“I’ve just been told that there is no personnel director, as such, and that each department head is in charge of his own budget. Is that correct?”
“It is. The philosophy is that each department head will be much better acquainted with the qualifications of hirees in his department than an overall director of personnel.”
“But your department pays everybody?”
“Correct.”
“So you have a computer record of all employees?”
“Correct.”
“Can you tell from your records the date on which each was hired?”
“I can, otherwise I wouldn’t know when to start paying them.”
“I would be very grateful if you could give me a list of all the people hired on the twelfth, fourteenth, and fifteenth of this month.”
“Overall, or by department?”
“By department would be helpful.”
“Can you give me a few minutes?” she asked.
“Of course.” Mike rose to go.
“Oh, not that many minutes. Just wait.”
Mike sat down again.
Carol Pressler turned to her computer and began typing. As she typed, her printer began to disgorge paper. A few minutes later, she got up, retrieved the paper from the printer, and handed it to Mike. “A total of a hundred and thirty-five workers were hired during those three days.”
Mike took the stack of paper from her. “So many?”
“We’ll have a little over one employee for every guest,” she said.
“I mean, so many in just three days?”
“Peak hiring time,” she said. “The hotel wants to hire people only shortly before they are to begin working. Interviewing has been going on for weeks, of course, but we want to hire personnel just in time to train them and put them to work, so the actual hiring is compressed into just a few days.”
“I see,” Mike said. “And did the Secret Service review the records of each hiree?”
“Yep. First time I’ve ever dealt with them, but given the importance of the guests, it’s understandable.”
“And did the Secret Service decline to clear any of them?”
“Only two, and they were Mexican-Americans who had counterfeit green cards. Very good counterfeits, too. Fooled me.”
“And they were not hired?”
“Nope. It’s the policy of the board to hire only legal workers. You should know that, since you’re on the board.”
“Quite right.” Mike stood up. “Thank you, Carol,” he said.
“You’re entirely welcome. I expect we’ll meet again.”
“I hope so,” Mike said. He shook her hand and left the office.
Walking back to his suite, he reflected that if Wynken, Blynken, and Nod were hired on those days—and that was only an assumption—and each had undergone the extensive background check by the Secret Service, then he was going to have a hell of a time figuring out who they were.