No laughing or smiling at the large, angry man.
I got to my feet and followed him through a door against the wall behind his desk. He moved quickly and I had to scurry to keep up. I glanced around as we walked down the hall. It was eerily quiet in the office. No ringing phones, no murmur of conversation or hum of printers. I glanced in some of the open office doors and saw that a few of them were completely empty and a couple held desks with computers and phones on top, along with a thick layer of dust. Weird. The place almost seemed abandoned. My stomach sank as I took that in. I hoped that didn't mean Mr. Dumont's business wasn't doing well because I'd been stiffed by clients a couple of times in the past and I really, really didn't want to deal with that again.
I nearly slammed into the man in black's back when he stopped suddenly in front of a closed door.
He shot me another glacial glance but didn't say anything as he opened the door.
"Sorry," I mumbled.
"No problem. Go inside."
It was the most words he'd spoken since I came in and I detected a hint of an accent. Maybe English wasn't his first language and that's why he wasn't very talkative or even overly polite.
"Thanks." I slid past him into the office and hesitated just inside the door.
The door shut behind me with a sharp click and I jumped, twisting to look over my shoulder. Okay, then. That was weird.
Before I settled back down, a man rose from behind the desk and came toward me, holding out a hand and smiling.
"Ms. Clarke, I'm so glad to meet you. Please excuse Marcel's abruptness. He's not our usual receptionist and he's not very happy to be sitting at the desk."
Andre Dumont could have been related to Marcel. His eyes and hair were also so dark that they were black and he had the same olive skin. He was taller and leaner than the other man, but when he smiled, his eyes warmed and he looked natural and friendly.
"No problem," I said, taking his hand.
"I appreciate you taking the time to meet me. I had some business to take care of in Austin and I pushed it up in the schedule so I could catch you before you left the city."
I blinked a few times. That sounded vaguely threatening. Or maybe my paranoia was catching up to me.
"Oh, well, I'm glad we worked it out," I said.
Mr. Dumont's smile widened. "I'm sorry. I worded that poorly. I just purchased this building and I intended to come in next month to meet with the contractor and designer I hired to rehab it, but when you said you were here, it seemed like a sign I should change my schedule."
Okay, so that explained the general mustiness of the building and the empty offices. Some of my discomfort faded.
"I'm glad we were able to meet, too."
"Please, come have a seat," he said, gesturing to the chair opposite of his at the desk. "Would you like some water or coffee?"
"No, thank you." As I'd hoped, my stomach was settling down now that I was face-to-face with Mr. Dumont.
He sat down behind the desk and leaned forward with his fingers laced together. This desk was free of dust, as was the rest of the office. I don't know why I noticed that, but I did.
"Now, let's get down to details. What I need from you is for you to test our current systems for flaws in programming and in security. And, if or when you find any, you outline a protocol to shore up those issues. Implementation will be done in-house, though I would be happy to hire you to consult on that as well, but this contract is solely for diagnostics."
It wasn't exactly the kind of thing I was usually hired to do, but I did have experience with work of this type. It also explained why the pay was higher than usual, too.
I pulled a notebook from my purse. While I loved my computer and all types of technology, when I was taking notes for a job, I preferred paper and pen. Something about the act of writing things down helped me remember them. I was pretty sure I read an article saying that science supported that as fact but I had no idea when or where. Either way, it worked for me, so that's what I did.
Forty-five minutes later, most of my questions were answered and Mr. Dumont got to his feet.
"It was lovely to meet you, Merry. I'm looking forward to working with you."
I rose also and held out my hand. "Thank you, Mr. Dumont. I'm excited about working on this project with you."
He shook his head. "Please call me Andre. Mr. Dumont was my grandfather and he wore sweater vests and bow ties."
I laughed. "He sounds very dapper."
