Chapter 18
I Think We've Got 'Em
Back at Elijah's office, Cameron was enjoying the view. He was amazed that from the comfort of the 21st storey office window one could see most of the city's landmarks like the CN Tower, Roy Thompson Hall, the Air Canada Centre and the Roger's Centre. He thought to himself that he could sit here all day and just stare out the window without any cares in the world.
Waiting for Elijah and company to arrive from the courthouse though, was beginning to feel like an eternity. After the early afternoon sun forced Cameron to close the blinds in the room, he began looking through Elijah's mass collection of law books. Stacked in floor to ceiling bookshelves sat every law book known to man. Whether it was civil law, criminal law, American Law or British Law, it seemed that Elijah owned them all. He even claimed that he had read every one of those books from cover to cover and could cite the case number, summary and outcome of any case found in the bookcase. Cameron challenged him once to put his money where his mouth was and found an obscure case in one of his books. Using one that he had found while completing his first semester of Law School at the University at Buffalo, Cameron thought that he had found a case so tough, that no legal scholar would be able to cite it off the top of their head. What he described for Elijah was a case involving one U.S. state suing three other U.S. states over the right to tax a deceased person's estate. In this case, a special master had been appointed by the court to determine the state of residence of this deceased person at death, and thus determine which state could legally tax the estate. The special master's decision was rendered, and one state disagreed with the ruling and decided to appeal. Without giving the ruling of the case, Cameron asked Elijah to cite it. To Cameron's surprise, Elijah immediately asked him to go over to the section devoted to U.S. Supreme Court Decisions and find the book labeled 'United States Reports Volume 306'. He was then to turn to page 398 where he would find the case entitled 'State of Texas v. State of Florida 306 U.S. 398 (1939)'. Elijah then went on to spout off the arguments made, the decision of the court, and the reasoning behind it. When Cameron asked how on earth he knew which case he was talking about, Elijah smirked and reminded him that he had been studying law for almost 20 years and had not been lying when he said that he had read and could cite every book he owned. Truly amazed, Cameron never again tried to stump Elijah when it came to case law.
Just as Cameron was about to take a criminal case law book off the shelf, Elijah and Becca came barging through the door, soon to be followed by Elliot and Pamela. Cameron asked them all to sit down and he would tell them his findings.
"Now in my discussions with you, it has become apparent to me that you already know who killed Scott Taylor, is that correct Elijah?" asked Cameron.
"I have a good idea who did, but can't yet prove it," Elijah said.
"Do you believe that the two crimes are tied together?"
"In the beginning, yes, but right now I'm leaning a different way. If however you have something that would change my mind, by all means let's hear it."
"I think I do," Cameron said. "As you requested, I began searching the financial records of both Canada's AdventureLand and 'Just in Time Supplies' to see if I could find any irregularities or fake invoices that would point to someone other than Elliot. I couldn't find out anything that we don't already know.
Next, I interviewed the bank manager, who positively identified Elliot as the one who opened the dummy corporation's accounts. I asked him how he could be so sure, and he told me that he never forgets a face or name of a business client."
"Cameron," Elijah interrupted, "we know all of this already. Mr. Granger gave a positive ID this morning, and the auditor hired by Scott Taylor to inspect the finances of the park, testified that Elliot had used clever accounting methods to steer money into his personal accounts."
"But that's a lie!" Elliot exclaimed. "I did not embezzle money nor did I open up those bank accounts."
"No Mr. Ravenwood," Cameron continued, "I don't think that Burt Granger was lying. In his mind he did see Elliot Ravenwood, but was it actually you? If it wasn't, this person was very good at making disguises."
"Do continue," Elijah said.
"Anyway, next I interviewed the tellers and no one remembers serving Mr. Ravenwood."
"That's right," Becca piped in, "you thought that odd Elijah, because of the large amounts of money involved."
"Exactly!" Cameron stated. "That tells me that this probably was an inside job."
"Did you find any evidence to support this theory of yours?" Elijah asked.
"Until yesterday no, but when the judge signed the order for the bank to turn over their security tapes you'll never guess what I found," Cameron said as he saw that everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats in sheer anticipation.
Cameron went into the next office and grabbed the portable TV and DVD player. He popped in the DVD showing security camera footage for August 10, 2009.
"Now watch the video carefully...and STOP!" Cameron said, as he paused the video at precisely 10:05 AM when he saw Elliot Ravenwood come into frame.
"That's not me! I wasn't there! I've never been there!" Elliot shouted.
"Oh don't worry Mr. Ravenwood. I don't think it was you either. But it certainly does look like you doesn't it?" Cameron said. He then started the DVD again, and they watched the person purporting to be Elliot walk up to the teller and transact his business.
