Kiss Me Twice

“And…” she encouraged.

“And Solly seems to think you can help me solve them. Can you?”

“I have to be honest with you, Mr. Thibeadaux, I don’t know. I need to…” She couldn’t make an assessment without knowing more details about his situation, but he didn’t give her the chance to finish her sentence.

“Then what am I doing wasting your time and mine?” he snapped.

“I didn’t call you. You called me. I’m not in the habit of wasting time. So why don’t I hang up and save us both continued irritation?”

Phaedra noted the considerable pause. She listened carefully but could only hear his breathing. Rapid and shallow at first, then slowing as he clamped down on his anger. When he spoke again, it was with a more conciliatory tone.

“I think maybe, Ms. Burke-Carter, we got off to a shaky start.”

“I agree. Shall we start again?”

“When can you come out to discuss my particular problem?”

“This week?” She consulted her PDA, calling up the calendar. “How does Thursday suit you, Mr. Thibeadaux? Thursday at two o’clock.”

“I guess it’ll have to do.” He didn’t sound pleased that she couldn’t immediately accommodate him.

“Your address, please. And a number where I can best reach you.” Phaedra tapped the stylus against the PDA screen, keeping up with the information that he rattled off.

“CT Inspectorate,” she repeated back to him the name of the company and the address. “What type of inspection company do you work for, Mr. Thibeadaux?”

“Grain, primarily. Wheat. Sorghum. Rice. Why? Does it make a difference?”

“I can’t tailor a solution for you if I don’t know what you do, can I, now? I’ll see you on Thursday.”

“One more thing, Ms. Burke-Carter.”

“Yes?”

“How much is this going to cost me?”

“I’m not ready to discuss figures with you, Mr. Thibeadaux. Not until I’ve had a chance to assess your situation.”

“Give me a ballpark.”

“Not even a ballpark.”

“An hourly rate?”

“It varies.”

She heard him give a sigh of irritation at her stonewalling tactics, but Phaedra knew better than to toss out a number that would either lock her into a rate she could accept or would scare him off if he figured it was too high. “You know, Ms. Burke-Carter, Solly told me that you can be a bit difficult when you want to be.”

“Mr. Thibeadaux,” Phaedra said crisply, clamping down on her words. “Is there something that you need to tell me? Something before we meet on Thursday?”

“What do you mean?”

“For someone who claims to need my help, you don’t seem very accommodating.”

“You mean willing to fall over and let you shove your hand into my wallet? That’s what you consultants do, isn’t it? Rattle off some crap trying to convince your clients that you’re needed. Then inflate the hours on the invoice to charge ridiculous fees. Or skip out before finishing the work?”

“I have no intention of putting my hand anywhere near your wallet,” she assured him. “That’s what electronic transfers are for.”

Here we go again, Phaedra thought to herself. Another one who didn’t trust her profession.

“How about making my first consult free for old time’s sake? PV alum-to-alum,” he eased the question by her smoothly. He was trying to get by with something for nothing. Well, her services didn’t come cheap. There was true value to what she did.

“What value do you put on the safety of your employees, Mr. Thibeadaux?” Phaedra responded to his question with one of her own.

“There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for them if it’ll keep them from getting hurt or killed.”

“I’ll tell you what, Mr. Thibeadaux. Because Solly suggested that you speak with me, for old time’s sake, my first consult will be free. It won’t cost you anything for me to listen. So, let’s meet. I’ll listen to you. You listen to me. And if I can’t convince you that I can help, then we’ll go our separate ways.”

“Then, I’ll see you Thursday at two o’clock. Anything I need to do to prepare for the meeting?”

“Yes, I need you to gather all of your employee incident reports for the last two years. Especially those related to accidents and those involving lost work time.”

“I’ve got copies of most of them sitting on my desk.”

“An excellent start. And I need access to your documented policies and procedures.”

“Most of that information is passed on through on-the-job training, Ms. Burke-Carter. Some of my employees can barely speak English. Others might have finished high school. It’s extremely physical, repetitive work. Nobody’s got time to plow through a bunch of dusty books that are out of date the minute you print them. But I’ll gather what I have.”

“I can assess how effective your procedures are when I see you on Thursday.”

“You’re not going to take our company secrets and sell them to your other clients, are you?”

“I’ll sign whatever nondisclosure agreements or confidentiality contracts you have.”

“Don’t you worry your head about signing NDAs,” he said smoothly. “We may be a Southern, family-run business. But some of the old ways still work for us, Ms. Burke-Carter. Like that quaint, turn of the century practice of sealing a business deal on the trust of a handshake. Keep your NDA. I’ve learned from personal experience that they’re not worth the paper they’re printed on.”

“You don’t trust consultants, do you?” It wasn’t really a question. Phaedra was only letting him know that she recognized his hostility but was still willing to deal with him.

“And it only took you fifteen minutes to figure that out. I’m already impressed with your expertise,” he retorted, then hung up on Phaedra before she could beat him to it.

“You should be,” Phaedra muttered to the dead phone line hum that echoed in her ear.

Chapter 4

B astien hung up the phone with mixed feelings. He couldn’t count the number of times he’d reached for the phone, started to call Phaedra Burke-Carter and then hung up again before it could ring. It was worse than being in grade school, trying to make that first phone call to his first preteen crush.

It wasn’t that he doubted Phaedra’s abilities. Solly had recommended her, and Solly wouldn’t do it unless he thought she could help. When he’d left the bowling alley Monday night, he’d stayed up until four o’clock in the morning researching her. By the time he made himself call her, he was already fighting a stress headache. Knowing that he had a full day at work before him didn’t put him in the best of moods, and he knew that bad attitude came across on the phone. Bastien had contacted her impressive list of clients. They gave her excellent references. Enough to convince him to go ahead and call her.

What Bastien doubted was his ability to convince Remy that the company needed to spend the money to bring her on board. In Remy’s eyes, bringing on an outside consultant meant that somebody inside of CT Inspectorate wasn’t doing their job. And that somebody had better get their act together quickly, or that somebody would soon be out of a job. Bastien didn’t have to read between the lines. Remy made it clear. Bastien was the one who was at risk.