 
### Elijah Deville

### in

### Coasting to Death

By: J.R. Diestelkamp

Cover Art By: Adam Diestelkamp

Copyright 2011 J.R. Diestelkamp

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This e–book is a work of fiction. All events, characters, places, firms, and institutions in this novel are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any similarity to any persons, living or dead, or to any actual events, firms and institutions is coincidental, or unintentional.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: "407 All the Way"

Chapter 2: "A Colossal Accident"

Chapter 3: "ETR is Going to Ruin Us"

Chapter 4: "Consoling a Widow"

Chapter 5: "You're Under Arrest..."

Chapter 6: "Enter Elijah Deville"

Chapter 7: "Tell Me the Whole Story from the Beginning"

Chapter 8: "This is Going to Be Tough"

Chapter 9: "Mrs. Audrey Taylor"

Chapter 10: "Bail is Set At..."

Chapter 11: "Faulty Inspections and Impregnable Computer Programs"

Chapter 12: "100 Kilograms"

Chapter 13: "Revelations"

Chapter 14: "Bring It On"

Chapter 15: "The Case for the Crown"

Chapter 16: "Numbers and Investigations"

Chapter 17: "I Rest My Case"

Chapter 18: "I Think We've Got 'Em"

Chapter 19: "What Goes Up..."

Chapter 20: "Must Come Down"

Chapter 21: "When Idle Words Come Back to Haunt You"

Chapter 22: "Taking the 5th...Sort of"

Chapter 23: "Closing Time"

Chapter 24: "Waiting"

Chapter 25: "We the Jury..."

Other Novels in the Elijah Deville Mystery Series

About the Author

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# Acknowledgement

I'd like to thank my cousin Adam for his amazing work on the cover art for the novel.

# Chapter 1

_407 All the Way_

It's Canada Day in Toronto! For many people it means a family barbeque, a day at the beach or a trip to the cottage. It means fun in the sun or walks in the park. It means a holiday from the hectic commutes and constant deadlines that have come to define the lives of the average worker in this great city.

For Scott Taylor, Canada Day means none of these things, because to him, this holiday can be seen in only one way: dollars and cents. As a CEO of a major theme park in Toronto, this attitude is quite natural because after all, big holidays are a great opportunity to attract new visitors; and what better way to attract these new visitors, but with a new roller coaster. The unveiling of the 'Colossus' was to be a momentous occasion in the tenure of Taylor, one that had to go off without a hitch.

With that being the case, it is no wonder that this particular morning in the Taylor's suburban Toronto home looked less like a serene holiday, and more like the chaotic mess that usually enveloped this family's everyday activities.

"Dear, where's the mail?" yelled Scott up the stairs to his wife.

"It's on the kitchen table!" Audrey yelled back as she ran past him, hair a mess, looking for her brush.

"Have you seen my brush Scott?" she called back.

"No, why should I have," Scott said as he rifled through two days worth of bills and ads.

"Well maybe, after all, this long brown hair doesn't just comb itself," she said as she noticed from the landing that Scott was opening some bills. She paused, and then asked, "Hey, what are you doing?"

"I'm looking through the mail. Even though it's July 1st, that doesn't mean it's a holiday for the debt collectors."

"I've been away for 2 days and you haven't had the chance to look through the mail? Don't blame me if the bills aren't paid on time," she said, hand on her hip, with an annoyed look on her face.

"You know I've been busy at work," he chirped back. "You also know that there have been some money issues at the park that I've been busy investigating. This has lent me little time to do anything thing else, like read the mail," he said, glaring back at her.

Scott continued opening the mail, and after a few seconds, an annoyed Audrey returned to looking for her hair brush. He started with the letters that were obviously junk mail, and then moved onto the more depressing ones, the monthly bills. When he opened the 10 page bill for the 407 Express Toll Route, his already irritated attitude quickly changed. Scanning through the first few pages of the bill, he was amazed by how many times the road was used.

When he got to the last page, he quickly glanced at the bottom, where printed in big bold letters read 'Balance Due: $514.06'. His face turned as bright as a tomato, while he irately yelled "Audrey what's with this bill?" Scott's voice was so loud, that it's surprising that the neighbors hadn't heard him and called the police. Audrey, sensing another tongue lashing from her husband, suspended the search for the brush and came running into the kitchen.

"What bill are you talking about?"

"I am talking about this Highway 407 bill," Scott said, waving the papers in the air. "You told me that it was going to be $125.00, which on top of last month's bill of $90.00 I thought was bad enough, but this bill is for over $500.00! Audrey, what were you doing, joyriding down the most expensive highway in Ontario?"

"If you must know Scott, Highway 407 is the fastest way for me to get to and from the bank. You remember the bank don't you, it's the place where I work," she remarked back snidely.

"Audrey, don't you snap back at me like that," Scott replied. "I wish that you didn't have to get a job just as bad as anyone, but look at our bank statement," he said, showing her the other letter that he had opened. "We have no money! That is appalling considering that I'm the CEO of a major theme park and you have a job as a bank teller. Together we bring in over $250,000 a year plus a small bonus at the end of the year. Perhaps if you hadn't have stepped down as a central teller we'd be in a little better financial situation, but as it is, we are simply going to have to cut back...and that will start with the route you take to get to work. So what if you have to wait a few minutes in traffic or at some stoplights, the fact of the matter is that we cannot afford $500.00 a month bills, not with Katie's piano lessons, soccer practice, and your shopping sprees."

"You leave Katie out of this," Audrey shouted as she began to cry. She paused for a moment, wiped the tears from her eyes, and said "Scott, we can talk about this later, we're going to be late getting to the park. Go on now and change your shirt." She then quickly left the kitchen to resume the search for her brush.

"What's wrong with my shirt?" he asked inquisitively.

"Scott, I don't know about you, but normal people don't wear a dress shirt and tie to ride the attractions at an amusement park. Go put on a t-shirt or something," she shouted back from the other room.

As Scott went to change his shirt, he couldn't help but think about what the financial situation at Canada's AdventureLand was doing to his marriage. The arguments like the one that had just happened were becoming a regular occurrence at his house. Whether it was over money, work, dinner or spending quality time with Katie, he and Audrey were on each other's nerves at least once a day.

It wasn't always like this though. Ten years before, when Scott was offered to become CEO of Canada's largest theme park, located just to the north of Toronto, he and his wife couldn't be happier. They would finally have the financial freedom to do the things that they had always wanted to do without the worries of how they were going to afford it. For Scott, that meant buying a bigger house, and expensive cars, while for Audrey, it meant leaving her job at the machine shop that her father worked for. Things were looking up for the family, until the recession hit that is, and people stopped going to theme parks in the numbers that they had before.

It was at about this time that arguments started. It only became worse as Scott began spending more time at the office trying to find out why money was mysteriously disappearing from the theme park's bank accounts. At first, Scott thought that it was simply a cash flow problem, one that Elliot Ravenwood, CFO of the theme park promised he would look into, but as the months passed, and the problem failed to resolve itself, Scott began to suspect that someone was stealing money. Keeping his suspicions to himself, he began a more detailed investigation of the financial statements and accounting practices of the company. His probe involved bringing in more people to do the technical work, though he still had to work many late nights. The lack of a good night's sleep quickly began to take its toll. Scott's disposition changed, he became angrier as the days turned to weeks, and the weeks to months, with few clues surfacing as to who the thief was.

To further exacerbate the problem, Scott's close attention to the park's fiscal problems, meant that he was neglecting to take care of his own family's financial situation. Broiled in the worst recession in decades, 2009-10 had not been a good year for the family. Scott had lost thousands of dollars in the stock market because he failed to recognize soon enough the decline in value of certain foreign companies. Couple that with a rise in food and gas prices, a high mortgage payment, yearly property tax increases and a wife and daughter who loved to shop, Scott was continually worried that the family was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Now Scott loved and cared for his family deeply, even his wife, and the last thing he wanted to do was to have to cut the luxuries that the entire family enjoyed, but something had to change and fast in order to keep them financially solvent.

Today though was a day that Scott was supposed to forget all of his problems and pretend that nothing was the matter. Today was the day that he was to put on a smile and show the world that even he, a boring CEO to the core, could have a little fun amongst the common people. Today was the day that the park was to open a new state of the art rollercoaster, "The Colossus", and he was going to be its inaugural rider.

Having now found a new shirt, one that he hoped his wife would approve of, Scott slumped slowly downstairs to find his wife, with her hair finally brushed, standing next to Katie at front door.

"Ready to test your new ride daddy?" Katie asked excitedly.

"As ready as I'm going to be darling," Scott replied, knowing full well that he hated riding rollercoasters.

"Good then honey," Audrey remarked with a grin, "I've got my keys, so let's get a move on. After all, wouldn't want to be late for your big day."

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# Chapter 2

_A Colossal Accident_

The drive from the Taylor's western Toronto suburban home to Canada's AdventureLand takes about 45 minutes in good traffic. A hot and gorgeous Canada Day guaranteed that it wasn't going to be one of those good traffic days. Highway 401 traffic, combined with extra Highway 400 traffic added an extra 45 minutes to the journey. Despite this, the Taylor's arrived at the park only a few minutes late, and surprisingly, in a pretty good mood. As it turns out, being an executive to the theme park did have its advantages, for the family got to bypass the long lines in the parking lot and at the gate, and were immediately granted admittance to the park. Upon entry, Mike Swaize, the park's public relations director, met Scott and his family, and once pleasantries were dispensed with, he led them to the new thrill ride.

The coaster was more magnificent than anybody could have ever imagined. Colossus was, from the outside, what might be considered a regular rollercoaster. The red tracks piped in blue dazzled the eyes as it glistened in the summer sunlight. The ride consisted of five cars in a set, with each car seating four people. The seats were painted according to the row of the ride. Red cars were at the front, followed by orange, yellow, green and blue. The idea behind the colors was to show how intense the ride was going to feel to the rider, with red being the most intense and blue being the least intense, relatively speaking. What set Colossus apart from other roller coasters was the extreme height of the ride, as well as the blistering speed with which you sped around the track. At its highest point, Colossus reached a soaring 50 meters into the air and if you were lucky, you could see the CN Tower for a split second from the peak. Altogether Colossus had four inversions, one cobra roll, and three corkscrews and reached a maximum speed of 95 km/hr. Despite that being the normal highway speed, the riders feel as if they're going twice that speed due to the lack of the comforts that car manufacturers build into the modern day automobile. Running at full capacity, three sets of cars or 60 people can be out on the track at once, hopefully keeping lines short. If the ride proved successful, Colossus would become the crown jewel of the park, boosting the slumping attendance of the two previous summers.

After Scott and his family had traveled to the back of the park and arrived at the Colossus, they were met by the Park's System manager, and operator for the inaugural ride, Kevin Craig. Craig was average height and had a rather heavy physique, but what he lacked in stature he made up for in genius, for he had been the chief designer of the entire computer system for the coaster.

"Good morning, Mr. Taylor and welcome to 'Colossus'," said Craig. "I trust that you're ready to ride?"

"Well actually, I'm not much of a rollercoaster enthusiast," Scott explained, "though my 12 year old daughter Katie certainly is. I'm more of a down to earth, remain alive kind of guy if you know what I mean."

"Of course sir," Craig replied, "Would you rather your daughter be the first to ride instead?"

"No, no. Even though I hate riding them, I also don't want to look like a coward in front of my family and all of these people. I'll ride it and then you can let the real coaster fanatics have a crack at it," Scott said pointing to the scores of people already lined up waiting for their turn to ride Colossus.

"Well sir, I can assure you that this ride is completely safe. It has been tested numerous times before the launch here this morning. It had a complete and final inspection today and the ride's computer system was even upgraded yesterday morning. It also has numerous fail-safes built in, so, should something unexpectedly go wrong, the ride would quickly come to a complete stop so the problem can be fixed. If you'd just step this way and I'll give you a run-through of what you should expect to experience during the ride," Craig said, leading Scott and himself onto the ride's platform.

"After being strapped into the shoulder harness," Craig continued, "the computer will give me a 'go' or 'no-go' for 'launch'. Should I get a 'go', you will be launched straight up the first hill accelerating to a speed of 50 km/hr while reaching a height of 50 meters. We call this the 'The 50 at 50'. Upon reaching the crest of the hill, you speed down the track, accelerating to the top speed of 95 km/hr. Once at the bottom of the hill, you will enter one of two consecutive inversions. After the second inversion you will immediately enter the first corkscrew followed by two minor hills. By this point, you will have slowed down to a brisk 80 km/hr. Following the hills, you will enter what is known as a cobra roll followed closely by one of two consecutive inversions. These inversions will be smaller than the 1st two. The last thrill you will get will come after the second inversion when you go through the final two corkscrews. After that point, the 'fun' part of the ride is basically over, and all that is left are a few minor hills before returning to the platform. Overall the ride should take around two minutes and 15 seconds to make one complete circuit of the track. Should you 'survive' the ride, there should be no permanent brain damage, maybe a little dizziness, but nothing serious," Craig said with a laugh. "Are you ready?"

"No, but if you want me to ride this, you better get me strapped in fast before I change my mind," Scott said.

"Certainly sir, right this way."

As Scott was being placed onto the ride and final preparations were being made, onlookers watched with anticipation. Some of these included Audrey and Katie, as well as Elliot Ravenwood, the CFO of the park.

"Hello Audrey," Ravenwood said.

"Oh, ET, I didn't know you were going to be here," Audrey exclaimed.

"You know me Audrey. I just had to see if Scott would go through with this or whether he'd wimp out like he always does," Elliot said, chuckling to himself. "In all seriousness though, your husband ordered me to be here to in his words 'view the ride that's going to solve all of our problems'. Seeing all the stress that he's been under lately, I didn't know whether he was joking or being serious. So, for my job's sake, I had to tell my wife, that we'd have to forgo our trip to the cottage, and come to the park to witness Scott's ultimate success. Let's just say, my wife, where ever she is, is a little less enthusiastic about us being here than Scott is."

"I know the feeling," Audrey replied. "The funny thing is Scott hates roller coasters. In fact, it was all that the ride operator could do to get him to go on it. I don't know if it's a 'macho guy' thing or if he really believes that the chief executive has to be the first to ride a new attraction, but there he is, looking as strange as usual."

"Break a leg honey!" she yelled, waving to her husband as he was being strapped into the shoulder harness. "Anyway, I just hope he doesn't throw up or have an accident," she told Elliot.

"Speaking of accidents Audrey, did you hear about the terrible hit and run on the 407 around 7:00 PM last night?" asked Elliot.

"Read about it, I saw the aftermath of it. I didn't know it was a hit and run, but it was a terrible accident. The van was faced the wrong way, the whole front end was smashed in and the windshield was totally shattered. I certainly hope that cute, little blond girl doesn't lose a parent because someone was driving too fast or even worse, driving drunk on the highway."

As Audrey finished her sentence, the Colossus was launched into the air. The sound was similar to a fighter jet taking off and the speed with which it left the platform awed the audience. Over the top of the hill, around one loop, two loops, everything was looking great. But just as the ride immerged from the first corkscrew, disaster struck. There was a loud crash, followed by a second, third and fourth one. For a few seconds, the sound of metal scraping on metal could be heard before the cars left the track and careened into a man made pit below. As they hit the ground, a loud boom rang through the amusement park and debris flew everywhere.

"Scott!" Audrey shrieked as she began running toward the platform.

All those waiting in line stopped as they looked on in total shock. After the car hit, there was complete silence, everyone but Audrey frozen in place for what seemed like an eternity. They were all waiting to see whether Scott survived the crash or not. With the ever lingering silence the verdict seemed bleak. All the people could do now is wait for the emergency crew to arrive, and hope.

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# Chapter 3

_ETR is Going to Ruin Us_

The EMS was on the scene within minutes and quickly entered the area underneath the ride. The man-made pit itself was hard to navigate through due to the fake lake and all the shrubs around, strategically placed to give riders the sensation that they were going to crash into a wilderness. It took about 10 minutes for the firemen and paramedics to reach the location where the ride had landed. The cars themselves were strewn everywhere and the smell of burnt metal was in the air. If a person was to walk by, he or she wouldn't even have known that at one time the cars were even attached together. The one Scott was in was lying upside down and was heavily damaged. Its once proud metal body was dented, the color heavily scratched and it was missing all of its wheels. As the emergency personnel approached the car, everyone knew the outcome that they were about to encounter. The firefighters, slowly tried to move the car, being ever so careful in case Scott had survived the crash and sustained major injuries. As they turned the car back onto its feet, they heard no sound. Scott sat there motionless. His arms and legs were badly bloodied, and his head showed signs of obvious trauma. The medics checked for a pulse and found nothing. They then tried CPR, but to no avail. The coroner pronounced Scott Taylor dead at 11:17 am on July 1st, 2010.

With police arriving soon after the announcement of death, instructions were given to the paramedics to stand-by, but not to remove the body until the initial investigation was completed.

Responding to the emergency call was Police Constable Leroy Addison followed soon thereafter by Detective Charles Grey of the Toronto Police Department. Constable Addison was a typical young, tall, policeman who seemingly spent more time at the gym exercising than actually out on the beat. Don't let that fool you though, for inside that exterior Adonis type body, is a superior mind at work. On the other hand, Detective Grey was 50 years old and more of a short, husky man, with scruffy, grayish hair and a goatee. His idea of a good day on the job, was finding the perpetrator quickly, and then rushing to the nearest restaurant for a big dinner. Two exact opposites when it came to police work, were about to meet each other for the first time.

"Excuse me Detective," called Constable Addison from half way down the ravine.

"Yes, what do you want?" said Grey.

"It would seem to me that you are going to have some difficulty rappelling down this steep hill, would you like some assistance?"

"No, no I'll be fine, besides," said the Detective as he slipped and fell about 10 meters down the ravine before being able to stop.

"Oh my!" gasped Addison as he steadied himself and quickly climbed up to help.

"You could have killed yourself Detective. Here let me help you up," Addison said, as he carefully helped Grey to his feet.

"Can you walk?" asked Addison.

"Totally fine. Thanks for the help Constable...uh?"

"Addison, Leroy Addison. I am new with the Toronto Police Department, so I'm not surprised you don't recognize me."

"Well Constable, I guess we have a murder to solve, so if you can help me down this hill we can begin to figure out who committed this crime and lock them up."

"But Detective how have you determined that a crime has even been committed without an investigation? After all, this may just have been a simple accident."

"Name for me, Constable, the last time a new rollercoaster, with supposedly new track, new cars and new parts, ran off the track by accident on its first run will you please."

"Granted I cannot think of one off the top of my head, but that in and of itself doesn't prove your point," Addison responded, as he assisted the Detective to the bottom of the hill.

Meeting them there was one of the ride's mechanics, a man by the name Tim Parker. He was a short yet muscular man, with a dark complexion. He was dressed in a usual mechanics' uniform and carried with him his tool bag so he could examine the cars. After exchanging introductions, Parker took both Addison and Detective Grey over to the car that Scott had been riding in. The car was now sitting face up, with Scott still laying lifeless, fastened securely in his safety harness in the front right seat.

"Mr. Parker have you had a chance to examine the car yet?" asked Detective Grey.

"Not yet, because I got down here just before you did. From a preliminary scan though, it looks like the car lost all of its wheels, which, at any speed, caused it to de-rail and tumble into this gulley. If you give me a few minutes to examine it, I might be able to give you a few more answers."

"Go ahead then Mr. Parker" Grey said.

As Parker examined the car, Addison's attention was drawn to a wheel casing about 5 meters away. Before touching it, he called over Detective Grey to have a look.

"Detective, do you notice anything peculiar about this wheel casing?" asked Addison.

"Other than the fact that it looks different than a car wheel, no, why do you?"

"May I?" Addison asked. With an affirmative shake of the head by Grey, Addison proceeded to move the wheel casing.

"You see here Detective, not knowing much about rollercoaster wheels, I would presume, that the wheel is attached to this casing, which in turn, would be welded to the car and secured by bolts. I have looked all around the vicinity of this casing, where are the bolts? I can't find one of them. Moreover, even if the bolts were missing, the wheel casings should have temporarily been able to remain on the car because they were welded to the car. Had this been the case, the metal attaching the casing to the car would have been ragged after the casing was sheered off. But look here, the part where the metal was welded is almost completely smooth."

"Are you saying that something might have been used to partially cut the casings off of the car?" Grey asked.

"In part, yes, but not entirely. You see, the wheels had to remain on the car until the actual ride took place, because, at least one test run would have to be done before the ride could have opened for the day," Addison said.

"So the killer, if there is one, removed the bolts and cut the majority of the way through the casing, knowing full well that the casing would hold until Taylor was aboard the ride."

"Well maybe not Taylor, maybe someone else, we don't know yet, but other than that I think we're on the right track; no pun intended. This theory could take another step forward depending on what Mr. Parker tells us," Addison said motioning to the Detective that Parker was trying to get their attention.

"Look at this Detective," Parker said pointing to the bottom of the car.

