Corridor Man 6: Exit Strategy

by Nick James

  He walked through the empty office again, looked in the break room, checked out the conference room which held a long table and eight chairs. He glanced in the four empty offices and then called Miguel to come and pick him up. While waiting for Miguel, he phoned Luis.

  “I hope you’ve found things to your satisfaction,” Luis answered.

  “That doesn’t begin to even cover it,” Bobby replied. “It’s absolutely wonderful, Luis. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to thank or repay you.”

  “I’ve no doubt that will happen in time, once we get you properly staffed.”

  “I’ve the files properly arranged. Tomorrow I plan on setting aside a number of properties that we can begin to transfer. I would recommend something along the lines of a blind trust that we can establish for you. One more account that will place some distance between you and Morris Montcreff.”

  “Wonderful. I’ve made an appointment tomorrow morning at ten for you to interview a receptionist. Her name is Erin Alvarez. I know you’ll see her as a valuable asset.”

  “A receptionist?”

  “If you’re going to be interviewing the sort of people with the legal skills we’re going to need, I don’t think it would do for you to be answering the door and making coffee. Besides, I think it would be a good practice just to interview her. I’m sure you’ll find her, ummm, interesting. So, you’ve already chosen the first properties to move?”

  “Yes, small, easy transfers. No one should even notice.”

  “What about the two remaining partners?”

  “Sawyer and Allen? They already called, probably looking for a current number to contact Montcreff. I let the call go into my message center. I’ll call them back tomorrow. Give them the number they already have.”

  “Do you expect trouble?”

  “I expect some minor irritation, but nothing more. I’ve been calling that number every other day for weeks so if they want to get a court order and see what the story is they’ll see I’ve had the same results they’re getting. I never met Montcreff in an office. He did his business in the back of a car, or Meyers bar where he usually had breakfast. They’re going to run into a wall and have their hands full with people jumping ship at the firm. I have to say, I’m going to enjoy watching from a distance.”

  “Always the best way,” Luis said and hung up.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Miguel dropped Bobby off at the office the following morning at 9:00. He took the elevator up to the twelfth floor and let himself in. He carried a couple of grocery bags with items for the break room. He made a pot of coffee then opened up one of the grocery bags with mugs, plates, plastic forks and knives and placed the items in one of the break room cabinets. He took a white bakery box from a bag and placed it on the counter, caramel rolls for the receptionist appointment Luis had arranged.

  His cell phone rang and he checked the screen then ignored the call coming through from Charles Sawyer, it was the second call this morning, and as he headed into his office he thought Sawyer could just wait, and maybe sweat a little more until Bobby was good and ready to deal with him.

  Sawyer called again a half-hour later and this time Bobby took the call. “Hello?” he answered hoping the questioning inflection suggested he had no idea who was on the other end.

  “Custer? Hello, thank you for taking my call.”

  “Who’s calling, please?”

  “It’s me Charlie, Charlie Sawyer.”

  “Mr. Sawyer, how are things going?”

  There was a slight pause, as if Sawyer was debating whether to read him the riot act or just lie. “About as well as can be expected under the circumstances. A difficult time for everyone.”

  “Yes, it certainly is,” Bobby said. He raised his cell phone and said, “No, take a message and I’ll call them back,” pretending he was busy then didn’t didn’t say anything else and just waited.

  “I’m sorry am I interrupting?”

  “No, sorry about that, go ahead,” Bobby said. Forty-eight hours ago it would have never occurred to Sawyer that he just might be interrupting, amazing how circumstances can quickly change one’s perception.

  “Thanks. Say listen, the reason I’m calling is the number I have for Morris Montcreff doesn’t appear to be current. Every time I call no one answers and I get that damn recording that tells me the mailbox is full. There must be another number I can reach him at.”

  “Same thing happened to me for the past month or so. He’s like that, Montcreff is. Every once in a while, he just up and disappears, doesn’t answer the phone, no way to contact him. I can feel your pain, believe me I know how frustrating that can be.”

