To Catch a Bad Guy (12 page)

The tricky thing about
money was that the more you made, the more you wanted to spend. Vanessa loved
exquisite things, and Dennis loved giving them to her. He was making a good
living, but he was hungry for more. When one of the senior partners of Vitaon
hedge fund approached Dennis with an extremely lucrative offer of employment,
he found himself saying yes. Working at Rossman Grozling had been great –
Dennis had learned a lot, but he had also contributed a lot. His trading picks
had generated stellar returns for the desk, covering for several traders’ wrong
picks. No matter how much money he generated for the firm, there was still a
cap on the bonus. Sure, the bonuses were generous, but Dennis felt he deserved
more. At Vitaon, traders were compensated on a percentage of what they
generated: the more money you made for the firm, the larger your bonus would
be. Perhaps Dennis would have reconsidered employment with Vitaon if Terrance
Stanton had still been around at Rossman Grozling, but Dennis’s mentor had been
ousted in a corporate squabble a year before and had since retired.

During his first year
at Vitaon, Dennis had reaped the largest bonus of his career. The day after he
got his money, he proposed to Vanessa with a ten-carat diamond ring from Harry
Winston. Vanessa squealed with delight. She was going to forget about acting –
who needed all that traveling and constant dieting when one could focus on
things that mattered, like being a wife and a mother? Dennis felt his pride
swell. He had everything he had ever wanted, and he was just getting started.

Dennis still remembered
the shock he felt when he discovered Vitaon’s fraud. The hedge fund might have
been booming, but its management was indiscriminate as to the sources from
which its investors’ money came, including terrorists and drug cartels. Dennis
was shocked to learn that all the partners knew about the fraud. As a thank you
for his remarkable performance, Dennis was promoted to partner and let in on
the secret. Joy was not the emotion Dennis felt after his promotion. With his
new title, he would be liable for the fraud that had been taking place at
Vitaon long before he got there.

Dennis knew that he had
to get out, but before he could circulate his resumé on the street, he was
approached by the Feds. They were onto the whole scheme, and they were willing
to offer Dennis a deal if he agreed to aid in the investigation. Dennis would
have to give up all the compensation he had made at Vitaon and he would be
barred from the industry, but he would not be prosecuted further. Should Dennis
pass on the chance, the offer would not be extended to him again.

Terrified, Dennis said
yes. For several months he wore a wire to work and downloaded hundreds of
emails and documents to aid the Feds in their case. In return, he got to keep
his freedom, but lost his livelihood.

The biggest blow was
when Vanessa left him. At least she was decent enough to give him back the
ring. As much as it had hurt him, Dennis knew that he would need every penny he
could scrape. His father had proclaimed him a disgrace to the family. He had
never objected to all those checks Dennis had sent back home, but now that the
cash register was no longer ringing, Dennis had become the black sheep of the
family.

In a gesture of
generosity that was enough to break Dennis’s heart, Terrance Stanton had come
to his aid by hiring the best litigation lawyer to represent Dennis and make
sure that the Feds would indeed keep the deal they had promised Dennis.
Terrance had wanted to pay the bills, but Dennis would not have that. With the
sale of his apartment, Vanessa’s ring, and other luxury items which had become
irrelevant in his dire situation, Dennis was able to cover his legal costs.

When the whole ordeal
was over, Dennis sat on the floor of his five hundred square feet studio in
Soho. If he lived modestly, he had enough money in his bank account to sustain
him for about a year, which was not much at all, as he had no idea what he was
going to do now.

A knock on the door
brought Dennis out of his reverie. When he saw Terrance Stanton on the
threshold, he nearly burst into tears.

“I’m so ashamed,”
Dennis had whispered. “I’m so ashamed of what I have done.”

“The only thing you are
guilty of Dennis is being naïve. You have not done anything to be ashamed of –
Vitaon’s owners did.”

“But I worked for
them.”

“You were young and
hungry, and they lured you in. Part of it was my fault – I should have prepared
you better for this life.” Terrance looked away. “We all make mistakes, Dennis.
I’ve made plenty myself. Have you ever wondered why I do all these things for
charity? Why I run that scholarship fund?”

“Because you want to
help people; because you are a good person, the kind of person I wanted to
become, but failed.”

Terrance sighed. “Ah,
Dennis, do not be so hard on yourself. What do you really know about me? Do you
know that I have a son who died from a drug overdose?”

Dennis shook his head,
stunned.

