This Tangled Thing Called Love: A Contemporary Romance Novel

by Marie Astor

  “So nice to see you again, Janet.” Tom beamed her a smile, and Janet found herself wondering whether he bleached his teeth, which could put a Colgate commercial to shame. “So how do you find your second day at the firm?”

  “Great, thank you. I’ve just been going through some paperwork.” Janet sensed Tom’s eyes alternating from her face to the neckline of her blouse and finally settling on her face, for which he went up a notch in her book.

  “Ah, yes – the infamous non-disclosure paperwork, which I’m proud to say I drafted myself.”

  Janet shot Tom a curious glance, unsure whether to raise her concerns.

  “It’s nothing to be alarmed about,” Tom addressed her silent question. “For someone like yourself, the paperwork is a mere formality. We legal folks are more than aware of the importance of confidentiality, but some of the traders we’ve got working here may not be as sensitive… The biggest risk comes with disgruntled employees – whether laid off or leaving because of personal differences, unethical employees will try to take their revenge on the firm by spreading false rumors, and the purpose of the non-disclosure paperwork is to stop them from doing just that.”

  “I see.” Janet nodded. “I’ll have it completed shortly.”

  “So, are you ready for your first lesson in special purpose vehicles?” Tom grabbed a chair and pulled it behind Janet’s desk, settling next to her.

  “We could go into a conference room,” Janet faltered. Her office suddenly seemed incredibly small with Tom being so close to her, causing her to question her outfit. Perhaps, she should have worn a blouse with a higher neckline after all.

  “Why bother? It’s nice and cozy here.”

  Janet sensed Tom’s shiny black eyes on her, as his knee brushed against her thigh and froze like a rabbit hypnotized by a python. Her earlier plans to flirt with Tom Wyman seemed juvenile now – Janet was no match for her overpowering opponent. Tom Wyman’s masculine presence made it clear that he was not the kind of man to be toyed around with: he expected a woman to either go all in or stay out of his way. And Janet certainly was not ready to go all in. She was not even ready to have Tom’s knee brush her thigh.

  Janet’s thoughts must have been plastered all over her face because a moment later Tom pushed his chair away from hers.

  “Right, so here’s a quick overview of Bostoff’s entities…” Tom shifted his chair back and opened his briefcase, laying a thick manila folder on the desk.

  It must have been an accident, Janet thought of Tom’s earlier touch – either that or the man was an expert actor.

  “So for every type of business activity there is a specially created offshore entity?” Janet asked, examining the chart that Tom laid before her.

  “Depends on the activity, but when it makes market and regulatory sense, yes. All of the swaps business is conducted out of the Cayman Islands entity, as is the IPO business. Bostoff Securities is a broker dealer registered in the U.S., so that puts us under significant regulatory scrutiny from the U.S. regulators, but we hardly keep any activity in the broker dealer. We try to do as much as possible in the hedge fund, Bostoff Capital, which is a stand-alone Cayman entity.”

  “I see.” Janet hoped that her bewilderment was not apparent on her face as she examined the chart of Bostoff entities. She had never seen a corporate chart so convoluted, but at the moment, she did not know enough about Bostoff’s business to ask intelligent questions, so she decided to listen to Tom for fear of appearing a novice. After all, Tom was a partner at Ridley Simpson, which was a top-ten national law firm, and the corporate structure he approved had to be legitimate.

  “As far as the actual creation of offshore entities is concerned, the process has pretty much been streamlined, so you won’t have to do anything there; I’ll take care of that.” Tom smiled. “Your judgment will be needed when business groups come up with new ventures - that’s when you are to call me in to come up with a game plan.”

  Janet felt her face grow warm – she was going to have a talk about this with Lisa. She might not have Tom Wyman’s expertise, but she was not going to sit on her butt, deferring all decisions to him. At least she hoped that that was not the ‘job’ that Lisa had hired her for.

  Janet sensed Tom’s searching gaze upon her. “I thought Lisa had explained the structure to you already. Bostoff keeps a very lean internal legal staff, with the bulk of the work outsourced to Ridley Lewis or yours truly.” Tom bowed.

