looked sharp, but his dark gelled-back hair only emphasized
his large nose and thin lips. He was not handsome at all.

“I’d like a blueberry martini,” the
man’s blue-eyed, blond companion chimed in. She was clearly aware of her
winning looks, acting as though she had descended from Olympus to bless her
date with her presence. “Please make sure that it’s made with a gluten free
vodka.”

“I will check with our bartender,” Janet
replied in as even a voice as was humanly possible. She had no idea what a
gluten free vodka was.

“I’d like water from melted ice for the
table,” the blonde whined. “Roger made a request for it when he made the dinner
reservation. It’s the only water I drink because of my diet.”

Janet’s lips parted for a reply, but
before she could answer, Roger cut in, “Yes, yes I did,” he assured his date,
eyeing Janet imploringly. “The hostess said they’d melt the ice in time for our
arrival.”

“Of course. I will be right back with
your drinks.”

Janet made a beeline for the bar.
“Jason!” she called for the bartender who was busy with a customer at the other
end of the bar.

Jason disengaged himself from the chat
and moved to Janet’s side of the bar. “How’s it going, Janet? Learning the
ropes?” he asked with a faint Irish brogue, his blue eyes looking at her as
though she was the only woman in the world. Even though she had barely been
there two days, Janet had seen enough of Jason to understand that was the way
he spoke to everyone, especially the customers; it got him better tips. Still,
she liked Jason and figured that he could be useful down the road. She would
have liked to indulge his chatter, but right now she had to get those damn
drinks for table five.

“Do we have gluten-free vodka?” she
asked.

“Of course,” Jason assured her.

“Great. I need a blueberry martini with
gluten free vodka and a regular martini with a lemon twist.”

Jason’s eyebrows shot up. “Janet, honey,
I know this job is tough, but watch your drinking!”

“It’s not for me. It’s for a customer.”
Janet realized too late that she’d failed to laugh at Jason’s joke.

“I’ll do better next time, but you’ve
got to loosen up a little, or you won’t last long in this place.”

“Thanks. What about melted ice for
water? Table five is saying that they’d made a special request. I’m going to
check with the kitchen right now.”

“Don’t bother, I got it.”

“You’re a lifesaver.”

“You know it.” Jason reached for a glass
carafe and filled it with tap water. “Ice water, special request.” Then he
grabbed a bottle of Grey Goose vodka, muddled some blueberries in a glass,
poured some juice, and shook the concoction in a martini shaker. “Blueberry
martini with gluten free vodka,” he announced as he poured the mixture into a
martini glass.

“Jason! What if the customer finds out?
She’s really finicky.”

“How would she do that, love?” Jason
smiled broadly as he proceeded to make a lemon twist martini. “Have you ever
tried gluten free vodka?”

Janet shook her head.

“Well, I have. It tastes exactly like
any other vodka. So unless your customer is psychic, I’d say we’re safe.
Rodrigo!” Jason signaled to one of the busboys. “Get these drinks over to table
five.”