Bad Guys Don't Win (Janet Maple Series Book 4) (10 page)

“And we will,” Dennis assured him.
“First, we need to call all her friends and find out what they know.”

Philip slapped his forehead. “That
reminds me—Mila’s friend Amy called me just as you walked in. I didn’t pick up
because I didn’t think it was anything urgent—” He was interrupted by a knock
on the door. “Come in,” Philip called out briskly. “I thought I asked you to
cancel all my meetings, Thelma,” he said when the secretary appeared in the
doorway.

“Yes, sir, I apologize,” Thelma said
smoothly. “But there’s Ms. Amy Walsh here to see you and she said it was
urgent. She wouldn’t leave,” Thelma added in a hushed tone.

“Please escort Ms. Walsh to my office
immediately,” Philip asked.

A few moments later a petite redhead
walked swiftly into Philip’s office. “Philip, I’m so sorry to barge in like
this, but you didn’t call me back and I just couldn’t wait,” she rattled on,
oblivious to Janet and Dennis’s presence and ignoring the secretary who was
standing awkwardly in the doorway.

“That will be all, Thelma, thank you.”
Philip instructed his secretary and she closed the door behind her.

“I’m worried about Mila,” Amy continued.
“We went out last night and this morning she didn’t answer any of my calls. We
always call each other the morning after we go out to make sure we got home
okay. It’s our thing. Normally I wouldn’t make such a fuss about it, but with
the bar burning down, I’m a bit jumpy. Plus we all had a little too much to
drink—Mila and I were going to call it a night, but then Jess called and we
overdid it with tequila shots. I thought maybe Mila was with you and forgot to
call. Have you heard from her?”

“Calm down, Amy.” Philip took her hands
in his. “I’d like you to meet Janet Maple and Dennis Walker.”

Amy turned around, a look of alarm on
her face. Amy and Janet had met when Janet was working the Kovars case undercover,
but if Amy recognized her, she didn’t show it. “My apologies—I didn’t see you
two standing there,” she said dryly. “Philip, could we speak privately? It will
only take a minute.”

“It’s okay, Amy. Janet and Dennis are
here to help us find Mila,” Philip explained.

“So Mila’s not with you?” Amy asked,
crestfallen.

“Mila was out with you last night?”
Dennis cut in. “Who is this Jess you mentioned and what exactly happened?”

Amy backed away and crossed her arms on
her chest, throwing a questioning glance at Philip. “What’s going on here?”

“Calm down Amy. Like I said, Janet and
Dennis are here to help,” Philip repeated. “They told me about the Kovars and
Mila’s involvement with them, and I want you to know it didn’t diminish my
feelings for her one bit. She’s been through hell and I’ll do anything to get
her back.”

“I’m relieved to hear you got Mila’s
back, Philip, but if I were you, I’d throw these two clowns out.” Amy shook her
head. “Did they tell you how this one,” she pointed at Janet, “befriended Mila
with lies and this one,” she pointed at Dennis, “blackmailed her into giving
evidence against the Kovars?”

“We didn’t blackmail anyone,” Dennis
countered. “Mila had gotten herself into enough trouble before we were in the
picture. She was given an option to cooperate with the authorities, in exchange
for which she received immunity from prosecution. It was a fair deal.”

“A fair deal?” Amy scoffed. “You call
that a fair deal?”

Dennis’s jaw tightened. “Things don’t
always turn out the way we hope. We’re doing everything we can to protect Mila
from the Kovars.”

“To protect Mila?” Amy asked. “Why would
she need your protection now? She helped you put the Kovars away, so that’s all
done with—Anton Kovar can’t harm her from behind bars.”

“Didn’t Mila tell you about the note she
found in her apartment?” Dennis asked.

“What note?” Amy asked.

“A note from Anton Kovar,” Dennis
explained, summarizing the note to her.

“But Anton’s in jail. How on earth could
he be slipping notes underneath Mila’s door?” Amy wondered.

“A few weeks ago, there was an article
in the papers about the Kovars dying in a car crash while being transported to
another jail facility. We don’t know for sure, but we believe the accident was
a cover up for their escape,” Dennis explained.

Amy backed away, looking horrified. “Now
it all makes sense . . . Mila was acting so strange last night. I thought she
was worrying about the bar, but it’s way worse than that—” Amy pressed her palm
to her mouth. “Oh, my God, what’s going to happen now? What if the Kovars got
her?”

The room went quiet as Janet and Dennis
exchanged glances, raking their minds for something comforting to say. The
truth of the matter was that things were looking pretty grim.

Suddenly, the sound of ringing telephone
pierced the silence, making everyone jump.

