To Catch a Bad Guy (25 page)

“Ms. Foley, I thought
you might want to see this.” Meredith placed a copy of the New York Post on
Lisa’s desk.

Lisa resisted the urge
to grimace. It was just like Meredith to read the New York Post. She was about
to ask what Meredith’s point was when the headline hit her: “Company CEO Sues Bostoff
Securities for Stock Manipulation.” Lisa frowned, her eyes glued to the text:

“Andrew Foley, founder
and CEO of Date Magic dot com, Inc., is suing Bostoff Securities for market
manipulation of the company stock. Date Magic was initially a private company,
but had recently gone public. Subsequent to the IPO, shares of Date Magic
experienced a steady decline in price, which Foley attributes to manipulative
trading tactics of Bostoff Securities. Date Magic’s attorneys filed the lawsuit
this morning. Bostoff Securities were served with the summons, but no comment
had been made by the defendant.”

Lisa looked up at
Meredith, who was nervously hovering over her desk. “Thank you, Meredith; I’ll
get right on it.”

Despite Lisa’s tone
making it clear that Meredith’s presence was no longer required, Meredith
remained by her desk. “Am I going to lose my job?” Meredith asked, wringing her
hands. “I’ve got two kids going to college next year. I can’t afford to be
unemployed.”

Lisa pursed her lips.
If the article’s allegations were even remotely true, Bostoff’s employees would
all be facing much bigger problems than being unemployed. For now, saving face
was the name of the game; she must not let the others see her panic.

“Meredith, that’s utter
nonsense. You are smarter than that. Bostoff Securities is a reputable firm
with stellar track record in the financial industry. Its standing will not be
affected by baseless accusations and frivolous lawsuits.” Lisa’s voice sounded
so convincing that for a moment, she almost believed her own words.

“Thank you, Ms. Foley.
I was really worried there for a while. Well, I’ll leave you to it; let me know
if you need any help.”

Once the door of her
office was closed again, Lisa succumbed to her panic, staring at the newspaper
in terrified incomprehension. How could a disaster like that have happened? And
worst of all, what on earth was she going to do if the article’s accusations
were indeed true? The fact that the plaintiff was her own cousin did not make
matters any easier. Now, she felt like twice the fool: not only did she have no
idea about the affairs of Bostoff, she was clueless about her own family
members.

Janet had been right.
Lisa’s cousin, Andrew, was a scumbag. The least he could have done was to warn
Lisa that he was going to sue the company she worked for, the company she
happened to be the general counsel of, for manipulating his lame stock. The
nerve of the guy – just because the price of his pathetic stock could not hold
up did not mean that it was being manipulated, but simply meant that it was a
good-for-nothing company.

Oh, this was exactly
what Lisa needed smack in the middle of her wedding plans. She wanted to be
picking out flower arrangements and deciding on catering venues, not refuting a
lawsuit summons. Not that she could effectively do the latter even if she
tried: Tom Wyman would have to step in. Lisa wondered if Paul and Jon knew
about this already. They had to. The article said that Bostoff Securities had
been served with the summons, but if this were the case, then why hadn’t Lisa
heard anything about it? She needed to speak to Paul pronto.

“Lisa?” Paul stood in
the doorway of her office.

Her fiancé’s timing
made Lisa jump in her chair. Normally, Paul avoided seeing her during business
hours. On several occasions, she had tried to get him to have sex with her on
his desk, but Paul had rejected the idea as inappropriate. He was a stickler
for propriety, which was one of the reasons why Lisa thought him to be great
husband material – or at least had thought him to be such until a few minutes
ago.

“Honey, did you see
this nonsense?” Lisa pointed to the newspaper on her desk. “I’m so embarrassed.
The company CEO is my cousin. He dropped the bomb on me. I swear I’m going to
do everything I can to convince him to abandon this frivolous lawsuit.”

“It’s all right. I’m
afraid it’s much bigger than this. Jon just called me. He wants us to come over
to his place. There are some things that he needs to explain to us.”

