Chapter 67

Jenny and I had a good nights sleep. I don't think that I moved a bit. I was the first one up to be showered and dressed. I took the liberty of making breakfast for my expanding family.

We headed to KCC in two cars. Lorrie rode with Jenny while Vicky, Ching Lee and Marcy rode with me. We arrived twenty minutes early. The girls headed off to their classes and Jenny to the CT state police barracks.

The exterior of the new building looked finished. The contractor was leveling top soil and putting down sod. The masons were putting finishing touches on the brick walkway.

Inside, the connecting doors had been installed and the smell of fresh paint filled the building. The heat/AC units had been hooked up and were running on the heat cycle to help fast dry the paint. The carpet installers were putting down industrial grade carpet in 30 inch squares. We had paint and carpet glue smell to deal with today.

At five after eight Patti came in late again. She looked like she had been in a brawl over the weekend. She had on heavy makeup and one side of her face appeared to be swollen. When I looked at her she looked away and hurried to her desk. That problem was going to be solved or she would not be working in my department.

I made up my mind that after she finished payroll we would have that dreaded conversation. Payroll had to be done by 10 AM and put in SAP for everyone to be paid on Friday. While she was doing that I pulled up her personal folder to see if I could find out anything that would explain what was going on.

I called Jenny to see if she would run a background check for me. I hated to do it but I wanted all the information about Patti that I could find.

There were many legitimate reasons for her being bruised up but this was the second time that she had come to work like this and this time was far worse. She was even having trouble talking on the phone.

While I was waiting to hear back from Jenny I continued to work through my accumulated e-mails. HR was sending the folders over today of the people that had made the cut for the three new full time people we were to hire. For the three positions they wanted to interview eighteen candidates. Damn, they had tentatively scheduled the first interview for Wednesday morning with four a day. My week had just been overloaded.

I also needed to get started on finding the construction auditor that I needed. I still had not been able to talk to Jake about the qualities I should be looking in that type of position. I needed to move that to the front burner.

Luckily that train of thought was interrupted by the appearance of Jenny. She motioned me to the private office.

"Her file is clean, I mean squeaky clean, not even a drivers license. It looks like someone filled in the blanks on a form, it's so clean. I'm trying to get school and college records to cross check them," Jenny said.

"I have them here or should I say the ones that were submitted with the employment application. The lowest grade she received was a B+," I said.

"Maybe that is the problem. She was a goody girl to keep Mom paying for her choice of college and has gone crazy with her new freedom now that she is out on her own," Jenny said.

"As soon as she finishes up she and I will have the discussion. If you find out anything different than what you saw for her school grades let me know. This is one that I'm going to have to do alone," I said. "I'll keep you up to date."

I sent Patti an IM telling her that we needed to talk as soon as she finished the important things.

HR has a standard form called Coaching/ Guidance/ Administrative discipline. I printed off several and started a folder while I was waiting. I also searched the security video of last Monday and printed off an enhanced head shot to document her face last week and did the same thing for this morning when she arrived for work. While comparing the photos, there was no doubt that her face was swollen.

As a sergeant I had done hundreds of this kind of consultations and they still bothered me. It bothered me more now because in the Marines they just went to the brig or extra duty; rarely were they discharged.

Patti still had many months of probation to go. Anything now would get her headed out the door.

It was an hour later that Patti came in and she was nervous. After I called one of the day personal and told then to take the calls, that we would be in a confidential meeting she was visibly shaken.

"Patti, we are going to talk off the record first, if that is OK with you?" I asked.

"Sure, that is fine," she replied.

"Last week you came to work, your face was bruised but you were able to cover it with makeup. Today you are so bruised so bad that you are having trouble talking. I don't think you are the type to be boxing, dirt bike riding or mountain climbing. Plain and simple, what is going on?" I asked. I wanted to say she looked like she was the victim of abuse but I was going to give her a chance to come clean.