To Catch a Bad Guy (Book One of the Janet Maple Series)

by Marie Astor

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 D
ean 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.

  The End

  Please read on for an excerpt from Catching the Bad Guy, book two of the Janet Maple series.