“I thought I said no calls,” Philip
grumbled, but corrected himself as soon as he glanced at the caller ID screen,
“this is my private line—it’s the private investigator. He might’ve found out
something about the fire. Let me get this. Hello, Fred, any news?” Philip asked
tersely, as he picked up the phone. “Yes, I see.” Philip looked grave as he
listened to the other end of the line. “Are you sure? Could it be something
else that caused it?” He paused, looking even graver. “I understand. Thank
you.” Philip hung up the receiver as though it weighed a thousand pounds. “The
private investigator I hired found what caused the fire in the bar,” Philip
said slowly.

“He did?” Amy exclaimed excitedly.
“That’s great news— You know what I mean,” she corrected herself. “So, what was
it?”

“Amy, who was closing the bar the night
before the fire happened?” Philip asked.

“Jess and Alex—one of the busboys. Mila
and I cut out early to be in top shape for our meeting with the bankers,” Amy
added. “Why? What did they find?”

“An old warming plate that was left
on—the wiring ignited and that’s what caused the fire,” Philip said gravely.

“Dammit,” Amy cursed. “We’ve been
meaning to throw that stupid thing out. But there’s no way anyone could’ve left
it turned on—everyone knew not to use it—the wiring was frayed. Unless— Unless,
someone did it on purpose,” Amy added slowly.

“Didn’t you say a busboy was helping
Jess close the place?” Janet asked. “Can you call him and ask what happened?”

“Let me see what he’s got to say for
himself,” Amy muttered, grabbing her phone. “Alex, it’s Amy. No, I don’t have a
job for ya, but I need you to tell me what happened the night you were closing
the bar with Jess.” Amy paused and the room was filled with anticipation. “I
see. No, you’re not in trouble. Yeah, sure, I’ll be in touch,” she added weakly
and hung up. “Stupid bugger,” she muttered.

“What happened?” Janet asked.

“Let me guess,” Dennis cut in, “Jess let
him go home early.”

“Bingo,” Amy sobbed. “That snake— And
Mila and I were dumb enough to take her under our wing— It’s all my fault—”

“She conned you,” Janet said soothingly.
“Amy, we really don’t have much time. In order for us to help Mila, we need you
to tell us exactly what happened last night.”

Amy took a deep breath. “Okay, okay,
I’ll tell you everything.”

Mila felt a dull ache in her arms and
legs and wondered where she was. She opened her eyes, but everything remained
dark. It took her a moment to realize that the tight bandage on her head was a blindfold.
When she tried moving her numb arms and legs, she realized they were tied with
ropes, which was where the ache was coming from. She was tied to a chair,
blindfolded, and she had no idea where she was. Mila willed herself to be awake
and tried to concentrate. Slowly, the details of last night started coming back
to her.

What a fool she had been to lie to
Dennis and sneak out with Amy. She’d decided that she wouldn’t have anyone
telling her what to do and now she was paying the price. It all started
innocently enough. She thought she was being careful by meeting Amy in crowded
Midtown where they could be easily lost in a throng of tourists. She met Amy
around seven. They started the night drinking and having fun. Mila knew Dennis
would be checking up on her, so she called him at eleven p.m. and told him she
was going to bed. She’d even gone through the trouble of buying a caller ID
spoof card—you could get one online in a matter of seconds—to make the number
on the caller ID look like Dennis’s home number. She’d half expected Dennis to
catch her bluff, but surprisingly he didn’t. He treated her like an adult and
believed her, and now she was paying the price for her childish sneaking
around.

At least she didn’t tell Amy anything
about the note. She was tempted to, but the right moment just didn’t come up.
By
the way, my convict ex-boyfriend escaped from jail by faking his death in a car
accident, and I suspect he set Amy and Mila’s on fire
, didn’t exactly seem
like a good conversation starter for a girls’ night out. Instead, they talked
about their plans to rebuild Amy and Mila’s. Amy teased Mila about being crazy
in love with Philip, which of course was true, but as usual Mila didn’t want to
admit it. They joked around as if everything was normal, as if nothing had
changed in their lives. It was just what Mila had needed—some good laughs and
fun with her best friend. She was starting to feel much better—she was starting
to feel like her life wasn’t falling apart after all and everything was going to
work out. She was about to call it a night and go back to her hideout in
Dennis’s apartment and be a good girl when Amy got a call from Jess asking her
if she wanted to hang out. Before Mila could stop her, Amy had said yes.
Leaving seemed rude—it was her fault that Jess was out of a job—by now Mila was
pretty sure Amy and Mila’s burning down and the creepy note being stuck beneath
the door of her apartment that same night, was no coincidence. The least she
could do was have a drink with Jess and promise her a job once Amy and Mila’s
was back up and running.
All right
, Mila thought,
I’ll have one more
drink and then I’ll call it a night
.

