3 Bad Guys Get Caught (11 page)

They found a salad bar nearby and went
inside.

“So,” said Katie once they were seated
with their no-dressing, no-bacon, no-avocado, no-cheese Cobb salads. “What’s
going on between you and Dennis?”

“What? Why? Why does anything have to be
going on?”

“Come on, Janet. I’m not that obsessed
with all this wedding hoopla not to notice. You’re jumpy, you’re distracted,
you’re not you, which means that something is going on.”

“Whoa! Wedding hoopla? Seems to me you
were singing a different tune just now.”

Katie lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry. I
know that sometimes I go overboard. It’s just that I want everything to be
perfect for Adam, and I’m not very good at planning things.”

“Katie, you and Adam, that’s what
matters. He loves you, and I’m sure that he couldn’t care less if a few things
went off track; not that we’d let that happen,” Janet added hastily.
“Everything will be perfect, trust me.”

“How can you promise me that if you’ve
got other things on your mind? We’ve been friends for a long time and we tell
each other everything. Now tell me what’s wrong.”

Janet sighed. It was useless to try to
keep things from Katie. “It’s this case we’re working on.”

“That same case that you told me about
before?”

“Yeah.”

“Is Dennis still showing off? Is that
what you’re moping about?”

“Not exactly. He went undercover—”

“Well, he’s done that before.”

“He’s never asked out a woman as part of
an assignment. You should see this girl, Katie. She looks like a super model.
Of course he told me that it was only to get information out of her, but how am
I supposed to just sit back and believe it? I mean, am I crazy to be jealous?”

“Don’t you trust him?”

“I trust him, but it doesn’t make it any
easier.”

“I know. Of course you’re upset about
it. Otherwise it would mean that you don’t love him. A few months ago Adam had
this really sexy client; this woman was gorgeous and filthy rich, a recent
widow who’d received a sizeable fortune from a much older husband. She kept
requesting appointments with Adam for things that could be easily discussed
over the phone, asking him out to lunches. I’d get really annoyed, but he would
just laugh it off, saying that he was billing her handsomely. In the end, the
woman did try to make a pass at him, and Adam terminated the client relationship
immediately. Adam made this decision on his own. You have to trust Dennis to
make the same decision.”

“I know.” Janet nodded.

“I’m sure there had to be a very good
reason for Dennis to go for this lead. After all, it’s not as though he’d used
flirtation to get a lead before—there had to be good reasons for him to do
this.” Katie checked her watch. “I’m sorry, honey, I have to run. I already
took a super long lunch, and in order for us to afford this wedding, Adam and I
both need to be working.”

“See you later Katie. I’m sorry to be
such a drag.”

“That’s what friends are for, to be
drags to each other and not mind.”

After Katie had gone, Janet pushed away
her unfinished salad. Suddenly, it dawned on her; Dennis had used flirtation to
get a case lead before. In fact, that was how the two of them had met. At the
time, Dennis had been working for the Treasury on an undercover assignment at
Bostoff Securities, a brokerage securities firm where Janet had had the
misfortune of working as an assistant general counsel. She remembered how
charming he had been, always chatting her up in the hallways, his dazzling blue
eyes and alluring smile tugging at her heart strings until he revealed that he
was an investigator for the Treasury and her only option was to cooperate with
him. Later on, he claimed that his attraction to her had been completely
unplanned, had in fact almost derailed the entire investigation, and that he
had never fallen for a woman on the job before. Janet had believed him, but now
she was beginning to have doubts.

***

As they walked down an alley in Central
Park, Dennis eyed Mila out of the corner of his eye. He knew the type well;
women like her thought they were God’s gift to men. He was practically an
expert on the subject; he almost married one. He smiled inwardly at Janet’s
earlier reaction; the fact that she was worried over the possibility of him
being interested in Mila was simply ridiculous. There was no denying that
according to the beauty standards imposed by fashion magazines Mila was drop
dead gorgeous, if one were to use such dubious sources as a measure of
attractiveness, of course. Long legs, full lips, sultry eyes; Mila had the
whole package going for her. There had been a time in his life when Dennis
would have jumped at the bait, but not now, not since he’d fallen for Janet.
Compared to Janet’s feminine curves, Mila’s overly thin frame seemed skeletal
and angular, as though she were walking on stilts. Even worse was her demeanor:
she carried herself as though she were the Queen of Sheba. Dennis reminded
himself that he didn’t go out with Mila to criticize her looks and personality.
He went out with her to get information, and in order to do that he had to
convince her that he found her attractive. A task that shouldn’t prove too difficult,
given the amount of practice that he’d had.

It wasn’t hard to get women to like you:
charm, wit, and good manners could do wonders. Of course good looks didn’t hurt
either. Dennis wasn’t vain, but knew that he had the looks department covered.
There had been a period in his life, and he wasn’t proud of it, when he had
been chasing skirt after skirt, using the cheap thrill of his conquests to
chase away the pain and the shame of his past. He was a different person now;
he had rebuilt his life, paid his dues, and finally, he found the woman he
loved, and who he knew loved him. Ever since he’d been with Janet, he’d never
strayed, and he wasn’t about to start now. This was purely professional, not
that he was all that happy about the prospect of pimping himself out for a case
lead. He would have much rather preferred to use his brains rather than his
charms, but time was ticking on the Libby case, and they were so far behind
that desperate measures were needed.

“It’s beautiful here,” Dennis remarked
casually.

“Yes, it’s a wonderful day.”

“I must say that I’m very grateful for
your taking the time to show me around.”

“Oh, it’s my pleasure,” Mila replied. “I
simply love New York! Central Park is my favorite spot. Whenever I have time, I
love coming here for a run.”

“Do you work a lot?”

“A girl’s got to make a living.”