"Why can't we see the teller's face?" Elijah asked.
"That's because this is the business teller," Cameron explained. "This camera angle doesn't show their face."
"Is there another angle?" Becca asked.
"Unfortunately no," Cameron said. "The camera they set up in the booth had been on the fritz for about a year starting in early 2009 and going on until October of that year."
"How convenient," Elijah said. "Did they try to fix it?"
"Numerous times. In fact, the repair man was in so much, that one of the tellers told me that they considered him as one of the family," Cameron chuckled. "Despite their efforts, every time they thought it was fixed, it simply went down again."
"OK then," Elijah replied, "we'll just have to match the payroll records we have with the time of the video. Surely that ought to tell us who this mysterious person is."
"I'm way ahead of you on that one Elijah," Cameron said. "The teller's name is Ashley Mortland."
"Ashley Mortland?" Elijah said with a confused look on his face. "Who is Ashley Mortland?"
"That I can help you with as well," Cameron said. "Ashley Mortland is a 48 year old woman who is a 20 year veteran of the Sovereign Bank of Toronto. She has a bachelor's degree in accounting and has been a central teller for numerous branches for the past 15 years, two of which at this specific location. She is married to Stephen Mortland, 51, and has one teenage daughter named Monica. The way I see it is that she and her mysterious friend in this video, (who must have also been an employee of the park), conspired to steal money from it. Using her know how in accounting, and his familiarity with the park, they concocted a complex scheme to stealthily steal millions without the executives knowing. At the bank, she set up the false accounts, and withdrew the money when 'Elliot Ravenwood' came to withdraw it. Unfortunately for the both of them, Scott Taylor found out about the embezzlement, so they killed him."
"Yeah, but that explanation simply doesn't make sense," Elijah said as he leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the desk. "I mean who IS Ashley Mortland? How does she fit in and why have we not come across her until now. It's like a mystery writer who writes the entire story just to have the perpetrator be someone whom you don't meet until the end. I hate those types of novels, although that in and of itself doesn't mean that she was not involved. If she's the one who did it though, she must fit in. There's got to be something that we've missed."
"Well maybe it was not her," Becca said. "Let's see if, as Cameron con
tends, all of the tapes do in fact have her handling the money of the person pretending to be Elliot."
"What good is that going to do?" Elliot said angrily. "Suppose she's not the one, and we can't prove who the one is? Then we're right back to where we started, with me getting convicted of murder."
"Calm down Elliot," Pamela said. "She's only trying to help.
"It's worth a shot," Becca explained. "Who knows, we might get lucky."
During the next five hours, the four of them poured over hours of video recordings, each showing almost the same thing. From Monday to Thursday, the video confirmed that a man who looked like Elliot Ravenwood would enter the bank between 10:05 and 10:20 in the morning. Like clockwork, he would walk over to the business wicket, and after about 10 minutes, would walk out with the large cash withdrawals.
At about 8:30, Elijah, eating a slice of pizza, began to pontificate. "Why does this man always arrive at the same time?"
"What do you mean?" Cameron asked.
"Why always around 10:00 AM? Why not 1:00 PM, or 3:00 PM? What's so special about 10:00 AM?"
"Maybe that's when he has his break?" Pamela said.
"Possibly, although 10:00 AM is awfully early for a break don't you think?"
"Well maybe he works the night shift at the park and he's on his way home," Cameron stated.
"Even more unlikely," Becca responded. "According to today's testimony, the night shift runs from 10:00 PM until 8:00 AM, four nights a week. Even though this would be the reason that this person doesn't show up on Friday's, it doesn't explain why he chose 10:00 AM. In my opinion, a tired man would show up close to opening time if he worked the night shift at the park."
"No," Elijah said, "there's got to be some other reason that 10:00 AM was chosen as the withdrawal time."
Suddenly, as one of the tapes was being played for the umpteenth time, Elijah, rifling through a stack of bank receipts, glanced up at the screen and yelled at them to pause the video.
"How could we have been so stupid?" Elijah yelled. "The answer has been staring us in the face all night." He quickly ran over to the TV with a large grin on his face to explain what he had found out.
"We've all been assuming that every DVD was showing us that a man looking like Elliot Ravenwood withdrew money that was embezzled from the park and then left the bank. Who could blame us on that assumption? After all, we had transactions which showed the withdrawals and now we had video evidence which backup the paperwork. The question is: 'Does this man walk out of the bank with the embezzled money?'
"How else could it have happened?" Cameron inquired.
"This way," Elijah said. "First off, does anyone know how many 20s come in a bundle?" No one responded.