Terrance looked down,
as though afraid to meet Dennis’s eyes. “I was not always the level-headed man
I am now. The corporate game is a jungle, and if you’re not careful, it will
suck you right in. I had no time for my family, arrogantly believing that if I
provided for them financially, that would be enough. But the truth of the
matter was that my career was the focal point of my life. I was in the middle
of a merger when Jack overdosed for the first time. He was sixteen years old at
the time.” Terrance shook his head. “I could not break away from the deal – I
had to be at work. I thought I had fixed things when I got Jack into a
first-grade rehab program. He seemed to get better, and then, one day, we got a
call from the police. Jack had overdosed at a friend’s party. He was eighteen
years old.”

“I’m so sorry,
Terrance. I didn’t know.” Dennis was at a loss for words. His own torment
seemed meaningless compared to that of his mentor’s.

“You don’t have to pity
me, Dennis. I don’t deserve it. I told you my story so that you would
understand that we all make mistakes. You’ve made a mistake – a costly one, no
doubt. The question is, what you are going to do now? You can make amends and
put the whole thing behind you. You are very young, Dennis. You can start your
life over.”

The next day, Dennis
received a call from the Feds offering him employment as a consultant for the
white collar crime division. To this day, Dennis was not sure if Terrance
Stanton had a hand in this offer, but when he received it, Dennis knew it was
his chance at redemption.

He threw himself into
the work relentlessly. His knowledge of the industry gave him an upper hand
when it came to ferreting out frauds. Unlike the majority of the investigators,
Dennis actually understood the complicated financial terms. For three years he
toiled for the Feds. The pay was not much, but Dennis had preserved and
amplified the savings he had from his days as a trader: he was no longer
trading professionally, but that did not preclude him from managing his own
investments, and his savings had grown nicely. When the Treasury started a new
investigations unit, his supervisor at the FBI recommended Dennis for
employment and he was hired as senior investigator.

He had reclaimed his
place as a decent member of the society, but his downfall would always be a
part of his past. His life was simple now, with two major principles: no lavish
spending and no getting close to women. An occasional fling was a welcome
distraction, but no woman would ever hurt him the way Vanessa had.

Dennis rubbed his
forehead. It was almost one a.m. His eyes were burning from hours of staring at
the computer screen, and his head was splitting from the memories of his
haunted past. Dennis would see to it that Bostoff and his scheming clients got
justice, if only to stop them from luring another hopeful, wide-eyed kid into
working for them.

Janet frowned at the client
files on her desk. The clients that had caught her eye were Emperial, Creaton,
Rigel, Gemini, and Sphinx. All five were hedge funds, and all five were missing
address and ownership information. Janet had run background checks and found
that every single one of these companies had pending litigation against them.
Emperial appeared to be the most notorious of the group, with several financial
blogs alluding to Emperial’s having had a hand in the recent meltdown of
several well-known stocks.

Janet was thinking of
the best way to present her findings to Lisa. Lisa’s initial assignment had only
included checking the verbiage of the client forms. Through her own initiative,
which she now regretted, Janet had unearthed deficiencies in Bostoff’s
operations. Now, she had to find a way to fix them, even if that meant
upsetting Lisa’s bridal mood.

The door to Lisa’s
office was closed. Janet was glad of the excuse to put off the unpleasant task,
but to satisfy her conscience, she gingerly knocked on the door.

“Come in!” Lisa called
through the door.

Janet forced herself to
straighten her back and open the door.

Lisa was on the phone
with her legs propped on her desk. She motioned for Janet to sit down.

“Yes.” Lisa waved her
hand impatiently. “I was calling to confirm my appointment for a facial – yes,
today at five. Perfect, thank you.” With a groan, Lisa hung up. “These people
have no idea of customer service. They charge five hundred dollars per visit
and have the nerve to put you on hold!”

Janet nodded politely.
She did not really have much to say on the subject of a five-hundred-dollar
facial, but the mysterious processes it involved had to be worth it.

“I know – five hundred
dollars is a lot, but they are really very good. It’s this Japanese place, and
after they do their magic, your skin literally glows. I only go there for
special occasions, and next week is my and Paul’s company engagement party. I
would have preferred an appointment next week, but they only had a slot for
today, so I’ll sneak out a little early. You’ve got my back, right?”

“Of course.”

“Thanks.” Lisa sighed.
“And here I was hoping that after I got engaged, I would not have to ask a
question like that, but somehow Paul has gotten it into his head that I
actually enjoy working here. He thinks I want to contribute to the company.”
Lisa rolled her eyes. “I guess I should take credit for that. I’ve always been
a good actress. Remember the time I played Juliet in our high school play?”

