***
At eight o’clock sharp, the doorbell of Janet’s apartment rang. Janet went to answer the door. Dean was standing at the threshold, a bottle of Jameson in one hand and a laptop case in the other. He was dressed casually in a pair of jeans, Henley shirt, and a brown leather jacket. Unlike the ill-fitted suits he wore at work, the outfit did justice to his tall, lanky physique, making Janet do a double take.
“I think I depleted your supply the other night,” he announced jauntily, making his way inside the apartment.
“I don’t really drink whiskey. It’s for the times that my neighbor visits,” Janet retorted. The guy sure did not miss a thing.
“I’ll do better next time.”
Janet placed the bottle of Jameson in the kitchen cupboard. There would be no social drinking tonight.
Dean took a seat on the couch, directing his attention to Baxter, who was barking happily at his arrival.
Traitor, Janet thought, watching Baxter wag his tail at Dean. Never before had Baxter’s radar been so off.
“I think we should get right to it,” Janet announced.
Dean placed his laptop on the coffee table, looking at her expectantly.
Janet bit her lip, realizing that the first person to speak was bound to be in a weaker position, but she had set up her own trap.
“Do you promise the terms that I’ve asked for?”
Dean nodded. “Almost all of them. I met with my boss today and he agreed to keep Lisa out of it. From what I’ve seen of her in action, she has no idea about the operations of Bostoff Securities anyway, but Paul Bostoff’s role in the company is too senior to grant him protection. Unless, of course, his brother were to say that Paul had nothing to do with the scheme. In that case, Paul would most likely be excluded from the investigation, but I doubt that Jon Bostoff would be that magnanimous.”
“So that’s it? That’s your final offer?”
“It is. And I dare say that it’s a damn good one. Look, Janet, I know that I’m no hero in your book, but Jon Bostoff is a crook, and Emperial’s owner, David Muller, is an even bigger crook. The only reason we went after Bostoff was to get to Muller. We need to prove that the two have been operating a coordinated market manipulation scheme, and then we will be able to get the whole gang.”
“What about Creaton, Rigel, Gemini, and Sphinx?” Janet rattled off the other hedge funds that were prominent clients of Bostoff.
“Them too, but they are small fish compared to Emperial. Emperial is running the shots. You worked for the DA’s office. You used to catch the bad guys. I imagine it would not be that difficult for you to get back into the game again.”
“I never pretended to be someone I was not, and I never snuck behind people’s backs.”
Dean nodded. “I guess I’ve earned that one. Look, I know you must hate my guts right now. I wish things could be different, but they’re not. Help me with the case, and I promise you that your employment record will remain unmarred. The same goes for Lisa.”
“Are you going to bring her in on the case?”
“Of course not. She’s too close to Bostoff. Her loyalties are obvious. It goes without saying that you must not tell Lisa or anyone at Bostoff about your involvement in the investigation. If you do, the deal is off, and you’ll be added to the suspects list for obstructing the investigation.”
“Gee, thanks for the warning.” Janet dropped her face into her hands. How was she supposed to go on sneaking behind Lisa’s back for weeks to come and live with herself?
“Janet, I know it’s hard, but you’re getting a pretty good deal. Neither you nor your friend will be implicated in the investigation.”
“Lisa got me a job at Bostoff in the first place, and this is how you want me to repay her? By sneaking around behind her back while her fiancé could face serious legal action against him?”
“I never said this would be easy, but let’s evaluate the facts. For one thing, if Lisa weren’t such a dingbat, she wouldn’t be working at Bostoff in the first place. You were there for only a few weeks and you instantly saw that things were off, so really, it’s because of her that you’re stuck in this mess in the first place. And as for Paul – he’s a nice enough guy from what I’ve seen of him, but he doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to his father or brother, and sooner or later one pays the price for being a pushover.”
“You’ve got an explanation for everything, haven’t you?” Janet slouched in resignation. How easy it was for Dean to justify betrayal, but then what did she expect from a man who clearly had no moral principles?
“We could argue for hours, but I didn’t come here to argue. I came here to ask you if you were on board. Are you on board?”
“Yes,” Janet gave the only reply she had the option to give.
“Good. Moving on to step number two – developing a game plan.”
“I thought you’d never get to that part,” Janet could not resist poking at Dean’s smugness. If Mr. In-Control had all the answers, then why did he ask for her help? Because he needed her, that’s why, so he’d better get used to not being the boss with her. “These are the reports from last week.” Janet pointed to the papers she had laid out on the table prior to Dean’s arrival. “There is a clear pattern of orders from the Impala Group: the stocks they targeted plummeted in price. So far, the most noticeable impact has been on Date Magic, a recent IPO that started trading at thirty-five dollars, but closed at twelve dollars today.”
