Chapter 11
TWO ATTRACTIVE YOUNG WOMEN ASKED FOR A ROOM....
Bruce West had already been told that a new man was being brought into the hotel. Since Jack would be fully under his authority, he didn't seem to resent him as had been the case when Calla arrived on the scene to threaten his chance of becoming top man in the operation.
Around the hotel, Jack called Calla Miss Larson and accorded her all the courtesy a young man would be expected to show the daughter of his employer.
Outside of working hours, they didn't meet at all. From time to time, Calla would phone him at his hotel in the evening, but he never called her at the hotel since they couldn't be sure of the switchboard.
Calla would have been prepared to visit him at his hotel from time to time, but Jack, as gently as possible, told her it would be a mistake.
"We have no way of knowing who at the Grange has friends here. Just one false step on the part of either of us could blow up the whole thing and send the rats running for cover."
She knew he was right and thanked him for it. She also knew that he was as anxious as she to be alone in a room together with or without the movies. It told her how determined he was to get the case cleaned up.
After that, she wondered, what? It had started as a fun thing between them, strictly for companionship, sex and kicks. In the time since graduation and their first encounter, things had changed for her and, with the sure instinct of woman, she believed Jack too was taking a new view of their relationship.
At the Grange, Jack set out to ingratiate himself with the assistant manager without making it too obvious and making the man suspicious.
"Do you think the daughter will take over the place when the old man moves on?" Jack asked him one afternoon during a lull in activity.
"It looks like it," Bruce replied in a tone that contained everything but joy.
"I'm not sure how much I'm going to like working for a woman," Jack went on. "How about you?"
Bruce shrugged. "I don't see that there's much we can do about it."
Jack decided to drop the point. There would be other days and other conversations.
With his hotel desk experience and his training, Jack saw that the methods used were hopelessly inefficient. It was the age of mechanization and computerization, and yet the Grange persisted with methods that were outdated more than twenty years ago.
Billing was hand done and there were no built in safeguards against error or dishonesty. True, it would be difficult for any one employee to have access to enough billing items to cover the complete charges on a guest, but there had to be some way it could be done and Jack determined he would poke around until he found it.
With the hand entry card system of registration, he saw that it would be simple for someone to simply pull the card out of the pile after a guest checked out and pocket the total tab. The balance would still be there and there would be no grounds for suspicion.
But there were too many flaws. There were other charge items such as room service, dining room, bar and telephone with bills for all kept according to date.
Any accountant with half a brain and one good eye would spot that sort of thing on the first audit. The system would have to be more complicated than that and he just concentrated on watching while he waited to figure it out.
With each day, Bruce West looked more and more like a man walking a tightrope. It wasn't hard to guess that the loss of his precious movies had upset him.
But there was, he guessed, a lot more to it than just the loss of the movies, serious as that was. The real kicker was the man's knowledge that someone was aware of what he was doing.
That had to scare the hell out of him. If that person were connected with the Grange, then he was under the microscope every minute. It had to be upsetting for the man.
Jack decided to concentrate on that angle while still keeping his eyes open behind the desk. If he could just make the man a little more nervous, there was a very good chance that he would crack wide open and save them a lot of time and digging.
The first time Bruce left the hotel after that, Jack took the first step in his plan. He had already set aside the tools he would need for the job so that it would be quick and efficient.
In room 433, where many of the best movies had been shot, he unscrewed the mirror and went to work. Within fifteen minutes, the hinge had been removed from the back of the mirror and it had been securely screwed back into the wall the way it was supposed to be.
Hurrying into 431, he quickly removed the mirror from the wall and replaced it with a conventional one.
Taking the service elevator down, he took the phony mirror into the very back of the storage area and hid it under a pile of rubble where it was not likely to be found.
Washing his hands quickly, he returned to the desk and became an efficient looking deskman again, not at all the type who scurried around replacing mirrors and doing a better than average job of carpentry with a sure knowledge of how to handle tools.
When two attractive young women asked for a room, he was the picture of the correct deskman as he booked them into 431.
When Bruce returned a half hour later, Jack was the epitome of contrition as he admitted his error.
"I'm sorry, Bruce," he said with feeling, "But I made a goof and booked someone into one of the rooms you said were to be kept available for emergency. I just didn't remember until too late. They were already in their room and I didn't want to move them out. Should I?"
Bruce said nothing, but his face looked angry as he grabbed the card Jack was holding. He saw the names of two women and, Jack guessed, wanted to ask how old they were and what they looked like, but didn't dare.
"It isn't too serious is it?" Jack asked in a solemn tone. "I mean, we still have quite a few rooms open."
"No, no," the man grumbled as he handed the card back. "Just be more careful in future."
"I will be," Jack assured him.
Within two minutes, Bruce left the desk saying that he was going on an inspection tour. Watching the elevator indicator on the left side of the lobby, Jack saw the indicator stop at the fourth floor.
He smiled a little as he guessed what kind of inspection the assistant manager had in mind and how he would react when he tried to open the mirror.
With a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach, Jack realized it had been an act of bravado and knew he shouldn't have done it.
Bruce was going to have to know he was the culprit behind it when he found the mirror out of business and realized that it was Jack who had rented the adjoining room.
Still, he told himself, it's too late to change it. All I can do now is sit tight and bluff it out.
Just then, he saw Bruce stride angrily out of the elevator and walk across the lobby to the bar. The man didn't look toward the desk at all and Jack had no trouble understanding why.
It was obvious that when he found the mirror fastened, Bruce smelled a trap and got out of the room fast. For all his anger at what was happening to him, Bruce West was very scared and with good reason.
Given his present mood, Bruce West could get into real trouble in the bar unless he was very careful, Jack thought after the assistant manager had spent ten minutes inside. Less than five minutes later, Jack saw him leave the bar and walk back toward the desk.
All the anger was still in the man's face and there was too, Jack guessed, a pretty good content of fear as well.
As the assistant manager walked toward the desk, Jack tensed for the possibility that Bruce would take a swing at him. Bruce came behind the desk and the danger was still there until, at the last moment, he slowed his stride and stood quietly beside him. Jack was stunned to see that the man was actually smiling.
"Yes sir, Jack," he said almost pleasantly in a low voice, "you're quite a boy. Somebody must be real proud of you."
"I don't know what you mean, Bruce," he replied calmly, "but thanks for the vote of confidence."
"I think you know what I mean, I think you know quite a few things. Maybe too many to be carrying around."
"I figure a man can never know too much, Bruce." This time it was Jack who smiled. "I try to keep learning more all the time."
An irritable looking woman walked toward the desk and Jack went to greet her with his charm turned on in high gear.