"Well you should know sis, for after all, our mother is a banker," Elijah said. "For everyone's knowledge, a bundle of 20s contains $2,000. Now according to testimony, every week, $44,661.16 of embezzled money was withdrawn, supposedly by Elliot. That amounts to $11,165.29 per day or two withdrawals of $5,582.64 and $5,582.65 a piece. Knowing this, look closely at the video again. What don't you see?"
After replaying the DVD, Becca exclaimed, "There's no change! Only 6 bundles of 20s were handed out."
"Exactly!" Elijah responded. "The teller handed out $12,000, which would have made the bank short $834.71 every day."
"But the bank always balanced to the penny, the manager told me so himself," Cameron said.
"OK, let's look at the DVD again. Was $12,000 actually handed out?" Elijah asked.
"It sure looks like it," Elliot said, as he watched the monitor once more.
"It goes to show you that what I tell my law students is true: our eyes can deceive us. They can deceive even me," Elijah said. "When you look at the video, you see bundles of green bills being handed out, and you therefore assume that it was a bundle of Canadian 20s. But take a look at the center of these bills, what do you see?"
"I don't know how I could have missed that!" Becca said as she slapped her forehead. "You mean the money never left the bank?"
"Nope, I think whoever was in that booth kept the money, and little by little deposited it into 2 personal accounts, one for them and one for their accomplice. This person concealed the deposits by programming the computers to print out transaction slips throughout the day which they would use to put the money back into the bank. They would of course assign these transactions to other tellers in order to avert suspicion."
"But none of this proves that Ashley Mortland did or didn't do it. Moreover, it doesn't prove that it wasn't me in the video," Elliot said.
"Alone no. But I believe this does," Elijah said, holding up a piece of paper.
"What is that?" Elliot asked.
"A cash delivery receipt," Elijah said. "Everyday, the bank receives its cash shipment between 9:30 AM and 10:00 AM. Ms. Mortland, along with Burt Granger, both have to sign the shipment statement before the truck leaves. They also both have to be present for the entire time that the shipment is being unloaded, to ensure accuracy and prevent theft. These receipts always mark the time the armored truck arrives and when it leaves. If you remember, I said that 10:00 AM had to have meant something, and it did. It meant that at that time, the person who appeared on this video as Elliot Ravenwood could guarantee that Ashley Mortland wasn't at the business wicket. This person also timed the visit perfectly so that they arrived right near the end of the delivery so that the transaction would be recorded just about the time that Ms. Mortland would be returning to the wicket. That way, if anyone was investigating, they would assume that she was involved."
"So who was the person in the booth?" Pamela asked. Elijah handed her a small stack of payroll sheets and asked her to examine them closely. He then asked her if there was any name she recognized."
"You mean...?" Pamela asked.
"Yes I firmly believe so," Elijah responded.
"All right Elijah," Elliot interrupted, "this is all fine and dandy, but you still haven't solved the murder and for what you think you have solved, again I ask you, where's the proof? In my opinion there's no beef on this sandwich, only your guesses and think so's. Do you really think that the judge and the prosecutor are just going to take your word for it? You've got nothing to tie this all together."
"You're right Elliot," Elijah sighed. "So far I've got nothing on the murder, but that might change quickly, if the right evidence surfaced. However on the embezzlement charges, I believe we're a little closer. If only we could identify the person disguised as you, then maybe we'd be able to crack this nut once and for all."
"Oh I think I can help you on that one," Becca said with her face almost glued to the television.
"What do you got for us sis?" Elijah asked.
"Look here at the man standing at the wicket," Becca said.
"OK," Elijah responded.
"Notice that smudge. I believe that that smudge is something else, something that we've seen in only one other place."
Elijah's face brightened up and he grinned wider than the Cheshire cat. "Sis, you're a genius," he said as he kissed her on the cheek. Elijah rushed around to the back of his desk, pulled out a notepad and began to scribble some words down on the paper. "You know this changes everything. For the last 3 months I fooled myself into thinking that these crimes weren't connected, when in fact, they were connected in everyway possible.
Elijah ripped a note from the pad and handed it to Cameron. "Cameron," he said, "I want you and Becca to wake up a judge. We need an emergency court order to examine the computer records for several of the days in question. Once you receive it, I want Becca and a team of computer analysts there at 7:30 AM tomorrow to meet the bank manager on his way in. You can give him the news that not only is his bank going to be closed for the morning, but also that his testimony is needed in court. As for you Cameron, tomorrow morning I have a few important errands that I want you to run. Be here at 8:00 AM sharp to receive your instructions. By noon, I
want to say that we've nailed this case down.
Elijah then turned to Elliot and said, "Elliot, for the first time I believe I can honestly say that we've got 'em. Now it's just a matter of showing it in court."
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