CHAPTER 33

“You embezzled money from Stanwell Construction?!”

Hennessy slapped a file on the table in front of Palin. “Why didn’t you tell me there was evidence you did this?”

The meeting room in the courthouse was small. A table took up much of the space, with five office chairs squeezed around the outside. A potted plant was in the corner, and a small hand-drawn, framed picture of Charleston was hanging on the wall.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“JR Concreting Supplies.”

Hennessy glared at Palin. “It’s an anomaly through your accounts. Richard Dunstall talked about an anomaly with the records for a concreting company. JR Concreting Supplies is not a registered business, but Stanwell Construction made several payments four years ago, totaling more than $50,000.”

Palin sat back, taking his time to think over his following answer. He shook his head and then groaned. “I told you not to ask Dunstall too many questions.”

“This is what you’ve really been scared of, isn’t it? You didn’t care about the Foundation or the children or your reputation. This is what you’ve been scared of. You made fake invoices for Stanwell Construction and stole their money.”

“I didn’t steal their money.”

Palin paused for a moment, and a look of defeat spread across his face. “Maybe I sent them fake invoices from a fake company, but that was before they started providing muscle for the Rebel Sons. They weren’t winning many contracts then, and they were small-scale. At that time, Tony was nasty but wasn’t a threat. And when I first came on, their books were a mess. They had no idea how to run a business, and they had no idea how to balance their books. A few dollars here and there didn’t hurt anyone.”

“$50,000 is more than a few dollars. Do you have a death wish?”

“I have a life wish. That’s why I created the fake invoices. I wanted to live a little. I had a great vacation in the Bahamas. And I stopped when they started working with the Rebel Sons. Tony knew someone who knew someone, and then they started working together to launder money through the construction business. I didn’t touch his records after that.”

“That’s a dangerous game to play.”

“It’s four years ago, and Tony wouldn’t even know where to look. That man struggles to work out a calendar, let alone complex accounting systems. The only records the company has from those days are with me. If I don’t show him, then he never knows.”

Palin stood, the stress becoming too much. He leaned against the back of the chair. “We’re lucky Dunstall didn’t say anything on the stand.”

“How did he even know?”

“He was like a savant. Numbers were his thing. He had no personal skills and zero common sense, but he could read records so fast, and the numbers just stuck in his brain. He came to me with questions about records that were seven years old, and I told him to forget it. I told him to put the physical records through the shredder and delete them from the computer. He refused, saying it wasn’t best practice, and then I took the paper records and put them through the shredder while he was sitting in my office. He quit a week later.”

Palin sat down, and Hennessy leaned his tall frame against the far wall. He looked at the ceiling for inspiration.

“We’re lucky Dunstall didn’t say anything,”

Hennessy said. “But the longer this case goes on, the worse it looks for you. There are so many people willing to testify that you ripped them off, and it’s convincing the jury that this pattern of behavior extended to the Foundation.”

“I know I’m not squeaky clean, but it had to be Tilly and Fisher. Everything is pointing to them. They were planning their retirement and saw these funds as an easy way out. They were ready to take the money before I was arrested.”

“That doesn’t explain why you gave Berkley a copy of the account statement. That is the piece of evidence that’s going to stump the jury. Even if they think it’s Tilly and Fisher, they’ll be stuck on the bank statement Berkley gave the police.”

“It’s a set up. Berkley wanted me out of his life and saw this as an easy way to set me up. The jury will see that when he testifies. Tilly probably gave him the bank statement to set me up.”

“Berkley will be the key. You’re done if he comes to the stand confidently and presents a trustworthy image. But if we can link Tilly and Berkley, we might have a chance of raising suspicion about where the bank statement came from.”

“I’ll see what I can do about Berkley.”

“Don’t touch him. This is a court of law, not a schoolyard.”

“You’ve got your rules, and I’ve got mine.”

Palin shrugged. “If the prosecution wants to pin me for everything else I’ve done, they should go ahead and try. I always covered my tracks well. They won’t find a thing. And just because I’ve done questionable things in the past, doesn’t mean that I should pay for this crime when I’m innocent.”

Hennessy hated, deeply hated, that Palin was right.