Chapter 6

“No Matthias?” Briony looked surprised when she walked into his office.

“No,” Tobias replied, closing the door behind her. This wasn’t the meeting he had planned with the three of them. This one was a very last-minute meeting and involved a slight change of plans.

“Sit down, Briony,” he ordered as he stood behind his chair with his hands in his pockets. He’d been figuring it out all night and his plan was almost perfect. It depended on how Savannah Page reacted. “I’ve been thinking about the position for this new candidate you want to hire,” he glanced at her.

“I’m seeing HR about it later today,” Briony replied. “I’m anxious that we move on it quickly.” She sat back in her chair with her notepad balanced on her lap.

“I know you’re interested in taking on Savannah Page.”

“Yes. For reasons I’ve mentioned before. She’s hard-working, honest, rel—” Tobias nodded. “You’ve mentioned her work ethic before and how satisfied you were with her performance.” He inhaled deeply. “About a year ago we spoke about my requirement for having someone on hand to conduct preliminary research on companies that caught my attention?”

Briony looked puzzled at first, her brow creasing and then smoothing out. “Last year, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right.” He placed his hand in front of him on the headrest. “I have an urgent requirement for that position right now. For a part-time researcher.” Briony’s eyes widened as she gave him a what’s-this-got-to-do-with-me-look.

“But I want someone I can trust. Someone who is capable, honest and hard-working and who can work alone, without being spoon-fed every hour.” He could see that she still hadn’t grasped it, even though he had tried to set it out in a way that would make sense and not raise too much suspicion. It was a simple enough requirement, but granted, it was still out of the ordinary, especially for a man like him to be dealing with such trifling matters. Still, he had to get this right from the onset so that later on if anyone questioned his motives—people like Matthias or Candace—he was more than prepared for them.

“I don’t understand,” Briony responded, shuffling in her chair. “What does this have to do with the position I want to fill? Is there a cap on recruitment numbers?”

“No cap,” replied Tobias. “But, I was hoping you could take this on imminently. As in starting this week.”

“This week?” She jerked her head back, disbelieving. Tobias leaned forward.

“Or next week, I’ll leave it up to you. It’s a small project, and we can pass it to the research teams once I need a detailed analysis but you could have Savannah Page carry out the initial research for two days a week.”

“Savannah Page?”

“That’s who you’re thinking of taking on, isn’t it?”

Briony nodded.

“It’s not something I can give to Candace, nor is it specific enough to give to our research teams. I’m fully aware we have people with college degrees who perform market and risk analysis on companies but that’s not what I need, not when I come across a company I’m merely curious about.”

“I see,” said Briony slowly. “We talked about it briefly a year ago.” It was coming back to her. Back then it had been more of a nice-to-have resource. But now, with him needing to make serious amends with Savannah, he’d found a way to do that and have it be something that would help them both. “It makes sense for you to run this since it falls under your area and I also think that Savannah Page would be ideal, especially with her knowledge of how things work, especially here on the 21st floor, and with your and others’ recommendations about her character and reliability. I’d rather not waste any time going out to source another person when you already have someone. Do you agree?”

Briony appeared to consider his offer. “This is no reflection on Savannah, in fact I’m actually pleased that you have an opening that might be beneficial for her. She’s had a hard time of things lately and I’m not sure I have enough work for her as quickly as she needs it. But it seems as though we’re hiring when we already have a department in-house.”

Tobias forced a smile. “I don’t want to take a resource from another department, when I don’t have a full-time position for them. You have a temp for whom you don’t yet have enough work. Why not fulfill both our needs and give her a full-time job?” He didn’t want to touch on the real reason, nor did Briony need to know. Thankfully, she seemed to know that Savannah was in need of financial assistance. He leaned forward. “I’ve also heard that she’s having a hard time lately.”

“Her son had to go to the hospital last week,” Briony told him. “She’s a single mom, too. I don’t think the boy’s father is around and I get the feeling that she’s struggling.”

“I know it’s not our duty to act as welfare agents, but we have the need for more work and she seems to be suitably qualified. It makes sense to have her do the job.”

Briony nodded. “It does.”

“I would rather this didn’t leave these four walls,” he cautioned. “I met her son when she brought him to work once during the holidays because she had nowhere else to leave him. I understand her position and if I can give her work that she needs, and for which I now have a pressing requirement, then it appears to be a perfect fit. And by the same token, I’m certain that Savannah would not want to accept charity.” In case Briony needed any more convincing. “She seems to be the right candidate only because you trust her implicitly and you know how paranoid I can be.”

“I think we all know that, Tobias.”

She nodded. “I guess it makes sense. In fact, I don’t have enough work to keep her busy right now.”

“It’s your project, Briony. We’ll meet sometime next week to discuss a project plan and what I expect from you. As I’ve already mentioned, it’s not a huge project and it shouldn’t ruffle any feathers but I expect it might.” He looked at her, knowing that he could trust her. “But maybe you can let Ms. Page know about the position today?”

“I’ll have to resubmit an amended job specification to HR first, based on the new requirement.”

“I’ve already taken care of that. The paperwork is here.” He handed her a purple plastic document wallet which she took before slipping him a surprised look.

“I know this seems fast but I had to bypass the usual routes to hiring. I want this started as early as possible.”

“It works out perfectly. You haven’t mentioned any of this to Savannah?” Briony asked. That was the tricky part.

“No,” he replied, staring out of the window at the dull gray skyline among a lifeless sky devoid of the sun. “I needed to run it by you first.” He turned and faced Briony again. “Of course, if she’s not interested, we’ll advertise internally, and failing that, put it out to an agency.” Briony tapped her pen against her lips, frowning as she scribbled some notes. “I know I’ve thrown this at you without any prior warning and if you need to take more people on, you still can.”

This seemed to cheer Briony up. “We have the budget to take on a second admin person?”

“Yes.”

Briony’s face brightened. “Thanks.”

“That’s all, Briony,” he said, dismissing her. She got up and moved towards the door. “When do you plan to tell her?” he asked, turning to face his computer screen.

“I was going to tell her now.”

Tobias nodded. “Don’t forget, you decide how this is run. Savannah Page reports to you as usual. I won’t be having any dealings with her.”