  “How can he run a business like that? You have any idea where in God’s name he goes?”

  “I honestly wish I did. To my knowledge, he doesn’t have a lake place up north. I don’t know, he could be out in Vegas, down in Mexico, or even getting a checkup at the Mayo Clinic. I could never figure it out and the few times I asked he always told me to mind my own business. Tell you what you might do,” Bobby said trying to sound helpful. “There might be another option where you could catch him.”

  “What’s that?”

  “He routinely has breakfast at Meyers. As far as I know the same time virtually every day, seven days a week.”

  “Meyers?”

  “Yeah, it’s a funky little bar over on the east side. It’s closed at that hour, but he’s in there eating, the only customer. I’ve been summoned there on a few mornings, usually around ten. You might check with them or just go over there some morning, try and catch him.”

  “Thank you, Cus…err, Bobby. We’ll try that, appreciate your help in the matter. Like I said strange way to run a business.” Sawyer actually sounded genuine, which made the call even funnier to Bobby.

  “Glad I could be of assistance. I hope it works out. Wishing you all success, Mr. Sawyer.”

  “Thanks,” he said and hung up.

  At exactly five minutes before ten, Bobby heard the doorbell ring, hurried out to the front lobby and opened the door. A redheaded woman with green eyes and manicured nails stood in front of him. She was of an average height, with a fit figure, dressed in tight fitting jeans, knee high boots and a silky-red blouse. She carried a computer bag over her left shoulder and held a black purse with a silver ‘MICHAEL KORS’ logo attached to the side. She stared at him for a long moment and cracked the piece of gum in her mouth.

  “Yes,” Bobby said studying the red hair. It looked to be real as opposed to dyed.

  “Hi, my name is Erin Alvarez and I have a ten o’clock appointment to see Mr. Custer.”

  “That would be me,” Bobby said hoping the surprise didn’t register on his face. “Erin, it’s nice to meet you. Please, please, come in,” he said and held out his hand. “Let’s head back to my office and we can talk there. Can I get you a cup of coffee?”

  “You gonna have one?” She seemed to be studying the empty offices as they headed down the hallway to his office. “Nice digs,” she said halfway under her breath.

  “Yeah, I’m going to have a cup. Tell you what, that’s my office in there, at the end of the hall. Go on in and make yourself comfortable. Let me get you a coffee. You hungry for a caramel roll?”

  “I’d love it but I better take a pass.”

  “You sure?”

  “Trust me, but thanks.”

  “You take cream or sugar?”

  “Black would be fine, thanks.”

  “Back in a minute,” he said then watched her as she headed into his office. He went into the break room, poured two mugs of coffee and kicked himself for being caught off guard by the red hair, expecting…what? A more Hispanic looking woman? Idiot, he thought, looked longingly at the box with the caramel rolls, then took a deep breath and hurried back to his office with the coffee.

  Chapter Seventeen

  She had avoided the client chairs facing his desk and had comfortably settled onto the couch. Bobby placed a steaming mug in front o
f her on the coffee table then took a seat in the winged backed chair opposite. “Thank you for coming in, Erin. I’ve heard some nice things about you,” he said and took a noisy sip from his mug.

  “Turns out to be an opportunity I really couldn’t resist,” she said and smiled like it was maybe some sort of private joke.

  “How so?”

  “Let’s just say you have a partner, Mr. Morales. He is difficult to ignore, and leave it at that.”

  “Ahhhh, yes, Luis Morales. Believe me, I know what you mean. He can be very persuasive,” Bobby said thinking he was going to have to hire this woman. It wasn’t worth a battle with Luis for just the receptionist position. “How is it that you know him?”

  “My husband worked for him for a few years. I know his sister, Camilla and I babysat his daughter once or twice.”

  “You said your husband worked for Luis? Past tense? He’s not with him anymore?”