***

Dennis Walker studied
the expression on Hamilton Kirk’s face as he took a seat across from his boss’s
desk.

“Well, Dennis, it looks
like you really screwed the pooch on this one.” Ham flung a copy of the New
York Post towards Dennis.

Dennis’s face remained
impassive. Did his boss really think that Dennis did not keep up to date with
the newspapers?

“And the SEC has just
subpoenaed Bostoff this morning, cutting us off at the onset. Now, all the work
we’ve done is going down the drain, and the SEC will have the lead on the
case.” Kirk’s face was filled with chagrin. “I knew I should have given the job
to Laskin,” Kirk hissed. “There goes that promotion I’ve been hoping for.
Thanks for delaying my retirement by another five years.”

Dennis resisted a
smile: he was truly enjoying this.

“Ham, I think you might
change your mind after you read this.” He handed his boss a manila folder
containing the documents he had downloaded from Wyman’s laptop yesterday.

“What is it?” Kirk
glanced at the folder as though it were a piece of manure. “Could this be the
evidence you failed to procure during your time as undercover investigator at
Bostoff? Well, I’ve got news for you: it’s a little too late now.”

“I’d read it first,
sir.”

“Fine.” Kirk wrung the
papers out of the folder. At first, his face was stone cold, but as his eyes
read the first few lines, even Hamilton Kirk’s famous poker face failed him,
his expression alternating between amazement and delight.

For several moments Ham
Kirk remained silent, while his eyes burrowed hungrily into the papers before
him. Dennis steepled his hands and leaned back in his chair, watching his boss
devour the information that was bound to get them both promoted.

“Well, I’ll be damned –
you son of a gun.” Kirk raised the papers in his hand. “You’ve done it. Now,
we’ll finally be able to nail those hedge fund vultures good.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“I always give praise
when praise is due, Dennis, you know that. But first, I’ve got to make a few
calls. We’ve got to make sure that the SEC and the FBI understand that we’ll be
taking the lead on the case. Without us, they’ve only got a market manipulation
case against a single firm, but our evidence proves an organized manipulation
scheme. This is big, real big.

Dennis nodded. At the
moment, he knew better than to point out the fact that it was really his
evidence, his and Janet’s, but he was certainly going to make sure that Janet
Maple would get the credit she deserved.

Janet stood in front of
the Treasury building in downtown Manhattan. The strict, somber atmosphere of
the financial district suited her much better than the mayhem of midtown. Not
that it mattered. After her experience at Bostoff Securities, she did not see
herself working for a financial firm in the near future. In fact, she had no
idea what she was going to do after the investigation would be completed.
Perhaps she would reconsider her career options entirely. There were more
things to life than being a lawyer. She could go back to school for a Master of
Laws degree and teach, or she could do something completely different: she just
did not know exactly what it would be. She had aspired to bring order to Wall
Street, but had failed at that when she got let go from the DA’s office. She
had tried her hand at being a legal counsel, but had failed at that as well.
Ironically, in her failure, she had succeeded in fulfilling her initial
aspiration by helping Dean Snider unravel Emperial’s and Bostoff’s manipulative
trading scheme. Still, now that her work was done, her association with
Treasury and Dean Snider was over.

She had resigned from
Bostoff Securities shortly after Treasury had launched an official
investigation of Bostoff Securities: an announcement that coincided with Jon
Bostoff’s reaching out to the SEC and declaring his wish to cooperate with the
investigation. Jon Bostoff had admitted to being solely responsible for the
manipulative market activities being conducted by Bostoff Securities, stating
that his brother, Paul Bostoff, and his father, Hank Bostoff, were completely
unaware of the existence of the Impala Group and the relationship that Bostoff
Securities had with Emperial, Rigel, Creaton, Sphinx, and Gemini hedge funds.
The case promised long and difficult proceedings, but it was already becoming
apparent that the investigators’ attention was keenly focused on Emperial,
Rigel, Creaton, Sphinx, and Gemini, and that Jon Bostoff would receive credit
for his cooperation with the investigation.