"What?" asked Detective Grey.

"Ordinarily, if the wheels sheer off of something naturally, you wouldn't find consistent burn pattern on the bottom of the car, for the wheels wouldn't rub it uniformly," Parker said pointing to the undercarriage of the car.

"So what's your point?" Grey asked.

"My point is that someone had to use a torch to cut the welds of a large section of the wheel casing off of the car. That's the only explanation why there are these types of burns on the bottom. Moreover, they also would have had to remove or damage all of the bolts holding the casing to the car. That's the only way the wheels could have fallen off even with the damaged casing."

"So in your professional opinion, this was not an accident," Addison inquired.

"Impossible, not with the condition of the car we have here," Parker responded. Immediately after that answer, Addison noticed out of the corner of his eye that Grey was giving him an 'I told you so' look. This show of a lack of respect by Grey angered Addison, but he knew he could not say anything because Detective Grey out ranked him.

"Last question," Grey said. "Without the bolts and given the condition of the wheel casing itself, could the cars have possibly remained on the track in order to complete the entire loop?"

"With the extent of the torch marks, no. Whoever did this was intending it to crash during its first real circuit of the day," Parker said.

"Thank you Mr. Parker for all of your help. Don't leave the park yet in case we have more questions. But now for the time being you can leave the scene."

With the Detective getting the confirmation that the crash was not an accident, the focus of the investigation quickly turned to collecting all of the clues on the scene in the hopes that it would lead them to the murderer. Detective Grey and Constable Addison walked back to Taylor to look at the body itself.

"Well I don't think we'll find anything on the victim that would tell us who the killer is, but you can never leave any stone unturned," Grey told Addison.

As Grey examined the body, he found nothing of any value in Taylor's wallet, other than $50.00, some credit cards and a few gas receipts that he could have been saving for tax deductions. What interested Grey the most was the notepad found in Taylor's left hip pocket. In it was a list of appointments in which only the client's initials were used to identify who they were. Taylor had two meetings the day before: one with G.S. at 3:30 pm and the other with A.M. at 5:30 pm. The first meeting was marked "IMPORTANT". This intrigued Grey, but not as much as the last note which read:

Talk to A.

Tell A. that ETR is going to ruin us if we're not careful.

"I wonder who this A is?" said Detective Grey.

"More importantly who is this ETR and how was he or she going to ruin Mr. Taylor and this mysterious "A"?" questioned Addison.

"Sure is a puzzle," Grey responded.

"So Detective," Addison said, "What do you think we should do next?"

"Well, you for one can tell the paramedics that they are free to take Mr. Taylor to the morgue to conduct the autopsy. As for me, I'm famished. Meet me in a half an hour in the main offices at the park. It is my understanding that that is where the park staff is being kept."

So with that, Grey was off to get a hotdog and collect his thoughts, leaving Addison to witness the removal of the body. Both men were left to ponder why someone would go to all that trouble to kill someone, when a simple gun would have been much easier. Leaving that question aside, the fact of the matter is that someone did sabotage the roller coaster, and with so few clues to go on, finding out the identity of that person, was not going to be an easy task.

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# Chapter 4

_Consoling a Widow_

In order to secure the crime scene, and to easily question the staff, the Toronto Police had moved everyone of interest into the cafeteria of the park's main office. The main office was a four story building located at the front of the park next to the main gate. It housed all of park's executive offices on the top two floors. The staff's change room, lockers and personal space was on the second floor, while the cafeteria was on the first floor. It was through this building that staff could use their personalized electronic I.D. badge to bypass the long lines and enter the park. No one could enter this building without either using their badge or by having the main gate security guard personally open the doors for them.

When Detective Grey returned from lunch, he located Constable Addison who was already interviewing some of the bystanders. A little perturbed, he sidled up beside Addison to listen to the conversation. After it was completed, Grey pulled Addison aside to have a little talk.

"Now look kid, I know you're new to the force, so I'm going to overlook this rookie mistake, but since this is a murder investigation, I'm the one who's the lead investigator. That means that I need to be present during all of the interrogations unless I have instructed otherwise. Do you understand that?" asked Grey.

"Yes sir, I thought though, that since you were on lunch and I had nothing to do that I might speed the process along," said Addison, with his head bowed.

"I understand that, and I like the ambition, but this is an important investigation, one that can not be botched. Scott Taylor was one of the leading CEOs of the city, so the Chief is going to be on us to find the scumbag who did this. That is something that I cannot do unless I have all of the information.

Look," Grey said to reassure Addison, "I have no problems with you helping in the investigation. I have no problems with you asking questions of the witnesses; just do it when I'm in the room, O.K.?"

"Yes, sir," replied Addison.

"Good. Now Constable, where is the victim's wife, what's her name? Audrey Taylor?" asked Grey

"Yes, it's Audrey sir," Addison responded. "Audrey is in the cafeteria manager's office at the back, although in a terrible state. I don't know if it's a great idea to question her now."

"Now I believe is the best time to question her; while the events are fresh in her mind. Don't worry though, despite my outward appearance, I do know how to be tactful," replied Grey as he began walking towards the back of the building.

Grey and Addison entered the office to find Audrey crying on Elliot Ravenwood's shoulder. He was trying to assure her that the police would get to the bottom of the matter, and that he would help her in any way that he could. It was no use though, as she continued crying not noticing that Grey and Addison had entered the room.

"Excuse me Mrs. Taylor, I am Detective Charles Grey and this is Constable Leroy Addison of the Toronto Police Department. May I have a word with you, alone?" asked Grey slowly motioning to Elliot to leave the room.

"It's going to be O.K. Audrey, I'll be just outside the door," said Elliot as he got up from his chair and started towards the door. As he was about to leave, he whispered to Addison, "Please be kind to her Constable, she's suffered a tragic loss."

Audrey sat up and dried her tears. With tissue in hand, she curtly said to Detective Grey, "So what is it that you'd like to know?"

"Well ma'am, first of all we'd like to know how your daughter is doing, seeing that she's not with you."

"I called for our neighbor to come and get her and look after her. I knew that I was going to be here for awhile and didn't want her to have to endure anymore suffering than she had to. To answer your question however, she's an absolute mess. How would you feel if you witnessed the death of your father?" she said wiping away more tears.

"Well, as it turns out, I did witness the death of my father. My father was Toronto Police Chief Phillip Grey. You probably don't remember him, but he was the Chief of Police for Toronto from 1996-99. During my third year on the force, my dad came to give a press conference after my unit had just taken down one of the biggest drug rings in the city. During the question and answer session, he was gunned down by Eddie Gerverra, the only one of the drug runners who had escaped arrest. I was standing right beside him when he was hit. The shot pierced his heart and he was dead immediately. The loss hurt me so much, that I considered quitting the force, but friends eventually talked me out of it. Coming back after those two months off, was painful, but one of the reasons that I did return, was to find the killer who took my father's life. It took us 3 years to get him, but in 2002, we finally found and caught Gerverra hiding out in the east side of Toronto. Being found guilty of assassinating a police officer, he is currently serving a life sentence for killing my dad. So, you see Mrs. Taylor, I do know what it is like to see a loved one killed, and I can only imagine what you and your daughter must be going through. But as happened with me, you will get through this, but it will take time."

"I'm sorry for my bluntness Detective, I had no idea," said Audrey as she was finally beginning to compose herself.

"Anyway Mrs. Taylor, we do have to ask you a few questions. First of all, can you describe what you heard or saw this afternoon," asked Grey.

Audrey, thinking back hard, began to tell Grey what had happened. "Well we arrived at the park at about ten and were led to the Colossus immediately by Mike Swaize, the park's public relations director. As CEO of the park my husband felt that it was his duty to be the inaugural rider of every new attraction at the park. Although he had done this several times in the past, nothing compared to the Colossus. This ride was a behemoth of a rollercoaster with 4 inversions, a cobra roll, 3 corkscrews and a top speed of almost 100 km/hr. I once heard Scott describe the ride as his crowning achievement, the one that would finally increase visitors to the park after two to three declining years. Anyway, I'm getting off topic," she said, shaking her hands in the air to compose herself. "Once the ride operator for the day, Kevin Craig had described the ride to Scott, he led him up to the platform to be strapped in. From there, I don't know exactly what happened until the ride started, because I was having a conversation with Elliot Ravenwood, the gentleman that was with me when you arrived. Once the ride took off, everyone stood in amazement as it completed its first two inversions. But then, as it came out of the first corkscrew, we heard a loud crash, followed by 3 others only a split second later. After that, the car left the track and careened into the gully below." Audrey began to cry again.

"There, there, Mrs. Taylor, it's alright," assured Grey. "Now since we have reason to believe that someone had tampered with the car sometime before the ride, we have to ask if you know of anyone who might have wanted to kill your husband."

"No, none at all. Although Scott had a gruff outer appearance, underneath he was a kind and gentle man. I mean, he wouldn't even hurt a fly. I can't imagine anyone wanting him dead," responded Audrey, sounding shocked at that revelation that her husband may have been murdered.

"Was there anything unusual at the office then, perhaps something that was occupying Mr. Taylor's time?" inquired Grey.

"Well...there was one thing," Audrey said. "My husband thought that someone was embezzling funds from the park. Finding out who had taken the money was monopolizing much of his time for the past ten months or so. I got the sense from his recent babblings about it, that he was nearing the end of his investigation and was about to confront the perpetrator and demand a confession and full restitution."

"Do you know if he confronted this person yet?"

"No I don't Detective, but he might have. You see I've been out of town for two days. I am a teller for Sovereign Bank of Toronto, and was at an awards banquet in Montreal. I got back this morning on a chartered flight at around 2 AM, and arrived home at around 3 AM. Scott was in bed already, so I felt no burning urge to wake him. He might very well have confronted the person while I was gone, though he made no mention of it at breakfast."

"Lastly, Mrs. Taylor, we found this notepad in your husband's pocket, do you think you can identify any of the people listed," Grey said, as he passed her the pad.

"Why Detective, they are only initials, how can I possibly know who those people are," responded Audrey. "Walking around with a notepad like that was not unusual for Scott for he was a secretive man. It is impossible for me to know who these people are. If you really want to find out that kind of information, you should ask his secretary, Alice Hastings. She is always kept in the loop on all of my husband's affairs," Audrey explained as she handed back the notepad.

"Thank you Mrs. Taylor, you've been most helpful. And again, I'm so sorry for your tragic loss," Grey said.

Both Grey and Addison then got up and went back to the cafeteria. As they were walking past the lunch line, Grey stopped suddenly, and told him that he thought that it would be a good idea if Addison would interview Tim Parker, Kevin Craig and Daniel Morris, the ride's inspector by himself. His reasoning was that they might open up to a more junior officer than a seasoned detective. Addison, glad to be given a chance by Grey to prove himself, ran off to find one of the three men.

As for Grey, he was off to talk to Scott's secretary Alice. While he headed for the elevator, he couldn't help wonder if the disclosure by Audrey of embezzlement in the company had something to do with who "GS", "AM", "ETR" or "A" were. How were they involved? Were they involved? All of these questions are ones that he hoped that Alice Hastings could answer quickly...that is if the elevator would ever get to the main floor!

**********

# Chapter 5

_You're Under Arrest..._

The best way that you could describe the scene on the floor that housed the executive offices of the park, was controlled chaos. Police officers were going in and out of the various offices searching for any clues as to why Scott Taylor was murdered. No office was off limit and no piece of paper was insignificant in the investigation. In the middle of it all, was a frazzled, middle aged black haired woman named Alice Hastings. Detective Grey could quickly see that she was distraught with the situation, so he quickly summoned her into a side conference room to get some peace and quiet.

"Sorry for that Mrs. Hastings, you are Mrs. Hastings I presume?" asked Grey.

"Yes I am!" Hastings responded. "I'll have you know that your officers have been very rude to me this entire afternoon. They barged in here, no word of warning, and without telling what was going on, began tearing up the office. I didn't know whether to call the police or security. Finally, someone told me that Mr. Taylor had been murdered, and while that didn't condone their actions, it certainly helped put them into context."

"I am very sorry ma'am for all the commotion out there, but they are just doing their job. Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, officers get so focused on what they are doing, that they forget their manners. I'll certainly have a talk with them after this is all over," assured Grey. "Anyway ma'am, there are a few questions that I'd like to ask you. First of all, how long have you been working for Mr. Taylor?"

"For 10 years, ever since he became the CEO of the park."

"Oh he's been CEO that long has he, I had no idea. So as his secretary, you would know him best, other than his wife of course," Grey stated.

"Absolutely for it was my job to know him. I set his schedules everyday, organized future meetings, typed and filed all of his paperwork. In fact he almost spent more time with me than he did with his own wife," she said with a smirk.

"So what was his schedule like yesterday? I mean who did he meet and what was the purpose of those meetings."

After grabbing the appointment book from her desk, Alice quickly remembered the previous day's events. "Yesterday was actually a very light day. He met with Mr. Morris and Mr. Craig, the park's inspector and system's manager, in the morning. That meeting was to insure that all things were ready for today's event. Then at 3:30 PM he had a meeting with a Geraldine Stavros, an outside accountant with the Auckland Firm. The contents of that meeting were confidential, and as such I wouldn't have had knowledge about what was discussed for at least a week, maybe more."

"Is it usual for Mr. Taylor to have confidential meetings?" asked Grey.

"Not in particular. From time to time, when finances or future ventures are involved he might withhold information from me, but not because I was untrustworthy, but because Mr. Taylor liked to hold sensitive information 'close to the vest' for as long as he could. But usually I'm kept in the loop.

His last meeting of the day was with an Andrew Minaldi, a private investigator. That meeting took place around 5:30 PM. Like the first meeting I was not privy to the topic," explained Hastings.

"Is there anyone who might have known what the meetings were about?"

"If anyone knew about those meetings it would have to have been E.T." said Hastings.

"E.T., like the alien?" asked Grey.

"No," Hastings said with a laugh, "E.T. is Elliot Ravenwood, the CFO of the park. We call him E.T., well..., I don't know why, but all his friends do, so I guess the name just stuck."

"One last question, when did Mr. Taylor leave for the night?" Grey asked.

"He left at around 7:00 PM, right after his rather heated discussion with Mr. Ravenwood."

"He and Mr. Ravenwood had an argument? What about?"

"I'm not sure because it was in this room, but after Mr. Taylor stormed out, he went into his office for no more than 10 minutes, then left for the evening. I stayed and cleaned up and left at around 8:00 PM."

"Where did Mr. Ravenwood go after the argument?"

"He left the office for about 45 minutes, then came back to do some work. He told me on the way by my desk that he'd be staying late that night and for me not to wait up for him."

"Finally, before you left, you saw no one else, enter or leave this office?"

"Not a soul, everyone else had left early to enjoy the long weekend."

Just as Detective Grey was thanking Mrs. Hastings for her cooperation, Constable Addison came into the room to share his findings. After he and a few other officers had interviewed Parker, Craig, and Morris, no new information surfaced about the ride except that a new version of the program was installed the day before by Kevin Craig. After the installation was complete, the ride was inspected and tested, with no faults arising. Grey then told Addison that he had almost pinned down all the initials in Scott's notepad. The "GS" was Geraldine Stavros, an accountant. The "AM" was Andrew Minaldi, a private investigator. Grey also shared that he believed that ETR was Elliot Ravenwood.

"Elliot Ravenwood?" exclaimed Addison. "Do you think that he's our man?"

"I think that it's too soon to tell, but it's certainly a likelihood," Grey responded.

As they were speaking, they saw Ravenwood jump off of the elevator and run towards his office.

"Oh Mr. Ravenwood!" yelled Grey. "Could we have a word with you please?"

Elliot Ravenwood, looking concerned, and a little annoyed by the police presence, slowly walked to the conference room.

"What in the world is going on here?" yelled Ravenwood. "Your officers have no right tearing apart the offices up here, not at least without a warrant."

"My officers have every right to be here. But just to satisfy you, I have a warrant!" Grey chirped back, as he slammed the warrant down on the table.

"What if the perpetrator doesn't work for the park huh? Your men have destroyed these offices, manhandled or lost dozens of vital documents, invaded the privacy of everyone who works here, and for what? Justice?" barked Ravenwood.

"That's exactly right, sir. Now the quicker you realize that I'm not after information about who's sleeping with whom, or what you did last weekend, the quicker we can get through this. My men are after one thing and one thing only: the truth! Now sit down and answer my questions!" shouted Grey.

"What do you want?" Elliot said as he threw back a chair violently and sat down.

"First of all I want you to cool it. It would seem to me as if you've got quite a temper," remarked Grey.

"So I've been told," replied Ravenwood.

"To begin with, why do people call you E.T.?" asked Grey.

"My full name is Elliot-Travis Ravenwood. As a child, my friends called me E.T., you know like the alien, because not only did my first name have the initials ET, but also because I had a long neck. I guess I never outgrew the name, so I'm known as E.T."

"OK," Grey said. He paused for a moment to turn the page in his notebook, and then continued. "So Mr. Ravenwood, what is it that you do here at the park?"

"I am the CFO, meaning that I oversee all of the accounts and transactions for the park. I am accountable for every dollar that comes in and every dollar that goes out. I am the second ranking official of the park, right below the CEO."

"Yesterday, Mr. Taylor had a meeting with Geraldine Stavros, an accountant. Were you in on that meeting?"

"No, I didn't know it even existed. Usually I'm the one who orders the books audited; it would be very strange for Scott to order one without my knowledge. Unless of course he was trying to hide something from me."

"Did you know that Mr. Taylor also had a meeting with Andrew Minaldi, a private investigator?"

"No, I didn't."

"Well Mr. Ravenwood, it seems to me that you don't know a lot about the things that go on around here. Did you know then that Mr. Taylor was investigating the books because he thought someone was embezzling funds from the park?"

"No," Elliot said nervously as he adjusted in his chair.

"OK, so you didn't know about the Stavros or Minaldi meetings, both of which seemed to be about financial matters, you didn't know about the embezzlement, also a financial matter, so what then was your argument about with Mr. Taylor last night?"

"Who said we had an argument last night?"

"Mrs. Hastings heard the argument in this room at about 6:30 last night, after which both of you stormed out. You then left the office for about three quarters of an hour. Care to fill us in?"

"OK, OK," Elliot said sighing, "We argued last night about the embezzlement of funds from the park's accounts. Scott had it on good authority that funds were being diverted to a dummy corporation that was supposed to have been selling us emergency inventory that had been under-ordered by the inventory manager. He first accused me of not doing my job, and then he had the audacity to tell me that it was because I was responsible for the embezzlement. He said that he had proof, which, unless I repaid the money, he was going to send to the police for further action. I then got mad, we both yelled at each other, and then he stormed out. After he left, I decided to go out to dinner to clear my head. I then returned about 45 minutes later and began pouring through the financial reports to see if I could find out who had done this. I finished up at around midnight and got home around 1 AM."

"So, seeing as you didn't find anyone else to accuse, I have to ask the obvious question: did you embezzle the money?" asked Grey.

"Absolutely not! I don't know what kind of evidence he had, but whatever it was, it was false. I am an honest man and have not stolen so much as a paperclip, let alone money," Ravenwood explained.

Just then, another officer signaled for Detective Grey to come to the door. He had in his hand paperwork that was found in Mr. Taylor's safe. It showed that over a 5 month period last year, more than $1 million had been funneled through a dummy corporation known as 'Just in Time Supplies'. This dummy corporation, though looking legitimate on the surface, never provided any services for the money that it received. Other papers showed that Andrew Minaldi had discovered that Elliot Ravenwood was the owner/operator of this corporation.

"Mr. Ravenwood, I am sorry to tell you that I have been given the notes that Mr. Taylor had received from Ms. Stavros and Mr. Minaldi. Upon first glance, it provides a compelling case that you in fact embezzled more that $1 million from the park last year. I have no choice but to arrest you for embezzlement and further hold you on suspicion of murder. Constable Addison, cuff him and make sure Mr. Ravenwood is aware of his charter rights.

With that, Ravenwood was arrested and the investigation was almost over. The clear motive for this murder appeared to be covering up the embezzlement. Upon a search of Ravenwood's car, they found the means: the acetylene torch used to cut the metal wheels partially off the ride, as well as the missing bolts. After further investigation they also found the opportunity: A security guard saw Elliot near the ride at around midnight. This was important because an examiner had determined that the ride had to have been tampered with between 11 AM and 1AM so that the metal would have cooled in time for the ride to pass its test run. The case for the crown was looking completely solid. It was going to take a first class defense attorney, one with brains, skill and a determination to find the truth to successfully rebut the crown's arguments, and win an acquittal for Elliot Ravenwood. Lawyers that fit this description are sometimes hard to find, except that is if you live in Toronto and can afford the services of one Elijah Deville.

**********

# Chapter 6

_Enter Elijah Deville_

Entering the lobby of his 21st Floor Toronto Law Office on University Avenue between King St. and Pearl, Elijah Deville was soaked! It seems that being a law professor at the University of Toronto and a defense attorney in his own firm gives Elijah little time to do much else, like watch the weather report.

