15. Path to a Motive

It’s bridge night at Sam Weiss’s cottage on the lake a block from Main Street. Pam is hoping they can play bridge on Sam’s deck overlooking the lake. It’s the 30th of August, the heat has returned so a breeze off Lake Huron would be welcome. She parks behind Mary’s Jeep Cherokee and hurries to catch up with Mary before they go into Sam’s cottage. “Wait a moment, Mary,” she says. 

Mary stops and waits for Pam to reach her. She says, “Hi Pam. I was hoping to have a minute to talk to you privately.”

“Were you able to download statements for the City’s bank account?” asks Pam.

“No, I’ve been swamped with work. I did have time to check the file of Hess’s labeled passwords. As I expected it has a list of usernames and passwords for websites he uses. I made a note of the ones for the bank account. As soon as I have some time I’ll download a few recent monthly statements. I’m sure I’ll get to it this week.”

“Great, come for lunch at my farm again on Saturday with the statements and the corresponding monthly financial reports of the treasurer. We can carefully examine them after lunch.”

“I’ll be there. I’ll be looking forward to another salad of fresh veggies from your garden. Your tomatoes are wonderful. Let’s go play some bridge. I see Sam waiting for us.”

Pam goes to Erin’s Cut and Curl salon for her regular haircut appointment on a rainy Thursday morning. She says, “Good morning, Erin. What’s the news this week?”

Erin replies, “I suppose you read Tuesday’s Weekly Journal. Mary Jane Bloom outdid herself this week didn’t she?”

“I didn’t read it. I have been too busy in my garden. My tomatoes are nearly finished and I need to get them canned. What did she write?” asks Pam.

“One of her typical columns, full of rumors and speculations. She criticized Sheriff Ericsson’s investigation more than usual. She insinuated he doesn’t care about Glen Lund’s murder,” replied Erin.

“That’s a bit harsh. I thought the people involved with Glen’s shady deals were being thoroughly investigated,” says Pam.

“They were last week. Jolene said when Deputy Wilson came in for a haircut yesterday he told her all of those suspects are now known to be innocent. He said the sheriff is at a dead end. Apparently, Mary Jane Bloom found out. That’s likely why she wrote such a critical column.”

Pam says, “I can imagine how frustrating it is for the sheriff. He gets fixated on one line of investigation. When it turns out not to lead anywhere he starts looking for a way out instead of a new way forward. I hope he isn’t taking out his frustration on Sue or the deputies.”

“Wilson told Jolene the deputies are staying on road patrol to avoid the sheriff as much as possible. Poor Sue, she’s stuck in the office with the sheriff. Fortunately she’s had a lot of experience handling sheriffs. Ericsson is the third one she’s had to put up with.”

Pam asks, “If you see her, Erin, tell her we may want her help again in guiding the sheriff in a new direction.”

“I suspected you’d not be able to resist being the detective again, Pam. Are you on to something?”

“Maybe, but I don’t have enough information to be sure. I don’t want to start any rumors.”

“I understand. If you want the Cut and Curl Detective Society to go into action again let me know. I think we were helpful bringing David Wellborne to justice,” says Erin. 

“I will if it’s necessary. If what I suspect is true we only need to alert Sue. She’ll be able to guide the sheriff without him suspecting it isn’t his idea. Thanks for sharing what Wilson told Jolene. I’d rather get the real story instead of reading Mary Jane Bloom's speculations. If we need to alert Sue Johnson can I count on you to set up a meeting without the sheriff knowing?”

“Definitely. Okay, you're all done. What do you think?”

“Looks great, Erin. I’ll call you if I need to meet with Sue.”

Saturday morning Pam prepares salads for lunch with Mary. It’s the last of the leaf lettuce and green onions. She hopes the salads aren’t bitter this late in the summer. At least the tomatoes and cucumbers are still good. Mary arrives and they eat lunch. The lettuce is slightly bitter but Mary says she loves hers. After lunch Pam clears her big antique dining room table so they can spread out the papers Mary brought. Mary says, “I brought bank statements for last April and May and for July. I think we should look at statements from before and after the city’s financial issue came up. I also have the monthly reports the treasurer submitted to the City Council for each of those months. I haven’t had time to look at them. What do you think we should look for?”

