time we request information.’
The agents smiled with satisfaction.
As they left, Bree stopped to talk to Potter’s secretary. She smiled benignly as she approached the secretary’s desk.
‘Your Mr Potter is such a lovely gentleman, isn’t he?’
‘Oh, he’s a wonderful person to work with,’ said the secretary. She knew full well Bree was from Inland Security and was going to make sure her boss was shown in the best possible light. ‘He’s such a hard working person and does so much for his church and their charities.’
‘How does he manage to do all that and still have time for his family?’
‘He makes sure his family comes first in everything. I help remind him, of course. He can’t be expected to remember every little detail.’
‘That makes you a very important person around here. How do you cope, does your family life suffer for it?’
‘Oh no. My husband understands completely. It’s not as though I’ll be doing it for the rest of my life. I’ll give it up to have a family in a couple of years and I haven’t been doing it all that long anyway.’
‘So you’ve just become Mr Potter’s secretary?’
‘About six months ago. Just after his other secretary left. While he was still just a director,’
‘She left to have a family too?’
‘I don’t really know. Mr Potter doesn’t talk about it. She was here one day and gone the next. There wasn’t even a farewell party for her, and she had been his secretary for years.’
Bree turned to Sam, who was standing in the background, taking in the information. A raised eyebrow was all he needed.
Bree continued making small-talk, seeing what other information she could elicit, while Sam quietly left the room and wandered down the hallway to the office next door.
It was an office similar to the one he had just come from. A secretary finished her phone call and smiled professionally at Sam’s approach.
‘Can I help you sir?’
Sam produced his identification and said: ‘I’ve just been interviewing your managing director, Mr Potter, and he was trying to recall some information for us. He still is, but he thinks the best person to contact would be his former secretary. Do you know what became of her?’
‘Yes. I remember her. We didn’t have much in common. In fact none of the other secretaries did. She was a very religious person. Very upright and formal. Not an easy person to get to know, or like, unless of course you had the same high moral and religious convictions that she did.’
‘So what happened to her?’
‘That’s the funny thing. No one knows. She was working here as usual, nothing out of the ordinary, and the next thing she’s packed her things and walked out the door. Mr Potter didn’t even know she was gone. I can remember him coming around looking for her after he’d had a meeting with some of the other directors. But she had just packed up and gone.’
‘And no one knows where she went?’
‘No.’
‘Could she have gotten a better offer from some other company?’
‘I suppose she could have, except one of the other girls saw her go and tried to talk to her but she was very distraught and crying.’
‘So she was probably dismissed then.’
‘I thought so at first, but Mr Potter didn’t know she was gone. Like I said, he came looking for her.’
‘What’s her name?’
‘Post. Hannah Post. Mrs Hannah Post.’
‘I suppose your human resources department will have her details?’
‘Yes. You’ll find them down on the third floor.’
Human Resources was in a large general office with no sign of the luxurious appointments displayed on the executive levels. There was no smiling receptionist here. Sam stood at the counter and waited for one of the desk-bound staff to pull themselves away from their computer terminals to attend to him.
What appeared to be the office’s most junior clerk lost the battle with her fellow workers and reluctantly ambled to the counter.
‘Can I help you?’ asked the seventeen-year-old.
‘I’m sure you can,’ Sam said, producing his usual charming smile along with his identification.
The girl’s face went white as she read his identification. ‘I’ll just get my boss,’ she squeaked as she ran off.
Her reaction had attracted the attention of the rest of the staff, who looked up to see what was happening. Sam smiled at them and their eyes immediately dropped back to their screens.
The girl returned with a middle-aged woman who identified herself as the deputy of human resources. Sam showed her his identification, and requested the home address for Hannah Post.
‘I don’t think we can give that information out. It’s private.’
Sam again produced his most winning smile.
‘I think Mr Potter might see it differently. I’ve just been talking to him. Would you like to ring his office and confirm that?’
The woman didn’t know what to do. Should she ring the new managing director and ask him, and possibly make him upset, or did she just give out the information? What if Sam were lying?
Opting for a safe approach, she rang Potter’s secretary.
‘I have a gentleman from Inland Security down here. Has he been to see Mr Potter?’
‘Why yes. I just had a lovely talk to his assistant as well. They’re very nice people,’
Relieved, the human resources woman returned to Sam, and said: ‘Did you say Hannah Post? Wasn’t she Mr Potter’s secretary?’
‘That’s the one.’
Consulting a nearby computer, she made a note. ‘I’ll just go and get her file.’
Returning a short time later, she placed a binder of documents on the counter. The front page gave Hannah Post’s full name as Hannah Jordan Post and her personnel number as 345765F.
‘What information are you after?’
Taking out his notebook, Sam noted down her full name and asked: ‘What is her current address?’
‘That should be easy enough,’ replied
