Chapter 20
Must Come Down
"Mr. Morris, I can't help but notice that you have a tattoo on your left wrist. How long have you had it?" Elijah asked.
"Objection, Your Honor. That question is irrelevant," Samantha said.
"The objection is sustained. Move on Mr. Deville," the judge said.
"OK. Mr. Morris, what is your position at the theme park?" Elijah asked.
"I am the head inspector. It is my job, along with those inspectors under me, to personally inspect all rides before the park opens each day," Morris said.
"Did you inspect the Colossus, the day of the murder?"
"It was certainly my job to inspect that ride, but no I personally didn't inspect it. I woke up late, and therefore didn't have time to run a full inspection. Since the ride had been fully inspected the day before, I just ran the computer diagnostic which, when done said that there was no faults with the ride. I'll never forgive myself for not inspecting that ride, never Mr. Deville," Morris said with tears in his eyes.
"Well, all tears aside, you didn't do your job, and a man died. Whether or not you will have to live with that on your conscience is immaterial, the question is did you have anything to do with the murder?" Elijah asked as he glared into Morris' eyes.
"You must be joking! I had nothing to do with the murder. I couldn't have, after all I was watching the baseball game on TV at home that night," Morris yelled defiantly.
"OK, we'll come back to that one in a moment," Elijah said. "Do you know my client?"
"I know of him, but I had never met him personally," Morris said with a confused look on his face.
"You say you're an inspector, have you ever been a computer programmer,"
"Yes, I was a computer programmer for three years at IBM before I moved to Canada," Morris responded.
"How about a costume designer?"
"Yes, I did that too. I worked for Career Costuming for four years before moving to IBM."
"That's curious. As a lawyer, I have some well connected friends who were able to quickly search the employee files of IBM and Career Costuming and they couldn't find any record of you working there. Why do you suppose that is?"
"Because I worked under a different name then," Morris said whispering into his hand.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. Would you mind repeating that?"
"I SAID I WORKED UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME THEN!" Morris yelled.
"And what name would that be?" Elijah asked.
"Dennis Morse," Morris said.
"Would that be any relation to Brady Morse, the infamous Chicago mafia boss?"
"I'm sure your research has shown that I am his oldest son," Morris said in disgust.
"It has. The tattoo, the one that my associate pointed out to me last night, gave it away. All members of the Morse crime family carry it somewhere on their body. What did your father want you to specialize in? Forgery?" Elijah asked.
"Your Honor," Samantha said, "although this is very interesting, and is a nice diversion to confuse the jury, the heritage of Mr. Morris has no bearing on this case."
"On the contrary Your Honor, it most certainly does, and in a moment I will show relevancy," Elijah said.
"Proceed Mr. Deville," the judge said as Samantha threw her pen on the table as she sat down.
"So was it forgery Mr. Morris?"
"Yes," Morris responded.
"But at that time, you didn't want to become part of your father's business did you?"
"No I didn't," Morris responded.
"So you changed your name in order to be allowed to immigrate to Canada," Elijah stated.
"Yes," Morris said.
"Did you open up a bank account?"
"Of course, I opened up an account at the SBT Bank on Albion Rd, which is about a quarter mile from my house."
"You of course used your new name?" Elijah said.
"Of course," Morris said furrowing his brow.
"Funny thing is though, when we subpoenaed the records for "Dennis Morris" and your former identity, it turns out that you have two accounts, one under each name. What's the second account for?" Elijah asked.
"I don't have any knowledge of the second account."
"Really, then why is your signature found on both forms opening the accounts?" Elijah said showing him two forms. "Look, this signature matches this one."
Morris sat there silent.
"Furthermore, what's even stranger is that every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from May 2009 until the end of September 2009, your account received a daily deposit of $5,582.65. Where did that money come from?
"I already said I didn't know about the account, so how would I know about the money?" Morris answered.
"So it was just a coincidence that every week $22,330.60 went into an account using your former identity, money which is exactly half of the money stolen each week from the theme park for which you work."
"It must be, or the fact that your client is trying to frame me."
"I don't think so," Elijah said. "After all you said you didn't know my client, and he assures me that he doesn't know you, so how could he open an account in your name, let alone your former name, and with your signature no less. It just doesn't make sense. No, you were involved in the embezzlement scheme alright, and when it became clear that Scott Taylor was going to uncover the scheme, even if it didn't initially implicate you, you knew that the free money was over unless you did something. With this being the case, you had to murder him."
"Objection, Your Honor! Defense counsel is badgering the witness!" Samantha said.
"I WAS AT HOME WATCHING THE BASEBALL GAME, WHAT