off-hand manner, “My best friend, Reyna Guajillo, helped me pull this together. I would have just been in the planning stages without her.” I saw his eyebrows twitch.
“Reyna Guajillo is your friend?”
“Since our first year in college,” I said.
“Why did she apply for a position with me?” Pillory asked, lifting his eyes from my business plan for the first time.
“She got fired by her boss for no reason of her own. Her boss is a real jackass—he yells and throws things… he’s a difficult man. Reyna got her best work done when he was on vacation. So anyway, she’s determined not to work for someone like that again, and I recommended you.”
The compliment might have been veiled, but it was still there, and Pillory’s face assumed a peaceful, almost-smiling expression. “Your friend doesn’t make the best first impression.”
“Yeah. Our first contact in college was a bar fight.” Oops, that just slipped out. “She’s not like that, you understand—it’s just that there’s more to her than meets the eye.” I saw him nod, leaf through the rest of the thick document, then nod again.
“If this is a sample of Ms. Guajillo’s work, maybe I should talk to her again.”
O N F RIDAY , I dressed like a landscaper in a loose shirt that concealed my fairly fit figure. I wore a short brown wig and a baseball cap, and with my own hair tucked underneath, it was bloody hot, but there was nothing I could do about the weather. Janet Barnaby thought it suitable to announce to her Facebook friends that she fired their gardening service. My friend Lenny loaned me his truck with his lawn mower and tools, and I went to the Barnabys’ residence. Posing as the new victim of her perfectionism wasn’t too hard.
I lowered the lift gate of the red pickup truck, attached the steel-grating bridge, and eased the lawn mower down to the street. I mowed the Barnabys’ already trim lawn and used the blower to get clippings off the paved walkways, which got me all the way to the doors and windows. The wiring I saw indicated they a security system, but probably only on the first floor. The second floor seemed to be accessible from the pergola over the backyard patio. When people departed for an extended time, they usually left a window cracked open somewhere so the house could breathe. If I could find that window, I could be in and out pretty fast.
R EYNA and I met on Saturday again.
“You’ll never guess,” she said, a wide smile on her strong, pretty face. “Mr. Pillory called me back yesterday. I was trying to call you, but you weren’t picking up.”
“My phone was off for a while,” I said, thinking she must have called while I was casing the Barnaby residence.
“So anyway, he wants me to work there for a month—a probationary period, he called it. If he likes my work, I can stay.”
I grinned. “Did he mention anything specific?”
“Well… he said lots of his clients don’t think strategically, and it would help to have their plans down in writing. It’s not in my wheel-house, but I could do it, I guess.”
“He liked the business plan you did for me.”
Her eyes popped wide and her lipsticked mouth gaped. “You went to see him?”
“Yep. He and I will refer clients to one another. He didn’t say so, but I think he felt kind of bad about kicking me out. I showed him my materials and mentioned that you helped me with all that. I guess he changed his mind.”
“You think?”
“Hard to believe. I didn’t think he was capable of rethinking anything once his mind was set.”
Reyna got a dreamy look in her eyes as she adjusted her hair, which was tied up in one of her bizarre retro beehives. “In that case, I’ll work my butt off. He really seems like such a nice guy….”
I rolled my eyes and gave her an ironic smirk. “Just a reminder, Reyna… I got fired on account of an office romance.”
S UNDAY evening was a good time to break into a suburban house; the
“Reyna Guajillo is your friend?”
“Since our first year in college,” I said.
“Why did she apply for a position with me?” Pillory asked, lifting his eyes from my business plan for the first time.
“She got fired by her boss for no reason of her own. Her boss is a real jackass—he yells and throws things… he’s a difficult man. Reyna got her best work done when he was on vacation. So anyway, she’s determined not to work for someone like that again, and I recommended you.”
The compliment might have been veiled, but it was still there, and Pillory’s face assumed a peaceful, almost-smiling expression. “Your friend doesn’t make the best first impression.”
“Yeah. Our first contact in college was a bar fight.” Oops, that just slipped out. “She’s not like that, you understand—it’s just that there’s more to her than meets the eye.” I saw him nod, leaf through the rest of the thick document, then nod again.
“If this is a sample of Ms. Guajillo’s work, maybe I should talk to her again.”
O N F RIDAY , I dressed like a landscaper in a loose shirt that concealed my fairly fit figure. I wore a short brown wig and a baseball cap, and with my own hair tucked underneath, it was bloody hot, but there was nothing I could do about the weather. Janet Barnaby thought it suitable to announce to her Facebook friends that she fired their gardening service. My friend Lenny loaned me his truck with his lawn mower and tools, and I went to the Barnabys’ residence. Posing as the new victim of her perfectionism wasn’t too hard.
I lowered the lift gate of the red pickup truck, attached the steel-grating bridge, and eased the lawn mower down to the street. I mowed the Barnabys’ already trim lawn and used the blower to get clippings off the paved walkways, which got me all the way to the doors and windows. The wiring I saw indicated they a security system, but probably only on the first floor. The second floor seemed to be accessible from the pergola over the backyard patio. When people departed for an extended time, they usually left a window cracked open somewhere so the house could breathe. If I could find that window, I could be in and out pretty fast.
R EYNA and I met on Saturday again.
“You’ll never guess,” she said, a wide smile on her strong, pretty face. “Mr. Pillory called me back yesterday. I was trying to call you, but you weren’t picking up.”
“My phone was off for a while,” I said, thinking she must have called while I was casing the Barnaby residence.
“So anyway, he wants me to work there for a month—a probationary period, he called it. If he likes my work, I can stay.”
I grinned. “Did he mention anything specific?”
“Well… he said lots of his clients don’t think strategically, and it would help to have their plans down in writing. It’s not in my wheel-house, but I could do it, I guess.”
“He liked the business plan you did for me.”
Her eyes popped wide and her lipsticked mouth gaped. “You went to see him?”
“Yep. He and I will refer clients to one another. He didn’t say so, but I think he felt kind of bad about kicking me out. I showed him my materials and mentioned that you helped me with all that. I guess he changed his mind.”
“You think?”
“Hard to believe. I didn’t think he was capable of rethinking anything once his mind was set.”
Reyna got a dreamy look in her eyes as she adjusted her hair, which was tied up in one of her bizarre retro beehives. “In that case, I’ll work my butt off. He really seems like such a nice guy….”
I rolled my eyes and gave her an ironic smirk. “Just a reminder, Reyna… I got fired on account of an office romance.”
S UNDAY evening was a good time to break into a suburban house; the
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