  She nodded. “He was killed in…an incident. Perhaps you read about it in the paper. A shooting, some time ago over in Frogtown. A number of people were killed.”

  Bobby had more than read about it, he’d been there. Took credit for saving Luis’s sister, Camilla although the truth was he’d used her as cover to get out of a difficult situation and then killed some scumbag who was going to shoot her along with Luis’s daughter. Bobby killed the guy, shot him in the back on the basement stairs, but only because he was afraid he’d be shot, if he didn’t. “I think I might have read something about it.”

  “So, you have a nice office, what can you tell me about the receptionist position?”

  “The receptionist position.” Up until this moment he hadn’t thought about it. “It would be a developing position, as the firm grows there would be additional duties to be taken on. To start, I think…”

  “I think it sounds like you’ve had other things on your mind and haven’t really considered what’s involved. Maybe you don’t even have the slightest idea what’s involved. Fair comment?” she said then smiled and sipped from her coffee mug, holding it with both hands.

  “Well…”

  “Yeah, I thought so. Let me tell you what I think and the little I’ve been told about this firm. You’re the CEO, or the director or the boss. Whatever you want to be called. The firm is new, obviously brand new. I mean,” she sort of snorted, “you’ve got a bunch of new offices and new office furniture that’s still wrapped in plastic. You’re going to be working for one client. I’m guessing Luis Morales. Hence the firm name. You need someone at your front desk who looks professional, is competent, and won’t be intimidated by some asshole who storms in here shouting. That would be me. I’d be the perfect fit and if you hire me, that would make Luis Morales, your one client very happy. Did I forget anything?”

  “Oh, umm, well, yes, all good points. I guess I just hadn’t really thought of it in exactly that manner.”

  “Mr. Custer, don’t let these drop dead gorgeous looks and my nicely done nails fool you. I was stripping professionally at age sixteen, got my GED, joined the Marines, yeah, Semper Fi. I did a tour in Iraq, then came home and went to college on the GI Bill. I speak Spanish and French fluently. I got a Bachelors from the U of M in IT. I can field strip an M16 blindfolded, and I hold a black belt in Karate, rokudan level. I have a current conceal and carry permit, and I’m polite, but won’t take any shit from people, although you might be the exception. In short, you need a personable, smiling guard dog at your front door out there, and I’m it, baby.”

  “Don’t sugarcoat it, Erin.”

  She smiled at that.

  “You’re more than qualified. To tell you the truth, I don’t know what, exactly will be required. As much as I can appreciate a number of your skills, I’m hoping we’ll have more need of that IT degree than your black belt in Karate or your skills with an M16.”

  Let’s hope so, but then again Luis Morales is your client.”

  “When would you be able to start?”

  “You show me where the rest room is and then where I can get another coffee once and I’ll be good to go.”

  “I don’t know that I have anything for you to do at the moment.”

  “I think Luis mentioned you have people coming in for interviews starting tomorrow. Is that right?”

  “Yeah,” Bobby said, suddenly wondering exactly how much Luis had told her about him.

  “Be nice to pull the plastic off the desks, get things looking a little more operational, like you’re legit and they’re not walking into some staged setup. Just a thought,” she said looking around.

  “You think it looks staged?”

  “Don’t take it wrong, it’s nice. Real nice. You got that fancy antique desk and the coffee is pretty good. But right now, it kind of looks like you don’t know what you’re doing. I mean, it doesn’t look like there’s any real work being done. It’s too tidy. I know you just moved in, but does it have to look like that? I mean, really?”

  “You have some suggestions?” Bobby asked.

  “I’m sure it will be a great opportunity for the right people and…”

  “And the right people are probably already knocking down a good chunk of dough, but would like to do something else.” He said. “I’m not sure, but my gut reaction tells me these will not be the sort of folks who’ll want to be starting from scratch. I’ll be talking to people who’ve already built a book of business, they probably don’t want to do that again. They want to walk into someplace where there’s so much business, Privado business, that they can just wade into it and not have to worry.”