  “Lisa gave me a cursory overview,” Janet lied. Other than her title, Lisa had hardly explained the details of Janet’s employment at Bostoff Securities at all, but when faced with a choice between being a department store clerk and an assistant general counsel at Bostoff Securities, the latter seemed like a much more attractive option, at least at the time. “I look forward to working with you, Tom.” Janet conjured up her most guileless smile. “These structures seem so complicated. I will need all the help I can get to get up to speed.”

  “Not to worry, Janet. That’s what I’m here for. Now, let’s go over some of the recently created entities…”

  An hour later Janet found her head spinning from all the information that Tom Wyman had imparted to her. He had assured her that the Bostoff Securities structure was perfectly legitimate and allowed the firm to receive maximum benefits under U.S. tax law while relieving the firm of unnecessary regulatory burdens and thereby ultimately benefitting the investors by maximizing profits and minimizing costs. But while Tom’s flowery assurances were spoken with much confidence, Janet felt a steady sense of unease growing inside her. During her time at the DA’s office, she had questioned her share of white collar crooks, and she saw an unnerving similarity between Tom’s gregarious demeanor and the subjects of her previous investigations.

  Janet picked up her notes from her meeting with Tom and headed into Lisa’s office. She had half-expected Lisa to barge in on her and Tom, but Lisa had exhibited uncharacteristic restraint and had stayed away. Lisa’s office was a few doors away from Janet’s office and when she reached it, Janet saw that the door was closed. She deliberated between walking away and knocking, deciding to take her chance on the latter, but received no answer. Janet pressed her ear against the door and received silence in response. She noticed that there was no light underneath the door, and when she tried the door handle, she saw that Lisa’s office was locked. Her second day on the job, and her boss was nowhere in sight to give her direction.

  “Ms. Foley is out of the office today,” Janet heard a voice behind her.

  She turned around and saw a plump woman with curly black hair and brown eyes.

  “Hi, I’m Meredith, Meredith Crooner – Ms. Foley’s paralegal. And you must be Ms. Maple? I was just headed to your office to introduce myself.”

  “Hi, Meredith, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Please, call me Janet.”

  “Thank you, Janet. Ms. Foley told me that I’ll be working for you as well, so any assignments that you might have, I’ll be glad to take over.”

  “Thank you, Meredith. I’ll let you know as soon as I have something.” Janet marveled at her growing ability to embellish the truth. She hardly knew what she was doing, let alone giving assignments to anyone.

  “Well, I should be getting back to my desk – my cubicle is right over there.” Meredith motioned to a row of cubicles to the left of the hallway. “Just call me if you need anything.”

  “Thank you, Meredith.”

  Janet headed back to her office: Lisa’s absence would give her ample time to brush up on SPVs and at least try to take a crack at understanding Bostoff Securities’ corporate structure.

  Chapter 3

  Dennis Walker was giving himself a mental browbeating for nearly blowing his cover. What on earth had possessed him to get all mushy with that stand-offish girl whose computer he had been fixing or, to be more specific, bugging? Well, actually, Dennis knew perfectly well what had possessed him. The girl was damn good-looking, and if he had to admit to having any weaknesses, it was to n
ot being able to pass by a pretty skirt without looking and, preferably, much more than just looking. Still, this was work – not play, and if he wanted to get that promotion he had set his eyes on since he had started his career in the Department of Treasury Investigations Unit, he’d better get his mind out of the gutter and get focused on the game.

  Still, even with today’s minor lapse, Dennis could afford to pat himself on the back: he had already tapped into the most critical employees’ computers, and the data that he needed to substantiate the case was flowing in. The most difficult part of his assignment would be to remain undiscovered, which, as the morning had shown, was going to be much trickier than Dennis had anticipated. Playing the role of Dean Snider was proving to be more challenging than he had expected. Dennis was a naturally social creature who was keenly aware of his masculine charms, which he enjoyed exercising on members of the female sex with great success. Dean Snider, on the other hand, was a mousy and shabbily pathetic excuse of a man who was afraid of his own shadow – a role that Dennis detested playing, but was determined to excel at, lest his boss prove to be correct in his initial intention to give the assignment to Laskin. Dennis scratched his neck, which was beginning to chafe from the rigid collar of his cheap shirt, and focused his attention on his computer monitor.

