Black Jack and Slots

Martin knew that he was becoming more and more suspect as the construction company researched the reason for their financial slump. Mark Jayson, the owner, thought they had been doing pretty well until the accountant showed him the books and he realized something was very, very wrong.

Taking the money had always felt easy, and yet, the guilt was overwhelming. How could he cheat his company this way?  It didn’t really matter what his reasoning was, Martin had stolen almost $75,000 and gambled it away.

Slot machines and the black jack table had all but made Martin completely insolvent. His home was in foreclosure, his car was going to be repossessed and his wife had left him three months ago and taken the children with her. “I’m tired of living like this, Martin, and I’m not going to do this to the kids any longer,” she had said as she walked out the door.

He called her repeatedly asking her to come home and promising to change. “I won’t go to the casino anymore,” he pleaded with her though he was talking to deaf ears.

“Martin to the office please. Martin to the office,” the PA system yelled at him. He knew this might be the last time he walked as a free man if they had discovered his betrayal.

Mark opened the door and directed Martin to a chair next to the desk with all the blueprint drawings scattered about. “The CPAs just wanted to check with you and see if you know anything about this series of forged checks.”

Martin knew he was caught. He had thought he had done such a good job of pointing the finger at everyone else, anyone else. “We think that Christie has been writing bogus checks and cashing them,” Mark explained. “Have you ever noticed anything suspicious about her on the days when you were managing during my absence?”

Martin gulped, took a deep breath and thought … OMG, they think its Christie.  “She seems to be doing her job just fine and when she was on vacation, her sub did a great job.” He tried to relax his breathing and slow his heart which was about ready to crash through his chest.

“We discovered that some of the checks were made out to her sub and cashed by her,” Mark explained.  The police are on their way to arrest her.

Martin tried to look as shocked as possible and said “Holy shit, I would never have thought that about Christie. Have you talked to her? Did she say why?”

Mark shook his head and said “no, we were hoping you could shed some light on the whole situation, since you know her better than anyone.”

Martin was relaxing and feeling a little better. His breaths came easier and his heart had slowed to almost its normal rate.

The police were at the door and Mark made his way to the front of the building to meet them at the entrance. He explained the situation and the CPA was there to back all of his claims. Mark was very disheartened and Martin nodded his head in agreement that he thought this was just awful and so devastating.

Christie was in tears and repeatedly saying, “I don’t understand. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t steal any money.” The police led her away in handcuffs.

“Maybe I covered my tracks a lot better than I thought,” was Martin’s next thought. He smiled with some reassurance that he seemed to be safe and drove to the casino that night to celebrate. He played black jack for about two hours and then retired to his favorite slot machine, hoping to bring home a little extra cash that night. Maybe he could catch up on his car payments and keep his car from getting repossessed.

The following morning, on his way into work, Martin stopped and got donuts and coffee for everyone.  He seemed to be in a good mood when everyone else was depressed about the situation with Christie being arrested. His hidden recorder, which he had placed in the office months earlier, came to life.

“I just can’t believe that Christie did this,” Mark stated. “Let’s keep looking for anything else in the investigation, just in case.” The CPA responded “alright.”

Mark made his way over to the donuts. “Good morning, Martin. Thanks for the donuts. This was a nice surprise.”

“Just a little pick me up for everyone after yesterday,” he explained.

“We need to make some calls, Martin. We need a sub to fill in until we can hire a new secretary. We need to improve the security in the office by installing cameras. We need to call Christie’s family and offer our help in any way we can.”

Martin looked confused. “You’re going to help Christie after she embezzled?”

Mark looked at Martin and said “she must have had a reason for doing this. Maybe we can help her with some solutions. I don’t want to leave her just hanging. She’s mostly a good girl.”

The following day started off normal and Martin showered and dressed for work. He flipped on the recorder and heard Mark. “I’m looking forward to putting Martin in handcuffs. Not just for stealing from me, but for setting Christie up to take the fall.”  He’s not gonna know what hit him when he gets here this morning. I can’t believe he set Christie up like this over money. What was he thinking?”

Martin knew he was caught and so his last call came from an undisclosed airport.