CHAPTER 4

On the fifth floor of a prominent downtown building, the glass doors to Palin Accounting displayed a sign that looked straight out of the nineties—complete with shadow effects, purple and teal accents, and outdated graphics.

Hennessy opened the door and stepped into a forlorn, almost abandoned foyer. There was no receptionist, no one near the front door, and no sound coming from within the office. An old computer monitor sat on the empty receptionist’s desk, the only hint of activity, but even that seemed lifeless—no papers, files, or calendars surrounded it. There wasn’t even a keyboard attached.

“Hello,”

Hennessy called out. “Anyone here?”

“Through the doors,”

Palin called back, his voice echoing through the unoccupied space.

Hennessy walked through the reception area and into a space with five office cubicles on each side of the room. But again, none had any signs of life—no photos, no pens, nothing. Hennessy continued to the separate office at the rear of the space, stepping through the open door where he found Palin hunched over a paper file.

“Joe Hennessy,”

Palin said as Hennessy entered the room. He sat up and spread his arms wide. “Welcome to Palin Accounting.”

Palin had the first two buttons of his white shirt open, exposing his hairy chest. His thin gray hair was slicked back, his skin appeared greasy, and he smelled of cheap aftershave.

“The place is empty.”

Hennessy unbuttoned his suit jacket, placed his briefcase on the floor, and sat down. The chair was firm and there was no comfort to it. “Where is everyone?”

“That’s none of your business.”

“If you want me to win this case, then it has to be my business.”

“You’ll do as I tell you to do,”

Palin snapped, pointing his finger in Hennessy’s face. “You need to remember that you work for me, which makes me your boss.”

“Unless you want that finger broken, you’ll put it down.”

Palin curled his finger, cowering under Hennessy’s stare.

“I can see we’re not going to be friends, Joe. But that’s ok. I’m paying you to do a job, and that’s all I need from you.”

“We don’t have to be friends to win this case, but you need to answer all of my questions,”

Hennessy said. He had spent the weekend conducting a preliminary check on his former college associate. Hennessy called his contacts, sent emails to others, and searched Palin’s name online. Nobody spoke positively about Palin. Several people commented they wouldn’t trust him, several more stated that he was not to be believed at any cost, and some called him corrupt and evil. Palin had made enemies over the years, that much was clear. “What happened to the staff in the office?”

Palin grunted. “A mass walkout. All ten staff quit on the same day. It came as a shock to me, and they left me in the lurch.”

“What was the reason for the walkout?”

“I’m not a very nice boss, apparently. They each wrote me a resignation letter about it. Ten letters were sitting on their desks when I came in. I read the first letter but didn’t read the rest of them. I don’t care about them.”

Palin sniffed and pulled a tissue from a nearby container. He blew hard into the tissue and then coughed. “Some of them went to a rival accounting firm and others retired. The staff orchestrated it behind my back and left me here with another year on the lease of this building.”

“What did your clients think of that?”

“I didn’t tell them. After the staff left, I employed some contractors in India to do the work. It worked out to be less than half the price, and I didn’t have to worry about personal issues. I wished I’d done it years ago. It would’ve saved all the effort of managing those idiots I had for staff members.”

“Half the price, but half the quality?”

“They made mistakes,”

Palin shrugged. “And so, I lost a few clients, but that doesn’t worry me. Since my wife left five years ago, I’ve been working toward retirement. I was just about to retire to a beachfront apartment in Costa Rica when these charges came in. I would’ve left the country, but they’ve frozen my bank accounts and taken my passport.”

“How do I know you won’t run to Costa Rica if I beat the charges for you?”

“You don’t think I’ll pay?”

He chuckled. “I guess that’s understandable, but you’ll just have to trust me. I mean, as soon as they cut this stupid ankle monitor off me, I won’t stay in South Carolina.”

He reached into his desk drawer and removed a check. He stared at it for a long moment before he passed it over to Hennessy. “That’s the other half of the retainer, now that the judge has approved your involvement.”

