“I spoke with Damon Finn, he’s on the third or fourth tier of the Chase credit card division. I hate to admit this, but I had to bribe him to get the information he was willing to part with, and, like I said, it isn’t much. Two years ago they, meaning Chase, had a promotion for their people for signing up new accounts, then they brought them all here to Vegas as a thank-you. We met, nothing out of the ordinary, just a meeting. Nice guy. His people were nice, no drunkenness, no rude behavior. That’s all I had to go on when I spoke to him. I laid it out, told the truth, and promised him and his wife a week at the Babylon, fully comped, plane fare, food, chips for $100 a day. I’m not sure his information is worth what it cost us, but I’ll let you be the judge.

“In October of last year, a young woman by the name of Bethany Nolan was hired. The reason her name came to his attention was because of the strange hiring requirements she insisted on.”

Lizzie frowned. “Which were?”

“She said she was a law student and was just a hair away from taking the bar, and could only work two full weekends a month. But she was willing to work double shifts and once in a while maybe a Friday or a Monday if she could arrange it, so in essence it was the equivalent of a four-day or five-day workweek. She didn’t care that she wasn’t eligible for health benefits, said she was covered under her husband’s policy where he worked, so she was hired with Finn’s approval.

“She was everything you could want in an employee, according to Finn. She came in, worked sixteen hours a day, then they had to hire someone else to process all the new accounts she brought in. She stayed until the end of February, when she said she had to quit. She said she was run-down and needed to fall back and regroup so she could study for the bar. She sent a lovely letter thanking them for giving her the chance to work for such a wonderful company. On her last day she bought her fellow workers, six of them, pizza and gave them all a little token gift and promised to stay in touch. She even offered free legal advice in the future. No one ever heard from her again.”

“And this means what, Cricket?”

“Check Bonnie’s employment records when she worked at East Coast Savings. Fax Finn a picture of Sara Brickman. Isn’t that the name you told me she used when this all came to light? I told him to expect one.”