"Becca!" shouted Elijah to his law partner (who also happened to be his sister).

"You rang Elijah?" she said stepping into the lobby.

"Becca, look at me, I mean look at me! This stupid September rain made me ruin my brand new pin-striped suit walking from the subway to the office," he said in disgust.

"That's why they invented coats...and umbrellas," she retorted back with a grin.

"You think this is funny don't you? You don't know how hard it is to find a suit at my age."

"Men have trouble finding suits at 42 now do they? What ever will they do?" she replied mocking him.

"Ha-ha. You know very well what I meant. Being 42 has not been terribly kind to my physique. That combined with the fact that I'm only 5'6", makes it an absolute nightmare when purchasing a new suit."

"Now you know how I feel Elijah. Try going into a woman's clothing store at 5'10", with a body that can't decide if it wants to be a short, or a tall. I'm lucky if I can find a pair of pants that doesn't accentuate certain undesirable physical features. So as you can see, it isn't just you," she said, pausing for the usual retort back from her brother.

Since he chose not to respond she piped in saying, "Besides, you wouldn't wear your suits out so fast if you didn't insist on wearing them almost everywhere you go. For instance, last week I caught you grocery shopping in it."

"A man has always got to look his best doesn't he? I mean you never know when you'll meet a prospective client," Elijah replied quietly shrugging his shoulders. He got no response.

Going into the closet in Elijah's office, Becca found a spare suit and told him to get changed so that he wouldn't embarrass her in front of their new client. When questioned further as to the identity of this client, Becca would only tell him, that this case was a high profile one, and that the client seemed like they could more than afford the $150,000 fee. This began to ease the mind of Elijah as he went to change suits.

Coming back into his office, brown hair combed nicely, wearing a black blazer with grey pants, Elijah sat down in his chair as Becca looked out the window at the picturesque view of Toronto.

"So?" asked Elijah.

"So, what?" Becca responded.

"Where's this new client of ours?"

"Oh, she'll be here in a few minutes. She called and said that she might be running a little late," Becca said.

"Well she better be here soon, because I have a busy schedule coming up," Elijah said as he finished tying his tie. "After all, not only did school start this week with lessons needing preparation, but the Donovan murder trial starts in a month as well. Seeing as how I have no clue as to who the murderer is, that case is going to monopolize a significant portion of my time. But, if that wasn't bad enough, I also just learned that the Attorney General himself is going to be the crown attorney for that case."

"Well what did you expect Elijah? This was no flunky that was murdered here; it was the Chief Justice of Ontario," Becca replied.

"Yeah I know, but I can't remember the last time the Attorney General actually took on a criminal case. It's going to politicize the whole thing. I guess the one good thing about it is that it will give me something to discuss in my criminal law course," Elijah said.

"Oh that reminds me, with all the commotion that happened when you came in, how was the first day of that class last night? You know the one with the name I can't remember."

"It's Criminal Procedure. It's also a course you should have paid more attention to in school in my opinion," Elijah said snidely. "Well, I guess it went as expected. As I do with all my first year students, the opening question that I ask them is 'What legal rights do we enjoy in Canada?'. Do you want to know what the first response was?" asked Elijah.

"What?" inquired Becca.

"'You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.' I mean the student quoted it verbatim," Elijah said as both of them laughed.

"So what did you say?" asked Becca.

"I ask what I always ask: 'What are these rights called and where do they originate from?' Now unlike past students who stare at me blank faced, unsure of their answer, this kid quickly responded 'They are called Miranda Rights and they come from the Constitution'. I then stood there with a large grin on my face and said 'What constitution?' to which he responded 'The U.S. Constitution'. By this time, I wanted to test the intellect of the kid, to you know; see if he was all there, so I asked 'In what year did Canada become the 51st state of the U.S.?'. Now I don't know what I would have done if the kid had given me a year, but thankfully he told me that we weren't a state, to which I responded 'Well good then, I thought I had missed the memo'. I then quickly explained that if we were a sovereign country, then we are not governed by the laws of some other place, so although we have similar rights, we don't have Miranda rights.' The boy took it well and all, though I could tell that he was a little embarrassed. But that isn't the end of the story," exclaimed Elijah with a smile.

"So what happened next?"

"Well, me and my stupid self thought I would give the students a chance to redeem themselves by re-asking my original question, 'What legal rights do we have as a Canadian?' I thought for sure that having had our talk about Canadians producing our own laws and thus having our own rights would spur someone to quote from the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Sadly though, I was wrong," Elijah said shrugging his shoulders.

"So, what did he say?" Becca said, anticipating another silly response.

"She, it was a she this time, told me that we had the 5th Amendment right not to incriminate ourselves," Elijah said throwing up his arms in disgust. "Kids entering law school in Canada I'm convinced have no idea about what their rights are as Canadian citizens. In fact, I'll bet they know more about American's rights than Americans do."

"What can I say Elijah, American television is filled with cop shows and legal shows, all of which are shown from the American Legal System's point of view," explained Becca.

"I know, but these kids are not supposed to be bums off the street, they want to practice law here in Canada! I just think they ought to come to law school with some semblance of knowledge about the Canadian Justice System, you know."

Just as Elijah had finished his sentence, the intercom rang, and his secretary told him that Pamela Ravenwood had arrived and wished to meet with him. Elijah, now smiling heavily with interest, told his secretary to send Mrs. Ravenwood in immediately.

"Good morning Mrs. Ravenwood, come in and sit down," Becca said, pointing to the chair in front of Elijah's desk. After she sat down, Becca sat in the chair beside her.

"So Mrs. Ravenwood, what can we do for you this morning?" asked Elijah.

"Well, Mr. Deville, as you already might know, I am the wife of Elliot Ravenwood, the man accused of murdering Scott Taylor at the amusement park on Canada Day," she said shaking and fumbling with her fingers.

"Oh yes, I remember, that's the case where the victim was killed when the rollercoaster came off of the tracks, killing him instantly upon impact."

"Yes that's the one."

"Well, Mrs. Ravenwood, perhaps I'm missing something, but the case has already gone through the pre-trial consultations and is now ready for the preliminary hearing. What happened to your husband's lawyer?" inquired Elijah.

"Who, Gerard Bachenbaum?" Pamela said. "Mr. Bachenbaum is a great lawyer, if you have the goal of spending considerable time in jail. He was going to make a plea bargain with the prosecutor in which my husband would plead guilty to 2nd degree murder with a sentence of 15 years to life. Elliot said that was completely unacceptable, because he didn't kill Scott Taylor. I mean from the bail hearing on, it seems to me that Mr. Bachenbaum was content watching Elliot go to jail," Mrs. Ravenwood said, as she started to cry.

"Well I'm sure that was not the case. Gerry and I go way back, and he's, you know, a fairly good lawyer," Elijah said scratching his chin. "If you want to change lawyers mid-stream, you're well within your rights. But there are a few things you must understand before we begin. First, I don't come cheap. Second, you and your husband must be completely truthful with me from the word go, or I'll walk off this case right now. Third, you must do everything I ask of both of you, no matter what. Fourth, I make no guarantees. I mean I'll try my best and work as hard as I can to acquit your husband, but coming in at this stage of the ballgame, puts me behind the eight ball. Do you still want me to represent your husband?"

"Absolutely Mr. Deville, you're the last hope we've got," said Pamela, breathing a sigh of relief that Elijah had agreed to take the case.

"Good then," Elijah said. "Now Mrs. Ravenwood, when is the next scheduled appearance in court for your husband?"

"Two weeks from Thursday, September 30th, is Elliot's automatic bail review in Superior court. As for the preliminary hearing, that is scheduled for October 4th."

"OK. To begin, unless I see evidence to the contrary, I will send notice to the crown attorney that we wish to waive the need for the preliminary hearing. Although sometimes beneficial, in this situation, with the crown's case so strong, I think it will serve only to cement the witness testimony even further against your husband. It would also give the crown a sneak peek at our defense strategy, something I rarely like to give them a chance to do.

On the issue of bail, I will, in two weeks, contend vigourously for your husband's release. There is no reason why he should have been held without bail and I seriously doubt, that given the circumstances, the judge could find justifiable cause to hold him any longer. Do you understand?"

"Of course," Pamela replied.

"OK, let's talk. First off, your husband worked for the amusement park, correct."

"Yes, that's right."

Elijah then turned to Becca and said, "So, Becca, after the meeting I would like you to find all of the names and addresses of Elliot's co-workers so that we can question them. I would also like you to find out where Mrs. Taylor lives so we can pay her a visit as well. After that, meet with the crown attorney to gather all evidence made available in the discovery portion of the trial."

He then turned back to Mrs. Ravenwood and asked, "Was your husband happy with his job?"

"Well no, not exactly. Don't get me wrong, he loved being a CFO, but Elliot always had dreams of owning his own business someday," she said.

"Was Elliot close to having the money to purchase this business?"

"No. I mean we are fairly well off, but we don't have nearly enough capital required to open our own business. We've also have had a few financial set backs in the stock market. Last year we lost over $500,000 in investments that we were going to use as a down payment on a loan to get us started. Obviously, we didn't take out the loan," Pamela said.

"So is that the reason the authorities suspect that your husband embezzled over $1 million of park funds: to help recoup some of his losses on the stock market?" asked Becca.

"But he didn't do that! I mean he doesn't know who set him up, and there is no way that he could have taken that money. Elliot may have his faults, but one of the things that I admire him for is his integrity. He told me that he did not do any of the things that he is accused of, and that's good enough for me," Pamela said.

"I also assume that Elliot told you that he didn't kill Scott Taylor in order to cover up this alleged theft," Elijah said.

"He said that he did not kill Scott and I know in my heart that he is telling the truth," Pamela replied.

"Well unfortunately," Elijah responded, "your gut feeling won't hold up in a court of law, but you've given us a place to start. I assume your husband is being kept at the Toronto Municipal Jail in the Valley?" Mrs. Ravenwood nodded.

"So I'll go visit your husband, re-assure him that he's got good representation now, and tell him how I will proceed with the case. As for you, go home, get some rest, and if we need you, we'll call."

The three of them then got up from their chairs, and Mrs. Ravenwood was shown out. As Elijah was heading for the door to go out to the jail, Becca stopped him to give him her pink jacket and green umbrella. She told him that unless he took them, he would have to go down to the jail in his underwear, because she wasn't going to let him ruin another suit. Grudgingly, Elijah took both the umbrella and jacket and went out to see Elliot Ravenwood.

**********

# 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-consider," 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.

**********

# Chapter 8

_This is Going to Be Tough_

Back at the office, Becca was going through the piles of information that the crown attorney had provided to the defense during discovery. As she was examining all of the documents, it became clear that the crown had a very compelling case that was going to be difficult to refute.

For instance, his secretary said that Scott left the office at around 7:00 PM. This fact was confirmed by a copy of the Highway 407 Express Toll Road bill which recorded that his car entered the highway closest to the park at 7:11 PM and exited at 7:30 PM. The interesting part was that there was another entry on the bill which showed a highway entry at 10:46 PM and an exit 11:07 PM going towards the park, and a 1:22 AM entry and 1:40 AM exit going away from the park that night as well. Attached to the bill was a sticky note saying that the police surmise from this that Scott must have returned later that night to either get something or do some more work.

The next pieces of evidence confirmed what Elijah and Becca had already suspected. Bank records turned over to the crown show that the dummy corporation known as 'Just in Time Supplies' did in fact transfer almost one million dollars into 2 accounts registered to Ivan Tory and Sal Aria. Both accounts had an E.T. Ravenwood as signing authority. Even though Elliot denies opening these accounts, signed documents and valid eye witnesses prove otherwise. This was going to make it difficult to show the jury that someone else had in fact stolen the money and set up the accounts in Elliot's name. This evidence is the type of evidence that the crown will say speaks for itself.

The most damning piece of evidence though was the acetylene torch and the ride's missing bolts that were found in the trunk of Elliot's car. Although there were no fingerprints on the torch itself, the tank could be traced to a dealer that has a record signed by Elliot Ravenwood at the time that the torch was sold.

Just as Becca decided to take a break from reading, for she felt the onset of one of her usual afternoon headaches, Elijah walked in from the rain. As he came into the main office, he leaned the umbrella in the stand, and tossed Becca's pink coat at her.

"Thanks for the coat sis. Not only did I look ridiculous in it, but everyone on the bus was pointing, staring and laughing at me," Elijah said in disgust.

"Pointing, staring and laughing?" Becca replied in disbelief.

"Well maybe I made up the pointing and laughing part, but they were certainly staring! I can only imagine what they were thinking: 'Hey look at that successful lawyer. What, couldn't he afford a better looking jacket than that'" Elijah said snidely as he changed his voice to imitate what he thought the other people would sound like.

"First of all, you're too full of yourself to think that people recognized you," she said as she hung the coat up in the closet, "and second of all, who cares what others thought of you, you're dry and your suit is in one piece, that's the important part."

"No it isn't! You don't understand! When people are looking for a lawyer they don't just look at the legal mind, they look at the outward appearance. One hair being out of place, or button missing off the jacket could be the deciding factor for someone to hire or not hire you as their attorney," Elijah said as he sat down behind his desk.

"I assure you, people accused of crimes are concerned about one thing and one thing only: being acquitted. They don't care if your shoes are scuffed, or your tie is crooked, they want the best defense possible, and for you to prove to a jury that the police have got the wrong person. I'm not saying the other things don't matter, but in the grand scheme of things, appearance should be at the bottom of the list, not the top. You are one of the best criminal defense lawyers in the country, people are lined up to have you defend them. Is it because they like the way you dress? Of course not! It's because you go into the courtroom, fight for your clients, and almost always convince the jury to acquit," Becca said as she sat down in front of the desk.

"Well I couldn't be as successful as I am without an excellent partner who behind the scenes bails her brother out more often than not. Don't get me wrong, I think you're completely off target when it comes to outward appearance, but that's an argument we can have at another time. What have you learned about this case so far?"

"I learned that unless we're really good magicians, Elliot Ravenwood is going to spend the next 25 years in prison. I mean the crown has the torch in his trunk, the financial records of the park, the dummy corporation and private bank accounts all of which show that $1 million was funneled out of the park and into accounts that Elliot had control of. That, combined with the fact that Elliot was at the park, seen near the ride when the cars had to have been tampered with; it appears that you have an open and shut case. I can completely understand why Gerard wanted to plead out this case; I would given the evidence," Becca said.

"Yeah, but Elliot denies everything that the crown is presenting against him. He denies stealing the money, he denies opening the dummy corporation or personal checking account, and he denies buying the torch. I know that he could be lying about all of those things, but I don't believe he is. Just from talking to him, I don't believe he is smart enough to set up an embezzlement scheme as elaborate and complicated as the one we have here. I also don't believe that he has the knowledge to use a blow torch precisely enough to damage the ride to the extent that it wouldn't break on its first test run. That takes immense brain power and skill, and to tell you the truth, I believe Elliot is severely lacking in both departments."

"Why do you say that?" asked Becca.

"First of all, assuming he's innocent, how as CFO, do you not spot a weekly payment of over $45,000 going to the same company over a five month period. He says that that kind of money is not unusual because of the amount of money spent on inventory each week, but come on. I've looked at various companies financial records over the years, and if there's one thing that is consistent with all of them, it is that no expenditure, no matter how frequent is for exactly the same amount. Elliot must have been lazy at his job, or incompetent not to realize that someone was stealing from the company. As for the skill, I just observed his hands. Even though his appearance has deteriorated while in jail, his hands show no wrinkles from years of hard labor. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say he's never worked a day of manual labor in his life. Whether that's because of a lack of skills or just plain old luck, I don't know, but if I was forced to give my opinion, I'd say that it's because of a lack of skills. Seeing that's the case, I don't know how he could operate an acetylene torch without burning himself. I took Chemistry in university while studying for my law degree, and there wasn't a lab that went by where I didn't burn myself on the Bunsen burner or hotplate. That's what a lack of skills does for you; it means that you can very easily get hurt when using dangerous equipment. Seeing as how Elliot didn't burn himself, or come away looking dirty, I just don't see how he could have possibly operated that torch."

"Then who do you think did it?" asked Becca.

"That's the problem. I don't know," said Elijah as his intercom buzzer rang. "Yes what is it Mrs. Smartz?"

"There's a gentleman here named Cameron Mills to see you," she said.

"Cameron who?" asked Elijah.

"Cameron Mills, he says he's here to talk to you about a job. He says you're expecting him," she said.

"OK, send him in," Elijah responded, having no earthly idea who this gentleman was.

Coming through the door was definitely not who Elijah expected. At 6'7", with an offensive lineman's physique, Cameron Mills was not a guy you'd want to mess with. He had a dark complexion, full beard and short black hair. As he walked into the office, he quickly walked over to Elijah to introduce himself. When Cameron said 'Hello', it almost scared Elijah half out of his wits to hear such a booming, deep voice.

"Do sit down Mr. Mills. As you know, I am Elijah Deville and this is my partner Rebecca Deville," he said, sounding a little intimidated. Standing off to the side, all Becca could do was smile, for she had never seen her brother scared of anyone before.

"Please, my friends call me Cameron, and trust me you'd rather be my friend than my enemy," Cameron said with a chuckle.

"Certainly, Cameron," Elijah said clearing his throat and loosening his collar, "What can I do for you?"

"Remember when you gave a lecture on "The Difference between the Canadian and American Legal System at Queen's University last year," said Cameron.

"Sure I do," responded Elijah as he sat up straighter in his chair.

"Well I was there, and I enjoyed your lecture immensely."

"So you're a law student then."

"Well not at the time, but being inspired by your talk, I applied and was accepted to a law school in Buffalo, New York. I work as a private investigator on the side so that I can pay the bills."

"Well I'm glad that I had this kind of effect on you, but what can I do for you today Mr. Mills?" asked a puzzled Elijah.

"Well I met you after the lecture, and you told me that I'd make a good private investigator, because of my stature and eye for detail. If you recall, I was the one who answered a few of your questions correctly, unlike some of the actual law students. Anyway, you said that if I was ever in Toronto to look you up," responded Cameron.

"Ah yes, I remember you now. It took me a minute because I couldn't quite place where I had met you before," said Elijah. "So you came looking for a job?"

"Yes!" Cameron responded with his booming voice.

"Becca, do we have any room on the payroll right now?"

"Well, on a trial basis, I'm sure we can throw a few cases Mr. Mills' way," Becca said.

"Oh, thank you Miss, thank you. You have no idea how happy you've made me," Cameron said as he stood up to hug Becca.

"Sit down, Mr. Mills!" Elijah chimed in, "We have a few things to discuss. First of all, that's my sister and that means you don't get to hug her," he said, noticing that Becca was rolling her eyes. "Second, this is not a full time position yet. It can turn into one if you do a good job, but for now, employment is on a case by case basis. As for your salary: you'll be paid $21.00/hr, with your time to be logged and handed in at the end of each week. We will also reimburse you for all fuel used for official business as long as you log all of your kilometers. I want a starting odometer reading and an ending odometer reading for each entry as well the locations you visited. Lastly, for every 8 hours you work, you will be granted a $20.00 food allowance. Are those terms acceptable?" asked Elijah.

"Very acceptable Mr. Deville. When do I start?" asked an excited Cameron.

"Funny you should ask. We have just taken on a case where a man is accused of killing his boss using a faulty rollercoaster. The motive for the crime is that allegedly, the accused was embezzling money from where he worked and killed his boss to avoid exposure. How the embezzlement worked was that Elliot Ravenwood, that's our client, supposedly set up a dummy corporation through which he funneled these funds. The crown has documents showing that Elliot owned the company, though he denies ever knowing of its existence.

The problem I have is that these documents are quite damning. Without something to prove that they are forged, we're dead in the water. Your job is to find out everything that you can about this company. I want to know when it was opened, who was present in the bank when it opened, who had signing authority on the company accounts, things like that. When it comes to this dummy corporation, I want you to leave no stone unturned," Elijah said.

"Oh and there's one other thing I forgot to tell you. I'm an honest lawyer who is known for integrity. Don't lie about who you are or what you're doing. That being said don't answer more than you're asked. Your job may require going undercover, but when push comes to shove, don't lie to protect your cover. Any information that you obtain must be acquired with a subpoena. Don't you dare steal anything. Basically I'm telling you to behave honestly and don't break the law. If you can do that, you'll go far with me," Elijah said.

"Consider it done Mr. Deville," Cameron said.

"Good then" Elijah responded as Cameron stood up. "Oh, and Cameron," Elijah continued, "I would be remiss if I didn't tell you that my friends call me Elijah, and in your position, you definitely want to be my friend!" Elijah and Cameron both laughed. "Now if you'll go into that office, Becca will be right with you," Elijah said, pointing to the adjoining room.

Cameron went into Becca's office to wait while she and Elijah talked a few things over.