“Have you always worked in the
restaurant business?”

“Not always. I have a finance degree
from a university in Prague, but it’s not of much value here. So I’ve got to
take what I can get.”

This was news; girls like Mila usually
thought that working for a living was beneath them. “I think you should be a
model or an actress,” Dennis went for the flattery bit.

Mila smiled, playing around with her
hair, which was arranged in intricate waves around her shoulders. “Enough about
me. Tell me about yourself, Dennis from Chicago. What’s it like being a private
investigator?”

“Oh, it’s like any other job really,
except for the stability part of it. I get a case, and I do my best to get it
solved. If I succeed, I get paid; if not, better luck next time.”

“What kind of cases?”

“It varies from background checks to
jealous wives wanting to nail their cheating husbands.”

“So you’re out trailing people, like
Hercule Poirot or James Bond?”

Dennis shook his head, laughing. “Not
really. You’d be surprised how much information you can get from electronic
records. Most of my work is behind the desk.”

“So you must be really good with
computers?” Mila asked.

“Not bad,” Dennis admitted.

“Do you know how to hack a computer
password? Or break into a safe?”

“Now you are asking me for my
professional secrets,” Dennis jeered. “Seriously, why do you ask?”

“Oh, just curious.” Mila shrugged. “Must
be so exciting to be living on the edge.”

“Trust me my job is nothing like living
on the edge.”

“Okay, Dennis, I’ll take your word for
it.”

Dennis sensed Mila’s hand brush against
his, but pretended not to notice.

“Look, it’s the Metropolitan Museum,”
Mila remarked. “I didn’t realize that we were walking towards it.”

Sure, Dennis thought. He doubted that
anything Mila did was unplanned; from the choice of her attire, mini dress and
high heels, to the route Mila had selected (instead of the usual tourist
staples, like elbowing their way through Times Square and going up the Empire
State Building they had spent the afternoon meandering through Central Park),
it was clear that she had planned their outing with a purpose in mind. The
question was why? Dennis was too sharp to attribute Mila’s interest in him to
pure physical attraction; women like Mila didn’t chase after men, and now that
Mila had shown such keen interest in his job, he suspected that he had been
right. The question was: what was it that she was after and why?

“Should we go inside?” Mila asked. “This
time of the year the rooftop garden is open. They serve cocktails up there, and
the view is incredible.”

“Cocktails at a museum? That sounds
wonderful. I’d been to the Metropolitan before, but I had no idea that you
could go up on the roof,” Dennis lied. He knew the spot well; in fact, it had
been one of the first places he’d taken Janet to when they began dating.

“Well then, let’s go.”

They made their way up the massive front
stairs. Dennis bought the tickets and grabbed the museum map to reinforce the
tourist image.

“Oh, you won’t need the map,” said Mila.
“I know this place by heart. My cousin drags me in here all the time.”

“You have family in New York?”

“Just my cousin.” Mila’s face hardened.
“She used to be a tour guide in Prague. Of course she doesn’t need to do that
anymore now that she’s married, but she loves museums.”

“What does her husband do?”

“He’s a documentary producer. It’s just
a hobby of his. He’s very wealthy, so he doesn’t really need to work and
neither does my cousin. She volunteers at the museum twice a week. Some people
have it too good.”

From the sour expression on Mila’s face,
Dennis surmised that she thought she had been cheated out of her destiny. It
was a good thing that she didn’t know that both Janet and he had contributed to
putting her ex-boyfriend in jail.

“Shall we?” Mila asked. “I’ll be your
personal tour guide.”

“Sounds like a real treat,” Dennis
obliged her.

They passed through the galleries, with
Mila making occasional remarks that were just deep enough to create an illusion
of well-roundedness. However to Dennis, who had at one point in his life
aspired to be an art collector and had later on furthered his expertise in the
subject due to the nature of his work, Mila’s comments were glaringly
superficial. Of course he acted impressed each time, diligently complimenting
Mila.

“Here’s the elevator that goes to the
roof garden,” Mila announced with palpable relief.

“I must say, this was a very special
tour,” said Dennis. “You are the best guide I’ve ever had.”

Mila preened. “Come on then, you haven’t
seen the best part yet.”

After a quick elevator ride, the doors
opened, revealing the magnificent view of the Metropolitan Museum roof garden.

“How magnificent,” said Dennis with
genuine awe. He had seen this view countless times, but it never failed to impress
him.

“It is gorgeous,” Mila confirmed.

“Now how about that cocktail?” Dennis
asked. “Now, don’t laugh, but I’ve been told that I have a gift for guessing a
woman’s favorite drink.”

“Oh do you, now? And just how often do
you exercise this gift?”

“I only use it on the most special
occasions. If you’ll permit me, I’d like to try it now.”

Mila threw her head back with a laugh.
“By all means!”

“A Cosmopolitan.”

“How did you know that?”

“I told you, I have a gift.” Dennis
grinned. His other choice had been apple martini, but he went with Cosmopolitan
because Janet had mentioned that Mila was a fan of
Sex and the City
. “I
see the perfect spot right over there.” Dennis motioned to an opening in the
cluster of people by the balustrade with the perfect view of the park. “Why
don’t you hold it for us while I get the drinks?”

“I’ll be waiting.”

“Here you are.” Dennis handed Mila her
drink.

“Cheers!” Mila exclaimed, clinking her
glass against Dennis’s beer. “To new friends.”

“To new friends.”

Mila took a long swallow of her drink.
“Mmm, delicious. So Dennis, how long are you in town for?”

“For about two weeks, maybe longer. I
needed a change of scenery, and one of the perks of being a freelancer is that
I can take off whenever I want as long I have enough in my bank account to pay
the bills. Plus with Grandma’s birthday coming up, I had the perfect excuse to
come up.”