Everyone was dead tired. This week had been a rush from Monday morning till now. I was looking forward to spending the night in Jenny’s arms just having quiet talk. I knew something had been bothering her even though she had said nothing. It seemed that that invisible link between us was still active.

After our showers, we were in bed with my arms around her, talking quietly. She said, “My period started today but it has been very little – I just spotted a couple of times. I guess it is going to be light this month.”

“That just means that we get to try again. You know with mother nature nothing is ever easy or goes as planned,” I said.

“Yes, I know but still it is a little disappointing,” she said. We held each other and drifted off to sleep. It was a good night, peaceful and restful, but then snuggled tight to Jenny it was always that way. I never had any bad dreams when I was sleeping next to her.

We were up early and everyone was fed and over to the gym at 7. I took all the folders to review all the notes from yesterday’s test and interview session, since I had been here for none of it. Courtney joined me a few minutes later. The good doc promised to deliver the test results from the blood and urine tests today at 9. Based on Marcy and Jenny that test was the only thing left that would eliminate any of them for the job.

When I finish up reading a little after 8 they were all sitting at the meeting table with boxes of pastries from the donut shop and hot coffee. None of the boxes were opened.

Courtney and I pulled up a chair with them. Charles explained, “We brought the donuts and the coffee for after the treadmill run. We will need nourishment after that.” I just laughed. We were going to use all four Marathoners. The last two runners were going to be joined by Courtney and me. Courtney and I had run quite a few times against each other for the best times ever since she had worked herself into a good fitness form. We always finished the mile run within seconds of each other. Today I was going to try to beat her time, for sure.

After the run I had beat Courtney by 15 seconds and the best of the applicants by 1 minute. I quietly patted myself on the back for staying in shape. I was huffing and puffing but I could have run for a while longer.

Carmine, who was working the customer window, paged me. The Doc was there with the reports from the test. He just nodded and handed me the bill to pass on to accounts payable. Yep, we had one of those now, soon to be two.

Jamie, Courtney and I along with the 10 applicants drove to the shooting range. First was target shooting with the Glock. I had decided the Glock was going to be the standard issue side arm for JBG Security along with the 870 pump shot gun and the Colt AR15. The shotgun and the 15 would be locked in the gun safe in Courtney’s office along with one set of complete swat gear, for extreme emergencies only. That safe was to be locked at all times.

Each Glock was going to be issued with a security lock along with an electronic lock box that it was to be kept in, whenever it was not in the holster on your side. Jenny had already typed up a release that each person would have to sign stating that they had read and understood company policy about storage of the weapon before they would be issued one. There was a separate release and certification that they had received the mandatory fire arms training.

I was going to require that a refresher and recertification was done each year along with a first aid and CPR certification by an outside contractor. The first aid and CPR was going to be required by all personal, even those working the gym and the office.

It was noon before the dozen of us has finished with the pistol practice. Courtney, the ex-military personal, the deputies and I were shooting 98%.

The other three were new to precision shooting with a semiautomatic and were at 60%. I explained that they would have to be at 98% by September 1. Courtney would have extra ammunition for them to practice as soon as she found a practice range in the Frost Borough area. I had to wait until they had passed the state’s background check to issue the hand gun and the carry permit before they could wear it.

The deputy’s permits were assigned to them and not the department. That meant they could be carried over to JBG. All five of the ex-military had, since their discharge, acquired carry permits on their own – another plus to hiring them.

After lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon on the shotgun, rifle, tazer and pepper spray. Jamie finished the day with the shoot don’t shoot course. Courtney and I were the best of the group in that. That was most likely because we had been through it several times. I was extremely disappointed that two deputies did so poorly. They were lower than the two ex-marines; apparently the sheriff’s department did not do that kind of advanced training.

Both Courtney’s and Jason’s Suburbans had left Hendricks in Charlotte this morning and would be unloaded here tomorrow morning. The truck driver had called for confirmation and unloading information. I was to meet him over in the closed shopping center at 9.

Courtney’s already had a top of the line hidden strobe and police package with a backup camera installed. If the brochure for the light package was close it would put a loaded Christmas tree to shame. Jason’s was plain Jane. East Coast security would install the GPS system in both later. They would be delivered with N.C. temporary tags.

There was one of those State authorized quick tag places on RT8; all we had to do was just carry the paperwork and a check for real plates. It was one of the few things that the DMV had done right.

The Suburban was going to the decal shop Tuesday to get the Frost Borough logo with the word security under it. Ching Lee and Vicky had designed a nice circular logo with ‘A JBG Security Company’ that we were going to put in the left lower corner of the driver’s and passengers door of all our cars there. It was going to be in gold lettering like the fire companies used. It would also match the design and material of the other logo. I wanted to identify our ownership of the security group.

Marcy had already flagged 6 two year old black Chevys in the MAAR fleet that was working their way to the island that would be assigned to the security department.

I knew that Courtney would make a few trips by the APD just to rub it in their faces and I didn’t blame her. A week from Monday she was driving it to Frost Borough and moving some of her personal things into the hunting cabin for a while. Jason, Dad and the Judge said she could stay there but had to have a place of her own by hunting season, unless she wanted to become a maid and cook in her off time.

Jenny, Jason, Marcy and I were flying there a week from Tuesday to meet with Dean Skaggs and finalize the exit of the current security company. Sunday was to be their last day. All 10, if they accepted the job, would start the following Monday. The shift schedules were already designed, the only things lacking were names in the blanks. East Coast was going to make a special trip to install a few cameras and equipment, enough to get us started until the big push July 1.

The part-time people would be interviewed there with the background research being done here. That would happen mid to late July.

By 6 the applicants had finished everything that we had planned for them. We dismissed them for the evening. They had a list of the Island hot spots and I was sure the directions and names of several clubs in DC.

Jason had an hour before he had to leave. Jenny, Jason, Marcy, Courtney and I did one last review of all the data. I was going to offer jobs to all ten tomorrow at 8.

There were issues I had to resolve when hiring a group of ten and we discussed it at length. Someone had to have seniority. As a business owner you had to have a way to decide how to discharge employees should you need to reduce the size of the workforce for whatever reason. There was no legal way to line them up and say you and you are gone. Seniority gave you the, “last hired first fired,” method of manpower reduction. Labor unions had driven this rule for decades and it had been upheld in NLRB rulings.

Another thing you needed seniority for was deciding vacations and days off when an employer needed to maintain a required number of people on the job at a given time. Of course there were down sides to this method. The first hired could take all the best holidays and vacation times leaving employees at the bottom of the list disgruntled. It was a necessary evil that all businesses had to endure. The bigger the business and requirement for minimum coverage the worse the problem could be.

The legal minds, Jason and Jenny, suggested that we require them to accept the job in writing. A job description and acceptance form would be used. It would also spell out basic benefits and starting pay and serve to eliminate any misunderstanding of the terms. When we received them back – if they wanted to take them home and discuss it with their wives or if they signed them on the spot – they would be date and time stamped when I received them. We designed the form and then called it an evening.

Ching Lee, Lorrie and Vicky had the dinner nearly finished. The grill was going when Jenny, Marcy and I got over to the house. While the steaks and sweet potatoes were grilling we enjoyed fresh salad with the chilled wine of our choice. It was great family time with laughter mixed with soft conversation – the things that bind families together. My family.

Edit by Alfmeister