Vasso hadn’t been dating Maris that long, but already he knew he needed to end it with her. He didn’t want to lead her on. But Akis’s comment had hit a nerve. Both of them had been bachelors for a long time. Now that Akis was married, Vasso felt an emptiness in his life he’d never felt before. His brother was so happy these days with his new wife and a baby on the way, Vasso hardly recognized him.
August 12, New York City
“Vasso!”
“How are you, Alexandra?”
The manager got to her feet. “It’s good to see you.”
“I walked through the hospital and convalescent center first. Everything seems to be in perfect order. My congratulations for running an efficient center we can be proud of.”
“Thank you. I know you’re busy. If you want to go over the books in here, I can order lunch to be brought in.”
“I’ve already eaten. Why don’t I look at the figures while you’re out to lunch? If I see anything wrong, we’ll discuss it when you get back.”
“All right. Before I leave, I wanted to tell you about a young woman who applied here for a job yesterday. I told her she didn’t have the education or background necessary for the kind of work we do at the center.
“Later in the day I received a phone call from Father Debakis at the Sacred Trinity Church here in Astoria. He knows this woman and finds her a very capable person. He wanted to know if he could go to someone higher to arrange for an interview. I wrote the priest’s number on my sticky note in case you want to deal with him.”
“I’ll take care of it now. Thanks for telling me.”
“Then I’ll leave and be back in an hour.”
“Take your time.” Vasso’s curiosity had been aroused by the mention of the priest. As she reached the door he said, “I want you to know my brother and I are very pleased and grateful for the work you do to keep this center running so smoothly.”
He heard a whispered thank-you before she left the office. Vasso phoned the number she’d left and asked to speak to Father Debakis. Then he sat back in the chair.
“It’s an honor to speak with you, Kyrie Giannopoulos. I’m glad Ms. Kallistos passed my message along. Since I don’t wish to waste your time, I’ll come straight to the point.” Vasso smiled. He liked brevity. “A very special twenty-four-year-old Greek American woman named Zoe Zachos here in Queens would like to work for your charity. I’ve taken it upon myself to approach you about it.”
“I understand Ms. Kallistos had reservations about hiring her.”
“When I spoke to her on Zoe’s behalf, she said this young woman doesn’t have the credentials and flatly refused to consider interviewing her for a position. I disagree strongly with her assessment and hoped to prevail on you to intercede in this matter.”
Vasso and Akis had flown to New York ten months ago to find a new manager after the old one had to give it up due to ill health. Alexandra had come to them with outstanding references and was the most qualified of all the applicants because she’d had experience working in hospital administration.
Akis, who’d been in business with Vasso from childhood, had flown to New York five months later to check on her. So far neither he nor Vasso had a problem with the way she’d been doing her work. She must have had good reason not to take the other person’s application.
“Obviously this is important to you.”
“Very.” Vasso blinked in surprise at the priest’s sobriety. “Perhaps she could be interviewed by you?”
He sat forward. “That isn’t our normal procedure.”
“Ah...” The disappointment in the priest’s voice wasn’t lost on Vasso, who’d been taught by his deceased father to revere a priest.
His black brows furrowed. “May I ask why you have such strong reasons for making this call?”
“It’s a matter of some urgency.”
The hairs lifted on the back of Vasso’s neck. After the priest put it that way, Vasso didn’t feel he could refuse him. “Tell me about her background.”
“I think it would be better for you to discover that information yourself.”
At this point Vasso was more than a little intrigued. In all honesty he found himself curious about the unusual request. “How soon could she be at Ms. Kallistos’s office?”
“Within two hours.”
“Then I’ll be expecting her.”
“Bless you, my son.” The priest clicked off while a perplexed Vasso still held the phone in his hand. For the next hour and a half he pored over the books. When Alexandra returned, he told her everything looked in order and listened to some of her suggestions to do with the running of the hospital.
During their conversation, a polite knock sounded on the closed door. He turned to Alexandra. “That would be Zoe Zachos. If you’ll give us a half hour please.”
After a discernible hesitation she said, “Of course.” She showed remarkable poise by not questioning him about it. He watched her get up and open the door. “Come in, Zoe,” she said to the blonde woman before she left them alone.
Zoe? That meant Alexandra knew her.
Vasso didn’t know exactly what to expect other than he’d been told she was twenty-four years old. He got to his feet as the young woman came into the office.
“Kyrie Giannopoulos?” she said, sounding the slightest bit breathless. “I’m Zoe Zachos. I can’t believe it, but somehow Father Debakis made this meeting possible.” In an instant a smile broke out on her lovely face. “You have no idea how grateful I am to meet you at last.”
Tears had caused her translucent green eyes to shimmer.
When she extended her hand to shake his across the desk, he saw a look of such genuine gratitude reflected in those depths, it reached places inside him he didn’t know were there.
“Please, Thespinis Zachos. Sit down.”
Her lissome figure subsided in one of the chairs opposite the desk. She was wearing a print blouse and khaki skirt, drawing his attention to her shapely body and legs below the hem. She had to be five-six or five-seven.
“I’m sure he told you that I’d like to work for your foundation.”
He felt an earnestness—a sweetness—coming from her that caught him off guard. “He made that clear.”
She clasped her hands. “When he spoke on my behalf with Ms. Kallistos, she said I didn’t have the kind of background she was looking for.”
“But Father Debakis feels that you do. Tell me about yourself. Why would you want to work for the foundation as opposed to somewhere else, or do another type of work entirely?”
“He didn’t tell you?” She looked surprised.
“No. He’s a man of few words.”
“But he makes them count,” she said with a smile that told him she’d had a running relationship with the priest.
Vasso agreed with her assessment. The priest had an amazing way of making his point. It had gotten Vasso to conduct this interview, which was out of the ordinary. “Why not start at the beginning, thespinis?”
She nodded. “I’ve been a patient here with non-Hodgkins lymphoma for the last year and was just released on the ninth of this month.”
A patient...
Knowing what that meant, he swallowed hard. Vasso had thought of several reasons for the possible conflict between the two women. He thought back to a year ago when