3 Bad Guys Get Caught Read Free Page A

have many. I just don’t think they should be wasted on slaving
away at the stove. Why don’t you run a background search on Libby while I sound
him out?”
    “Sure, I’ll see what I can find,” Janet
replied coolly. Background search, my ass, she thought. If Dennis expected her
to do the grunt work for him while he frolicked with Libby, he had another
thing coming. It was going to be takeout for dinner.

Chapter 2
     
     
    Half an hour later Dennis was walking up
the front stoop of Libby’s townhouse.
    “Ready or not, here I come,” Dennis
muttered under his breath as he pressed the doorbell button.
    A few moments later the door opened, and
Julius Libby himself stood in the doorway. Dennis instantly recognized Libby’s
face from the photos that Ham had provided in the file. Dennis could certainly
understand why, at least on the surface, Libby was an excellent choice for a
senator role. With a charming boyish smile, dark brown eyes, and muscular
physique, Julius Libby was a very handsome man.
    “Dennis? Please, come in,” Libby
welcomed him into a spacious foyer. “It’s such a pleasure to meet you.” Libby
shook Dennis’s hand in a firm handshake.
    “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir,” Dennis
replied. “Thank you for meeting me on such a short notice.”
    “It’s no problem, really. I had an
opening in my calendar, but my wife and I do have a commitment in a few hours,”
Libby added pointedly. “So in the future, you might want to schedule with my
assistant ahead of time.”
    “Will do, sir,” Dennis replied
deferentially.
    Just then a blond slender woman joined
them in the foyer. “Dennis, I’d like you to meet my wife Christina,” Libby made
the introduction.
    “You have a lovely home, Mrs. Libby,”
Dennis remarked.
    “Thank you.” Christina smiled. “We moved
in here a year ago. I thought it was a little much, but Julius had insisted.
Before we were on the Lower East Side; Julius’s folks are still there. That’s
where he grew up.”
    “That’s a very nice area.”
    “Yes, it is. To tell you the truth, I
miss it. This place just seems so big, but Julius tells me that a man’s home
needs to resemble his social position—” Dennis noticed Libby shoot a sharp
glance at his wife, and Christina placed her hand over her mouth. “But look at
me blabbering on and keeping you from important matters.”
    “Nonsense!” Libby exclaimed. “Darling,
you’d better start getting ready for this evening’s engagement. We wouldn’t
want to be late,” he added, squeezing his wife’s hand.
    “Yes, dear. I’ll leave you to it.” With
one last smile Christina left the two men in one another’s company.
    “Dennis, should we go into the library?
It’s right this way,” Libby instructed.
    Dennis followed his host, observing the
surroundings. The house was decorated in minimalist décor with abstract
paintings hanging on the walls. Dennis was not a fan of abstract art, but he
knew enough about it to notice that the artworks on Libby’s walls had to be
worth a substantial sum of money. “Is that a de Kooning?” Dennis asked casually.
    “Yes, it is,” Libby confirmed. “Of
course it’s only a lithograph, but it’s a signed edition, and over there is a
Mondrian. It’s an amazing story, actually. I found both of these lithographs at
a garage sale. It cost me all of fifty dollars. The seller thought they were
worthless and had no idea about either of the artists. I minored in art in
college. It’s always been a passion of mine.”
    “These prints are wonderful,” Dennis
agreed, hoping he sounded convincing. He thought the gibberish hanging on the
walls looked like paint splattered by a five-year-old, but then he did not
minor in art. Still, his opinion did not change the fact these “artworks” were
worth a substantial amount of money.
    “Here we are,” said Julius, halting
before a closed door and swinging it open. “After you.”
    The room was almost the size of