  Erin nodded and said. “Be nice if they came into a place that wasn’t wrapped in plastic.”

  That seemed to make a lot of sense. “Let me show you where the rest room is,” Bobby said.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Erin busied herself out in the reception area for the next hour then knocked on Bobby’s door. He had a half dozen Montcreff files stacked on his desk. They represented the first projects he wanted to address once they had a team and the business end of things got underway. He was so involved in the file he was reading that hadn’t heard her approach and the knock on his door frame made him jump.

  “Oh, sorry didn’t mean to disturb you.”

  “That’s okay, I have a tendency to get lost in the work. Everything okay? What can I do for you?”

  “Can I show you a couple of things out in the reception area and I’ve got a couple of suggestions.”

  “Yeah, sure,” he said getting up from his desk.

  “First off, that’s a safe back there, in the corner, isn’t it? You know, if you opened that door up a bit, even if it’s empty it’ll give whoever comes in here the impression you’ve got top secret sorts of files you’re working on. Adds to the general idea of very important work being accomplished. Not that what you’re doing isn’t important. It’s just that you want folks to think that, if you get what I mean.”

  Bobby sort of involuntarily glanced over at the large, grey six-foot steel safe standing in the far corner and nodded, what she said made sense. “Good idea. I’ll open the door and put some files on the shelf. You wanted to show me something in the receptionist area?”

  “Yeah, if I’m not interrupting.”

  He followed her down the hall to the front of the office, noticed along the way that the four new offices had all the plastic removed from the office furniture. A new coffee mug from the break room rested on each desk. Then he studied the fit of her jeans.

  “Just a couple of things,” she said stepping behind the receptionist counter. “There’s a button here that releases the lock on the office door. It’s just here, on the left side. See?” She reached in, pushed something and the lock gave an audible click.

  “So you don’t have to walk to the door and open it every time, like I did,” he said.

  “Well yeah, for starters. But here’s the thing, I’ll leave it up to you, of course, but what good does the lock do if you can’t see who’s out there on the other side of the
door?”

  “Huh?”

  “Let’s say there’s someone out there you don’t want coming in. Maybe you don’t want to be interrupted, or their a pain or your hiding. Maybe it’s an old girlfriend,” she said and smiled. If they just say it’s UPS or the mail man or someone delivering a check and they need a signature what are we going to do? You’ll open the door, right? What if someone here keeps a pattern and always leaves at six o’clock. Wouldn’t you want to be able to check the hall first without opening the door?”

  “So, you’re saying we should have some sort of a security system that monitors the hallway?”

  “Yeah, exactly otherwise the lock almost works opposite, you know keeps you trapped in here. The next thing is, you need a phone system. Both for internal and external calls. I know you can contact people with your cell phone, but there are going to be times when you want the firm name coming across on caller ID. Whether it’s to threaten and intimidate or calm someone, you’re going to need it. Not to mention, that I can work at screening incoming calls and contact people here in the office without having to leave the reception area. This is supposed to be a high pressure firm and everyone is answering their own phone? No offense but if I called I’d be thinking it was bush league.”

  “Okay.”

  “Now this room, the receptionist lobby. I know you’ve got a private client, I get that, but you’re still going to have people occasionally coming in here. Maybe attorney’s from high priced firms wondering how far they can push you. Be nice if there was somewhere for them to sit while they have to wait. You don’t want to send them to the break room or the conference room and you don’t want them leaning up against the wall out here, one foot against the wall and playing games on their cell phones.

  Oh, and I can use my laptop for the moment, but I need to have a computer that’s logged into the office system so I at least look technically up to date. Which brings me to the office system. Frankly, you need a computer in each office. If people are going to be working from home, they can login and use their laptops, but they need a stationary unit in their office. I’d suggest getting a unibody, intel-based iMac or something like that. It looks professional, they’re a fantastic piece of equipment and easy to use if you’re not the tech type.”