Hennessy reached forward and took the check. He looked at it, studied it, and ensured it was legitimate. When he was sure it was real, he picked up his briefcase, opened it, and pulled out five sheets of paper. “I need you to sign these. It states that I can use your house for collateral if we win and you refuse to pay the rest of the legal fees.”

“What?”

Palin grinned. “You really don’t trust me, do you, Joe?”

Hennessy didn’t respond. He would be surprised if anyone trusted Palin.

Palin reached forward and snatched the forms from Hennessy. He licked his finger as he turned each sheet, then took a pen from his pocket and signed his name on the bottom of each page.

“If you could convince the judge to unfreeze some of my assets, that would help me greatly.”

“The judge intentionally made the order very broad.”

Hennessy removed another piece of paper from his briefcase and read over it.

The order to freeze your assets applied to ‘The term ‘assets’ encompasses, but is not limited to, all forms of property, rights, and interests, including transferred assets, promissory notes, intellectual property, rental income, leases, options, bonds, annuities, contract rights, creditor rights, future interests, beneficial interests, inherited property, real estate, mortgages, easements, interests in limited liability companies and similar entities, partnership interests, stocks, securities, livestock, chattel, mineral rights, and all rights to names, images, or likenesses. It also includes any rights or interests that can be monetized, whether known or unknown, whether presently owned, held, or controlled, previously owned, held, or controlled, or to be owned, held, or controlled in the future.

This applies to actual or contingent ownership, direct or indirect control, and partial or whole interests. For clarity, ‘assets’ also includes any property or interests that have been transferred, concealed, hidden, sold, encumbered, or otherwise disposed of, and that were previously owned, held, or controlled by you, either directly or indirectly, in full or in part.’ That’s the most complete order I’ve ever seen a judge deliver.”

“That sounds like it covers absolutely everything. So, no chance it can be changed?”

“It’s very unlikely.”

“That’s what David Jones said as well,”

Palin grunted. “I would’ve kept him, but the man was a fool. I felt like he was working for the Solicitor’s Office. It seemed like he was getting kickbacks from them.

He was so desperate for me to strike a deal, do some years in prison, and pay a massive fine. He wouldn’t even consider taking the case to trial. He got me bail, but that was just dumb luck. At one hearing, he showed up with the wrong case file. How was I going to win with that fool?”

“He knew you weren’t going to win at trial.”

Hennessy kept his eyes on Palin. “The State has hit you with five charges, including breach of trust, fraud, forgery, money laundering, and tax evasion. All the charges are felony charges. They’ve stated you set up a transfer of more than a million dollars from a charity foundation into your bank accounts. The State claims you set up false accounts, created false invoices, and made false claims in the accounting documentation.”

“I didn’t do it.”

“Is that your defense?”

“It had to be someone else in the office. I have my suspicions about who it was. Don’t you think it’s a coincidence that they all got up and left at the same time, and then these charges come in only weeks later? I’m not saying I’m squeaky clean because I’m not, but I didn’t do this. Someone else funneled the money out of the Foundation. They either did it to set me up, or they planned on stealing all the money to keep for themselves.”

“That doesn’t sound believable.”

“I get it, Joe. I know why you don’t believe me, but trust me, I wouldn’t steal money from a children’s charity foundation. You need to beat the charges for me.”

“At first glance, we should be able to get two of the charges dropped. The State has loaded the charges in the hope that you’ll plead guilty to at least one of them, but they don’t have enough evidence to continue with the felony money laundering or tax evasion charges. They’ve added those charges as a negotiation tactic.”

“And the other charges?”

“With the other charges—the felony breach of trust, fraud, and forgery charges—there are several defenses we can work on. One—we can claim you didn’t know about the transfers, and this was all one big numbers error, or two—we can claim that others in your organization had access to those files and those accounts. As the money wasn’t withdrawn from the bank account, the State will struggle to prove that you had the intent to withdraw the money. Intent is an important aspect of the charges and the weakest part of the prosecution’s case.”