Jess showed up in less than ten minutes,
saying that she was in the neighborhood, looking for a job. She said that for now
she was back at Red Door to make ends meet, but something was bound to turn up
soon. They ordered another round of cocktails and Mila was about to excuse
herself, but then Jess ordered a round of shots and then things got fuzzy after
that. Mila remembered feeling unusually woozy as the three of them got into a
cab. They dropped Amy off first and were going to drop off Mila next.

A sound of jiggling locks interrupted
Mila’s recollection of last night’s events. She strained her ears, trying to
figure out where she was. A few moments later, there was a creaking sound of a
door being opened, followed by heavy male footsteps. The way each footstep
echoed through the air told her that the floor was concrete. It wasn’t much to
go on, but it was a start. The footsteps grew louder, telling her their owner
was walking towards her. The footsteps kept growing closer until she could hear
his breath and sense his body heat. The blindfold accentuated all of her other
senses. He was really close to her now—his heavy breath was brushing her right
ear and tickling her neck.

“Milochka.”

At the sound of the familiar voice Mila
recoiled, pressing her back into the chair. Her fears had been right all
along—Anton Kovar was alive and well and jail-free.

“Aren’t you glad to see me, Milochka?”
he leered. “I thought you’d be happy to see me,” he added, his mouth brushing
against her neck.

Mila raked her mind for an escape
strategy. She needed to play dumb. She needed to stall for time. “Who’s this?”
she asked. “I can’t see anything. Where am I?”

She felt Anton’s hands fumbling with the
blindfold and an instant later he yanked it off of her. The room was dimly lit,
but she had to squint from being kept in the dark for so long. Gradually, she
took in her surroundings. She was tied to a chair that stood in the middle of a
room. The floor was gray concrete and there were wooden crates scattered all
over the place.

Anton waited, no doubt relishing having
her in his power again. “So, Milochka, now that you can see me, are you happy
to see me?”

“Anton,” Mila gasped, “I thought it was
your voice, but I was afraid to believe it. I thought,” she paused, quickly
faking tears, “I thought you were dead. That horrible article in the paper—I
thought I’d lost you forever. But you’re alive!” she exclaimed with fake joy.
“Why didn’t you call me?”

“For the very same reason you never came
to visit me, you lying snake.” He raised his hand and she flinched, expecting a
blow, but he lowered his hand at the last minute, stroking her face instead.

“Anton,” Mila sobbed, faking more tears,
“I didn’t come because I was afraid. The feds—they scared me—they questioned me
for hours. They said I’d go to jail if I ever saw you again,” Mila wailed on.

“Milochka, how beautiful you are—I’ve
almost forgotten. But I haven’t forgotten what a lying, deceitful, vermin you
are. You crawled to me, asking me for help. I helped you get that stolen money
from your ex-boyfriend’s account and held you close to my heart. And what do I
get back in return? Betrayal. I should’ve known you’d betray me just like you
betrayed David Muller.”

Mila shivered at the reminder of her
past, which seemed like a different lifetime to her now. She’d been frivolous
and money-hungry when she took up with David Muller, a white collar crime
criminal who’d stolen millions, but she didn’t care as long as David put her up
in a swanky apartment and paid her bills. David had promised her the world, but
it all collapsed like a house of cards when his scheme got exposed and he got
arrested. After David’s arrest, Mila took up with Anton and together they stole
the money from David’s account before the FBI could get to it. Anton never let
her see a penny of the money—he kept it all to himself, making Mila work like a
slave for the Kovars underground businesses. She’d hoped to get the money back
eventually, but the FBI got to her first, making her testify against the
Kovars. She’d taken the bargain and was given immunity and put into the witness
protection program. She’d hoped to be free of her past forever, but there it was,
right back to haunt her. “Anton, the FBI took the money. I didn’t get a cent of
it. All I wanted was you—” Mila clung to her lie for dear life.

“Cut the crap, Mila. How stupid do you
think I am?”

Mila blinked, terrified inside, but
forcing herself not to show it. “I don’t think you’re stupid at all, Anton. I
love you. I’ve always loved you. The day they took you away was the darkest day
of my life—”

“I’m sure you wept for days,” he
scoffed. “Only I wonder, if you loved me so much, how come you ratted me out to
the FBI?”

“Anton! What are you saying? I would
never do something like that. Who told you these lies?”

“A friend.”

“A friend? What friend? Why would you
take someone else’s word over mine?” Mila clung to her charade.

