Catching the Bad Guy (Book Two) (Janet Maple Series) (22 page)

“Damn you, Walker,” Peter muttered.
Despite the constant jabs, both Peter and Dennis had mutual respect, at least
Peter hoped so. While he might not approve of all of Dennis’s investigation
techniques, Peter recognized the results that Dennis achieved—the man had great
instincts, and he had closed more investigations than anyone in the department.
Still, Walker’s laurels did not give him the right to pressure others into
adopting his tactics. Peter was particularly pissed off at Walker for putting
Peter on the spot in front of Janet. But then the reason for Walker’s behavior
was only too obvious: despite his numerous conquests, Walker had been pining
for Janet ever since Janet had joined the department, and probably from even
before then, since the time Walker had been assigned to an undercover job at
Bostoff Securities. An assignment that was supposed to be Peter’s but had been
snatched from under his nose by Walker. Not that Peter held a grudge against
Walker, at least not for this particular incident. Despite the fact that most
of the time all the attention was undeservedly lavished on undercover
specialists, Peter liked working behind his desk. His analytical skills were
his strongest point, and he was quite content with shining behind the scenes.

So why on earth had he allowed Walker to
bully him into romancing Aileen Finnegan? Peter did not really have an answer
to this question—at least not the answer he was willing to admit. The
embarrassing truth of the matter was that Peter liked Aileen, and part of him
actually wanted to take her out, albeit under a different set of circumstances.
True, she was no supermodel, but to Peter’s mind supermodels only looked good
on TV, and even that was not always the case. But when it came to real women,
Peter liked them to be, well, real. And Aileen was most definitely real. Some
would argue that she was a bit too plump, but Peter liked it when a woman had
some meat on her bones. He also liked it when a woman was genuine and sincere,
and Aileen seemed to encompass all of these characteristics. In fact her only
flaw was that she was foolish enough to fall for David Muller. Had Peter been
left to his own devices, he would have liked to ask Aileen out, and he
certainly would not make David Muller the subject of their conversation. But as
things stood, Peter would be forced to do just that. Even worse was the fact
that he had lied to her about his name: John Carry—what an idiotic moniker!
Unfortunately that had been the combination that popped into his mind when he
had to come up with an alias for himself at the Bostoff wedding, and now he was
stuck with it. The lying made Peter feel even guiltier about using Aileen in
order to get to Muller, but that was not the end of his worries. What if he
grew to like Aileen even more? And, even worse, what if she grew to like him?
What was he to do then? Manufacturing elaborate cover-ups was not Peter’s
forte; in fact, the prospect of such activity seemed torturous to him. That’s
it, Peter thought grimly as he rose from his desk, I’ll have this one date with
her, and after that, Walker can date her himself if he wants to.

***

Aileen Finnegan applied a powder puff to
her face with trembling fingers. What was she doing going on a date with
another man when she was in a relationship with David? She for one did not have
an answer to this question. It all had happened so quickly that she barely had
time to think. In the middle of a busy work day, her phone rang. The number on
the caller ID was unfamiliar, but she picked up, thinking that it might be a
new business prospect. Her guess had turned out to be correct; well, sort of.

“Aileen?” the voice on the phone asked
tentatively.

“Yes?”

“This is John Carry. We were sitting at
the same table at the Bostoff wedding.”

And we also danced two foxtrots, Aileen
thought, her memory of the occasion springing up with crystal clarity, in fact
too much clarity for her taste. She had been upset by David’s abominable
behavior, and she had wanted to do something, anything, to spite him, so she
had danced with this John Carry character who kept pressing her against him
rather closely, too close in Aileen’s opinion, but she had not resisted. Had in
fact gone along with it, allowing this stranger she knew nothing about whisper
pleasantries in her ear, and had given him her business card to boot. The next
morning David apologized to her for his behavior, blaming it on work-related
stress, and Aileen’s world became perfect again—well, almost perfect. She had
forgotten all about John Carry but, apparently, he had not forgotten about her.
“Yes, of course, I remember,” Aileen managed.

“You are probably wondering why I’m
calling. I was wondering if I might ask you for a bit of professional advice.”

“Yes?”

“I remember that you mentioned that you
run a public relations company. I recently started an information security
consulting business, and I was wondering if perhaps you could share some PR
pointers with me.”

Aileen resisted the irritation in her
voice. When it came to her job, people often thought that she was the jack of
all trades; to most, PR was PR was PR, but in reality public relations was a
specialized trade just like any other profession. Aileen’s specialty was with
non-profit and cultural institutions. Her clients ranged from kindergartens to
boarding schools to universities to foundations, but never once had she
represented an information security consulting business. She literally would
not know where to start. “John, I’d love to help you, but unfortunately my
specialty is in a different area. I don’t know much about information
technology or computers. Heck, sometimes I can’t figure out even my own
computer,” Aileen exaggerated, eager to bring this conversation to an end.

“Well, I could certainly help you there.
And while I appreciate that you may not work with information technology
companies every day …”

Try never, Aileen thought.

“I would greatly appreciate any kernel
of insight that you could spare. Dinner will be my treat.”

How presumptuous, Aileen fumed inwardly.
To think that she would agree to have dinner with a man she barely knew, but
the invitation was also flattering. It was not as though men were lining up to
ask her out on dates, but then this would not even be a date, but a business
meal, not that Aileen would have anything valuable to contribute to the
business matter at hand, but that was irrelevant, as John was clearly eager to
see her, her lack of expertise on the subject notwithstanding. Come to think of
it, her evenings looked pretty empty: David had said that he would be working
late and had cancelled their dates for the week. Apparently, he had time to see
her father: a disconcerting detail that Aileen had learned from her father when
he told her that he had dinner plans with David. Lately it seemed that David
spent more time with her father than he did with Aileen. “Very well,” Aileen
agreed. “But don’t be surprised to leave the dinner none the wiser, as I am
afraid that I won’t be able to provide much insight for your venture.”