Palin’s mouth hung open a little. “I knew you’d be great at this.”

“We have one major issue,”

Hennessy read over the notes on his legal pad. “It doesn’t look like we’ll win at trial. If this was a set up, then they’ve done well. They’ve made it look like you, and only you, could’ve done this. Where would we look if we were to build a defense that you were framed?”

“John Tilly.”

Palin brushed the tip of his nose. “He was the Senior Accountant and had access to everything I had access to. He was the one who could’ve set up the bank transfer, made the fake invoices, and changed the reports. He was also the one who led the exodus out of here.”

Hennessy knew not to believe a word that came out of the man’s mouth. From their early adult years together, Hennessy remembered Palin as immoral, selfish, and narcissistic—and those were his best qualities.

“That’s a lot of effort to set you up. Why would John Tilly go to those lengths to do this to you?”

“When I was much younger, almost twenty years ago, I slept with his wife. They weren’t married yet, but they were dating. John didn’t know about it until five years ago. I was drunk and I told him about it at one of the office Christmas parties. He was shocked, because he had no idea, but I told him it happened decades ago. His relationship with his wife fell apart after that, but he wouldn’t leave her until their kids had moved out of home.”

“You’re a terrible person.”

“But I had a good time,”

Palin chuckled, and when Hennessy didn’t laugh as well, his face lost all emotion. “The past is the past. I can’t do anything about it now. He held a grudge against me, but I didn’t think he was brave enough to do anything about it. It looks like I was wrong.”

“Five witnesses have requested that their names be redacted from their statements until the trial. Do you think John Tilly is one of the redacted witnesses?”

“I’m sure of it.”

“And the other four redacted names?”

“Probably all former employees, as well.”

“I need a list of all your former employees, dating back over the last five years.”

“I can send that to your office.”

“I also need a list of all your clients over the past five years. The prosecution has all the details connected to the Foundation and your bank accounts, but I need to look over everything you’ve done.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

Hennessy squinted. “If we’re going to have any chance at winning this case, I need you to provide me with the information to win. That’s the only way you’ll stay out of prison.”

“No, I’ll stay out of prison because you want my money. Some things are more important than this trial.”

“You’re looking at fifteen years behind bars. What could be more important than that?”

“My safety. There are things that happen in these books that can’t be exposed to law enforcement. Some of my clients have nothing to do with this case and they need to be left out of it.”

Hennessy’s jaw clenched. “I need the information on all your clients.”

“Like I said, my other clients have nothing to do with this case. You’ll win this case with the information I give you. That’s your job. I was framed. If you want my money, you need to win this in court. I’m innocent.”

“You’re not innocent. You may have been framed here, but the list of accusations against you goes on for a very long time.”

“If you can get me a deal without prison time, I’ll take it. I’m too old to do any prison time.”

He conceded, scrunched his face up, and then relaxed. “You should talk to Clarence Berkley. I ran his accounting for years, and he owes me a lot of favors. He’ll help us. He still has enough connections in the justice system to manipulate the case and get the win. I’m sure he can talk to the Circuit Solicitor and get us a deal with no prison time. Berkley should also be able to help us with the names of the redacted witnesses.”

“I’ll talk to him.”

Hennessy collected the signed forms, placed them inside his briefcase and snapped it shut. “And I’ll talk to everyone involved in this case. I need all the information about your clients over the last five years. You need to send those details through to my office. We can’t have any surprises in the courtroom.”

“Things aren’t that straightforward, Joe.”

Palin leaned forward, taking the time to choose his next words carefully. “I run the accounting for several businesses that may or may not be involved in some unsavory behavior. They have nothing to do with this case, and they won’t like it if you dig into their business records.”

“And if I do?”

“Then I could imagine those people will get very angry.”