"So you think he'll work out?" asked Becca.

"I hope so," Elijah said, looking at his watch. "It's almost 4:00. After you give Cameron the info he needs, if you hurry, you'll just be able to meet Mrs. Taylor as she arrives home from work. I want you to see if she can provide us with any new information, perhaps something that she thought unimportant at the time, so that we can find out who the real killer is. As for me, I have my first lecture in Evidence Law tonight- should be a fun one, I hope to be home around 7:30, but I may be out much later. If that is the case, don't wait up, for I'll rent a motel for the night and see you tomorrow. Above all, drive safe," Elijah said as he grabbed his suit jacket and left the office.

By now Becca noticed that it had stopped raining, so she did not pester Elijah to wear her jacket to class. After giving Cameron the address of the offices of 'Just in Time Supplies', Becca hopped on the subway to the stop in Northeastern Toronto where she always parked her car. She then began what she hoped would only be a 45 minute drive west to the Taylor residence, in the city Mississauga.

**********

# Chapter 9

_Mrs. Audrey Taylor_

Audrey Taylor lived in an upscale neighborhood of Mississauga, Ontario that was conveniently located just minutes from Highway 407.

The house itself proved to all who visited that the Taylor's appeared to do very well for themselves. It was a tan colored two story house with 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, a finished basement and a two car garage. When you walk in the front door, you stand in awe of the open ceiling revealing the hallway to the floor above, and the large open concept living and dining room to the right. In the back corner of the main floor, was a completely re-modeled kitchen complete with granite counter-tops, oodles of cabinet space and brand new stainless steel appliances. Upstairs were found 3 bedrooms (Audrey's and Katie's Rooms plus a guest bedroom) and 2 baths, while the 4th bedroom and 3rd bath was located in the basement. Also in the basement was an entertainment room that anyone would die for, including raised seating and a 96" flat screen LED television with 5.1 surround sound. Finally, even though the backyard was relatively small and the neighboring house very close, that didn't pose a problem to the Taylor's, who loved the space nonetheless.

Arriving just as Audrey drove in, Becca parked in the spacious driveway in front of the house and met Audrey as she walked towards the front door.

"Good evening Mrs. Taylor. I'm Rebecca Deville, an attorney representing the man accused of killing your husband, namely Elliot Ravenwood."

"I have nothing to say to you, I've already told everything I know to the police," remarked Audrey as she unlocked her door.

"Where's your daughter?" asked Becca.

"She's next door, like she always is after school, she'll be over in a few minutes."

"Must be hard living in this big house alone," said Becca looking up at the outside of the home.

"I make do. Are you finished, I have dinner to make," said Audrey, looking kind of antsy.

"Well no I'm not. Look, Mrs. Taylor, I do have a few more questions, and you can either invite me inside and answer them here, or I'll have to subpoena you and you'll answer them in court. So what will it be?" asked Becca.

"As long as you don't mind me cooking while we talk, come in," Audrey said, opening the door.

Becca couldn't help but admire the inside of the house. She was especially drawn to a table filled with homemade masks of people's faces. When asked who made them, Audrey said that a close friend of hers, who used to be a costume designer, had designed them in preparation for a Halloween party that they'd be hosting in a few weeks. As Becca walked into the kitchen where Audrey was beginning to gather baking utensils, she remarked that it took her almost an hour in rush hour traffic to get there from downtown Toronto. Audrey asked her which route she took, and when Becca replied, Audrey told her that her mistake was not using the 407.

"Yeah but I don't like driving on the 407 because it's rather an expensive toll road isn't it?" replied Becca.

"Maybe, but it certainly beats the 401 at rush hour, especially when it comes to accidents. The only one I remember seeing was a while back when a hit and run accident killed a young girl's parents," Audrey explained as Becca nodded. "The 407 in my opinion is the one of the safest highways in Toronto, and if it were me, I'd drive it anywhere I could, even if it cost me an arm and a leg," said Audrey as she pulled a bag of chicken from the refrigerator.

"What are you making?" asked Becca.

"Chicken Parmesan and Rice Casserole, Katie's favorite meal."

"That's my favorite as well," Becca said, feeling a little hungry. "Anyway, so do you drive the 407 often?"

"Almost exclusively. The 407 gets me almost everywhere I want to go: the theme park, work, the airport or downtown if I go and drive the 10 minutes down to the Gardner Expressway."

"Then you must rack up quite a bill," Becca said sounding rather astonished.

"That's what Scott used to say as well. You see, he was dead set against using the 407 in any circumstance because of the $500 a month bills we kept receiving. I kept telling him though that the time saved keeping off of Toronto's busiest highways was well worth the expense of using the 407."

"$500!" Becca gasped. "That's quite a chunk of change." Audrey looked at her with a little disdain in her eyes, feeling that Becca was in no position to judge her spending habits. Becca, sensing the awkwardness, said "So you say that you take the 407 to work. Where is that exactly?" as she pulled out her notepad to record the details.

"I work as a teller for the Sovereign Bank of Toronto located on Albion Rd. about 10 minutes east of Exit 59 on the 407."

"How long have you worked as a teller for the bank?"

"I have worked for the bank since 2007. Before that, I was a stay at home mom," responded Audrey as she breaded the chicken.

"You told the police that you were in Montreal at an awards banquet the night before your husband was killed, could you elaborate on that?"

"Sure. Every year, the bank as a whole, hosts a banquet to honor its best personnel who excel at selling products or services to our customers. In every region, tellers are nominated by the branch managers and then 2 people are selected to represent the region at the banquet. Normally, regular tellers don't stand out for doing the types of things that these awards acknowledge, but having been in a higher position earlier in my career, I'm not a normal teller," Audrey explained. "Anyway, winners of the awards could receive an awards plaque, a cash prize or a trip, based on which award they won. This year's banquet was held in Montreal from June 29-30.

"Is that cost effective? I mean to fly and accommodate tellers from all across the country just for the purpose of a banquet. Couldn't they have accomplished the same thing by hosting regional awards dinners," asked Becca.

"Normally you would think so, but the bank is a national bank and therefore awards its employees on a national basis. Besides, the banquet also allows us to meet and network with other people in our position, and come up with the best ways to improve our performance," Audrey said, as she put the chicken in the oven. "Don't get confused, for even though this trip is mostly business, the bank does set aside some time for the attendees to engage in recreation. While some of the people went shopping, I saw some of the sites and then decided to do some indoor rock climbing, a sport which I absolutely love. I had a great time rock climbing and an even better time at the banquet."

"I see," Becca replied. "You also said the banquet ended on June 30th. At about what time was that?"

"It ended at 8:00 PM, which gave us just enough time to get to the airport for our flights home. We took off on our chartered flight at around 12:30 AM and touched down at Pearson International Airport at around 2 AM. After landing, I got in my car, which I had left at the airport, and arrived home around 3:00 AM. Scott was already asleep so I decided not to wake him and went to bed," Audrey said, grabbing a bag of rice from the cupboard and onion from the fridge.

"Just a couple more questions then and I'll be out of your hair," Becca said. "Now I don't mean to be insulting, but how was your marriage with Scott?"

"I don't know why I would be insulted Ms. Deville. After all you are just asking me whether I or my husband had ever cheated on each other," Audrey said sarcastically, cutting harder as she diced the onion.

"I'm sorry, but I have to ask."

"Scott and I never cheated on each other!" Audrey exclaimed. "Sure our marriage wasn't perfect, and Scott was out of the house late most nights, but we loved each other and we would never do anything to hurt each other."

"OK. Did Scott have any enemies?"

"Before the murder, I couldn't have believed that he had any. But then, I wasn't as involved with Scott's professional life, so really I couldn't say if he had any enemies from work or not."

"But you wouldn't count Elliot as one of those people who you didn't know that much about, would you?"

"No, I knew Elliot, or at least I thought I did. He and his wife were frequently over for dinner. That is before Scott began working late and didn't have time to have much of anyone over."

"Did Scott ever tell you that he suspected Elliot of embezzling from the park's accounts?"

"Obviously you don't know Scott. Scott was a very secretive man and would have kept that sort of thing close to his chest. Although, come to think of it, I did hear them arguing one night about someone stealing from the company, though I only heard a portion of it and Scott didn't say who had done it."

"Do you remember when that was," asked Becca.

"Not a clue, although my memory may be good with facts, it's not good with times or dates. Sorry."

Just then, the door opened and a tall muscular looking man with blond hair walked into the house.

"Honey!" the man said looking around to see where Audrey was.

"In the kitchen Daniel," Audrey yelled back.

As Daniel walked down the hall he hadn't noticed that there was company in the house when he said, "Audrey have you heard that that scumbag Elliot has a new lawyer, I think his name is Deville. Boy that lawyer must be pretty stupid to take on a case like that." He paused as he entered the room, seeing Becca sitting in front of the island.

"Oh I'm sorry; I didn't know that we had company. I'm Daniel Morris," he said putting out his hand to shake Becca's.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Rebecca Deville, Elliot Ravenwood's lawyer," she said as she saw the eyes of Daniel widen and his face redden with embarrassment."

"Good to meet you Ms. Deville. So, Elliot found himself a woman lawyer then," he said, making an already awkward situation the more so, with his subtly sexist remark.

"Yes he has. Well actually my brother Elijah Deville is lead counsel on this case, but I pull as much weight as he does. And to put your chauvinist mind at ease, yes I am a woman lawyer and a great one at that," Becca said as she lightly punched Morris on the shoulder.

Morris winced in obvious pain. "What's the matter darling?" Audrey asked.

"She hit my arm in the exact place of my new tattoo," Morris explained.

"You mean you got another one?" Audrey asked, referring to the small dragon tattoo on the back of Morris's hand.

"You know me, Audrey," Morris replied.

"Unfortunately I do," Audrey said. "Anyway Ms. Deville, I'm sorry for Daniel's behavior. There are times when Daniel unintentionally puts his foot in his mouth without thinking. He can be quite charming...sometimes that is," she said biting her index fingernail and lowering her head.

Suddenly a light bulb went off in Becca's head and she turned to Morris and said, "Hey wait a minute, are you the Daniel Morris who works at the theme park?"

"Yeah I'm the ride inspector for the park. I've already given my statement to the police, so if you want to find out about that day, ask them," he said as he got an apple from the fridge.

"Oh that's OK, I'm sure we'll talk again in the near future." She turned again to Audrey and asked "So how long have you two been an item?"

"We've been seeing each other for about five weeks now. Daniel doesn't live here; he just comes over for dinner and usually stays around until 10. We watch movies together, that sort of thing."

"I see," Becca said writing this interesting new piece of news into her notebook.

"I hate to cut our conversation short Ms. Deville, but I really need to finish dinner, can we do this some other time?" Audrey asked.

"Oh sure, I can see you're busy."

Audrey quickly washed her hands and took Becca to the front door to see her out. As both stepped out onto the front porch, Becca couldn't help but notice the twin set of Mercedes Benz cars sitting in the driveway.

"Are both of these cars yours?" Becca asked.

"Yeah, one was Scott's and the other one is mine."

"Must be terrible trying to tell them apart, ever get in the wrong car by mistake?"

"Never!" Audrey exclaimed. "But even if I did, it wouldn't matter because both cars have identical ignition keys. It's a feature that this Mercedes dealer offered to people who buy two cars at the same time, allowing both to drive either car without having to have two different sets of keys. It's a real time saver."

Becca waved good bye to Audrey and got into her car for the hour long drive home. As she was driving she couldn't figure out what to make of the fact that Audrey and Daniel were now dating. Was that just a coincidence or was there more to it? It's a puzzle that she just had to find the answer to, so despite being on the road for 10 minutes, she decided to turn around to see if the neighbors could shed some light on this mysterious relationship.

**********

# Chapter 10

_Bail is Set At..._

The criminal justice system in Canada is divided into two separate trial courts: the Provincial Courts and the Superior Courts. The provincial courts try the majority of cases in Ontario because most of the crimes that are committed are summary convictions or minor offenses. These trials are tried before a judge only. More serious crimes or indictable offenses have the option to be tried either before the Superior Court or the Provincial Court. If tried in the Superior Court, a jury would be impaneled to hear the case, whereas if it is tried in provincial court, the case would proceed similar to that of a summary conviction. When one walks into a Canadian courtroom, one would notice the difference in appearance to their American counterparts. The main distinction is that the accused does not sit with his/her attorney but in a box located in the middle of the court room in front of the visitor's gallery and behind the tables for the crown on the right and defense on the left. The judge sits at a rostrum at the front of the courtroom with the jury, (if there is one), sitting in a box to the judge's left. The last difference is that the attorneys usually do not wander around the court room or approach the witness when asking questions, but do so from a podium placed in between the tables for the crown and the defense.

Even though Elliot Ravenwood was charged with a major crime and requested a jury trial, almost all pre-trial hearings would take place in a provincial courthouse before a provincial judge. However on this day, Elijah would be requesting a review of the bail decision, which means that it will be heard in Ontario Superior Court before a superior court judge. Located at 361 University Avenue, next to the historic Osgoode Hall, the large, five storey Superior Courthouse was the venue for most of the high profile cases prosecuted in the city, including many in Elijah's illustrious career.

True to form, Elijah arrived at the courthouse early in order to prepare for the case and talk to the crown attorney before the proceeding. On this particular occasion, when Elijah entered courtroom number seven, he was a little taken aback by who the crown attorney was going to be for the case: a woman by the name of Samantha Howard. Now Samantha Howard can be a very feisty person, especially when it comes to the law, but this was not how Elijah viewed her. He wasn't intimidated by her stature (for she stood almost a foot taller than him), nor was he distracted by her long, fiery red hair. Deep down in his heart however, he was afraid of Samantha Howard, if for no other reason than the fact that she, like him, loved to win in court. As he walked towards her, he really did not know what to say, but that feeling quickly abated because she (as was often the case) took the lead and started the conversation.

"Professor Deville, it is certainly an honor to have you here in court today," Samantha said.

"Samantha, I mean Ms. Howard. My, how the years have flown by! I can still remember when you were in my criminal law theory course and tried to convince me that people charged with indictable offenses should always be held without bail pending trial. Your argument as I recall, centered on the fact that these types of accused people present a danger to the public. You also said that these types of people pose a flight risk, and show an increased propensity to intimidate witnesses and or tamper with and destroy evidence, because of the seriousness of the charges brought against them. You claimed that only in extreme cases should someone be granted bail, and even in that situation that they should be placed under house arrest. Wish to try that argument again?"

"No Professor, I learned way back that there is no use trying to argue law with you-- even when you're wrong!" she said with a grin.

"Well if that's the only lesson you learned from my class that's a success on my part. After all, everyone has the right to my opinion," Elijah chuckled.

"Anyway Professor, I'm surprised that you took this case, after all, it's a slam dunk for the crown," she said.

"A slam dunk you say. I have watched many basketball games and if there's one thing I've noticed, it is that slam dunks aren't always a sure thing," he remarked.

Seconds later, the court was called to order and everyone sat down. The Honorable Justice Robert Marley then began calling the cases for the day.

"Case #34562: R. v. Elliot Ravenwood," Marley said.

As the judge called the case, Deville and Howard took their place at their respective tables.

"Elijah Deville for the defense."

"So I see Mr. Ravenwood has found more expensive legal counsel has he," Marley said as both lawyers chuckled. "I assume then that this will be a short hearing."

"I hope so Your Honor," Elijah said.

"Good," the judge replied. "The purpose of this hearing is to determine whether bail should be granted to the accused or whether he should remain in custody pending his murder trial. On July 3rd, 2010, the Superior court ruled that the defense had not proven sufficient grounds to release Mr. Ravenwood, so bail was denied. Pursuant to Ontario law, an automatic review of that decision was mandated to be held no later than September 30, 2010, a full 90 days after the first judgment. This hearing shall be deemed to fulfill the requirements under Ontario Law. Mr. Deville, you may now proceed with your arguments."

"Thank you, Your Honor for hearing this motion. In this country, last I checked, an accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty. This means that until such time that the crown proves the guilt of anyone; the court should lean heavily against incarcerating people without just cause. I therefore seek a reconsideration of bail. First and foremost, the crown admits that my client has no previous criminal record, has strong ties to the community and poses no flight risk. Secondly, they also did not contend that my client would re-offend if granted bail. The only reason that they give for keeping my client behind bars is to maintain the public's confidence in the administration of justice. Now I know that bail has been a hot button issue politically and with society on the whole, but the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees that the accused not be denied reasonable bail without just cause. As far as I can find, there isn't a good enough reason here to deny bail. Moreover, I might remind the court that even in cases of near-certain guilt, Justice's of the Peace have granted bail because it isn't their job to assess the strengths of a given case, but is for bail only. In this situation, my client has a surety that can provide bail and this person will guarantee that he will appear in court to face the charges brought against him. In the interest of Justice, I request that the court grant bail at no higher than $10,000. Thank you Your Honor."

"Does the crown have anything to add?"

"Yes we do Your Honor," Samantha said, stepping up to the podium. "Even though we live in a country where a person is innocent until proven guilty and even though we live in a country where bail is not to be denied without just cause, the fact remains that Mr. Ravenwood is accused of committing 1st degree murder. We're not talking about petty theft; we're talking about the premeditated taking of someone's life. If the court accepts the defense's motion, it would be seriously undermining the public's confidence in our justice system. We have seen time and time again people flee jurisdiction upon release, or even worse, commit further crimes before trial. The public is outraged at this and how easy it is in this country to receive bail. They perceive that it as an injustice aimed at the victims of these crimes. The court needs to send a message to Canadians, that while they recognize the presumption of innocence, that public safety demands the accused not be allowed to inflict harm to the justice system in this country. Therefore in the interest of justice, the crown asks the court once again, that the accused be held without bail." Samantha then sat down.

After about a one minute pause, Justice Marley issued his ruling.

"It is true what the crown says about the public having to have confidence that the justice system will work for everyone. At the foundation of these principles though lies the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In it, it says that an accused can not be held without bail without just cause. Now the public may not like it, or even agree with it, but it is the law we live under until our elected officials change it. In this case the onus is on the accused to show why he should be released. I believe the defense has provided this court with sufficient grounds to support their motion. As such, I hereby order the accused released when a surety offers this court $100,000 as bail," Justice Marley said as he signed the order. He gave one copy to the defense, one copy to the crown and one copy to the Court Clerk for filing.

"As to the matter of a court date, it is my understanding that the preliminary hearing has been set for October 4th, 2010. Is that date still suitable for you Mr. Deville?" the judge asked.

"Actually Your Honor, at this time the defense would like to waive its right to a preliminary hearing and wishes to proceed right to trial by jury in the Superior Court."

"Is there objection from the crown?" Marley asked.

"No there isn't, Your Honor," Samantha said.

"Fine then, looking at the superior court's calendar, this trial will be scheduled to begin on January 10, 2011, in this building."

An elated Elijah stood up, and went outside of the courtroom to phone Mrs. Ravenwood and inform her that bail had been granted. Following this call, Elijah couldn't help but notice that Samantha was motioning for him to come and talk with her.

"Professor Deville," she said.

"Well Ms. Howard, it seems that nothing changes now does it?" he said as he leaned against the courtroom wall.

"You may have won this battle, professor, but the war is far from over. However, because I'm in a good mood, I'm willing to offer your client a deal. If he pleads to 2nd Degree Murder, and accepts a sentence of 15 years to life, the crown would consider not moving forward with the embezzlement charges," Samantha explained.

"Well I'm glad for your good mood, but this sounds a lot like the deal you offered Elliot before he fired his last lawyer. Now why would I take a deal like that?" Elijah asked.

"Because if you don't, your client will go away for at least 25 years for murder plus 10 years for embezzlement. If I was his lawyer, I'd tell him that due to the overwhelming evidence against him, that he should take this gift that the crown is offering, for it's a gift," said Samantha, as she and Elijah began walking towards the doors.

"Well, since my client claims that he is innocent, we'll pass on the offer."

"That's exactly what I thought you'd say. Don't tell me that I didn't try," she said as they continued walking.

"You must feel rather confident that you'll get a conviction, unless of course you offered Elliot this plea bargain in order to hedge your bet," Elijah said.

"We've got your client cold. He had the torch in his trunk, he was seen near the ride on the night of the sabotage, he had a motive to kill the victim, means, motive and opportunity," she said folding her arms as they walked outside.

"You forget one of the first lessons that I teach all law students who take my course: 'Don't get too cocky when all you have got is circumstantial evidence.' You don't have fingerprints, which personally I find odd, considering that he supposedly left the torch in his trunk. You don't have an eye witness who actually saw Mr. Ravenwood torch the ride. And as for motive, I intend to poke holes into that as well. Now if that's all Ms. Howard, I need to get changed and get on with my day."

"I'll see you in court then professor," Samantha said.

As Elijah and Samantha parted ways, he quickly changed out of his black robes and left the building, with the full intent of meeting Becca at the office. To his surprise however, Becca was sitting underneath one of the trees outside eating a slice of pizza.