“Let’s see if the end of the month balances match. Even if they do we still need to match the deposits and withdrawals on the bank statements with corresponding receipts and expenses on the financial statements. You start with April and I’ll look at July,”’ answers Pam. 

Mary hands Pam the bank statement and Treasurer’s report for July. Pam examines the numbers for a few moments and says, “The end of the month balances for July match. That’s good. How about the April balances?”

“Yes, the April balances match. Let me check the withdrawals and expenses.”

Fifteen minutes later Pam says, “There’s a problem with July numbers. The bank deposits match the revenues received in the monthly statement exactly but the withdrawals don’t all match a corresponding expense. There are a cash withdrawal and a check that add to an expense for the cases where one withdrawal doesn’t have a matching expense.”

“The same thing is in the April data,” says Mary. “I can only conclude the treasurer is pocketing the cash withdrawals and covering up the shortage by inflating the reported expenses by the amount of the cash withdrawn.”

Pam replies, “I agree, Mary. It’s not a very sophisticated way of embezzling. Anyone checking bank statements would discover it as easily as we have.”

“You’re right, Pam. That’s why the monthly bank statements are being destroyed or maybe not even downloaded. This points to Ralph Hess. He is the one depositing the tax receipt checks and paying the bills,” says Mary.

“I agree, Mary. This clears the young computer systems administrator. To confirm our suspicion Hess is embezzling we need to show the expenses are inflated above the invoices submitted to the city.  Can you access the invoices?”

“I looked for files of invoices but didn’t find any. Since the checks wouldn’t match the invoices Hess wouldn’t want the invoices found. I’ll call some of the businesses sending invoices for expenses not matching check withdrawals. I’ll make up a story saying I’m checking a discrepancy in our records, or we misplaced the invoice and need another copy for our records. I’ll have to convince them to send the copy to me rather than to the treasurer. If the invoices match the checks sent but don’t match the expenses listed we have proof of embezzling. Shall we turn over our information to the sheriff if that’s the case? ”

“No, that could get you into trouble for hacking into city records you shouldn’t access. There’s a better way. I’ll get Sue Johnson to help. She can lead the sheriff to believe he thought up the idea of checking the city’s financial records. She’ll make him believe having the systems administrator check Hess’s files is his idea as well. All you need to do is make some helpful suggestions to the administrator at the right time. I can tell Sue we have already found the embezzler. She’ll point the sheriff in the right direction without revealing she knows the embezzler’s name.”

“I love your plan, Pam. I have been worried someone might see me with these files and ask questions I don’t want to answer.”

“And the sheriff doesn’t need to know I’ve had any involvement in the case. He’ll want Mary Jane Bloom to believe he solved the case himself. I’ll enjoy reading how she spins the story of Sheriff Ericsson solving the case after she’s painted him as incompetent. Call me if you confirm our suspicions with the invoice numbers.”

“I will. It’ll take several days for copies of invoices to arrive,” replies Mary.

“That’s okay. I doubt Hess is going anywhere. If Glen intended to expose his embezzling and he killed Glen I suspect he embezzled to support a cocaine habit. He left the cocaine packet with the body hoping to send the sheriff on a wild goose chase. While you’re waiting for the duplicate invoices check the State’s gun registry to see if Ralph Hess has a registered handgun. If he’s buying cocaine, as I suspect he might carry a gun for protection when he sees his drug supplier. He would have no difficulty getting a concealed carry permit since he takes the tax receipts to the bank. We don’t want the sheriff antagonizing Hess trying to rattle him into confessing and getting shot instead. Let me know so I can tell Sue if we need her to redirect the sheriff’s investigation.”