Janet checked her
watch. It was time for her meeting. After a long, deep breath, she opened the
heavy door. The security in the building was extremely tight. Janet handed her
photo ID to the security guard. Then, she was asked to put her bag through the
x-ray machine conveyer and walk through a metal detector. It was like boarding
an airplane, only she was not going anywhere.

“Thank you, Miss. Who
are you here to meet?” The security guard asked her.

“Hamilton Kirk.”

“One moment.” The
security guard punched a few keystrokes on his keyboard and dialed a phone
number. “Someone will be right down to take you upstairs.”

Janet stood a few steps
away from the security desk, waiting for her escort.

A few minutes later, a
trim brunette in her early fifties approached the security desk.

“Janet?” The woman
looked at Janet questioningly.

“Yes.” Janet nodded.

“I’m Ann Smith – Ham
Kirk’s secretary.”

“Very nice to meet
you.” Janet shook the woman’s hand.

“It’s this way.” Ann
motioned to the elevators.

Janet followed Ann into
the elevator and afterwards into the long, official-looking hallway. They
walked past the row of offices until they reached the last office in the
corner. There, Ann stopped and knocked on the door.

“Janet Maple is here.”
After motioning for Janet to enter the room, Ann nodded curtly and left.

Janet lingered in the
doorway, taking in the surroundings. A lean middle-aged man with gray mustache
sat behind a large wooden computer desk. He must be Dean’s boss, Janet thought.
A moment later, her gaze was on Dean, who sat in the chair opposite the desk.
He rose from his seat to greet her, but his boss beat him to it.

“Janet, come in, come
in!” the gentleman with the gray mustache stretched out his hand. “It’s a
pleasure to finally meet you in person – I’m Hamilton Kirk.”

“It’s a pleasure to
meet you, Mr. Kirk, I’ve heard so much about you.”

Dean hurried to greet
her, “Hello, Janet.”

“Hi.” Janet smiled at
him. She had not seen much of him since the memorable evening when they had
abducted Tom Wyman’s laptop—the evening Dean had spent the night at her place.
By the time she had woken up, Dean had already left, and they had not talked
about that night since.

“Please, have a seat,”
said Ham.

Janet sat on the edge
of her seat, waiting for the meeting agenda to be revealed. She had no idea why
Ham Kirk wanted to meet her, but she suspected that it had something to do with
the investigation. Perhaps he wanted her to testify, which was something that
she had hoped would not come to pass, for she had no idea how she would face
Lisa or Paul Bostoff during a hearing.

“Janet, I wanted to
thank you personally for your contribution to the investigation,” Ham began. “Without
you, we would never have gathered the evidence for the case. Dennis spoke very
highly of you…”

“Dennis?” Janet cut in.

“Yes, Dennis – the
gentleman sitting next to you.” Ham’s matter-of-fact tone only confused her
further.

“Errr, I think there’s
a need for a slight clarification…” The man Janet knew as Dean Snider turned
bright red under Janet’s wide-eyed stare. “You see, Janet, while I was working
undercover at Bostoff, I couldn’t use my real name, so I had to use a
pseudonym, Dean Snider. My real name is Dennis Walker.”

“And you waited to tell
her this until now, Dennis?” Ham shook his head. “Your real name stopped being
a secret after your undercover work at Bostoff ended.”

Thanks a lot, Ham,
Dennis thought, adding, “Somehow it had not come up, sir.”

“Well, never mind. I
hope you won’t hold it against Dennis, Janet – he can be overly diligent when
it comes to sensitive matters. But most importantly, I hope that this little
misunderstanding will not affect your answer to the question I am about to ask
you now.” Ham paused. “How do you feel about employment with the Treasury? I
could use an investigator like you.”

Janet swallowed, too
stunned to speak. She had expected a request for her testimony or additional
evidence—anything—but an employment offer. This was her first time meeting
Hamilton Kirk. Up until now, she had submitted all of the evidence for the
investigation to Dean. “Don’t you want to interview me first?”

