3 Bad Guys Get Caught (5 page)

“What do you mean you can’t meet me
after work tonight?” Dennis asked. “We had plans. We were going to have dinner
and go over Libby’s file.”

“I just can’t,” Janet retorted.
“Something came up.” She had never been a good liar, and she certainly did not
want to lie to Dennis. Neither did she want to tell him that she had gotten a
waitressing job at the Panther restaurant, not yet.

“Is everything all right?”

“Everything is fine, Dennis. I have to
do something with my mom. It’s a family thing.”

“Oh, all right. If it’s family stuff, I
understand,” Dennis relented. Considering how little Dennis said about his
family, he certainly was in no position to criticize anyone for doing the same.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” Janet
rose from her seat. It was four-thirty, and if she was going to make it to her
new job on time, she had to leave now. Thankfully, she was already dressed. It
was going to be a long day, but she didn’t like her job because it was easy.

At five o’clock on the dot Janet walked
through the door of the Panther Restaurant and Lounge Club.

“You’ve made it,” Mila greeted her.

“Yes, hello,” Janet could feel her
nerves kicking in. Suddenly, she began to doubt the whole idea. The last time
she waitressed was in her freshman year of college. She didn’t last very long:
she’d quit after the first week and got a job at the library instead. How was
she going to pull this off?

Mila eyed Janet’s high heeled shoes.
“You won’t last very long in these. Come on, I’ll show you where the changing
room is.” Mila headed towards the staircase and Janet followed her.

“What dress size are you?” Mila asked.

“A six,” Janet gulped. Six was a
perfectly good size in her opinion, but she guessed that Mila was a four or
maybe even a two.

Mila plucked a sleek black dress off the
hanger. “This should fit. They used to order a new dress for each girl, but
we’ve had lots of defections lately and they’re recycling. It’s been dry
cleaned. Don’t worry, the girl who wore it before you only worked here for a
month.”

“I don’t mind,” Janet lied. She was
seriously considering walking out this very moment. “The material looks
expensive,” she added to sound more convincing.

“Don’t let it fool you. This place is as
cheap as can be. What size shoes do you wear?”

“A nine.”

“Me too. Here, you can wear my shoes for
tonight.” Mila handed Janet a pair of tasteful two-inch heels. “They’re still
dressy, but walkable. The things you have on will give you sciatica.”

“Thanks!”

“When you change, come up upstairs, and
I’ll show you the tables.”

Janet hurriedly pulled off her dress and
slipped into her uniform. Surprisingly, it fit her to a T. The material had an
expensive feel to it and the tailoring was exquisite. She slipped into Mila’s
shoes and pulled up her hair, applying a coat of lipstick to her lips. This was
an upscale restaurant, and she had to look the part, which was why she had worn
the stilettos in the first place, but apparently she had overdone it. She had a
lot to learn.

“Who are you?” were the first words that
Janet heard when she returned upstairs. They came from a tall, burly-looking
man with dark hair, red, thick lips, and large brown eyes. There was something
bovine in his expression that gave his face a repulsive look. The black curly
hair poking from the opened collar of his shirt completed the picture.

“I’m Janet … Janet Maple, the new
waitress.”

“Mila!!!” the man yelled.

“Yes?” Mila appeared by Janet’s side.
“Oh good, you changed. Now we can get to work. By the way, this is Roman; he’s
the junior manager.”

“I am the manager,” Roman snarled. “Get
to work you two. You and me, we will get to know each other later,” he added to
Janet.

“Don’t mind him,” Mila muttered, shoving
a menu into Janet’s hands. “You have to know all the dishes by heart. We take
orders without taking notes. Everything is committed to memory, and that’s not
counting the specials, which change daily.”

The instructions that were imparted on
Janet over the next two hours were overwhelming to say the least. She didn’t
remember waitressing being this complicated, but then she had never worked at a
five star restaurant before.

“Don’t sweat it,” Mila assured her.
“I’ll be there to help you out if you need me. Of course I get half of your
tips while you’re in training.”

Janet nodded. She didn’t get this job
for the tips. “Do the busboys get their share after that?”

“Don’t you worry about the busboys.
While you’re in training, I’m the only one you need to share with.”

Before she knew it, it was seven
o’clock. Janet smoothed her dress and ran her hands over her hair. Just relax,
she thought, you are here to learn about Petr Kovar. Make friends with the
staff, try to get them to open up and keep an eye on the patrons. Waitressing
is only a cover up. How hard can it be?

“Janet!” Mila’s voice snapped Janet to
attention. “I need you on table one right now.”

“Be right there.” Janet hurried to table
one, or at least she was fairly certain that it was table one since it was the
closest table to the entrance.

“Good evening, my name is Janet. I will
be taking care of you this evening,” she rattled off the greeting that Mila had
drummed into her.

“Taking care of us? I like that,” said
one of the men at the table. He was dressed in a collared shirt with blue
stripes, suspenders, and a purple tie. His hair was slicked back, curling
upwards at his neck.

“Easy there, Gary,” said the man’s
companion. “The girls will be here any minute. We’re waiting for the rest of
our party to arrive,” the man explained to Janet, pointing at the two empty
chairs.

“I see. Would you like anything to drink
in the meantime?” Janet offered.

“I’ll have vodka on the rocks,” said the
second man.

“I’ll have a cucumber martini,” said the
guy with the suspenders.

“I will be right back with your order,”
Janet assured them, praying that she wouldn’t forget the said order on the
spot.

“Janet! I need you on table three!”
Mila’s words intercepted Janet just as she was about to give the drinks order
to the bartender.

“All right, but first I have to get
drinks for table one,” Janet panted.

