Page 30 of Catching a Con Man

“Nice to meet you, Cameron,” I said, getting to my feet and wiping off my clammy hand on my trousers before reaching out to meet his hand in the middle and shake. Ade had mentioned a Cam, and I could see the resemblance between him and Ade despite the massive height disparity. Cameron was even shorter than me, but held himself with a silent confidence that made me feel like his height didn’t even enter his mind.

“Cam. Please.” Cam led me to the lift and pressed a button for the top floor, then swiped a card. Someone went to step into the lift after us and took a step back once they saw Cam. He rolled his eyes as the door closed.

“Ridiculous,” he said to me. “Five-foot nothing and for some bizarre reason, they seem to think they can’t be in my presence because I’m aCrane. Doesn’t stop them going for after-work drinks with my brother. Seriously, if you ever meet my father or Beckett, you’d take a step back. But me? I’m as playful as a pu…anyway. How are you?”

“Uh…good thanks,” I said. “How are you?”

Cam looked taken aback that I’d asked. “Good, thank you.”

The lift doors opened, and we stepped out of the lift onto a familiar office floor. Ade’s office was straight ahead, but the windows had been tinted for privacy. I could see the door to the boardroom was open, and it was empty. Cam led me to another all-glass office next to Ade’s. The door had a blank piece of paper stuck to it, and Cam closed the door behind us. The office was nice and big but sparsely decorated, with a sofa running along one wall and a metal desk with two chairs. It all felt rather new, with no rug or plants or lamp, or anything to make it feel a little more personal and loved in.

Cam flicked a switch on the wall that tinted the glass walls to give us privacy, though the ones that would look directly into Ade’s office were already clouded over.

“Not screwing a secretary in there, is he?” I joked, and immediately regretted it. “Sorry. What a stupid thing to…”

Cam placed a hand on my arm. “No. Ade flipped the tint on because he knew you were coming in, and in his own words,did not want to be so distracted by Tyler’s presence that I accidentally add a couple of zeroes to the wrong cheque.”

“Ah.”

“What do you think of the view?” Cam asked. He led me over to the windows. I’d seen the same view from Ade’s office, of course, but it was nice to look out at it all in a different context now. Cardiff was a low-rise city, and the view allowed me to see all the way out to the Bay and the islands that marked the maritime boundary between England and Wales.

“It’s stunning,” I said. I could see the boats bobbing out at sea, and the people below looked like ants.

“Eh, you get used to it,” said Cam. “Now the Empire State Building,that’sa view.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Right, let’s have a seat, shall we?” Cam asked. He sat down in the chair I thought I would take, the one facing away from the door, so I had no choice but to take the one that faced away from the windows. There was a shiny, slim Apple Mac set up on the desk, turned off but facing me. The way Cameron was doing this felt all wrong, like we were in my office rather than his. Like I was interviewing him rather than the other way round.

Cam leaned back in his chair and framed my face with his fingers. “I can see it, you know.”

“See what?” I asked. I leaned down to pull my laptop from my bag and Cam’s fingers followed me.

“You in this job.”

“Well, I’ll need the hiring committee to like me first. I’ve started a presentation and have a business plan…”

“Seen it,” said Cam. “Pretty damn good.”

“Oh. Thank you. Is there anything you think I should add before I meet with them? Is it too late to change anything?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Is there anything you think could do with a bit of tweaking?”

“Well, I wasn’t sure about this bit on page forty-three…” I turned the laptop toward Cameron but as I did, the screen flickered and died. “Shit. I mean, uh, sorry , let me just…” I tapped at the keys a couple of times to see if it would come back to life, but I couldn’t get it to work. I whacked the screen, which gave me a couple of seconds of life before it flickered off again. “Damn. Library laptops, am I right?” I asked as if Cameron fucking Crane had ever gone near a crusty public laptop in his life.

“Use that one, if your documents are in the cloud,” said Cam, gesturing to the Apple Mac.

“Are you sure? Do you need to put in the password?” I asked. I clicked the mouse, and blinked as my own face looked back at me from a little profile image. Beneath it was some text in italics.Tyler Bevan - Charity Project Manager.

“What the hell is this?” I asked.

“Your computer,” Cam said, then gestured to the room more widely. “This is your office too, should you choose to accept it.”

“But…the hiring committee. Ade said I’d need to represent myself in front of them. I made a presentation, and a…”

“Well, yeah. But then he hired me, and that made life a lot easier. See, the charitable side of Electro is its own entity. Tax purposes, and all that. But I’m straddling the two companies. I’m working on IT for Electro, and…well, I’m working for the charity. But I’ve got enough authority to make hiring decisions. And I like the look of you.”

“You liked the look of me enough to set up my computer in advance? And to give me an office?” I asked. My head felt like it could explode at any moment, and I massaged my forehead with my index finger as I tried to process everything he was saying.

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