"Elijah!" she yelled, wiping her mouth as she got up to run after him.

"What are you doing here? Aren't there important things to do at the office?" Elijah said, looking puzzled and a little annoyed that she hadn't bought him a slice of pizza.

"I finished all the work that I had, so I decided to hop on the subway and see how things went. So," she paused, "How did it go?"

"Great!" Elliot responded. "Elliot's going to be out on bail; everything's going fantastic, except..." Elijah paused.

"Except what?" Becca asked.

"Except that the crown attorney is one of my former students and I don't really know how to deal with her.

"Deal with her like you deal with all of the other crown attorneys that you face: with an iron fist."

"Oh that's not it at all. You see Samantha Howard is a very competitive individual. She always had to win her mock trials and was very combative in the classroom. Even today, it seemed like her attitude was more about proving me wrong, than prosecuting for the crown. I don't like it when crown attorneys do that, I wish they'd just stick to the evidence."

"But isn't that her job, proving her point by showing whoever is on your side of the aisle, wrong?" Becca asked inquisitively.

"I guess you had to be there to notice. Anyway, I don't buy the argument that you couldn't wait to hear how the case went. If you're up here, it's because you've uncovered something important."

"I have indeed," Becca said with a big grin on her face. "Yesterday I went to visit Audrey Taylor and as the interview broke up you'll never guess who showed up," Becca explained, pausing for dramatic effect. "Daniel Morris! Now they gave me the line that they had just begun dating a few weeks ago, but my radar immediately went up, so I questioned a couple of the neighbors. They told me for the past year, on nights that Scott worked late, and Katie was somewhere else, a car with the license plate 'DRAGON' was invariably parked in their driveway. After a little records checking I found out that the license plate was registered to the one and only Daniel Morris," Becca said excitedly.

"So, the marriage wasn't as close as we were led to believe. Maybe we'd better have a talk with Mr. Morris to see what he says."

"Where do you think we're going to find him?"

"With any luck, he'll be right where he's supposed to be: at work. Come on, let me get changed and then let's take the subway back to Rosedale, get your car, and take a drive up to Canada's AdventureLand to have a look around."

So Elijah and Becca hopped on the subway back to their own neighborhood of Rosedale to fetch the car. Neither of them knew what they were going to find at the theme park, but they were hoping that it would be enough to begin showing that Elliot Ravenwood did not murder his boss Scott Taylor.

**********

# Chapter 11

_Faulty Inspections and Impregnable Computer Programs_

September in Toronto not only brought rain, but with children returning to classes, it also meant shorter lines at Canada's AdventureLand. When Elijah and Becca arrived at the park and explained the purpose of their business, the attendant called for a public relations worker to escort them to the Main Office.

Upon arriving through the main doors of the office, a short middle aged, stocky man came up to talk with them.

"Mr. Deville, you wanted to see me?" he said.

"Well I don't know. Who are you?" asked Elijah.

"I am Kevin Craig, the computer system's manager for the park and the ride operator for the Colossus on the day of Scott Taylor's accident."

"Then you're exactly the man I want to talk to," replied Elijah. "First of all, I'd like you to meet my partner, and sister Rebecca Deville."

"A pleasure miss," he said. As he stuck out his hand to shake hers, he leaned over and whispered into Becca's ear to ask if her brother always came to theme parks dressed in a three piece suit. She laughed in amusement.

"What's so funny?" asked Elijah in disgust.

"Oh, nothing Elijah," Becca said. "Mr. Craig here was just admiring your suit." Elijah sneered when he heard that because he knew that he was being made fun of. To show his displeasure, he rather curtly told Mr. Craig to show them the ride. As they were walking to the back of the park, Elijah remarked to Craig that the park seemed rather empty that day, to which Craig responded that during the fall this wasn't abnormal because the kids were at school.

"Here we are Mr. Deville, the Colossus!" Craig said, pointing his finger to the top of the first hill.

"Wow!" Elijah and Becca said in unison as they looked straight up.

"A true work of art isn't it? It's too bad that she hasn't been allowed to run since the accident," said Craig.

"It certainly is Mr. Craig," Elijah said in amazement, "and you designed the entire thing."

"No, not me personally. The ride's design was all Scott's idea; I was the lead designer of the computer system that would run it," Craig replied.

"If you're the system's manager for the park, how did you find the time to do this?" Elijah asked.

"Well, I do work with other people Mr. Deville. When I say that I was the lead designer, it didn't mean that I wrote the computer code for it, I meant that I came up with the idea for how the ride was going to work, and I then had a team of programmers write the program. After it was complete, I and a few others examined the code and tested the program right up until launch day to work all of the kinks out."

"These few others you mentioned, now who would they be."

"Sally O'Day and Herman Moon, my quality and control computer program testers, and Daniel Morris, the ride inspector for the park."

"Would it be all right with you if I sent Becca to talk to Ms. O'Day and Mr. Moon?" Elijah asked expecting a harsh response.

"No of course not!" Craig replied, with concern present in his voice. "They're in the computer lab on the 3rd floor of the main office testing some programs."

Elijah told Becca to quickly go and interview the two, as he continued questioning Kevin Craig.

"So then, Mr. Craig, I'd like you to show me how the computer program is supposed to operate."

Kevin led Elijah up to the platform to where the master computer was housed.

"Now you see Mr. Deville, the way I designed the program was absolutely tamperproof. Before anyone was placed into the ride, the system scanned all of the sensors placed in various points on the cars and the tracks to see if there were problems. If there was a minor problem, the screen would flash yellow, and the ride operator could decide to abort future rides or continue."

"What kind of errors would a yellow warning indicate?" Elijah interrupted.

"Yellow warnings could be for a minor alignment error, higher than expected winds, a small dirt buildup on the tracks, or slower than expected speed readings on the rides before it. All are minor things, and all could be cleared at the operator's discretion. If the operator chose to abort for a yellow warning, they wouldn't send out any more cars with people on them, but the empty cars would be sent around the track again, allowing the other two sets of cars to be able to unload their passengers."

"What would happen once the ride was completely empty?" Elijah asked.

"That all depends. If the yellow warning was because of a minor malfunction, it would have to be fixed, if it was for weather, obviously we'd have to wait for the weather to change. Generally speaking operators were trained as to which yellow warnings should be aborted and which should be allowed to be cleared," Craig said as he observed Elijah staring off into space, obviously in deep thought.

"Oh I'm sorry Mr. Craig," Elijah said, awakening from his trance. "I was just pondering something. So if there was a yellow warning that an operator could receive, I would therefore assume that there was a more serious warning also."

"Yes," Craig responded, showing Elijah the screen. "There could be a red warning. Red warnings are critical warnings signifying severe weather, including lightning, sensor failures, track rust, brake fatigue, etc. If an operator gets a red warning, it is impossible for them to clear it, in fact the entire ride stops immediately. Power is cut to the ride (except for the computer of course) and those cars out on the course are slowed to complete stop."

"Wouldn't that be dangerous to immediately cut power to the ride, I mean, what if a set of cars were at a high intensity portion of the ride, couldn't they could get hurt?" Elijah inquired.

"When we think of power being cut off," Craig explained, "we think of one type of switch: off and on. That's not how it is programmed to work. For this ride, we designed a computer program that would control the electricity using a smart power system. This means that the computer controls its own power and can cut off electricity to any portion of the ride if it detects a problem. When a red warning is issued, the computer, knowing where each car is on the track, manages the power and braking systems accordingly and slows the cars down to a stop on a safe part of the track. Of course, sometimes, as in the case of track failure, the ride might need to be shut down quicker, leaving cars in a less than desirable position on the track. This is sometimes unavoidable, but in fact should be a rare occurrence given our inspection procedures."

"Was a red warning issued the day of the crash?" Elijah asked.

"The only red warning that was issued was after the cars left the track. The computer, immediately being unable to locate the set of cars that it had just sent out, locked down the ride and declared a crash."

"Now you said that the computer program was tamperproof, but could it be fooled into thinking everything was OK, but in actuality it wasn't?" Elijah asked.

"Before the accident I would have said no, but obviously that wasn't the case. My only explanation is that the killer, your client, changed the sensors attached to the car, having already programmed them to send faulty information to the computer in order to trick it," Kevin said throwing his hands in the air.

"I don't think that's what did it. The police examined all the sensors and all of them were working perfectly when compared with other sensors on the ride. No, I think that the computer program itself was tampered with to give a false reading."

"That's impossible, the program was tested and re-tested in various situations and there was nothing wrong."

"Was the program changed or updated anytime before the accident?"

"It was updated the day before the crash, but only after it was tested extensively by Sally, Herman and Daniel."

"Who was the one who updated the system?"

"I did."

"So you took the CDs from the main office safe, where I assume they were kept and then came here to install the update?"

"No, Daniel Morris, the park's safety inspector, brought them to me, as he always does.

"When did he deliver the update?"

"If I remember right, it was about 1 PM, just after lunch. We then went down and installed the program onto the computer. No other changes were made until a few weeks ago, when we got permission to begin testing again so that the ride could be re-launched when the park opens next spring."

"If I could get a copy of the program that was installed on the day before the accident and the program that was just installed it would be most appreciated."

"Sure, I'll have Jennifer, my secretary, retrieve a copy for you. Mr. Deville," Craig said looking at his watch, "Now if you don't mind, I have an important meeting to get to. If you have anymore questions, feel free to set up an appointment."

"There is just one more thing before you go Mr. Craig," Elijah said.

An annoyed Craig stopped in his tracks and turned around.

"What is it?" Craig said indignantly.

"Where were you on the evening of June 30th?"

"At home alone," Craig said.

"That's not much of an alibi," Elijah stated.

"I guess not. But then again, I don't need one."

"Let's hope for your sake that you don't," Elijah stated, signaling to Craig that he was done.

With that, Craig went off running to the eastern section of the park, while Elijah started walking up to the front gate. Just as he was passing through the young children's section of the park, he noticed Daniel Morris talking on a walkie-talkie, so he approached him to ask him a couple of questions.

"Mr. Morris!" Elijah yelled. " I'm Elijah Deville. Can I have a minute of your time?"

"Mr. Deville, I'm quite busy right now, perhaps some other time," Morris said as he pushed Elijah aside and began walking away.

"Mr. Morris, you can either answer my questions now, or the entire world could hear about what you were doing with Scott Taylor's wife if I tell it in court."

Morris stopped, turned around and came back to Elijah. "What are you talking about?"

"The fact that you were having an affair with Audrey Taylor for more than a year before Scott was murdered."

"You're fishing Mr. Deville. Audrey and I began a relationship six weeks ago, if you don't believe me, just ask your sister."

"Oh Mr. Morris, I have talked to my sister, and she's talked to Audrey's neighbors who remember seeing your car with the license plate 'DRAGON' sitting in the Taylor driveway on nights when Scott wasn't home. What were you doing Mr. Morris?" Elijah asked looking straight up into the eyes of Daniel.

"So, we were having an affair, what is it to you?" Morris asked angrily.

"Nothing now, but it could mean something later. Anyway, it's not the affair that I want to talk to you about; it's the inspection process for the Colossus. How did that work?"

"It's nothing much. Everyday I or one of my inspectors would examine each ride thoroughly before the ride was officially tested. We'd use a checklist to check everything on the ride from the cars to the track. For the parts we couldn't get to, we'd run a diagnostic on the computer. After that was done, we'd sign the checklist and it would be filed with the safety department of the park," Morris explained.

"So on the day of the accident, you inspected the ride?" Elijah asked.

"Absolutely! Since it was a brand new ride, it is usually customary for the head of inspections to do the final walk around. I ran that inspection at 9:30 AM."

"So you did the final inspection, and missed that some of the casings had been torched and that several bolts were missing. How is that possible Mr. Morris?"

"You can't tell my boss this," Daniel said, his voice going down to a whisper, "the truth is, I didn't do a full inspection that morning. I was two hours late, so all I did was run a full computer diagnostic, which told me that the ride was in perfect order."

"Why didn't you tell the police this?"

"I could have been fired. Besides the ride had undergone a full inspection the afternoon before. I wasn't expecting anything to be wrong, so I didn't see the harm in just asking the computer to inspect the ride," Morris said.

"This is major news Mr. Morris, one that won't be remaining a secret for much longer I can assure you. It almost makes me wonder if you didn't intentionally skip the inspection knowing full well that the ride had been sabotaged," Elijah said pointing his finger at Morris angrily.

"Now why would I do that, I had no reason to kill Scott Taylor," Daniel responded as he got closer to Elijah.

"Sure you did! For his wife. You were afraid that he'd find out about you and Audrey and fire you. So you did the only thing you could: kill him!" Elijah yelled loudly.

"You've got it all wrong!" Daniel said raising his voice to match that of Elijah's. "Scott knew about Audrey and me and he approved."

"Approved? Why should I believe that?"

"Because it's the truth," Daniel responded, stepping back and lowering his voice. "Scott was spending more nights at the office and recognized that he wasn't meeting the needs of his wife. Sure, when he found out about 6 months ago he was mad, but Audrey calmed him down by telling him that she was lonely. She assured him that she still loved him, so he let us still see each other."

"That is the most preposterous thing I've ever heard. What man on earth would knowingly let his wife have an affair with another man and be OK with it?"

"I don't know about most men, but Scott Taylor was fine with it. Besides, I couldn't have killed Scott, for I was home the night before watching the Toronto baseball game. I remember that game well because it was the first time I'd ever seen a right fielder throw five guys out at home plate. It would have been six, if that stupid umpire hadn't screwed up a call in the eighth inning. So if you want to pin this murder on someone, you'd better look elsewhere, because it wasn't me," Daniel said emphatically.

Elijah reluctantly told Daniel that he'd have to look into the affair and his alibi further, but assured Daniel that they would talk again. As Elijah exited the children's area, he met up with Becca who told them that the two testers really didn't have anything to say that wasn't already known.

Just then, both of them caught a glimpse of a man running out of the main office with a clipboard in hand. Although they couldn't quite make out who it was, they did know that he was heading for the loading docks. Curious about what was going on, they decided to follow him. Hiding in the bushes so as not to be seen, they observed this man and a delivery person unloading boxes into the back of a shuttle vehicle used for transporting materials around the park. The man's back was turned from them, so they still couldn't identify who he was. From their vantage point, they also couldn't make out the name on the truck or the boxes so they decided to move closer, not noticing that a mysterious shadow was beginning to creep ever so slowly up from behind them.

**********

# Chapter 12

_100 Kilograms_

As Elijah began to wake up, he was overtaken by the pungent smell of manure. They were obviously in a barn. He couldn't move, because Becca and him were seated back to back, and had their arms and legs tied to their chairs. A few minutes later, as Becca was beginning to wake up, a strange looking man could be seen standing in the shadows whispering to another man. Wanting to hear what was going on, they pretended to still be unconscious.

"Have you decided what to do with them yet?" said one man.

"Isn't it obvious, they can't be allowed to tell anyone what they've seen. We've been smuggling this stuff in for Jimmy for six months, and now at the time of our big payoff, I'm not going to let some mealy-mouth lawyers get in our way," the other man said with a sense of urgency.

"I can't believe that you're talking about killing them. You don't even know what they saw," the first man said.

"They were snooping around the loading docks and I think they saw what you were doing," the second man responded.

"So that's it, we're going to kill them on your think so! I don't want that blood on my hands. We're already in enough trouble as it is with them poking around the park, let's not add to it," the first man exclaimed.

The door to the barn then slid open and a third man, whom the other two referred to as Jimmy, came into the room. Jimmy was a very tall man, dressed in dark black jeans, and spoke with a rather gruff voice.

"Have they come to yet?" Jimmy asked.

"No, that bump on the head should keep them out for a while," the first man said.

"Well you're going to have to decide what to do with them quickly because soon their disappearance will be all over the news, endangering this operation," Jimmy said.

"Well I want to kill them," the second man said, "but the genius over there thinks that they should be kept alive. He claims that he's not certain what they saw and until he knows for sure, that we ought to do nothing."

"You two boneheads are a bunch of wimps. After all that's gone on at that park in the past two months you're now afraid of killing 2 lawyers?" Jimmy said mockingly. "I'll deal with them in a few minutes, but my people are waiting, so we have some business to transact."

"Yes sir," the second man said. We did what you told us. Starting six months ago, we have gradually smuggled over 50 kg of cocaine and 50 kg of heroin into the country, in boxes of frozen hamburgers bound for the park."

"I'm interested to know how you managed to escape detection by both Canada Customs and the Toronto Police," Jimmy asked.

"Well as we said when we met you the first time, we're experts at this, as we've been doing this for a few years now. All we do is have our supplier place some cocaine and heroin into a select number of boxes, usually equaling a tenth of the boxes coming on the shipment. The boxes are interspersed around the truck, easily avoiding a spot inspection by a custom's agent. Only a well trained drug dog would be able to detect the drugs, so one of us always scouts out the border on delivery day to insure that the agents aren't employing enhanced security on commercial vehicles. We've only had one day where we've had to call off the shipment, so I think our record speaks for itself," the second man said.

"Indeed it does, although 6 months having to wait for a complete shipment is a little long in my kind of business," Jimmy said.

"It's the only way we could assure you the drugs without detection. If we were making a sale every time a shipment came in, our boss might have caught on and alerted the police, but if we stored the shipments and made one large sale, no one would become the wiser," the first man said.

"So, where are the drugs?" Jimmy asked.

Upon the request, the first man went up to the second floor loft in the barn to fetch a package of heroin and a package of cocaine. Jimmy then examined the drugs, and when they were found to be legitimate demanded that the rest be brought down.

"Only after I see some form of payment, Jimmy. I believe we had settled on $13.6 million," the second man stated.

Jimmy then popped his head out of the door and one of his men brought him a large briefcase filled with money.

"Go ahead count it. That's $5 million. My guys will show you that I have the rest, but until I get all of my drugs, you won't get a penny more," Jimmy said.

Once both men had seen that Jimmy did in fact have all of the money needed to complete the sale, they, along with Jimmy's men began unloading all of the drugs. It took about 15 minutes for the four of them to unload the 100 kg of cocaine and heroin into a small moving truck that Jimmy had parked outside.

With the movement of the drugs now completed, all that was left was for the final payment to be made.

"It was nice doing business with you guys," Jimmy said as his men began bringing in the 2 briefcases that housed the remaining money.

"Same to you," the second man said as he began counting it. "And if you ever need anymore drugs, you know who to come to."

It was about at this time that Jimmy's attention had turned from the small talk between him and the two men, to the now obviously awake Elijah.

"You fools!" Jimmy screamed. "Didn't you two idiots notice that they were awake?"

"They must have woken up while we were loading the stuff into your van!" the second man said.

Jimmy immediately ran over to Elijah and began questioning him.

"How much did you see?"

"Well besides seeing the 100 kg of drugs that was put into your van and the almost $14 million dollars you paid Kevin Craig and Tim Parker for smuggling the drugs into the country, I didn't see anything," Elijah said sarcastically.

"You have got a rather smart mouth for someone who is about to die," Jimmy said gruffly.

"You do that and you'll really be in trouble!" Becca screamed as she tried to wiggle free.

"In all seriousness," Elijah chimed in seeing that Jimmy was getting rather angry, "you'll never get away with this," referring to the two men.

"Never get away with what?" Tim asked.

"Killing Scott Taylor. Jimmy over here said that our disappearance could be all over the news by now, so the police are soon going to discover that it was you, Tim, along with your partner Kevin who were one of the last ones to see me before I was kidnapped. You can then assume that soon they'll be knocking on your door to ask some questions, maybe even with a warrant to search this barn of yours."

"They'll never find you!" Craig called out.

"Whether they find me or not, it's only a matter of time before they find out about your drug ring, how you and Tim sabotaged the ride, how you, Kevin, got the computer to malfunction and how the both of you killed Scott Taylor."

When Elijah described Scott's murder, Jimmy began looking rather nervous. "Oh they didn't tell you about that part, did they Jimmy?" Elijah said. "It's all beginning to make sense now. Scott must have found out about their drug running scheme and before he could inform the police Kevin and Tim killed him."

"That's enough man!" Jimmy screamed. "We're going to end this now!" Jimmy then reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out 9 mm handgun and began to walk over to Elijah. Just as it looked as though he was about to pull the trigger, he winked at Elijah, turned around and yelled: "Freeze! Police!"

Immediately about a dozen policemen swarmed the barn and arrested Kevin and Tim for drug smuggling. Jimmy then leaned down and began untying Elijah and Becca.

"Sorry about the deception sir, but we've been after those two for almost 3 years and I couldn't let you jeopardize its outcome. Don't worry though, I wouldn't have let them hurt you," Jimmy said.

As Elijah and Becca stood up, Jimmy introduced himself as Sergeant James Kilpatrick of the Ontario Provincial Police Narcotic's Unit. Sergeant Kilpatrick told them that he would gladly take them to the police station where they could freshen up and listen in on the questioning of the two men now in custody.