“Just leave the order with a busboy;
it’s his job to bring the food and the drinks or haven’t you been listening to
anything I told you today?”

“I have,” Janet assured her. “I just
wasn’t sure which busboy.”

“Rodrigo is assigned to table one,” Mila
snapped, as though this was common knowledge.

After Janet explained table one’s needs
to Rodrigo, she hurried to table three. Thankfully its occupants were a couple
on a date who only had eyes for each other and didn’t give Janet a hard time.

“Hey there, sweetheart, how about our
drinks?” demanded the man with suspenders from table one.

“I’ll go check on your order right now,”
Janet replied, wondering if this waitressing thing was a good idea after all.
She was so frantic that even if Petr Kovar walked in this very moment and shook
hands with Julius Libby, she wouldn’t even notice. Calm down, Janet thought,
this is only your first day. It will get better. Well, at least she hoped it
would get better; either that or she was going to lose her head.

***

As he followed Janet from a safe
distance, Dennis Walker assured himself that he was not doing anything wrong.
He was merely making sure that Janet was all right. She had sounded so agitated
earlier; all he wanted was to be there in case she needed him. Of course he
tried to convince himself that the fact that Janet had cancelled their date for
the first time since they started seeing each other didn’t make him jealous or
suspicious. He failed miserably at all of the above, for while Dennis would be
the first to admit that he was not perfect by any means, dishonesty was not one
of his flaws.

The truth was that he was jealous as
hell. The thought of Janet being with another guy made him want to wrap his
hands around the imaginary culprit’s throat and squeeze, slowly. Which was why
Dennis was trailing Janet now, carefully keeping his distance. Did he approve
of his actions? Absolutely not, but he was powerless to resist the crazy
impulse inside him. He would be the first to admit that he had trust issues.
After his fiancée had left him in the lurch, it had been hard for him to trust
women again. Janet had been the only woman he had allowed himself to get
serious with, and the prospect of being hurt again scared him.

Seeing Janet turn the corner, Dennis
slowed his gait. What he saw next surprised him; Janet stopped in front of the
entrance to the Panther restaurant. The place that Petr Kovar owned, the place
that could be the key to finding out Libby’s past …. Dennis stood back, trying
to make sense of things. What was Janet thinking, going to Panther without
telling him? It wasn’t like her to act like that. She always did everything by
the book. Could it be that she was going there for reasons other than their
assignment? Was it possible that through a colossal twist of fate she happened
to have a date at the Panther restaurant with some man who, in a matter of
minutes, would be ogling her breasts, seducing her with cheap lines? Dennis
felt the blood pumping in his temples.

He had to calm down; there had to be a
reasonable explanation. Suddenly it struck him: it was only five o’clock and
Panther was not yet open for dinner. Just then the restaurant door opened and
Janet was admitted inside. What are you doing? Dennis thought, as he crept
closer to get a better view. Through the glass panels in the front wall he
could see the staff getting the place ready. Janet was talking with one of the
girls dressed in a black dress; the girl had an authoritative air and seemed to
be giving her instructions. Then the two of them moved deeper inside the room,
disappearing from view.

Dennis wished he smoked; at least then
he would have a reasonable excuse to be standing on the curb, waiting for God
knows what. Still, he decided to take his chances and raised the collar of his
jacket. He tinkered with his phone; maybe he was just passing the time, waiting
for a friend, or maybe he was a lost tourist looking for directions.

A few minutes later Janet came back into
view. She was now wearing a black dress, similar to the dress that the girl she
had been talking to earlier had on. A man with a bovine expression on his face
approached her and said something to her; by the look on his face it was
apparent that he ran the place. His face looked familiar; after several moments
Dennis realized that the man resembled a younger and less impressive version of
Petr Kovar. What are you doing, Janet? Dennis wanted to scream. Get out of
there! But he didn’t; instead, he forced himself to be calm and slowly walk
away. Janet was already in up to her ears; the last thing he wanted was to ruin
her cover.

As he walked back, Dennis was consumed
by a mixture of emotions that consisted of pride, irritation and plain concern.
Getting a job as a waitress at Kovar’s restaurant was a very smart move, but it
was also a very dangerous move. Part of him was proud of Janet for doing it,
and another part of him was pissed. He wished Janet had talked it over with him
first, but the deed was done now and the only thing left for Dennis to do was
to support her.

***

Janet’s feet throbbed with fatigue and
her head felt like it was about to explode. Whoever said that waitressing was
an easy way to make a buck was a liar. She looked at the clock; it was one
a.m., and finally her shift was over.

“You did well today, Janet,” said Mila.
“Here’s your portion of the tips.”

Surprised, Janet counted two hundred
dollars. That was pretty good indeed, but that was not what she was there for.

“You’ll do better next time,” Mila
assured her, misreading the disappointment on Janet’s face.

The front door swung open, and Mila
frowned. “We’re closed,” she yelled, storming off.

Janet was about to head downstairs to
change, but she heard Mila calling her and turned around.

Mila returned accompanied by a
burly-looking man who resembled the man Janet had met earlier, Roman. His arm
was wrapped around Mila possessively, clutching her butt.

“Anton, this is Janet Maple, our new
waitress. Janet, this is our manager, Anton Kovar.”

Janet struggled to keep her face
neutral, while Anton’s oily gaze sized her up. How could she have been so
dense? Roman resembled Anton, but more importantly both men resembled Petr
Kovar. It was only now that she’d heard Anton’s last name that Janet made the
connection: Roman and Anton were related to Petr.

“Nice to meet you, Janet,” Anton spat
the words out, erasing their meaning. “Mila tells me you worked hard today. I
like hard workers.”