“Let’s see here.” Dean punched a few keystrokes on his laptop. “Date Magic CEO, Andrew Foley…” He stared at Janet. “He wouldn’t by any chance be related to Lisa Foley?”
“You never miss a thing, do you? He’s her cousin.”
“Nature of my job. Why would Jon Bostoff want to manipulate his brother’s fiancée’s cousin’s company stock?” Dean shook his head. “That was a mouthful, but do you get my drift? I think this means that Jon Bostoff is merely taking orders from Impala; he’s not the brains behind the operation. He didn’t even bother to do the homework to see what stocks were being targeted.”
Janet nodded. “I hadn’t thought of that.” And indeed she had not. Well, at least things were starting to look a little less dire. Bostoff taking fraudulent orders was still bad, but it was not nearly as bad as originating the orders.
“Now all we need is to find out who’s behind the Impala group, and we’ve got our case.”
“Something tells me that Impala and Emperial are connected – if only from the fact that orders from Emperial have dropped to almost nothing and orders from Impala keep pouring in.”
“Yes, well, a mere coincidence is not going to help us. We need evidence.”
“I’ve looked through Bostoff’s legal files – nothing there. I bet Tom Wyman has all the answers we need. If only we could get to his files,” Janet added wistfully. “But he guards his laptop like a hawk.”
“We’ll think of something.”
“We’ve got to. Wyman handles all of Bostoff’s legal affairs. Lisa doesn’t know a damn thing, and frankly, I don’t get to do much either. Wyman keeps it all under control. But it was not always like that….”
“What do you mean?”
“Wyman’s predecessor, Fred Rossingram, used to be the general counsel for Bostoff Securities before Jon Bostoff started employing Wyman’s services. I found several of Rossingram’s memos on the Legal drive. The last one was dated right about the time that Jon Bostoff took over the business for his father.”
“Shared Legal drive,” Dean mused. “I missed that one.”
“I guess you can’t sift through everything,” Janet could not resist jabbing him.
“Well, then, we’ve got to pay Fred Rossingram a visit.”
“How do you propose we do that? I don’t know anything about the man besides his name.”
“In the age of the Internet, no search is insurmountable.” Dean reached for his laptop. After a few moments of his fingers typing feverishly, he exclaimed triumphant
ly. “Found him.” Dean turned the laptop screen towards Janet.
“Fred Rossingram – Estates and Wills, Prenuptial Agreements and Divorces,” Janet read. “Must be a big change from being a general counsel of Bostoff Securities,” Janet observed, noting Rossingram’s address, which was all the way on York Avenue.
“I think we should pay the old man a visit.”
“How do you know he is old, and under what pretext are we going to visit him?”
“The first one is easy.” Dean flipped to the About Us section of Rossingram’s website, showing a picture of a gray-haired man in horn-rimmed glasses. “We’ll just have to come up with a pretext to visit him.” Dean drummed his fingers against his chin. “We’ll say that we need a prenuptial agreement.”
“Can’t you think of a better cover-up?”
“This one is perfect: a nice young couple seeking an old man’s advice – just the thing to drop his guard.”
“But we’d be imposters. Isn’t that illegal?”
“I don’t see anything illegal about inquiring about drafting a prenuptial agreement.”
“You’re the boss.” Janet leaned back against the cushions of her couch, feeling as though she had sunk into a deranged thriller movie. “Can I ask you a question?”
“By all means.”
“Do all Treasury investigators operate by such unorthodox means?”
“Nope – just me, but then I’m not your average investigator.”
“What makes you so different?”
“If we solve this case, I promise I’ll tell you.”
Janet shrugged. She already knew the answer anyway: extreme arrogance and smugness. Oh, and deep blue eyes, a strong chin, well-defined nose, and broad shoulders… Snap out of it, she kicked herself. Dean Snider was the enemy, and one could not lose one’s guard around the enemy.
Dean looked at his watch. “I think that’s it for tonight. I’m glad to see that we’re making progress already. I’ll see you tomorrow: same time, same place?”
“You know the address.”
“Janet, if we are to solve this case, we’ve got to move fast. My boss gave me an extension to a three week deadline, and week one started today.”
“I got it. I’ll do what I can.”
“That’s a girl. It’s good to have you on my team, Janet Maple.”
“Good night.” Janet headed for the foyer and held the door open for Dean. He would not fish any compliments out of her.
“See you tomorrow.”