Chapter 7
Tell Me the Whole Story from the Beginning
One really cannot understand what it feels like to be held at the Toronto Municipal Jail, unless experiencing it first hand. The Jail is only supposed to hold 400 people, but consistently holds 600 every year. It is cold, damp and frequently unsanitary. Rather than having their own cell, or sharing one with two others, the people awaiting trial here share a cell with eight other people, which sometimes can lead to fights. It is often said by lawyers and former inmates, 'If you have to go to jail, hope you can avoid being sent to the Toronto Municipal Jail'.
Elijah had called ahead so that Elliot Ravenwood would be in a waiting room when he arrived. Jail had not been kind to Mr. Ravenwood. His once dark black hair was beginning to show signs of grey, his 39 year old face was starting to wrinkle, and his once fit 6'2" body, was looking like it hadn't eaten in weeks.
As Elijah sat down, he couldn't help but notice Elliot's weakened state.
"Are you all right Mr. Ravenwood?" asked Elijah.
"Call me Elliot, and no I'm not all right, but thanks for asking. I'm in jail, I'm tired, I'm hungry and I'm staring at 25 years to life unless you can help me. You CAN help me can't you?" asked an obviously irritated Ravenwood.
"I'll certainly give it my best shot. As I told your wife, I can make no guarantees, for the deck is stacked heavily against us, but if there's one thing I hate more than anything else, it's losing. I don't lose many cases, and I don't intend to lose this one. But in order to make that happen, I need to know the whole story from the beginning," said Elijah.
"First of all, I'm telling you the absolute truth: I didn't kill Scott Taylor. I don't know who did, but it wasn't me," Elliot said slamming his fist against the table.
"Calm down, I'm on your side!" said Elijah. "If you're not careful, your temper may end up convicting you. Now, begin telling me about the investigation of misappropriated funds being conducted by Mr. Taylor."
"There's not much to tell, because I didn't know that there was any investigation until the day before Scott was killed," Elliot said.
"So then, tell me what you do know, Elliot. Unless you tell me everything, I can't help you," reminded Elijah.
"Well, the night before the accident, Scott called me into the conference room. It must have been about 6:30, because I was about to leave for the night. When I got in the room, Scott began showing me an audit of the parks books that had been performed at his request. I was immediately taken aback because usually Scott would have ordered me to request an audit. He told me that the reason he went around behind my back would quickly become clear. On the audit, he had highlighted weekly payments of exactly $45,454.45 made to a 'Just in Time Supplies' and asked me if I recognized them. After I told them that I did not, he asked me why, to which I couldn't give an answer. He then went on a tirade telling me that a competent CFO would pay close attention to all appropriations, especially ones that he did not recognize. After that, he showed me another set of documents that had been given to him by a private investigator stating that 'Just in Time Supplies' was in fact a dummy corporation to which I was the founder. He actually accused me of using this company to divert funds away from the park into my own pockets," Elliot said, sounding a little exasperated.
"Did he have any proof?" inquired Elijah.
"Well, it seems upon further analysis of the dummy corporation's financial statements, their only expenses were rental fees for an office space in Etobicoke, and salary and inventory costs which were direct deposited into two accounts opened under the names of Ivan Tory and Sal Aria. I would have thought that this would have meant that I was off the hook, until further investigation showed that I had signing authority on both accounts."
"Was there anything else you could remember about this meeting?"
"Well there was one thing. When Scott showed me the documents that he thought proved the embezzlement, all of the signatures read 'E.T. Ravenwood'. I always sign documents with either 'Elliot Ravenwood' or 'Elliot-Travis Ravenwood'."
"So if what you're saying is true, then whoever set those accounts up for you must know that you go by the name E.T. as well."
"Any one of my friends or even my co-workers know I go by that nickname. What makes it even worse is that the bank manager says that I was the one who set up the account, and he even has my signature on the documents to prove it," explained Elliot.
"That's going to be a tough one to explain away," said Elijah. "OK, so what happened next?"
"We argued. I said that his investigators hadn't dug deep enough, and had they done so, they would have found out that I was being framed. Scott didn't believe one word that I had said about that, claiming that his people had done a very thorough investigation and this is all they found. When I demanded that I see all of the documents, so that I could examine them, he refused, saying that unless I repaid all of the money that was stolen by the following Monday, not only would I lose my job (which was almost certain to happen anyway, he said), but I be facing theft charges as well. After he finished, he stormed out of the room and back to his office."
"Did he leave any paperwork behind?" asked Elijah.
