Odelia smiled a sweet smile.“About that, I was contacted recently by Stephanie Felfan. I don’t know if you’ve heard of her?”
The transformation was remarkable. The kind demeanor was instantly replaced by a cagey expression.“Stephanie Felfan?” he asked with a touch of suspicion.
“Yes, she was also in the running for the job at WelBeQ, same as you. She was even accepted and was offered the position. But then suddenly she got a message that there had been a mistake, and that she wasn’t moving to LA after all.”
“I see,” said the young man, as he pushed his glasses up his nose. “I’m afraid I’ve never heard of this person. Stephanie Felfan, did you say?”
“That’s right. So Stephanie did a little digging, and turns out that you took the job that was initially promised to her. And what’s more, the reason WelBeQ decided to go in a different direction is because some very damaging information about Stephanie found its way into their mailbox.”
The man frowned in confusion.“Is that so?”
“It is. And what’s more, she seems to think that one of the other candidates may have launched a smear campaign against her, trying to remove her from the equation. And so obviously this has her wondering who this person might be.”
“Of course,” said Edmundo, nodding. “If something like that happened to me, I’d also want to know who was behind it.” He shrugged. “It’s all news to me, I’m afraid, Mrs. Kingsley. No one at WelBeQ told me anything about the other candidates. I never even met the people at WelBeQ face to face, since everything was done over Zoom. So I’m afraid I can’t help you.” The frown returned. “So… if I understand you correctly, you’re here on behalf of this… Stephanie Felfan?”
“Yes, I am,” said Odelia. “Steph had her hopes set on this job, you see, and when it fell through, she was devastated.”
“Oh, but I understand,” said Edmundo, nodding. “It’s a great opportunity.”
“So… you’re saying you don’t know anything about this smear campaign?”
“That’s correct,” Edmundo confirmed. “I don’t know anything about it. They kept us totally in the dark about the other candidates or even if there were other candidates. I assumed there were, of course, since the opportunity was so great, but as I said, I never met any of them and didn’t even know their names.”
“I understand,” said Odelia thoughtfully.
I had the impression that the designer was a little disappointed that the reporter hadn’t come to ask him about his stellar career as a promising young talent. But if he was, he was exceedingly decent about it. “It must have come as a great shock to your friend that she wasn’t hired by WelBeQ,” he said kindly. “And if I were in her shoes, I’d probably want to know what happened, too.”
“It was her dream job,” said Odelia simply.
“As it is for me,” said Edmundo.
CHAPTER 4
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The moment Edmundo realized no more questions about his person were forthcoming, and no extensive article would be written about his career, the interview quickly came to an end. He more or less ushered us out, claiming he had a lot more packing to do, and that was that.
The moment we were back in the car, Odelia turned to us.“So what do you think? Was he lying, or was he telling the truth?”
“I thought he seemed pretty sincere,” I said.
“He’s a great designer,” said Dooley. “His clothes were very nice.”
“I don’t think he made those clothes himself, Dooley,” I said.
“He didn’t? But I thought he was a fashion designer?”
“Not all fashion designers design their own clothes.”
“Okay, so what do I tell Steph?” asked Odelia, getting the conversation back on track. “She really thought Edmundo was the guy trying to destroy her reputation.”
“It’s possible that he’s a very good liar,” I said. “But if it’s true that WelBeQ didn’t supply information about the other candidates, I don’t see how Edmundo could have known that he was competing against Stephanie. Or that she was the candidate he had to beat if he were to succeed in landing the job.”
“No, that kind of information must have come from WelBeQ,” said Odelia. She turned and started up the car. “Let’s give Steph the bad news,” she said, and soon we were mobile again, this time navigating Brooklyn’s notoriously busy streets.
“There’s a lot more traffic here than in Hampton Cove, isn’t there, Max?” said Dooley.
“That’s because New York is a much bigger place,” I said. “More people means more traffic and busier streets.”
“I don’t think I’d want to live here. Too busy. And they don’t even have a nice park where we can meet our friends.”
“I’m sure New York has plenty of parks,” I said with a smile. “And in fact it’s not really one big city, but a collection of smaller boroughs. Like Brooklyn is one borough, and Manhattan, where Jeff works, is a different one. And in each borough you have neighborhoods, which are also verydifferent.”
“Almost like a lot of small cities in one big city.”