As Elijah got up, still a little bewildered, he walked toward the police car and asked Sergeant Kilpatrick if he knew who hit him on the head. He got no response. He asked again but to no avail. A little angry, he got into the back seat of the car and enjoyed the long quiet ride to OPP headquarters. Along the way, Elijah told himself not to get discouraged, for answers would soon come if he was patient. The problem was that Elijah hated to be patient.

**********

# Chapter 13

_Revelations_

Back at the OPP Headquarters in downtown Toronto, Elijah, looking like he had slept the night in a dumpster, was still feeling sluggish as he put ice on the nasty bump he received to the back of his head. Despite this though, he still had the capacity to be rather demanding.

"How long were we out?" Elijah asked Sergeant Kilpatrick, as he rubbed his head with ice.

"Only about 4 hours," Kilpatrick responded. "I personally don't know if they administered any drugs, but I doubt it seeing as you were unconscious for a relatively short period of time."

"Is it standard OPP practice to put civilians in harms way during a major drug bust?" Elijah asked.

"I don't quite understand," Kilpatrick claimed.

"When you entered the barn, it seemed as if you already knew that Tim and Kevin had us in their possession before you arrived. So I ask you again, is it standard OPP procedure to put civilians in harms way during a major drug bust?" Elijah asked raising his voice.

"No it is not an OPP practice to put normal citizens in harms way, but there's something you must know. In the real world, sometimes people are put in danger, even unintentionally. This was a major drug bust! Almost $14 million of cocaine and heroin were prevented from going onto the streets because of the hard work of the men and the women in my task force. I'm sorry you got injured in the process, but in my opinion, that's a small price to pay for safe streets."

"What if they would have murdered us?" Becca said, almost in tears. "What would your story have been then?"

"Ma'am, they would not have killed you. They're not like that," Kilpatrick said.

"How do you know?" Elijah responded. "For all we know, they were involved in killing their boss in a brutal rollercoaster accident. To say that you know that they wouldn't have killed us is like saying that you know that the Toronto baseball team is going to win the World Series this year. Sure it's something that everyone would like to believe, but it's something that is impossible to predict."

"So what would you have had us do?" Kilpatrick said, throwing his arms up in disgust.

"I would have rescued us. I recognize that that might have blown your cover, but it would have at least looked like you were more concerned about saving innocent lives than about being featured in a highly publicized drug bust."

"I am concerned about saving lives, that's why we had to arrest these two before more drugs reached the street."

"Sergeant," Elijah said as he stood up, "you can keep telling yourself that story until the cows come home, but in my experience, drug busts usually don't end without shots being fired. This one was an exception, and you got lucky that one of those two didn't have a gun and shoot us trying to hit you. You cannot honestly tell me that we were in minimal danger, for we weren't. We were hit over the heads, probably suffered a concussion along with who knows what other type of injuries, and then tied up to a chair. To boot, they put us in the room where a major drug deal was going down, with the intent on killing us when the transaction was done. Sure I am grateful that you freed me and saved my life, but the ends do not justify the means. You should have rescued us the moment you found out that we were being held hostage, or at the very least, had us moved before the deal went down." Elijah paused before continuing. "There's still one question that you haven't answered. Who hit us over the head?"

"I'd rather not answer that," Kilpatrick said.

"I don't care what you'd rather do; I believe that I'm entitled to the truth," Elijah said, sounding exasperated.

"The truth?" Kilpatrick said in disdain, "Sir, I don't think you can handle the truth even if it hit you square in the face. You see, we live in a dangerous world, one in which our city's streets are being overrun with drugs. These same drugs are destroying the kids of the next generation. In order to combat this problem, we flood neighborhoods with scores of undercover units, armed and ready to thwart the scumbags that sell these drugs. This is a hard job, one that I think you would not want to do. You see, you weep for those who are killed and then you curse the police. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know, that some of those people's deaths and injuries, while tragic, probably saved lives. You have no desire for the truth, because deep down, you want me on the streets providing the very freedom that you hold so dear. At any rate, I have neither the time, nor the inclination to explain something to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of freedom that I provide, then questions the way in which I provide it."

"Sergeant, you've been watching too many movies. I am not a U.S. Navy Lieutenant, and you are certainly not a U.S. Marine Corps Colonel! All I wanted to know was who hit us over the head. These are facts that I believe I am entitled to!" Elijah yelled.

"It was you who hit us, wasn't it?" Becca interjected.

"I'm not at liberty to say," Kilpatrick said.

"Well that's just great," Elijah said, waving his arms in disgust. "We have two drug runners in there, which may very well have killed a man, and out here we have a police sergeant who goes around assaulting innocent bystanders who may or may not threaten one of his stings. I don't know what is worse, people who think that they can work outside of the law, or the police who think that they are above the law."

"Now hold on Elijah, I don't think that's a fair characterization of the officer's actions," Becca said.

"Sure it is!" Elijah interrupted. "As far as I'm concerned, the Sergeant is just as guilty as the two accused in the room down the hall. He could have done something to get rid of us without blowing his cover. But did he? No! He chose the easy way out, the one that caused him the least amount of pain. I have a mind to file a report, but I highly doubt that anything would come of it. After all, its justice at all cost, isn't it Sergeant?"

Kilpatrick stood there silent, staring at the wall in front of him.

As Elijah sat down, the OPP Chief of Police, Adam Baker, walked into the room. Kilpatrick immediately stood at attention, obviously fearful of what the chief was about to say.

"Sounds like there are some hot tempers in here," Baker said. "Is it true Sergeant Kilpatrick?"

"Is what true, sir?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. Is what Mr. Deville says true?"

Kilpatrick stood there in silence.

"Sergeant, I'm talking to you!" Baker yelled.

Kilpatrick hesitated, and then replied, "Yes sir, it's all true."

"Do you realize what kind of lawsuit you've just opened us up to, let alone the convictions that might disappear because of your conduct?" Baker asked. "Go wait in my office and I'll deal with you later.

Kilpatrick walked toward the door, and as he did he glared back at Elijah and said, "You have just made this city more dangerous my friend. That will live on your conscience until the day you die, I can assure you of that."

"No you're wrong Sergeant," Elijah responded. "The streets are only safe when good, honest cops protect them. Otherwise, convictions are thrown out, and the very people that you swore to protect, are put in danger by those criminals who should be in jail."

With that, Kilpatrick left and the room was again silent.

It seemed like an eternity before the chief finally decided to open his mouth.

"It is hard for me to express how extremely sorry I am for the ordeal you went through. If there's anything I can do..."

"As a matter of fact there is: let me talk to Craig and Parker," Elijah said.

"Done," Baker responded as he motioned for Elijah to follow him down the hall.

Before Elijah left, he instructed Becca to stay behind and call Cameron to see if there was an update. When Elijah arrived in the interrogation wing of the police station, he asked Baker to seat both Tim and Kevin in the same room. When Baker objected, Elijah assured him that he knew what he was doing. Before letting him question them though, Baker warned Elijah that he was not to question them on any topic concerning the sting. Elijah guaranteed that his interrogation would not focus on the drug bust, unless it was crucial to his murder investigation.

Seated in two chairs facing the door and with their heads down on the table, Tim and Kevin looked noticeably tired as Elijah entered the room. As the door opened, each of them opened their eyes a little, and the moment they noticed it was Elijah, they sat straight up. Fear was evident on their faces.

"So gentlemen. We're in quite a fix here," Elijah said as he got no response. "It seems to me that one of you would want to talk to me because as I see it, not only are you guys in a lot of trouble with them," Elijah said pointing to what was obviously a two-way mirror, "but you could easily go down for murdering Scott Taylor as well." Elijah still received blank stares from both Tim and Kevin, so he sat down and continued. "OK, if you're not going to talk to me, let me tell you a story and you can critique it. The way I see it, is both of you had about 14 million reasons to keep your alleged drug running scheme a secret. After all, if anyone found out, it would mean jail time at the least, or perhaps an even smaller cut of the proceeds. You each made sure that when the shipments allegedly carrying drugs were arriving at the park, that only you were there to receive the boxes. How you pulled that off given the crowded loading docks is shocking, but you did pull it off every time...except one: the time Scott Taylor caught you. I don't know what he was doing that lead him to the loading docks, but just like me, he saw you unloading mysterious boxes and, unlike me, got the chance to confront you about it. There probably was an argument that ensued, but no matter the results of that argument, one thing became clear: Scott Taylor had to be murdered in order for your drug running enterprise to have guaranteed secrecy. To pull it off, you came up with an ingenious plan that would kill Mr. Taylor using the most unconventional of weapons: a rollercoaster. The execution of this plan was rather simple. First, Kevin would re-program the ride's computer to ensure that no one would be warned that the ride had a problem. To be on the safe side, he also made sure that he would be operating the ride that day, so that he would be the one in charge of investigating and fixing any problems that might have arisen. Second, Tim, with his job as head of maintenance, would sabotage the ride using a blow torch to partially cut off the wheel casings of the car, thus guaranteeing that the ride would crash when a person was aboard. The last part of the plan, who to frame, is at this point a mystery to me. What I don't know is if you intended to frame Elliot Ravenwood or whether you found a scapegoat by accident, but don't you worry, I'll find out. So," Elijah said standing up, leaning against the table with a grin on his face, "how did I do?"

"Not one word of that is true," Kevin said angrily as he was being restrained by Tim and told not to say another word. Against Tim's wishes Kevin continued. "You think you're so smart don't you. You think you can just come in here, and since we're in a jam can pin a murder on us. Well guess what buddy, we have a jury system here in Canada, and what juries like to see at trials is evidence, not stories. You have no proof that we committed that murder, and you never will! You want to know why? Because we're innocent!" Kevin yelled as he stood up and slammed his fist against the table.

"Then where were you the night before the murder?" asked Elijah.

"We both were at a club until almost 2AM the night before Scott was murdered," Kevin said.

"What club?" Elijah responded

"Club Ticonderoga. It's a pickup bar on the north end of the city. You can ask any one of the employees there. Both of us arrived at 8PM and were there until the place closed at 2," Kevin said as he sat back down and leaned back in his chair.

With that revelation, Elijah banged twice on the wall signaling that he wanted an officer to enter. When one opened the door, he quickly leaned over and whispered something fast into the officer's ear and sent him away.

"What was that about?" asked Kevin.

"Oh nothing," responded Elijah. "I just gave the officer instructions for my partner to go down and question the people at Club Ticonderoga. If she comes back and says that the staff can place you there on the night in question, then you're home free. If not, then I guess we're going to have some public beatings," Elijah said facetiously. After a moment of silence, Elijah leaned against the table and said, "In all seriousness though, if she comes back and says you weren't there, then I hope you guys like prison because that's where you'll be spending the rest of your life." He paused and then looked to Kevin and stated, "As for your lecture to me a minute ago about proof, as the defense lawyer defending Elliot Ravenwood, I don't need to prove your guilt; I just need to show the jury that it is possible that someone else could have committed this crime. To be able to show this, yes I would need some evidence, but the standard of proof isn't the same. For instance, in this case I might argue that you both had means and opportunity (you both were skilled in the areas needed to commit the crime and both had access to the park). You both also had motive (to hide your drug running). If I show in court that there is reason to believe that you guys committed this murder, resulting in an acquittal for my client, you can bet for sure that the police will investigate and find the evidence needed to convict.

However, my theory would go out the window if your alibis check out. Let's hope for your sakes that they do."

Elijah, finishing his argument, started moving towards the door when Kevin yelled "STOP!" Elijah, not shocked by the outburst, turned with a smile and came and sat down.

"You have something you want to change. Were you at home? Were you with a girl friend? Or did you in fact kill Scott Taylor?"

"We weren't at the bar," Kevin said, pausing to calm his shaking hands. "We were in an alley selling drugs."

"That sounds convenient now doesn't it? I suppose that you two were the only ones doing this and that no one else can corroborate your alibi can they?" Elijah asked.

"No, there's nobody who could identify us because we wore masks to disguise our faces from the druggies that we sold to," Kevin said.

"Well that's simply not good enough!" Elijah said, throwing his hands up in disgust.

"Well it's the truth!" Kevin said. "You've got to believe us!"

"That's where you're wrong Mr. Craig," Elijah said as he got up and approached the door. "So far in one day you've given me three different alibis. That's three opportunities to tell the truth, but instead you chose to lie. If you want my advise: get a good lawyer, for I don't believe your story; and neither will a jury.

As he walked out, Becca, who had caught the last part of the interview while watching on the other side of the mirror, asked Elijah if he really meant what he said.

"I always mean what I say," Elijah said. "In the kind of trouble that they're in, it would be inconsequential to admit to another drug crime if it meant getting out from under a murder charge."

"Then where does that leave us?" Becca said.

"That leaves us with Parker and Craig as the prime suspects for the murder, but without any suspects for the embezzlement." Elijah said. "Perhaps though, we've been going at this the wrong way. Perhaps the murder wasn't a cover up for the embezzlement after all, but a completely different crime altogether.

"You mean Elliot got unlucky enough to be framed twice?"

"It is quite possible, although I can't prove it. I guess that's something that Cameron will have to look into," Elijah said. "Speaking of Cameron, how's his investigation coming?"

"Lousy," Becca replied. "He has found exactly what Scott Taylor's P.I. knew: that money was being funneled to a dummy corporation owned by Elliot."

"You mean he hasn't found out anything new yet?" Elijah asked.

"Well it's hard Elijah" Becca replied. "Whoever forged those documents did a great job."

"You mean to tell me that there are no witnesses that can identify someone other than Elliot having access to the account?" Elijah asked.

"Cameron interviewed the bank manager and he positively identified Elliot as the one who opened the business accounts. He also has identification cards showing that Elliot's signature was also on the two private accounts through which the embezzled money was funneled.

"Did he interview any of the tellers?"

"He did, but no one could say one way or another. Nothing we found indicates that someone other than Elliot withdrew the money from the bank."

"Don't you find that a little odd, sis?" Elijah said. "I mean we're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars and no teller could say positively that Elliot did or didn't withdraw this money?"

"But whoever is really behind this was very careful. They probably wouldn't have used the same teller twice," Becca replied.

"I don't buy that for a minute. If I was a teller, I would remember large transactions like that," Elijah said. He then stopped walking, and stood there thinking. "You know what Becca? I want Cameron to go back to the bank tomorrow and ask to examine all of their records."

"They won't agree to that," Becca replied.

"If they don't, we'll have to get a court order. Sure it might take a few weeks to be heard, but it could be vital to the defense."

"Whatever you say," Becca responded.

Chief Baker then approached them as they were walking out of the station. "Don't worry," Elijah yelled, as he waved his right hand to say goodbye, "there will be no lawsuit for $50 million. Just see that it doesn't happen again."

One of the officers had retrieved their car from the park and had parked it out front. Becca decided to drive, allowing Elijah some time to rest his eyes.

His mind couldn't stop racing however, in spite of his sheer exhaustion, because no matter all of the information he had learned and all the people he had interviewed, he was only baby steps closer to solving the ultimate question: 'Who Killed Scott Taylor?'. This certainly was a difficult case, but one that he was determined not to give up on, for Elliot's life was hanging in the balance. Failure was not an option.

**********

# Chapter 14

_Bring It On_

January in Toronto can be down right miserable most of the time. Between the vast quantity of snow and vicious winds, standing outside would be totally uncomfortable. But these conditions didn't deter news reporters, especially when there is a murder trial to cover.

As Elliot, Elijah and Becca approached the courthouse, reporters were screaming the usual questions like 'Did you kill Scott Taylor?', 'Do you plan to be acquitted?', and 'How do you plan to prove your innocence?'. Elijah quickly told the reporters that there would be no comment as they rushed up the stairs and into the warmth of the building.

Once inside the University Avenue Courthouse, Elijah told Elliot to go up to the courtroom and wait while he and Becca went to get robed. Heading towards the elevator, Elijah saw out of the corner of his eye that Samantha Howard was coming their way.

"Professor Deville, it's so nice to see you again."

"Ms. Howard, to what do I owe this visit?"

"My boss sent me over to you to give you one last chance to settle the case. The deal is 'Murder in the 2nd Degree' with 15 years in prison and 5 years probation as well as no charges for the embezzlement. "But," she warned, "this deal is only on the table until the case begins. Once the trial starts, the crown will see this through to the end, no matter what."

"Now why would we take a deal like that?" Elijah asked.

"Because, the crown's case is airtight. It's a slam dunk. We have the murder weapon found in the back of your client's car, we have records showing that your client was embezzling from the company; we have testimony that your client had an argument with the victim on the night before the murder. We have your client dead to rights, so unless you want him to spend the next 25-35 years in prison, I'd suggest you take the deal," Samantha said.

"First of all, your case is entirely circumstantial. You have no eye witnesses. Second, if your case was so airtight, then your boss wouldn't have sent you down here moments before the trial begins with a plea bargain. I don't care how backlogged the courts are here in Toronto, he just wouldn't do it if the case was a guaranteed conviction. If that's all you got, we're done here," Elijah said, as he and Becca stepped into the elevator.

"So then I guess this means that you aren't taking the deal?" Samantha yelled.

"Bring it on!" Elijah yelled back as the elevator door closed, "If your case is so great, prove it in court."

Upstairs in the courtroom, the case was the first on the docket. The clerk quickly called the court to order and announced that the Honorable Amy Richardson would be presiding over the trial. Elijah winced as he saw Justice Richardson enter the room, as he and this judge have not 'seen eye to eye' on a few cases in the past.

Once everyone sat down, the clerk called the first case.

"Case #34562, the Crown vs. Elliot-Travis Ravenwood. The charges are Murder in the 1st degree, Theft over $5,000 and Fraud over $5,000. Mr. Ravenwood pleaded not guilty to all charges in Ontario Superior Court, and requested a judge and jury trial. The crown will be represented by Ms. Samantha Miranda Howard. Mr. Ravenwood will be represented by Mr. Elijah Alistair Deville and Ms. Rebecca Allison Deville of the firm Deville and Deville, Associates at Law."

"Very well," Justice Richardson said. "Having examined the pre-trial reports, it has been determined that the crown will be presenting this court with 3 hours worth of testimony from 7 witnesses, with an additional 1 hour for opening and closing remarks. The defense has submitted that, should it present a defense, it will present 1 hour of testimony from 1 witness with the option of an additional 2 hours for any additional witnesses that may surface. The defense will also be afforded with an additional 1 hour for opening and closing remarks. This court has set aside an additional 1 hour for rebuttal witnesses, and also reserves the right to extend time if necessary. Having accepted the pre-trial report, I find no reason why this case shouldn't be tried in a timely manner. Therefore, the court's schedule will be as follows:

1. The crown will present its opening arguments of no more than 30 minutes, as well as its 3 hours worth of testimony today, January 10, 2011 in this courtroom.

2. On Tuesday January 11, 2011 at 1:30 pm in this courtroom, the defense will present its opening arguments of no more than 30 minutes, as well as its 1 hour worth of testimony plus any additional time it wishes to use, up to a limit of 2 hours.

3. On Wednesday January 12, 2011 at 2:30 pm, in Courtroom 302 downstairs, the crown may present any rebuttal witnesses. The time for this portion of the trial shall not exceed 1 hour. Both counselors will then present their closing arguments using the remainder of their 1 hour time limit set aside at pre-trial.

4. The jury will receive their instructions, and deliberations will begin on Thursday January 13, 2011. The jury is reminded not to discuss this case with anyone during or after the trial. At no time shall your deliberations be made public unless directed to by this court. Jury deliberations will continue on weekdays from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm with 1 hour set aside for lunch, as well as 2 fifteen minute breaks. Unless circumstances change, the jury will not need to be sequestered for this trial.

5. Once a unanimous verdict is reached, the jury shall inform the sheriff, who will report back to the court. The verdict will be heard at 9:00 am, the weekday after the report of a verdict has been received. The courtroom for this session has yet to be determined.

6. Should the accused be found guilty, a date will then be set for sentencing.

Is counsel satisfied with this schedule?" Both Samantha and Elijah stated that the schedule was suitable for them. "Very well, Ms. Howard, please present your opening arguments."

Samantha got up out of her seat, went to the podium between the counsels' table, faced the jury and began to speak.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury. My name is Samantha Howard, and I am the crown attorney charged with prosecuting this case. I'd like you to picture in your minds July 1st, 2010. It was a gorgeous day, lots of sunshine, and not a cloud in the sky. It was hot, but not so hot that you needed a change of shirt by noon. It is on days like these that families spend plenty of time outside, either going to the park for a barbeque, going to the beach for some fun in the sun, or going to an amusement park for a day of thrills and excitement. The latter is what Scott Taylor, the CEO of Canada's AdventureLand, and his family decided to do.

