By Frederick H. Lowe
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In his office at the Tiffany Kim Institute, a beauty salon on Superior, Mallet sits behind a desk where he occasionally fields phone calls. When taking an appointment from Clinton’s secretary, he says, he can never be sure of the exact day or time. “The secretary asks me if I’ll be in Chicago between this date and that date. When I say yes, she asks me for my cellular, home, and business telephone numbers.”
The first lady doesn’t drop by the salon. Instead, Mallet’s instructed by the U.S. Secret Service to wait in the hotel lobby where she’s staying, usually the Hilton and Towers or the Ritz-Carlton. Then he’s escorted upstairs. Before he gets to her suite, however, agents search him and make him open his bag. They carefully inspect the hair dryer, curling iron, and other tools of his trade. They also check his ID before he’s allowed into Clinton’s room.
“She’s never paid me,” Mallet says. “It’s not supposed to happen that way.”