“I just did.” Ham
grinned. “The materials you submitted to aid the investigation told me all I
needed to know about your investigative skills, and meeting you face to face
confirmed my opinion. Well, I’m not going to put you on the spot now.” Ham
picked up a letter-sized brown envelope from his desk. “The details of the
offer are inside; I had HR put it together ahead of time. I hope that you will
say yes. By the way, Treasury offers excellent health and retirement benefits.
These things may not seem important to you now, but they do come in handy as
one gets older,” he added.

“Thank you, Mr. Kirk. I
very much appreciate your offer. It’s just that it comes as a bit of a
surprise.”

“I understand that. I
don’t expect an answer today, but I wanted to make you an offer in person
rather than sending it by mail. I hope to see you again soon, Janet. And please
call me Ham.”

“Thank you, Ham.” Janet
rose from her chair. “It was a pleasure to meet you. Now if you’ll excuse me,
I’ve got a big decision to make.”

“By all means.” Ham
nodded. “Dennis will walk you out.”

Dennis rose from his
chair.

“No need; I can find my
own way,” Janet retorted.

“I know you can, but
it’s office policy. Visitors must be accompanied at all times – a rule that I
hope you won’t be subjected to much longer,” Ham added.

“Thank you, Ham.”
Without another glance at Dennis, Janet walked towards the door. Her head was
spinning. She needed to get out of there quickly.

She walked brusquely
down the hallway, mechanically making a turn for the elevators.

“Janet!”

She kept walking,
ignoring Dean / Dennis calling her name. Miraculously, an elevator opened, and
she jumped inside, hitting the door close button.

“Janet!” Too late. The
doors closed shut, and the man she knew as Dean Snider was left standing in the
elevator bank.

When the elevator doors
opened, Janet walked out quickly and returned the visitor badge to the security
guard. Then she turned for the exit.

A moment later she was
outside, leaving the Treasury building behind her.

“Janet! Would you wait
a second! You can’t just run away from me!” A male hand touched her shoulder.

She turned around.
“What do you want, Dean? Oh, wait, it’s Dennis, isn’t it?”

“I’m sorry. I meant to
tell you, but somehow I never got around to it.”

“Or maybe you thought
you didn’t have to since you already had gotten everything you needed out of
me.”

“That’s not true, and
you know it.”

“Do I?”

“Look, aside from my
occupation and my name, I am the same man I was when I was working at Bostoff.”

“And who is that man? I
for one have no idea who he is.”

“He is the man who
would like to take you out to dinner. How does tonight at eight o’clock sound?”

“I have plans.” This,
of course, was a lie, but she was not about to let him know that she had no
social life to speak of.

“Break them.”

“Why should I? To hear
more of your lies?”

“To hear the truth,” he
paused, the blue-gray of his eyes locking in on her face. “Janet, I messed up.
People make mistakes. That’s what makes us human. Please, give me another
chance. Even Jon Bostoff got a concession from the investigators for his
cooperation, and surely, my transgressions are not nearly as bad.”

Janet smirked. The man
was funny. It was one of the first things that drew her to him: his wit and his
blue-gray eyes. “All right, eight o’clock tonight. Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.”
Dennis grinned.

“Then how will I know
where to meet you?”

“You won’t. I’ll pick
you up at eight.”

“Oh, right, you already
know the address.”

“That’s right. See you
tonight. And Janet?”

“Yes?”

“I hope you’ll accept
Ham’s offer. I think you’ll be great at the job.”

“I need some time to think
about it. It’s a big step.”

Dennis nodded. “Big
steps can lead to really great things.”

“You sound like an
expert.”

“Something like that. We
can discuss it in more detail over dinner tonight.”

“See you then.” As she turned
to walk away from Dennis, Janet could no longer suppress a smile spreading over
her lips. Dating a coworker could get complicated, but after everything she had
been through, she was certain that she could handle a little complexity in her
life.