The main attraction that day was not the small mundane rollercoasters that had been staples of this park for years, but a brand new coaster, the Colossus, which was being advertised as one of the fastest and mind-blowing coasters in North America. It reached heights of over 50 meters, and speeds of almost 100 km/hr. Personally, I wouldn't be caught dead on this rollercoaster, but I can see how this ride would attract thousands of thrill seekers. It was this ride that Scott Taylor was going to inaugurate that day by being the first rider.

Seeing as how he was the CEO of the park, he knew all the intimate details concerning the ride's specifications and safety precautions, so he would not have any reason to fear a malfunction. He also knew that the ride had been inspected the day before, with not even a minor infraction being registered. With all of this knowledge in mind, he boarded this rollercoaster with anticipation for the adventure of a lifetime. It was an adventure that he hoped to share with his daughter, but sadly it was an adventure that he did not survive.

What killed Mr. Taylor? Was it a heart attack caused by the intense sensations experienced during the ride? No, it was sabotage, pure and simple. Someone had used an acetylene torch to damage the wheel casings of the car that Mr. Taylor was sitting in, ensuring that it would derail. After a thorough investigation, this perpetrator was discovered to be Elliot Ravenwood. What was his motive you might ask? It was to cover up a year's worth of embezzlement which was about to be made public.

So, the case before you is a simple one: did the accused Elliot Ravenwood, embezzle over $1 million from the company that he worked for, and did he kill his boss, Scott Taylor in order to cover up his crime? You will hear evidence to that fact in this trial. The evidence will be clear, plain and irrefutable, and will prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Elliot Ravenwood committed the crimes that he is charged with.

To prove this, the crown will present you with testimony that shows that Mr. Taylor had uncovered an embezzlement scheme where over $1 million was diverted from the company accounts into a dummy corporation owned by the accused. You will also hear testimony from Mr. Taylor's secretary that when confronted about the theft, the victim and the accused had a loud argument that ended with both men storming out of the room. You will hear eye-witness testimony from the park's security guard that he saw the accused coming down from the ride's platform at precisely the time when the ride was said to have been sabotaged. Finally, you will hear testimony that the very torch that has been identified as the one that almost removed the wheel casings of the ride was found in the trunk of the car of the accused. All of this evidence points to the guilt of Elliot Ravenwood.

Now when the defense stands up here tomorrow, they're going to throw two big words at you: 'circumstantial evidence'. They're going to say that because there were no eye witnesses that saw Mr. Ravenwood torch the rollercoaster, and because Mr. Ravenwood denies ever stealing any money, that the evidence is therefore weak due to the fact that it relies only on inferences drawn by the crown. They're going to tell you that because of this, you must acquit the accused. I urge you to reject this argument. Why? Because criminals are convicted solely on circumstantial evidence all of the time. If you accept the reasoning that no one can be convicted without a positive ID from a credible eyewitness or some sort of physical evidence placing an accused at the scene of the crime, then you would be allowing rapists to go free, you would be allowing thieves to go free, and you would be allowing murderers to go free. No, you must reject this argument, and focus solely on the evidence. The evidence speaks loud and clear: Elliot Ravenwood killed Scott Taylor in order to cover up his theft of $1 million. You therefore must find him guilty of the crimes he is accused of. Thank you."

**********

# Chapter 15

_The Case for the Crown_

"Your Honor, the crown calls as its first witness Detective Charles Grey to the stand."

Hearing his name, Detective Grey stands up from his seat in the gallery and walks to the witness stand where he is met by the court clerk.

"Please state you full name for the court" the clerk said.

"Charles Andrew Grey."

"Please raise your right hand and repeat after me, 'I Charles Grey do solemnly swear that the evidence to be given by me to the court between our Sovereign Lady the Queen and the Accused at the bar shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.'" Detective Grey, repeated the oath and then sat down in the witness stand.

"Detective Grey," Samantha said, "Why were you called to Canada's AdventureLand on July 1, 2010?"

"We received a 911 call that had said that one of the rollercoasters at the park had derailed with a person aboard," Grey responded.

"When you got to the scene, what did you find?"

"When I arrived, I, along with Constable Leroy Addison surveyed the accident site. The rollercoaster cars were strewn about everywhere, and the car that Mr. Taylor was seated in was upside down. Paramedics turned the car over and began to try to revive Mr. Taylor. Their efforts were unsuccessful, and Mr. Taylor was pronounced dead at the scene."

"What else did your initial investigation uncover?" Samantha asked.

"Well, we found evidence of torching on the underside of the coaster because the wheel casings showed evidence of a uniform burn pattern. After talking to a mechanic at the park, he concluded the only way that this type of burn pattern would be present is if someone had taken a torch to the wheel casings to partially remove them," Grey responded.

"So the ride was sabotaged?"

"Objection," Elijah interjected, "My learned friend has asked the witness to draw a conclusion on a matter that he is not an expert on."

"Your Honor," Samantha said, "the witness has just testified that the wheels were torched, evidence that was gained by talking to a mechanic, it certainly doesn't take a genius to answer this type of question."

"The objection is overruled, please continue Ms. Howard," Justice Richardson replied.

"Yes, the ride appeared to be sabotaged," Grey responded.

"Did you talk to anyone else who was able to tell you when the sabotage took place?" Samantha asked.

"After talking to a metallurgist, he concluded that in order for the metal to cool, given the air temperature that night, the sabotage must have occurred between 11:30 pm and 1:00 am," Grey said.

"How did the expert come up with that window of time?"

"Well the time of 11:30 pm was determined due to the fact that the security guards on duty did not see anyone roaming around the park until they saw the accused, Mr. Ravenwood, at the ride's platform just after midnight. The expert told us that it would take about 45 minutes to complete the torching, so 11:30 was the earliest that it could have taken place. As for 1:00 am, the expert told us that in order for the metal to cool enough so as not to break immediately upon startup, it would have had to cool for at least 8 hours. Since the ride was inspected and tested the next morning at 9:00 am without incident, this set the latest time that the ride could have been tampered with at 1:00 am."

"Did you end up finding the torch that sabotaged the ride?" Samantha inquired.

"We did," Grey responded.

"Is this the torch you found?" Samantha asked, pointing to an acetylene torch placed by the court's deputy in front of the witness stand."

"Yes," Grey said as he examined the tag that was hanging from the torch.

"The crown would like the clerk to enter this torch into evidence and label it Crown's Exhibit A for identification."

"The torch will be so labeled," Justice Richardson said.

"Now where did you find this torch?" Samantha asked.

"Pursuant to a search warrant, we found this torch in the trunk of Mr. Ravenwood's car."

"OK, now in the course of your investigation did you find anything that would show the accused owned this torch, and that it wasn't just placed there by someone else?"

"After searching several vendors in the area, our detectives found a store named 'Earl's Welding Supplies'. They were able to provide us with a signed copy of a receipt with Elliot Ravenwood's signature on it, signed just hours before the ride was torched. After comparing this signature against a known signature of Mr. Ravenwood, it was determined that they were a match. Elliot Ravenwood signed the receipt and bought the torch that night."

"The Crown requests that this receipt be labeled Crown's Exhibit B," Samantha said, passing the receipt to the clerk.

"Next, could you account for the victim's whereabouts the night before the murder?" Samantha asked.

"Objection!" Elijah said. "The question is irrelevant. The victim's whereabouts the night before have no bearing on the guilt of the accused."

"Your Honor," Samantha responded, "this testimony is meant to show that the accused was in the office alone for an extended period of time. It will also show that no other personnel entered the park after 8:00 pm except Mr. Ravenwood and Mr. Taylor."

"Objection is overruled," Justice Richardson said.

"Yes, we can account for his whereabouts," Grey said. "After a loud argument with the accused heard by the victim's secretary, Taylor left the park just after 7:00 PM arriving home at around 7:50 PM. This is confirmed by Highway 407 logs showing Scott Taylor's car entering the 407 at 7:11 PM, and exiting at exit 39 at 7:30 PM. The time that it takes to get from this exit to his home is about 10 minutes, hence the 7:50 PM time estimate. We also know that he returned to the park at around 11:00 PM, because Highway 407 logs show his car getting on the 407 at exit 39 at 10:46 PM and exiting the 407 at Highway 400 at 11:07 PM. To further show that he returned to the park, his security pass was swiped at the side gate entrance, allowing entrance to the main offices. After staying for about 2 hours, he left the park at around 1:22 AM and arrived home around 1:50 AM. The same 407 logs would show that."

"Did the park's logs show that anyone else entered through the staff entrance after 8:00 PM other than Mr. Ravenwood and Mr. Taylor?" Samantha asked.

"No they did not."

"And after the park closed, was anyone other than Mr. Ravenwood, seen roaming around the park?"

"No," Grey responded.

"Finally detective, did you find anything else that would point to the guilt of the accused?"

"Yes we did. In the victim's pocket was a notepad that his secretary identified as being the notepad that Mr. Taylor used frequently to write reminders to himself. Among those reminders was this one 'Talk to A. Tell A. that ETR is going to ruin us if we're not careful.' After our investigation we found out that the initials of the accused were ETR, standing for Elliot-Travis Ravenwood."

"Thank you detective. No further questions Your Honor," Samantha said as she sat down in her chair.

"Does the defense wish to cross-examine this witness?" Justice Richardson inquired.

"We do Your Honor," Elijah said as he stepped up to the podium.

"Detective, this notepad you found, how did you identify that the ETR translated into Elliot-Travis Ravenwood?"

"Well the initials of the accused are ETR, and he was ruining the victim, so we inferred that ETR meant Elliot Ravenwood," Grey responded.

"But the note didn't just say that, it said that Mr. Taylor was going to talk to A. about it. Now the people that Scott Taylor hired to investigate the theft, Ms. Stavros, an accountant, or Mr. Minaldi, a private investigator, do not have initials that fit this mysterious A., so who did you determine was A.?"

"We didn't find A."

"So isn't it entirely possible that this note could have been taken out of context, and that 'ETR is going to ruin us' could mean something completely different?"

"Objection Your Honor," Samantha said, "my learned friend is asking the witness to speculate."

"Objection sustained. Move on Mr. Deville," the judge said.

"So about these park logs," Elijah continued, "did they show that anyone entered the park between 7:00 and 8:00?" Elijah asked.

"The building doesn't record entries and exits before 8:00 PM, so there wouldn't be a record of that," Grey responded.

"So anyone could have been hiding in the park, waited for everyone to leave and then sabotaged the ride, couldn't they?"

"We considered that, but the evidence lead us away from that conclusion."

"Why?" Elijah asked, with a confused look on his face.

"Because of the security system in place at the park," Grey responded. "After 8:00 PM, in order to enter or exit the staff building from the outside, one had to swipe their ID badge and have their thumb print scanned for positive identification. Each entry and exit is recorded in a log. Once the park closes at 10:00 PM, the staff building is the only way out. All other staff, other than Mr. Taylor and Mr. Ravenwood, were swiped out before 10:30 PM, ruling out any of them as suspects for sabotaging the ride.

Now what you're suggesting is that someone from the outside came in and committed the crime. That has also been disproved. If a person from the outside came through the ticket entrance and waited until the park closed, they would have had no way out. That leaves Mr. Ravenwood as the only person in the park that could have sabotaged the ride."

"Detective, when does the security system stop logging entries and exits?"

"The system stops recording exits and thumb print ID's at 8:00 AM, while entrances are still logged until the park opens at 9:30 AM.

"So it is possible for someone who knew about the security system at the park, to arrive early, stay the entire night, sabotage the ride between 11:30 and 1:00 and then leave the park after 8:00 AM without there being any record of it. Isn't that possible detective?" Elijah asked.

"Objection Your Honor," Samantha said, "my learned friend is again asking the witness to speculate."

"Objection overruled. You opened the door for this counselor. The witness is directed to answer the question," Justice Richardson said.

"Anything is possible, but..." Grey said.

"Thank you for your answer Detective," Elijah interjected quickly so as not giving Detective Grey the chance to elaborate. "Finally Detective, the torch that you found, did it have any fingerprints on it?"

"No it did not."

"Don't you find that odd? I mean to hide the weapon in your trunk, but wipe off your fingerprints? What would possess a person to do that?"

"Objection Your Honor," Samantha said sounding annoyed, "my learned friend knows very well that the witness would have to speculate in order to answer that question."

"Objection sustained," Justice Richardson said.

"No further questions," Elijah said.

"Does the crown wish to re-examine this witness, Ms. Howard," asked the judge.

"Yes Your Honor," Samantha said. "Detective, I believe a moment ago you were rudely interrupted by Mr. Deville when providing an answer. When he asked you if it was possible for someone to stay all night and leave after 8:00 AM, you responded that anything was possible. It was there that Mr. Deville stopped you in mid-sentence. Would you care to finish your answer?"

"I would Ms. Howard. Although I said that anything was possible, the fact of the matter is that the evidence doesn't support it. We determined this because although the security system doesn't record who enters and exits all day, it does record the number of swipes. This goes for not only the office building but for the gates as well. Every night at midnight, it is the job of one of the guards to check the computer and make sure the number of entrances equals the number of exits," Grey said.

"For the night in question, did those totals balance?" Samantha asked.

"The ticketed totals balanced, as did the office log with the exception of Mr. Ravenwood and Mr. Taylor. The logs showed that both were still in the park when the computer was checked at midnight. Since these two people are the only ones allowed to be in the park after midnight, no action was taken. There is no doubt that after 10:30, the only ones in the park were Scott Taylor and Elliot Ravenwood."

"Thank you Detective. Nothing further," Samantha said.

"The witness is excused," the judge said.

"The crown now calls Julie Comartin to the stand,"

After a short pause, Samantha started her questioning. "Ms. Comartin, what is your current job?"

"Your Honor," Elijah interrupted, "the defense will stipulate that Ms. Comartin is a handwriting analyst and her testimony would be considered expert in this field."

"Thank you Mr. Deville," Samantha responded. "Now Ms. Comartin, have you had the opportunity to fully analyze Mr. Ravenwood's signature, to the point where you could positively identify it?"

"I have," Comartin responded.

"I'm now placing in front of you Crown's Exhibit C, do you recognize it?"

"It is Elliot Ravenwood's signature, as found on a document signed in the presence Mr. Taylor's personal secretary, Mrs. Alice Hastings."

"Now I'm placing in front of you Crown's Exhibit D, a bank document opening a business account for the company known as 'Just in Time Supplies'. Could you identify the signature on the third line near the bottom?"

After a few moments, Comartin said, "It is the signature of Elliot Ravenwood."

"How can you be so sure?" Samantha asked.

"Mr. Ravenwood holds his pen on a 45 degree angle. This is quite noticeable compared with people who hold their pen at a much steeper angle. Mr. Ravenwood also has very distinctive 'R's', 'T's' and 'E's which make his signatures very easy to identify. The signature on this bank document is that of Elliot Ravenwood."

"Next, I'm placing in front of you Crown's Exhibit E, identified as a stack of signed withdrawal slips obtained from the Sovereign Bank of Toronto. Check through the various slips and tell me if you can identify the signatures," Samantha said.

Following a short pause, Ms. Comartin told the court that all of the signatures were a match to Elliot Ravenwood.

"Lastly, Ms. Comartin," Samantha continued, "I wish to show you Crown Exhibit's F and G. These are two bank documents that open accounts for Sal Aria and Ivan Tory. Could you examine those signatures please and tell us what you find?"

"The signatures of Sal Aria and Ivan Tory match that of Elliot Ravenwood."

"Thank you Ms. Comartin. Your witness," Samantha said.

"Ms. Comartin," Elijah said, "perhaps Ms. Howard was confused for a second. When you said that the signatures of Sal Aria and Ivan Tory matched that of Elliot Ravenwood, which signature of Elliot Ravenwood did you mean? Was it the one in Exhibits C, D, E, F, or G?"

"The signatures matched Elliot Ravenwood's signatures on all 5 exhibits," Comartin said.

"So what you're saying is that Elliot Ravenwood signed each of the exhibits F and G twice, one with the fake name and one with his real name."

"That is exactly what I'm saying."

"No further questions," Elijah said.

With the crown not wishing to ask any more questions of the witness, Ms. Comartin was excused.

"Your Honor, the crown now wishes to call Burt Granger to the stand."

Mr. Granger was sworn in and then identified himself as the bank manager for the Sovereign Bank of Toronto located on Albion Road.

"Mr. Granger, do you remember opening an account for a business known as 'Just in Time Supplies?'" Samantha asked.

"Yes I do," Granger replied.

"Is the person who opened the account here in the courtroom today?"

"Yes he is."

"Could you identify him please?"

"The man was Elliot Ravenwood and he's sitting in the box in the middle of the room."

"No further questions."

As Elijah approached the podium he had a grin on his face that worried Samantha a little. "Mr. Granger, is this your signature at the bottom of Crown's Exhibits E and F?"

"Objection Your Honor. Mr. Deville is seeking to cross-examine the witness on items not covered in direct examination."

"Objection is sustained," Justice Richardson said.

"Fine then, no further questions," Elijah said as he sat down.

"The crown now calls Alice Hastings to the stand." After the witness was sworn in and seated, Samantha began.

"Mrs. Hastings what is your job at Canada's AdventureLand?"

"I was Mr. Taylor's executive secretary, a job that I continue to have under Heather Williams, the newly appointed CEO of the park," Hastings said.

"So you were in charge of all of Mr. Taylor's affairs were you not?" Samantha continued.

"Yes I was. I set up all meetings, recorded the minutes of those meetings, was in charge of most paperwork for the park and generally ran the office for Mr. Taylor. My duties would also involve familiarizing myself with all documentation that would go through Mr. Taylor's office."

"These meetings that you scheduled, did Mr. Ravenwood know about them?"

"Most of them, unless of course they were private meetings."

"So he wasn't kept apprised of the meetings with Ms. Stavros and Mr. Minaldi?"

"No he wasn't."

"What about Mr. Ravenwood's job performance? Was Mr. Ravenwood satisfied with his job?" Samantha asked.

"Objection Your Honor," Elijah interrupted, "My learned friend is asking the witness to draw a conclusion, and furthermore, my client's job performance is completely irrelevant to this case."

"Mr. Ravenwood's job performance is completely relevant because it could show that the accused had a lax accounting policy of the company's finances, which is how he hid his embezzlement from the CEO for so long."

"The objection on the conclusion is sustained. However Ms. Howard, I will let you pursue the line of questioning as it pertains to Mr. Ravenwood's job performance if you can do so by testing the actual knowledge of this witness," Justice Richardson said.

"What were the accounting policies at the park?" Samantha asked.

"Well, every month the finances of the park would be examined by the accounting staff. This is where they would basically make sure the books are in balance. Then once a year, the finances would undergo an audit to account for all income and expenditures," Hastings responded.

"Now would this audit have uncovered the type of fraud that you, in your capacity as Mr. Taylor's secretary now know was occurring?"

"It could have, but only if the background of payees was thoroughly investigated. You see, the park has an approved payee list, that once you get on the list, you're only re-checked if there is a problem. The list accompanies the books to the independent auditor, along with documentation as to the identification, background and operations of each company on the list. That means that unless the auditor was instructed to do so, no further investigation into these companies would be required," Hastings said.

"Was a company known as 'Just in Time Supplies' on this special list?" Samantha inquired.

"Yes it was."

"And who authorized that this company be placed on the list?"

"The computer files said that Elliot Ravenwood did."

"How do you know this?" Samantha asked.

"Only certain people have authority to add a payee to the list, and therefore it would require a security password be entered. Once the password is entered, the name of the person who authorized it appears next to the company's name on the list," Hastings explained.

"Is there any way for someone else to have entered it without Mr. Ravenwood's knowledge?" Samantha asked.

"Only if they knew his password, but even then a notice is sent to the CFO each time a new payee is added to the list along with supporting documentation and who approved it. The CFO could reverse such an authorization if he wanted to. If Mr. Ravenwood did not reverse this authorization, it meant that he approved of the new payee," Hastings said.

"Last set of questions Mrs. Hastings. Did Elliot Ravenwood have an argument with Mr. Taylor on the night before the murder?"

"Yes he did."

"What about?"

"They were in the conference room, so I couldn't hear exactly what was said, but both exited the room very angry," Hastings said.

"What time was this argument?"

"It was about 6:30 PM. After the meeting Mr. Taylor came to his office, and after a few minutes, grabbed his things and left. This was around 7:00 PM."

"No further questions. Your witness Mr. Deville."

"Thank you Ms. Howard," Elijah said, stepping up to the podium. "Mrs. Hastings, you said that the accused had an argument with the victim the night before the murder. Did my client know the contents of that meeting before it occurred?"

"No, but he could have guessed," Hastings said.

"Your Honor, I move that the jury be charged to disregard the witness' last statement as highly prejudicial and complete speculation," Elijah complained.

"The jury will disregard the witness' last statement." Justice Richardson then turned to Mrs. Hastings and reminded her that she is only to answer the questions asked and not to provide her own opinion.

"I'll ask again Mrs. Hastings, did my client know the contents of that meeting beforehand?"

"No," Hastings said.

"Did you know the contents of the meeting?" Elijah asked.