  As a senior member of the IT department at Bostoff Securities, Dennis had the administrative rights to his computer and to those of the firm’s employees, which allowed him to install the data gathering software on the employees’ machines and receive real-time data feedback on his machine. The fact that his desk was smack in the middle of the trading floor made matters difficult. With a title like Chief IT Analyst, Dennis had expected to be allotted an office or at least a cubicle, but apparently Bostoff Securities was short on real estate. Thankfully, the software was transferring the data over a web-based connection to the server that the Treasury Department had sourced out for the investigation. The initial prep work of data sorting was to be conducted by junior analysts at the Treasury, and in the evenings, after having spent the day behind his desk at Bostoff, in the privacy of his home office, Dennis would catch up on the reports prepared for him. A work schedule that intense would pretty much eliminate any presence of social life for the duration of the assignment, but Dennis was used to making sacrifices when they were worth it. The mere opportunity of infiltrating Bostoff was a huge stroke of luck. Who would have thought that Bostoff’s IT department would post an opening for an IT specialist just as the Treasury Department’s Investigations unit was looking for an entry to gather additional evidence to build their case? The chances were zero to none, and yet, an opening had come up. Some would call it happenstance, some divine providence, and some pure dumb luck, but if anyone had asked Dennis for an explanation of this fortuitous timing, he would have replied simply – the bad guys always got caught because, sooner or later, they always got sloppy.

  Dennis Walker had a multitude of talents to his name, but superior knowledge of IT was not one of them. He had picked up plenty of tricks during his employment with the Treasury – enough to make him seem like a computer pro to a person possessing average prowess in computers. But Head of IT at Bostoff would not be someone with average prowess, or so Dennis had thought when he had begun his prep work for the interview, which had involved spending five hours a day with the top analysts of Treasury’s IT department. Even so, Dennis was nervous when the interview day came. Once he met his boss-to-be, Warren Merchant, Dennis knew he was safe. After a fifteen minute conversation, it became apparent that Warren Merchant knew about as much about IT infrastructure as Dennis knew about classical ballet, which was not much. Apparently, Bostoff Securities was not all that discerning when it came to hiring staff for the support functions – a factor that played to Dennis’s advantage. Not only did Warren Merchant give him the job, he would be unable to detect the spyware Dennis had installed on the company computers if his life depended on it.

  All in all, Dennis had every right to be pleased with his progress so far, and yet, he could not help the uneasiness in his chest. Everything that he had learned about Bostoff Securities so far indicated that the firm was knee-deep in financial violations. Dennis had no compunction about putting away the top brass who were the organizers and the leaders of the corrupt scheme, but, invariably, the rest of the employees would get caught in the mix. People who worked simple jobs without having an inkling about the corruptness of their employer would end up unemployed, with blemished resumés to boot. Such thoughts had rarely troubled Dennis during his previous investigations, but then this was going to be his biggest case to date…

  Still, Dennis had not been bothered with such scrupulous considerations when he had set out to bug Bostoff Securities’ newly hired lawyer’s computer. But after meeting Janet Maple face to face, he wished he had left her off the radar. After all, she was only a junior lawyer, and Dennis already knew that all the important legal work was being farmed out to Ridley Simpson law firm, specifically to the slickster, Tom Wyman. Now, Wyman’s computer would be worth bugging, but during his visits to Bostoff, Tom Wyman always used his personal laptop, which made it virtually impossible for Dennis to gain access to it. It would take time to gather evidence for the case, and Dennis hoped that for her sake, Janet Maple would find other employment in the meantime. An employment record with a corrupt broker-dealer would not be a plus on any lawyer’s resume, and Dennis certainly did not want to be the one responsible for a pretty woman’s loss of her ability to earn a living.