***
Back in her apartment, Janet opened a bag of Doritos and slumped onto her couch, ignoring Baxter’s pleas for a treat.
“You should have thought of your loyalties before sucking up to that snitch Dean Snider, Mister.”
As if shamed by his past conduct, Baxter lowered his head and growled.
“Oh, fine, here you are.” Janet extended a Doritos chip to Baxter, which he immediately scooped up from her hand. She was pretty sure that Doritos were not part of a healthy canine diet, but the same could be said about the human diet. At the sight of Doritos, Emily Foley would probably run for the Stairmaster the way a priest would run for holy water to ward off forces of evil. Having a mother like that explained many of Lisa’s shortcomings, and in her softer moments, Janet was only too eager to make excuses for her friend, but there was a limit to the amount of softer moments one was entitled to, and right now, Janet felt pretty pissed off. There she was, worrying her head off about Lisa, while Lisa was happily prancing about with her wedding preparations. And how about the fact that it was Lisa who had gotten Janet into the whole Bostoff mess to begin with? Granted, Janet had been unemployed, but from where she stood now, it would have been far better to remain unemployed than work for a corrupt firm that was being investigated by the Treasury.
The facts of the matter were that both Lisa and Janet were in a fix, and even though Lisa had gotten them both into the mess, she was not going to be much help getting them out of it. Janet would have to figure a way out all on her own. She had to make sure that innocent people did not get hurt in the Bostoff investigation, for, while Janet had no doubts about corruptness of Jon Bostoff and Tom Wyman, she was just as equally sure that Lisa and Jon’s brother, Paul Bostoff, were innocent bystanders, dragged along in a scheme they had little understanding of. What Janet was not sure of was Dean Snider’s view on the matter. Regulators were human too. They could be just as vain and career-hungry as any Wall Street raider. Only the regulators had the excuse of upholding the ‘law.’ She had seen innocent people swept under the rug in the heat of an investigation by regulators who were eager to make a name for themselves, and a man as calculating and cunning as Dean Snider had turned out to be struck her as just such a type.
Janet picked up the phone and dialed Dean’s number. She knew exactly what she was going to say. She would be brief and to the point, leaving him no ground to stand on.
“Janet?” Dean’s voice sounded almost relieved. “How are you?”
“Hello, Dean,” Janet replied coolly. The bugger was not going to get any small talk out of her. “I thought about your offer, and I’m going to accept, but on one condition,” Janet paused for emphasis. “No matter what the investigation reveals, Lisa Foley and Paul Bostoff are not going to be implicated in any of this. They walk away free and clear.”
There was a brief silence on the other end of the line. “Janet, I can’t promise you that. I’m pretty sure that I could strike a deal for Lisa, but Paul… He is the COO of the company; he will have to be questioned.”
“This is my offer. Take it or leave it. And mind you, I don’t even have to cooperate with you. It’s not as though you’ve got any proof to speak of.”
“No,” Dean’s voice turned rigid. “But if you refuse to cooperate, the conditions of the deal that I offered you are off. I don’t believe that I need to remind you that the New York Bar Association is most strict when it comes to licensed lawyers being implicated in fraudulent schemes.”
Blackmailing bastard. Janet clenched the telephone receiver in her hand, but then what did she expect – a knight in shining armor?
“So do we have a deal?”
“For Lisa, yes, but I can’t promise anything for Paul.”
“Fine. Let’s compare notes on Monday.” Janet pressed the off button on the phone, barely resisting the urge to smash the receiver against the wall.
Chapter 23