Dick's purchasing office is cozy and he's happy to see me. We sit for almost an hour, talking about the local photographers, graphic designers and printers. He has known most of them for years. Tells me which ones will show interest and which ones won't. Dick writes down the names and numbers of the vendors he wants me to see first.
Sally sits just outside Dick's office beside the purchasing door. I can see her and she looks like she's getting madder by the minute. When Dick and I have finished talking business, he brings up the Bengals and Steelers game last night. For some reason, that makes Sally visibly angrier, so I keep up the football chatter. By the time four o'clock approaches, she's openly staring at me. Dick tells me he works seven to four so he's leaving. As I walk him to the elevator door, I ask, "Where do you and the warehouse super meet for a beer after work?"
"Down at the Z Bar, kid," says Dick as he holds the elevator door. "We're usually there for a couple hours every night." When I tell him to have fun, he waves as the elevator door closes.
Pick up two copies of the publication plan, shove them down the back of my pants and walk up the hall to Morty's office. He's on the phone with somebody so I step into Glenn's office and sit down, uninvited. Says he's happy to see me.
Glenn is showing me `doctored' dice that his craps dealers have taken from hustlers over the years when Morty joins us. For the next half-hour, the two guys tell me more about the history of the casino industry than I could have put together with a month of research. Both have worked in casinos for nearly forty years.
Learn that the two busiest weekends of the year in a casino are Memorial Day and Labor Day. Snow on Peavine, a mountain we can see outside Glenn's picture window, means that we can expect at least one more snowstorm in the spring. Californians are reluctant to drive over the Sierra Nevada passes into Reno if a storm is brewing.
When Glenn starts bitching about Marketing's lack of planning for Doc's fiftieth anniversary, I lean forward, whip out the two copies and hand them over. While they read, I watch their faces.
Both guys start raving about the publication plan before they even finish reading. I tell them it's in executive review right now. They volunteer to lobby for the plan if asked by Phil or Dick about the budget.
"How about Kerry?" I ask.
"Him too," says Glenn. Morty agrees. Glenn frowns and asks, "Are you supposed to be showing us this plan, Jill?"
Lean forward again and say in a stage whisper, "You guys know why I'm showing it to you now? Peter Marriott will check with you two guys on this."
They glance at one another, then Morty says, "Hate to rain on your parade, Jill but Kerry North runs casino ops here at Doc's, not us. If Peter Marriott wants to get a feel for how this plan will go down with casino ops, he'll discuss it with Kerry."
At that moment, Kelly, the redhead who is secretary for Kerry and both these guys, steps into the doorway. "Excuse me, Glenn and Morty," she says, "Kerry and Peter Marriott for both of you."
"Well, well," says Morty, looking at me. "Do you know about this?" When I shrug, he looks at Glenn. "It's time for our call with Kerry but we don't have a scheduled call with Mr. Marriott."
"Kerry and Mr. Marriott for both of us?" Glenn asks, blinking at her. "Are you sure?"
"Yep," she says. "I told him you were talking to Morty and Ms. Price. He said to put him on speaker phone." She steps around to Glenn's phone and punches one button and then another. "Hello, Mr. Marriott?"
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