“Oh, I think you’re being overly modest.
In fact, I’m sure of it. Do you like steak?”

“Yes,” Aileen admitted. She had been
staying clear of red meat for the past few months, but suddenly the idea of a
splurge seemed like a good one. If she was going to sneak behind David’s back,
she would do it while eating steak, not munching on some low-fat crap she had
been living on for what now felt like an eternity.

“So, how about seven p.m. on Wednesday
at Del Frisco’s?”

“Are you sure? Their steak is not cheap,
and I do like meat.”

“Positive. I have a feeling that it will
be well worth my while.”

“You said it; just don’t be disappointed
if it turns out to be otherwise. See you on Wednesday.”

“Until Wednesday.”

But now that Wednesday was actually
here, Aileen did not feel nearly as confident as she had been while chatting up
John Carry over the phone. But then this was hardly surprising to her. The
phone had always been her favored means of social interaction: engaging in
flirty banter over the phone was one thing, but acting with the same cool,
collected demeanor while staring into the man’s eyes from across the table was
quite another.

Half an hour later, Aileen walked into
Del Frisco’s. It was seven p.m. on the dot. She inwardly cursed her ingrained
punctuality. It was a professional habit of hers to always be on time for
client meetings, but this meeting was not exactly a client meeting. In fact,
she did not know how to categorize it. Please be here, she sent a mental plea
to John Carry. The reality of meeting a man she had shared an overly close
embrace with while dancing at the Bostoff wedding was bad enough; the prospect
of waiting for him by the bar alone was mortifying.

“Aileen, I’m so glad that you could
come.” John Carry intercepted her before Aileen reached the hostess.

“Hello. I said I’d come.” Aileen smiled,
instantly relaxed by John’s eagerness.

“Thank you. I promise you won’t regret
it.”

“Oh, I’m sure I won’t. The steak here is
delicious.”

The hostess escorted them to a window
table. The dining room was crowded, and Aileen noted with a mark of approval
that they were given a table that could seat four; at least John Carry was not
skimping on the details.

“Would you like to start with a
cocktail?”

Aileen almost blurted out that she would
stick with water, which was what she had been doing in her relentless weight
loss crusade, but then changed her mind. This morning, the scale had showed her
the lowest number ever, and she thought that it was time for a little break.
“I’ll start with an apple martini.”

“Sounds excellent. I’ll have the same.”

“So, John, how can I help you?” asked
Aileen after the waiter had taken their orders.

“Well, Aileen, it is really quite
simple. I have been an information technology professional for almost fifteen
years. It has always been a dream of mine to branch out on my own, and now I am
finally ready to go out and do it.”

Aileen frowned. “Ready to go out and do
it? I thought that you already had an IT company?”

John smiled apologetically. “I might
have exaggerated a bit. I do have a company, that is on paper, but that’s as
far as I’ve gotten. It turns out that the whole business of getting clients is
much more complicated than I anticipated.”

“Do you at least have a website?”

“I’m working on it.”

Aileen’s frown grew deeper. Either this
John Carry character was not giving her the whole picture or he was a complete
imbecile, and he just looked too intelligent to be an imbecile.

“Perhaps I should be completely honest
with you …”

“That would be a good start.”

“It is true that I have always wanted to
start my own business, but my decision has been … how should I put it … a bit
precipitated. You see, I got laid off from my job.”

Aileen felt an immediate pang of
remorse. The poor guy had come out on a limb, springing for a swanky dinner at
Del Frisco’s in hopes of getting some pointers from her, and there she was,
giving him a hard time. She would tell him everything she knew, and she would
pick up the tab.

“I’m so sorry, John. I didn’t mean to
sound condescending or anything. Please, go on. I think there are a few things
that I’ll be able to help you with after all.”

“This pretty much sums it up. I’m still
job hunting, but there seems to be nothing out there, so I thought I’d try to
get my own business going instead.”

“And what company did you work for
before?”

“Oh, just a mid-size IT company. We
pretty much offered services to clients across all industries. Of course the
big firms that have their own IT departments would never hire us, but the
smaller firms that outsourced this sort of thing did. I’ve worked on systems
for small financial firms, marketing agencies, and even some non-profits.”

“Non-profits? I think I could help you
there. Non-profit organizations are my specialty; I could recommend you to my
clients. But first we need to get the basics set up.”

Over dinner, Aileen proceeded to explain
the importance of having a company website and gave John ideas on affordable
advertising such as reaching out to the local newspaper and contacting the
local Chamber of Commerce representative, for which Aileen happened to have the
contact information. To her, these pointers were the basic postulates of a
marketing plan for a successful business, but to John Carry they seemed to be
pearls of wisdom, a reaction that Aileen found very flattering.

When Aileen reached for the bill at the
end of meal, John refused to hear of it.

“I invited you, Aileen, and I intend to
take care of the check,” he replied solemnly. “I may be out of a job but I have
not sunk so low as to be forced to forsake my manners.”

Aileen blushed. “Thank you, John. I only
hope that the information I gave you will be helpful enough to cover the cost
of this dinner.”

“Oh, I am sure it will be. But to me,
that is irrelevant.”

After John settled the bill, he helped
Aileen with her coat, and they headed toward the exit.