"No, but all that he had, the police seized, so if you want to know about it, you could get it from them."
"Becca, my partner, is doing that right now," Elijah said. "So what happened next?"
"Well, once Scott left, I decided that I had to clear my head and calm down, so I left the office about 7:00 PM for about 45 minutes and went to dinner at a near-by fast food restaurant. After eating the food in my car, I returned to the office to do some investigating of our books."
"I thought you said that Scott didn't leave any paperwork."
"He didn't leave any of his paperwork, but since Scott had yet to revoke my credentials, I still had access to the financial files, so I went searching."
"I really wish you hadn't done that Elliot. It's going to look to the crown attorney that you went in to try and find a way to cover your tracks."
"I did no such thing, besides, all the damage was done. Even if I had changed the files, he had an outside auditor examine the books, and sign, under penalty of perjury, that there were strange entries in the company's books. If I had changed the records, and it was my word against hers, the court would most likely accept her word, because she was independent of the company, and could go to jail if she lied about our financial situation," explained Elliot. "Anyway, the only thing that I uncovered was that 'Just in Time Supplies' was contracted to provide us with inventory supplies that were under ordered by the park."
"Moving on, doesn't $45,000 sound like an awfully big order to you?" said Elijah.
"To an outsider, this would be true, but in a week, the park would spend upwards of 5-6 hundred thousand dollars in food and supplies. So it is obvious that a weekly order of $45,000 wouldn't look out of place."
"But weren't there records of deliveries, and inventories kept of what came into the park and what left?" asked Elijah, looking a little confused.
"There were invoices. Who ever set me up was able to slip the invoices into the records so everything looked legitimate. That person also had to know that on things such as condiments, and one-time use items, we don't keep a tight inventory, because it is next to impossible to do so."
"So I guess that that narrows the field of suspects even more," Elijah said. "Was there anyone else in the office with you the night before the murder?"
"Not after Alice Hastings left at around 8:00, although I cannot be totally sure because my office is at the back of the building. I guess anyone could have been at the front near the lobby and near Scott's office without me having known it."
"OK, so when did you leave for the night?"
"I got tired of pouring through documents around midnight, so I decided to go home. My plan was to come in early Monday morning, do a little more digging and then present my findings to Scott in hope that he would re-con
sider," said Elliot. "A funny thing happened before I left the office though. As I peered out my window, I could have sworn that I had seen some light coming from the area of the Colossus."
"But the Colossus was at the back of the park, how could you have seen that?"
"Yes, but my office has a good view of the Colossus, because, a., it is the tallest ride in the park and b., all of the attractions ahead of it are short, allowing for a bird's eye view of the front of the ride."
"So what did you do?"
"I went back to take a look around. When I got there, I went onto the platform to see if I could see anything, but nothing appeared out of place, so I said to myself that I must have imagined it. As I was coming down the platform, the security guard stopped me to ask what I was doing, and I told him what I thought I had seen. He went and looked around, saw nothing, and politely asked me to leave."
"So what time did you get home?" asked Elijah.
"I got home at around 1:00 and went straight to bed. I don't know if Pamela, my wife, heard me, but that's the honest truth."
"One last question. Do you own an acetylene torch?"
"Own one, I don't even know how to use one," exclaimed Elliot.
"So you have no idea how the torch got into the trunk of your car."
"No I don't, but since I keep my car unlocked, it would be easy for anyone to get in, open the trunk release latch and put the tank in there any time they wanted to."
"That's exactly what I'd thought say," said Elijah sighing. "I guess that about does it then. I'll tell you the truth Elliot. This is going to be a tough case. Whoever framed you, and I do believe you were framed, did a bang up job, right down from the embezzlement to the murder. It's almost as if they were a pro. I'll do my best to prove your innocence, but it's going to take every ounce of brain power that I've got," Elijah said as he stood up.
"Thanks for taking my case Mr. Deville. You're the first lawyer to actually believe in me. And oh, by the way, nice coat," Elliot said with a smile.
Elijah signaled the guards that the meeting was over, so Elliot was taken back to the holding cell, and Elijah went to catch the bus back to his office. As he walked the two blocks to the bus stop, he couldn't help but think of how bleak it was beginning to look for Elliot. All of the evidence was stacked against him, from the physical evidence, to the eyewitness testimony. Nothing seemed to point to anybody else except Elliot, and there was no way to provide the jury with reasonable doubt that Elliot committed this crime. In all this despair though, he held out hope that Becca had turned up something in the evidence that was collected. Something, anything overlooked by the police at the scene would go a long way in helping turn this case around.
**********