Nun Too Soon (A Giulia Driscoll Mystery Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

with two different dollar amounts that will get us a decent profit but won’t cause the diocesan bookkeepers to throw holy water at me when I bargain.” Her phone alarm chimed the imminent appointment. “It’s Tuesday. Can you shoehorn it into things for Friday?”
    “No problem,” Sidney said. “It fits in with all the docs I’m writing up for the temp.”
    The office door opened.
    “Hello? I’m Jane Pierce. I have a four o’clock interview?”
    Giulia nodded. “You do indeed. I’m Giulia Falcone-Driscoll. Come this way.”
    Zane slapped another covering folder into her right hand as she passed his desk.
    Jane Pierce’s suit was straight out of the lower levels at Macy’s. A few tendrils of black hair trailed out from under a plain brown wig. Theater-quality makeup covered the back of her neck.
    Giulia forced herself not to try to stare through that makeup.
    “Before you ask,” Ms. Pierce said as she sat in Giulia’s client chair, “yes, my mother’s a distant cousin of the fourteenth first lady of the United States. The first-born girl in each generation gets the name. Yay, me.”
    Giulia said without looking up from the resume in the folder, “Teased in grade school?”
    “God, yes.”
    “Is that the reason for the hair and the neck ink?”
    Silence. Now Giulia looked up to catch the interviewee’s hand feeling the mousy wig. Jane’s body language jumped from nervous to antagonistic.
    Giulia smiled.
    “Prove to me that this online degree I see here is worth something.”
    The antagonism broke through the interview veneer. “You want to know what it’s worth? Six years of night classes while keeping a full-time job and putting a slimy, cheating ex through med school.” She leaned over the desk, stabbing the resume with her left index finger. “I pulled off the third best grade in that degree since the state university system started offering online courses.”
    Giulia outlined a hypothetical project. Ms. Pierce told her in detail how she’d handle it. Next Giulia threw a different type of project at her and chewed over her solution. Both answers fit in with the way Giulia ran DI.
    “Why are you settling for temp work?”
    “Because of that blasted hamster wheel employers like to exercise on. You can’t get a full-time job without experience. But how can I get experience if no one will hire me so I can gain some of this bright, shiny experience?” She closed her mouth so hard her teeth clicked.
    “Been there. All right. My assistant’s due date is in two weeks. Her doctor says it’s a textbook pregnancy without problems, so she’ll be here through the end of next week unless she buys a trampoline or goes for the jumping-jack record.” Giulia poked her phone calendar. “Can you come in Friday at...two-thirty to fill out paperwork? Ten dollars an hour but no benefits, sorry. Possible overtime but there’ll be warning. Two months full-time and then part-time for four more weeks while Sidney gets used to interacting with adults again.”
    When she raised her head, fingers ready to type in the appointment, Ms. Pierce was blinking at her.
    “You mean it? You’re hiring me? Don’t you need to think about it or interview ten more people?” She shook herself. “Wait...what am I saying?”
    “I know the right candidate when I see one. Ask Zane out there. He still thinks I’m from another planet. So: Yes or no?”
    “Yes. Of course yes. Holy crap.” She blushed from neck makeup line to forehead. “I beg your pardon.”
    “No worries. Friday at two-thirty then. Paperwork should take less than an hour.” Giulia typed that and opened a new appointment. “Sidney—she’s my assistant—gets in at eight-forty-five, so can you start at nine on Monday for her to train you?”
    “Good God, yes. The insurance thing doesn’t matter. I’m still on the ex’s. It was the one thing I bargained for in the divorce.”
    “Smart. Okay.” She finished the calendar entries and stood. “We have