you right!
'You did,' said Abel. 'You're fired!
'You can't fire me. I'm the manager and I've been with the Richmond Group for over thirty years. If there's any firing to be done, I'll do it. Who in God's name do you think you are?'
'I am the new manager.'
'You're what?'
'Me new manager,' Abel repeated. 'Mr. Leroy appointed me, yesterday and I have just fired you, Mr. Pacey.'
'What for?'
'For larceny on a grand scale.'
Abel turned the bills around so that the bespectacled man could see them all properly.
'Every one of these guests paid their bill, but not one penny of the money reached the Richmond account, and they all have one thing in common - your signature is on them.'
'You couldn't prove anything in a hundred years.'
'I know,' said Abel. 'You've been running a good system. Well, you can go and r - tm that system somewhere else because your luck's run out here.
there is an old Polish saying, Mr. Pacey: the pitcher carries water only until the handle breaks. The handle has just broken and you're fired!
'You don't have the authority to fire me,' said Pacey. Sweat peppered out on his forehead despite the coldness of the February day. 'Davis Leroy is a close personal friend of mine. He's the only man who can fire me. You only came out from New York three months ago. He wouldn't even listen to you once I had spoken to him. I could get you thrown out of this hotel with one phone call.'
'Go ahead,' said Abel.
He picked up the telephone and asked the operator to get Davis Leroy in Dallas. The two men waited, staring at each other. The sweat had now trickled down to the tip of Pacey's nose. For a second Abel wondered if his new employer would hold firm.
'Good morning, Mr. Leroy. It's Abel Rosnovski calling from Chicago. I've just fired Desmond Pacey, and he wants a word with you.'
Shakily, Pacey took the telephone. He listened for only a few moments.
'But, Davis, I ... What could I do ... ? I swear to you it isn't true ...
T'here must be some mistake.'
Abel heard the line click.
~One hour, Mr. Pacey,' said Abel, 'or I'll hand over these bills to the Chicago Police Department!
'Now wait a moment,' Pacey said. 'Don't act so hasty.' His tone and attitude had changed abruptly. 'We could bring you in on the whole operation, you could make a very steady little income if we ran this hotel together, and no one would be any the wiser. The money would be far more than you're making as assistant manager and we all know Davis can afford the losses...'
'I'm not the assistant manager any longer, Mr. Pacey. I'm the manager so get out before I throw you out.'
~You fucking Polack,' said the ex - manager, realising he had played his last card and lost. 'You'd better keep your eyes open because you're going to be brought down to size!
Pacey left. By lunch he had been joined on the street by the head waiter, head chef, senior housekeeper, chief desk clerk, head porter, and seventeen other members of the Richmond staff whom Abel felt were past redemption. In the afternoon, he called a meeting of the remainder of the employees, explained to them in detail why what he had done had been necessary, and assured them that their jobs were not in any danger.
'But if I can firid one,' said Abel, 'I repeat, one dollar rni&placed, the person involved will be sacked without references there and then. Am I understood?'
No one spoke.
Several other members of the staff left the Richmond during the next few weeks when they realised that Abel did not intend to continue Desmond Pacey's system on his own behalf, and they were quickly replaced.
By the end of March, Abel had invited four employees from the Plaza to join him at the Richmond. They had three things in conu - non: they were young, ambitious and honest. Within six months, only thirty - seven of the original staff of one hundred and ten were still employed at the Richmond. At the end of the first year, Abel cracked a large bottle of champagne with Davis Leroy to celebrate the year's figures for the Chicago Richmond. Tley had shown a profit of three thousand, four hundred and eighty - six dollars. Small, but the first profit the hotel had shown in the thirty years of its existence. Abel was projecting a profit of over twenty - five thousand dollars in