“Now you’re really starting to insult my
intelligence.” Anton leaned in closer. “I have friends in very high places and
I’m out for good. I know everything about the evidence you gave against me to
the feds and from now on, your life is going to be a living hell.” Without
saying another word, Anton turned around and started walking out of the room.

“Anton, wait! Please, let me explain.
It’s not true. They lied to you,” Mila called after him, but Anton’s heavy
footsteps headed straight for the door, without him turning around even once. The
next thing Mila heard was the door slamming shut and the light being turned
off.

***

“So, where do we start?” Janet asked
Dennis. They were huddled up in her office, working on a plan of action.

“I want to learn more about Jess Hall.
We need a way to get close to her.”

“And how are we going to do that?” Janet
asked.

“I’m going to pay Red Door a visit.”

“Should I come along?” Janet asked
innocently, knowing what the answer was going to be, but wanting to make Dennis
squirm. The prospect of him visiting strip joints, even if it was work related,
didn’t exactly agree with her.

“You know it’s for purely professional
purposes,” Dennis hurried to explain. “How else are we going to get close to
Jess Hall?”

Janet nodded. “Just as long as you don’t
get too close.”

“Janet Maple, I don’t think you have any
grounds to accuse me of being unprofessional,” Dennis countered.

“And I’d like to keep it that way,”
Janet busted his chops. She wasn’t exactly jumping at the idea of her fiancé
fraternizing with strippers, correction—waitresses—even if it was for a lead.
“You know, I could do some digging. Maybe I could get a job there as a
waitress, get to know the girls. We might get more information that way.”

Dennis shook his head. “No way. It’s too
dangerous.”

“Good morning!” Ham caught them
off-guard, appearing in the doorway of Janet’s office without knocking.

“Good morning,” Janet and Dennis replied
in unison, a little more upbeat than they intended to be.

“I see you two have been busy,” Ham
observed.

Janet wondered if Ham had noticed their
prolonged absence from the office yesterday, raking her mind for an excuse. She
exchanged a brief glance with Dennis—of all the things they talked about, they
forgot to come up with a cover for their boss.

“I must say, I’m very impressed,” Ham
continued.

Janet wondered if her boss was being
sarcastic or serious. The memo she’d left on his desk yesterday was pretty
good, or at least she thought so, but their being absent from the office for
the entire afternoon yesterday wasn’t exactly model behavior.

“When were you going to tell me?” Ham
asked.

“Sir—” Dennis began.

Ham waved his hand. “Never mind. I like
surprises, especially good ones and landing Philip Barrett as a client
certainly qualifies.”

“So he called?” Janet blurted out. “I
mean, Mr. Barrett has decided to retain our services?”

“Yes.” Ham nodded. “And he was very
generous with the retainer, too. He is an excellent client to have. Now, I’d
like to hear what it is he hired us for.”

“Didn’t he tell you?” Dennis asked,
baffled.

Ham shook his head. “He said you had all
the particulars. He said the matter was quite sensitive and the fewer people
who knew about it, the better. However, since I’m the principal of this firm, I
think I need to know what we’re being hired to do, especially when we’re being
hired by someone like Philip Barrett.”

“Philip Barrett hired us to track down
his girlfriend,” Dennis said casually.

“I knew it—some hanky business,” Ham
scoffed. “He wants you to track some girl and see if she’s cheating on him?
Very well, if he wants to pay for that sort of work. I wonder why he came to us
for something as basic as that. Our work here is of much higher caliber, but
whatever pays, as the saying goes.”

Janet cleared her throat. “Ham, to
clarify, Barrett hired us to find his girlfriend.”

Ham raised his eyebrow. “What do you
mean ‘find’ his girlfriend? Did he misplace her?”

“She’s gone missing.” Janet caught
Dennis’s disapproving glance and looked away—she wasn’t going to keep this a
secret from their boss any longer. “Actually, we believe she was kidnapped. You
see, Philip Barrett’s girlfriend is Mila Brabec.”

The smile disappeared from Ham’s face.
“Mila Brabec? She was the key witness in the Kovars case.” He shot a stern look
at Dennis. “I need to know what’s going on. These are some very dangerous
waters we’re about to tread.”

“Mila called me for help, Ham,” Dennis
explained. “It was wrong of me not to tell you right away, but I had to help
her. Turns out I haven’t done such a good job of it, but I’m not backing out
now—she needs our help. I suspect she was kidnapped by Anton Kovar—” Dennis
proceeded to tell Ham everything about Mila’s disappearance and their meeting
with Philip.

Ham shook his head. “Nicely done, or
should I say nicely botched? What made you think you had the bandwidth to
protect Mila, Dennis? If you had told me from the get-go, I would’ve made sure
we had the resources. There are people you can hire for that sort of
thing—professional contractors.”