“I remember.” Janet
struggled to keep a straight face: Lisa had recited her lines monotonously, but
the low-cut bust line of her costume had more than made up for that lapse, at
least with the male audience.

“Those were the days:
we were so full of hope and promise…” Lisa looked away wistfully. “Well, I
guess I’ll just have to keep my act up until Paul and I tie the knot. Once I’m
Mrs. Bostoff, I’ll be home free. But enough about me. How are you doing?
Everything okay?”

“Actually, Lisa, I
wanted to talk to you about the client forms …”

“Ah, yes, how’s that
going?”

“Well, I found some
things that may be of concern…”

“Are the forms missing
any items that we should be asking for?”

“The forms are perfect,
but…”

“Whew, you had me
worried there.” Lisa mock-wiped her forehead.

“But some of the
documents are missing,” Janet continued. “I found five customer files that are
missing addresses and ownership information.”

“Only five? That hardly
sounds alarming.”

“Yes, but there is a
pattern: Emperial, Creaton, Rigel, Gemini, and Sphinx are the hedge funds that
we are missing this information for, and all of them have had regulatory
sanctions in the past.”

“Hmmm… It’s probably
nothing more than a simple omission. Have you talked to the Operations group
about this? I think the woman’s name is Rosemarie.”

“I was going to talk to
her next, but I wanted to speak to you first. Here is some information on these
hedge funds that I found online.” Janet handed Lisa the printouts.

Lisa glanced at the
papers that Janet placed on her desk. “These days every firm on the street is
getting smacked. Just remember that you don’t work for the DA anymore, and in
the real world things aren’t always perfect. I’m sure there’s a perfectly
reasonable explanation for all of this. Just talk to Rosemarie, okay?” Lisa’s
tone sharpened, “I don’t want this to become our problem. Let Rosemarie resolve
it, got it?”

“Yes.” Janet bit her
lip. Without her boss backing her up, how was she to do her job?

“Oh, and Janet – did
you sign your new hire forms? Jon was asking me about them.”

“I meant to do that.
I’ll drop them off with human resources.”

“Oh, I almost forgot.”
Lisa perked up. “This weekend, my folks are having a little party to celebrate
my and Paul’s engagement. You’re coming, right?”

Janet nodded. She had
told Lisa that she would be going to Long Island to visit her folks and there
was no escape now.

“Great, it will be so
much fun!”

“I’m looking forward to
it already.”

“Well, I’ll be leaving
soon – I need to run some errands before my appointment.” Lisa reached for her
purse.

After Lisa left, Janet
headed for the Operations area, hoping that Rosemarie would have the answers
she needed.

“Hey there, Janet.”
Rosemarie looked up from her desk.

“Hi, Rosemarie. I don’t
mean to bother you, but I’m still learning the ropes, and I had some questions
I was hoping you could help me with.”

“Sure, Janet, pull up a
chair. What can I do you for?”

Janet took a seat. “I
was looking through the client files and found that some accounts were missing some
information.”

“Which accounts are
those?”

“Emperial, Creaton,
Rigel, Gemini, and Sphinx are all missing ownership information, and addresses.”

Rosemarie rubbed her neck.
“These are major clients; I’m sure there’s an explanation for each of them.”
Rosemarie punched in a few keys on her computer. “Just as I thought. The
information has been requested from the clients. It’s company policy to open an
account while pending document submission.”

“I understand
completely. Big clients have to be accommodated.”

Relief flashed in
Rosemarie’s eyes. “The kind of revenue we’re getting from these boys warrants
any number of paperwork exemptions, if you get my drift.”

“Of course. They are
major players in the market.”

“That they are.”
Rosemarie pointed to the pile of paper on her desk. “These are the trades from
last week. Just look at the volumes from Emperial.”

The report had hundreds
of entries, and Janet needed more time to make sense of it. “Do you mind if I
take a look at these at my desk? I just want to make sure that there’s nothing
for the auditors to be alarmed by.”

“Well, I need this
copy, but Jon authorized your access, correct?”

Janet nodded. “I’ve
been asked to help with the audit.”

“The reports are saved on
the Operations computer drive. It’s password protected.” Rosemarie scribbled
the password on a Post-it. “Here you go. Make sure to commit it to memory. We would
not want anyone who isn’t authorized to get access to this data.”

