I tugged on the lapel of the suit and looked around the deserted reception room, admittedly a bit nervously. I felt quite alone here. The receptionist had checked me in, made a call, told me to take a seat, picked up her purse, and was gone. An end-of the day job interview appointment. I adjusted the knot on my tie and smoothed down my hair. I moved the heel of my right shoe back, feeling it encounter the end of the small duffle bag I'd placed under the chair. Didn't want to lose that.
It was all nerves. I knew I looked good. Eddie told me he liked sending me out on temp assignments like this because I looked so good in either a suit or a tux. Of course Eddie would probably tell me anything he had to to get me to do this.
Eddie had said, "Your name is Jeffery Walker. Remember that. And give him this résumé as soon as you enter."
"Résumé?" I'd asked. I scanned it. "This isn't anything I'd know about doing. I can't even pronounce half of these words."
"Don't worry, he won't look at it. Just make sure you establish that Eddie Jones sent you. He won't be concerned about anything else."
"Eddie Jones?" I'd asked, giving Eddie MacMillan a confused look.
He returned a pointed "don't ask, stupid," glare at me. He was right to. I'd done this before. It's just that Eddie had sprung this on me on short notice.
"We've got you backstopped," Eddie had said. "That's all that matters."
The room was starting to go to shadows. The receptionist had been gone for a good fifteen minutes now. It was well beyond the appointed time. I took several breaths. I didn't want to start sweating. Not in this special suit Eddie had given me to wear.
"Mr. Walker?"
I hesitated and then looked up at the door that had opened to an inner office. The voice was assertive and had cut through the silence like a knife. There was an accent in it. Spanish?
"Yes, sir, that's me."
"Step in here, please."
He was maybe in his forties. Good looking and built like a tank. Looked really good in his suit. Graying at the temples, but on him it looked good. Dark and sultry. Steel gray eyes. The Spanish accent. Yeah, maybe Spanish. He looked Mediterranean. He looked luscious. I was surprised. I had expected another sort of interviewer.
He stepped aside and grasped my hand as I entered the room. A warm smile and a strong grip in the handshake. "I'm Carlos Vendoza," he said. "Take a seat over there." He pointed to a chair on the other side of a big, wide, but not deep mahogany desk, swept clean. I sat, as I heard the door to the reception area close—and a lock clicked—behind me.
Vendoza came around and sat in the executive chair on the other side of the desk, facing me. We were really sitting pretty close together across the narrow desk. And when he leaned forward on his elbows, it almost was like he was invading my space—not that anything in this room was my space. It was all his, and he gave off the vibes of everything in the room being his too.
"You were sent by . . .?"
"Eddie Walker," I said as I laid the résumé Eddie had given me that had too many unfamiliar technical words in it for me to have had any hope of memorizing it, in front of him on the desk, the print turned toward him. It would be more accurate to say that I placed it under his nose and between his elbows. He fingered the edges of the document with strong-looking hands—long, sensuous fingers—but he didn't look at it. His eyes were boring into me, testing me without even starting into the questions.