“Thank you, Rosemarie,
you’ve been most helpful.”

With her heart racing,
Janet walked back to her office. She had not exactly lied to Rosemarie, but she
did not tell her the truth either. The truth was that Janet was disobeying her
boss’s instructions.

“Busy day?” Dean Snider
poked his head through the doorway of Janet’s office.

At the sight of the
unexpected visitor, Janet wished she had kept the door closed. “Um, yes. I’m
catching up on some work, preparing for the audit.” Janet hoped Dean would take
the hint and leave. Under a different set of circumstances, chatting with the
cute IT engineer would have been fun, but not when there were piles of confidential
reports on her desk: reports she was not supposed to have access to.

“Sounds serious.” Dean
eased himself into Janet’s office. “Wow, just think of all those killed trees.”
Dean clicked his tongue, eyeing the stacks of paper on her desk.

Janet blushed. Dean did
have a point, but if he had any inkling about the kind of information she was
looking for, he would understand that, although important in the grand scheme
of things, environmental concerns were the least of her current worries. “I’ll
be sure to recycle when I’m done.” Janet eyed the door pointedly, hoping that
her insistent visitor would get the hint.

“You don’t look like
you’re having a good day.” Dean flashed Janet a smile that was intended to
charm her, but instead annoyed her. Ignoring her mute stare, he continued, “I
think I’ve got something to cheer you up. There will be a company party next
week.” Dean placed a color-printed leaflet on Janet’s desk. “And I was hoping
that you would agree to be my date.”

Janet picked up the
leaflet Dean had put on her desk: it was an invitation to Lisa’s and Paul’s engagement
party. “I’ll have to go. Lisa is my boss.”

“And Paul is everyone’s
boss,” Dean added. “So, yes, I think it’s a good idea to attend, but that still
doesn’t answer my question. Will you be my date?”

Janet lowered her eyes.
She wanted to say yes, but she had already promised Lisa that she would talk to
Tom Wyman at the party. Not that Janet was particularly interested in keeping
her promise, but she knew only too well that when Lisa had her mind set on
something, she never took no for an answer. But just because Janet could not
say yes did not mean that she had to say no, at least not exactly. “I didn’t
know it was necessary to have a date for a corporate party.”

“Is that a no?” Dean’s
fallen expression made him look even more endearing.

“I didn’t say that.”
Janet had to admit that she liked toying with him. “Tell you what – I am going
to be there, and you are going to be there, so there’s no reason why we
shouldn’t be able to have a drink or two, as coworkers.”

“Coworkers.” Dean
mulled the word over. “I’ll take that to start with, as long as you promise me
a date in the future.”

“The future is
unpredictable,” replied Janet. Dean Snider was bringing out the flirt in her.

“I’ll take the absence
of a definite no as a possible yes. And now I will let you get back to your
work. I’ll be looking forward to next Thursday,” added Dean before closing the
door behind him.

Me too, Janet thought.
Dean Snider certainly was not nearly as dashing or successful as Tom Wyman, but
there was just something about the guy that made Janet spark every time she saw
him.

***

Dennis Walker sat
behind his desk with a smile glinting on his face. He had stopped by Janet
Maple’s office for a casual chitchat, but when he noticed the papers on her
desk, Dennis knew he had struck gold. Dennis considered himself to be in
possession of many unique and valuable traits, but the trait that had proven to
be exceptionally beneficial to him was a photographic memory. He could
literally glance at a page in a book and be able to reconstruct the image in his
mind afterwards. This quality had been most useful in his college days and in
his career as a trader, but it became invaluable in Dennis’s role as an
investigator.

As he pretended to look
at his computer screen, Dennis reconstructed the details of the data he had
glimpsed on Janet’s desk. He had only managed to steal a few quick glances, but
even that had been enough. Dennis remembered with vivid clarity the cluster of
orders from Emperial, Creaton, and Rigel. They were all centered in the company
had been in the news lately for sharp decline in its stock price. He had only
seen a snippet, but he was fairly certain that the rest of the data would show
a similar pattern.

Dennis had been trying
to get his hands on this information for a while, but all his attempts to gain
access to it had failed. Who would have thought that the firm’s legal
department would have access to such nitty-gritty data? Normally, the legal
folks deemed themselves too important to mar their hands with anything other
than legalese mumbo jumbo. Janet Maple, however, did not mind getting her hands
dirty, which made Dennis like her all the more. Now, he had a valid reason to
get to know Janet better.