"Not that particular meeting, no."

"So how did you know it was about the embezzlement charge?"

"Even though I did not hear the entire argument, I did pick up some words and the topic I can assure you was about the Mr. Ravenwood's alleged embezzlement from the park."

"How long did the meeting last?"

"About 20 minutes," Hastings replied.

"Were you at your desk for the entire argument?"

"Not for the entire argument. At around 6:40, I received a call from the front desk that the day's mail had arrived, been completely sorted and was ready to be picked up. I always get that call at around that time, so I went and got it. I was only gone about 10 minutes and returned just as the meeting was breaking up."

"So in that time, anyone could have slipped into Mr. Taylor's office, stolen his ID card and left without you knowing it."

"Objection Your Honor," Samantha said sounding exasperated. "My learned friend here has scolded the witness for wanting to speculate in her responses, and now has asked a question that would have her do just that."

"Objection sustained," Justice Richardson said. "Just as I warned the witness, I am also warning you, stick to questions that the witness has direct knowledge about."

"Sorry Your Honor, I'll try not to have it happen again," Elijah responded. "So Mrs. Hastings, you said the victim left at around 7:00 PM, when did you leave?"

"At 7:50 PM."

"Was the office empty when you left?"

"Except for Mr. Ravenwood, yes."

"No further questions," Elijah said as he sat down.

"Does the crown wish to re-examine this witness?" Justice Richardson asked.

"No Your Honor, we do not."

"The witness is excused. Ms. Howard, call your next witness."

Before Samantha called her next witness, one of the jurors signaled to the sheriff that they had a note to send to the judge. The sheriff handed the note to Justice Richardson, who read it silently to herself. The note told the judge that the juror requested a 10 minute break so that they could use the washroom. The judge announced the contents of the note to the court, and adjourned the trial for 10 minutes.

**********

# Chapter 16

_Numbers and Investigations_

When court reconvened, Justice Richardson told everyone that she hoped they had enjoyed the break because she was not going to allow another one for the rest of the day. Clearly showing her ill temper, she curtly asked the crown to call the next witness.

"The crown now calls Ms. Geraldine Stavros to the stand," Samantha said.

"Ms. Stavros what is your occupation?" Samantha asked.

"I am a chartered accountant with the Auckland Firm," Stavros replied.

"Why were you hired by Mr. Taylor?"

"Scott Taylor suspected that something was out of sorts with the company finances and wanted me to perform a full audit of the books."

"Just so the court can understand, can you quickly describe what an audit of a company normally would look like?" asked Samantha.

"Well, a company hires an outside auditing firm, like the one I work for, to independently examine the entire business. A normal audit would include not only the company's financial statements, but their tax filings, holdings, as well as any inventory. Once the audit is started, auditors would first examine the financial statements presented to make sure the math adds up. Once that is complete, the auditor would randomly select certain expenses to examine more closely. There would be a cross-check of a billing company's name and information against those employees of the company being audited to make sure that the company involved was legitimate. There would also be an inventory check to make sure that what was being bought was in fact being delivered. Assuming everything was in order, the audit could take anywhere from 6-8 weeks after which time the auditor would issue a report on the findings."

"We just heard testimony that some companies give the auditor a list of pre-approved companies that they do business with, as sort of a way to speed up the process. We heard that this could have the effect of hiding illegitimate companies. Did Mr. Taylor give you such a list?"

"Well Ma'am, it is true that companies sometimes provide auditors with a list of companies that they do business with, and it is true that it does speed up the process, but it does not have the effect of hiding fake companies," Stavros responded.

"How so?" Samantha asked.

"Because, as I just told you, a random number of financial expenditures are chosen to be scrutinized further. If the auditor wanted to examine all food services expenditures for example, he would be free to do so, pre-approved companies list notwithstanding. If a company provides a list, it makes our job a lot easier because we don't have to do a majority of the research, but it doesn't circumvent the system."

"But what if a person knew that. What if a person provided you with false information on this list. Couldn't that lead to a company being accepted as legitimate when in fact it wasn't?"

"Not if you had a really good auditor. A really good auditor still would cross check the information against the employee's data of the company. A really good auditor would still do research to determine if the information provided was in fact true. But even if he didn't do that, he would still examine the invoices closely for financial irregularities that are bound to be present if the company was a fake," Stavros explained.

Having heard enough, and seeing that the jury had almost fallen asleep, Elijah decided that he had to step in.

"Your Honor, when this testimony began, the madam prosecutor said that she wanted this witness to quickly explain how an audit works so that this court would understand the process. I assumed when she said quickly, she meant in less than 2 minutes, not more than 10. This trial is devolving into an accounting lecture. If counsel has a point to this line of questioning, I suggest you urge her to make it before this entire courtroom nods off," Elijah said, as a couple people in the gallery chuckled.

"I apologize for straying off topic a little." Samantha said, "I will move on to the point."

"See that you do," Justice Richardson said.

"So did you receive a pre-approved list from Mr. Taylor?" Samantha asked.

"No," Stavros said.

"Why not, seeing as how it was common practice with this company to do so."

"When Scott Taylor approached me in February of last year, he suspected that during the 2009 season, someone had been stealing money from the park. He ordered me to do a full audit, as opposed to the normal audit that I have just explained. He felt that in order to succeed in finding out if he was right, that I should have no more information than was absolutely necessary to complete my work. To that end, he did not provide me with any information as to the companies that the park frequently did business with."

"So what were your findings after this audit?" Samantha asked.

"Well my findings were inconclusive," Stavros responded.

"In what way?" Samantha asked, looking a little puzzled.

"Well, if a person was stealing from the company, they were really good. They didn't make the mistake of double charging the company for items. They didn't use any of the employee's initials or addresses in the paperwork creating the company. They didn't even issue fake checks that were deposited into an employee's personal account," Stavros explained.

"Then what concerned you?"

"The only thing that grabbed my attention was entries in the ledger of weekly payments of $45,454.54 to a 'Just in Time Supplies' online supply shop. This payment amounted to exactly $1,000,000 for the period between May 1, 2009 and September 25, 2009. Although companies sometimes have regular payments to banks, it is very rare that a company would have these types of payments to a vendor unless there was a signed contract. There was no such contract in this case."

"After researching about this online store, what did you find?"

"Upon looking at the website, it showed that this particular online shop was for the Metro Toronto Area and only sold items to businesses that were hard to inventory. These things might include garbage bags, soap, plastic cups, and things along those lines. In other words, they were a catch all. What made this store different is that they specialized in getting businesses items that were needed in an emergency. So, if for some reason, your inventory manager screwed up and didn't order enough garbage bags, you could phone the store and order what you needed and they would guarantee delivery within 8 hours-- for a hefty price of course. I tried to phone the company several times, but no one ever answered. This was highly irregular because the only way you could order from the company was to phone them, so if you could not reach them, how could you place an order?"

"Did you find out who owned the business?"

"The website didn't mention the owner, but listed the President as Eric Turnbow," Stavros said.

"Objection Your Honor," Elijah piped in, "but we've listened to this witness for over 25 minutes and she has not presented this court with one iota of relevant evidence that ties my client, Elliot Ravenwood, to this company. I wish that the crown be admonished for presenting a witness that would confuse the jury."

"Your Honor," Samantha said, "this witness is going to set the foundation for what Mr. Taylor would do next. I ask for a little leeway, for I'm almost through."

"I'll overrule the objection for now, but I'm warning you Ms. Howard, if this witness' testimony does not somewhere tie together with the rest of the case, there will be consequences," Justice Richardson said.

"Thank you Your Honor," Samantha replied. "Just two more questions. Besides the weekly payments, and no answer by the business, was there anything else that piqued your interest?"

"The only thing was that the President's name was listed as Eric Turnbow. Typically with frauds, the person committing the fraud picks an alias that somehow is connected to themselves, either by using their initials or some other thing relating to them so it is easy to remember their alter-ego's name. In this case the initials E.T. didn't raise any concerns until I looked at people's full names. With Elliot Ravenwood's middle name being Travis, this certainly did fit the pattern which fraudsters use to conceal their identity," Stavros said.

"Finally, what was your recommendation to Mr. Taylor?"

"I told Mr. Taylor that although nothing was conclusive, that he should investigate the company 'Just in Time Supplies' further in order to confirm what his company bought from that vendor. I gave this recommendation to him over the phone six weeks before his death, and delivered the copy of the completed official paperwork for the audit in person the day before he died."

"Thank you Ms. Stavros. No further questions," Samantha said.

"Any questions for the defense?" the judge asked.

"Just one Your Honor. Ms. Stavros you just said that since the initials of the President of this company was E.T., that it COULD suggest that this was an alias for my client. Was Elliot Ravenwood the only one in the entire Metro Toronto area with the initials E.T.? You don't have to answer that because it's impossible for you to know," Elijah said with a smirk on his face. "But after you said that, I asked my associate to quickly go into the hall and pull up a telephone directory for the Metro Toronto area. You know what she found? There are over 750 people with the initials E.T. just in the City of Toronto alone. That's not including the suburbs. So isn't it possible that it was one of them?"

"Not likely?" Stavros said.

"Why not?" Elijah asked.

"Because the only one working at the park with the initials E.T. is your client, Mr. Ravenwood."

"Ah yes, that's if your theory is correct, but in your years of experience, have embezzlers always used their initials when creating fake identities?"

"No, not always."

"So isn't it possible that that is exactly what happened in this case and that your theory is simply incorrect?" Elijah inquired.

"Objection, my learned friend here is being argumentative, and asking the witness to speculate," Samantha said.

"Objection sustained," said Justice Richardson.

"I have no further questions of this witness."

"Ms. Howard, do you wish to re-examine the witness?"

"No Your Honor," Samantha said.

"Then the witness is excused."

"The crown would now like to call Mr. Andrew Minaldi to the stand," Samantha said.

"Mr. Minaldi," Samantha started, following the swearing in of the witness, "what is your occupation?"

"I am a licensed private investigator," Minaldi replied.

"Why did Mr. Taylor hire you?"

"He got a report that suggested that the company 'Just in Time Supplies' was a front company that was siphoning around $1 million dollars from the park during 2009. He hired me to investigate the company to determine if this was in fact the case," Minaldi said.

"Was it the case Mr. Minaldi?"

"Yes it was. Over the course of five weeks, I used my contacts in the community to get a look at this company's books. The company itself was owned by a man named Elliot Ravenwood, even though it listed its President as Eric Turnbow. The financial statements also showed that apart from the renting of their one room office located in western Toronto for $1,454.54 a month, the only other withdrawals were into two personal savings accounts at the Sovereign Bank of Toronto. The accounts were registered under the names Sal Aria and Ivan Tory, but interestingly enough, both also had Elliot Ravenwood listed as a signature on the accounts."

"Did you have a chance to view the statements to these accounts?"

"Yes I did. After obtaining a subpoena from the Ontario Provincial Court, I was provided with a copy of the accounts' activities for the period of May, 2009 to September, 2009. At some point during each week that 'Just in Time Supplies' deposited money into the accounts of Sal Aria and Ivan Tory, Mr. Ravenwood withdrew that same amount in cash, leaving his balance at the minimum amount of $10.00 that the bank requires.

"How much would Mr. Ravenwood withdraw out of these accounts each week?"

"He would always withdraw exactly $44,661.16 in cash. After withdrawing these amounts, we don't know what Mr. Ravenwood did with the money," Minaldi responded.

"How did the withdrawal of such money not come under suspicion by the bank?"

"Because Mr. Ravenwood did not just withdraw the money over one day but over four days. What you have to know is that a bank tracks all accounts that exceed $10,000 in cash movement per day. To avoid detection, one would simply have withdrawn less than $10,000 per day, which is exactly what Mr. Ravenwood did. Remember that there are two accounts being used. On the way to work, Mr. Ravenwood would enter and make two transactions, one from each account. It would take four days, but doing this would avoid detection," Minaldi said.

"How could you be sure that it was Mr. Ravenwood who withdrew those amounts and not someone else?" Samantha asked.

"After examining the records, all the withdrawals were signed by Elliot Ravenwood, per bank policy."

"Thank you Mr. Minaldi. No further questions."

"Mr. Deville, would you like to cross-examine this witness," asked Justice Richardson.

"Oh yes Your Honor, I would!" Elijah exclaimed.

"Mr. Minaldi, you said that my client allegedly withdrew $44,661.16 from his account every week for 22 weeks. Over this period of time, that meant that he withdrew $982,545.52, with the remainder of the money being kept by the alleged front company in order to pay for the office space. Did anyone specifically see Mr. Ravenwood do this?"

"No," Minaldi responded.

"But Mr. Minaldi, according to you there were 176 transactions between these two accounts, and yet in the course of your investigation, not one teller remembered Mr. Ravenwood?"

"Mr. Deville, this branch is a large branch, employing over 50 tellers, I'm sure that it would be easy to avoid detection by going to different tellers." Minaldi said.

"One more thing Mr. Minaldi," Elijah continued, "I'm sure you said this before, but what bank were these accounts from again?"

"It was the Sovereign Bank of Toronto located on Albion Rd.," Minaldi responded.

"Thank you, Mr. Minaldi. No further questions," Elijah said as he took his seat in frustration.

**********

# Chapter 17

_I Rest My Case_

"Your Honor, as our final witness, I wish to call Fred Amherst to the stand," Samantha said.

Mr. Amherst walked to the stand, was sworn in and nervously sat down in the witness box. It was obvious that he had never been in a courtroom before.

"Mr. Amherst, you are a security guard at Canada's AdventureLand are you not?"

"Yes sir, I mean ma'am, I am" Amherst said in a quiet voice with his hands quivering.

"Mr. Amherst, there's nothing to be afraid about. Your only duty here today is to tell the truth. If you do that, everything will be fine," Samantha said. Her assurance seemed to perk up Mr. Amherst's spirits as he sat up in the chair, looking slightly more confident.

"Now Mr. Amherst," Samantha continued, "did you see anyone near the Colossus on the night before the murder?"

"Yes ma'am I did."

"Who did you see?"

"I saw that man," Amherst replied as he pointed to the accused, "coming down the platform of the ride as I was doing my evening rounds."

"Let the record show that the witness has identified the accused," Samantha said. "At about what time was that?"

"That would have been just after midnight."

"Did you or to your knowledge any of the other security guards see anyone else in the park after 11:00 PM on the night before the murder."

"We most certainly did not. No one arrived at the park until the morning staff started showing up at around 8 AM," Amherst explained.

"Thank you Mr. Amherst. See I told you there was nothing to worry about- yet at least," Samantha said as Elijah chuckled to himself. "No further questions."

"Do you wish to cross-examine this witness Mr. Deville?"

"Yes Your Honor," Elijah said

"Mr. Amherst, before I begin, I want to commend you on your bravery in coming into court today. I understand that this is your first time sitting in the witness box, and so far you've done very well. By the way, you shouldn't be afraid of me either. All I want you to do is tell the truth as you know it." Mr. Amherst nodded his head in agreement as Elijah asked his first question.

"When does your shift start?"

"I work Monday's to Thursday's from 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM." Amherst said.

"So, about two hours into your shift that night, you said you saw my client coming down the platform of the Colossus. Did he tell you what he was doing up there?"

"Yes he did. He said that he had heard sounds coming from somewhere underneath the track up near the platform. He told me that he didn't know exactly what the sounds were, but when he approached the platform, the sounds had stopped. He said that he went up to the platform to investigate but saw nothing," Amherst explained.

"Did you investigate my client's claims?"

"Yes sir I did. With Mr. Ravenwood following closely behind, we both climbed the stairs leading to the platform to see if anyone was there? When we got to the top, I shined my flashlight all over the platform, underneath the track and into the large pit below. I saw nothing. I told Mr. Ravenwood that he must have heard the wind rustling the trees because nobody was there. We then both went down the stairs, I said goodnight to Mr. Ravenwood, and he left the park."

"You're sure you saw him leave?"

"I'm positive. My rounds take me towards the front of the park after passing the Colossus, and I personally saw Mr. Ravenwood walking towards his car."

"About the Colossus itself, there is a large pit with tons of foliage around it, I guess to give riders the added excitement of thinking they were going to crash before the track whooshes them past and onto the next portion of the ride. Are those bushes large enough for someone to hide in undetected?"

"The bushes are very thick and the flashlight doesn't go all the way through them, so it is possible but rather unlikely that someone could hide there," Amherst explained.

"Why is it improbable Mr. Amherst?" Elijah asked.

"Because the pit underneath the Colossus is a very steep hill. Several times people were injured going down into the pit trying to plant the foliage, so stairs were going to be installed, although at that point in time, none were. Someone would have to have very good balance in order to remain undetected hiding in those bushes for a long period of time."

"Last thing Mr. Amherst," Elijah said. "Was my client's physical appearance unusual in any way when you saw him that night?"

"I don't know what you mean?" Amherst replied.

"Was he dirty?"

"No, not that I noticed."

"Thank you Mr. Amherst, you've been most helpful. I have no further questions," Elijah said as he sat down.

"Your Honor," Samantha said, "at this time the crown rests its case."

Elijah upon hearing this statement immediately got up to set a motion before the court. "Your Honor, at this time I would like the court to dismiss all charges against my client for it is our assertion that the crown has not met its burden of proof. The only evidence that they presented is the fact that my client had an argument with Scott Taylor the night before the murder, was seen near the ride after midnight, and that an acetylene torch was found in the trunk of his car. All of this evidence is circumstantial at best, laughable at worst. The fact is that there were no fingerprints found on said torch, yet it was found in the trunk of my client's car. Common sense would tell us that if Mr. Ravenwood had the foresight to wipe his fingerprints off of the torch he would have also gotten rid of the weapon long before the police would have searched his car. Add to that the fact that nobody actually saw my client torch the ride and you have more than enough reasons to dismiss this case."

Samantha got up to rebut the motion but was immediately gestured to sit down by Justice Richardson.

"Mr. Deville, all of the reasons you have presented to me in order to prove your point are the reasons that I am going to deny your motion to dismiss. This case is circumstantial, but the circumstances do point to the accused. I do believe that the crown has proved its prima facie case and therefore believe that this trial should continue. I should warn the jury however, that this finding should not by any means lead you to render a guilty verdict in this case. As you may or may not know, it is very rare for trials in Canada to get this far and the crown fail to provide the court with a prima facie case. Prima facie means first appearance or first glance. It was my determination that at first glance it would appear that the crown has proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. You may or may not agree with my decision. What I will say though is that this determination can change during the remainder of the trial. Tomorrow you will hear from the defense as they will try to rebut the case put on by the crown. Listen carefully to the witnesses that are presented so that you can faithfully execute your duty to provide a fair and just verdict in this trial.

With the crown's case being finished, this court will stand adjourned until 9:00 AM tomorrow morning in this courtroom, when the court will hear the case for the defense," Justice Richardson stated.

As the court adjourned, all of the parties quickly left the courtroom so that the next case could begin promptly. Outside in the hallway, both Elijah and Elliot sat down on a bench while Becca went down the hall to make a phone call.

"What just happened in there Elijah? I thought you were going to prove my innocence!" Elliot said.

"That was not our goal today Elliot, I told you that before. Our goal today was to poke holes in the crown's case against you and I believe I did that."

"Yeah but the judge already thinks I'm guilty, I mean you heard what she said in there."

"It seems to me all you heard was the first sentence, and closed your ears to the rest. She told the jury that it is rare that a case gets dismissed after the crown presents its case. If you want to know how rare, in the 15 years that I have been defending cases, I've only had one dismissed after the crown's case was presented, and that was only because the key witness was impeached on the stand. Just wait until we present our case tomorrow and then make your judgment. You may not have noticed, but all of the holes that I was poking in their case, I was doing for a reason for it will set up our defense. You wait and see. You'll feel much better after tomorrow," Elijah said as he leaned back, closed his eyes and rested his brain for a few moments.

Elliot did not feel relieved by that statement. He told his wife that he wanted to go out for what could be his last big dinner as a free man.

"Is that true Mr. Deville, is my husband going to go to jail?" Pamela Ravenwood asked.

"You better believe he is ma'am," Samantha said, interrupting the conversation. Mrs. Ravenwood's emotions quickly got the best of her and she ran off crying. Elliot, none too pleased at Samantha's remarks ran off to console his wife. Elijah on the other hand, grabbed Samantha by the arm and quickly dragged her down the hall into a private room. As they entered the room, Elijah let go of Samantha's arm and she fell into the table. He then slammed the door and began yelling so loud that the spectators on the other end of the hall could hear him.

"Don't you ever do that again!" Elijah yelled, his face completely red and his eyes looking as if they were going to pop out of his head.

"Calm down Professor, you're going to have a heart attack," Samantha said rubbing her now hurting left arm.

"It is not your job to provide wives of the accused with your assessment of an ongoing trial!" Elijah screamed. "It is not even your job to provide me with your assessment of how a trial is going! It is your job to serve the best interests of the crown and to prosecute your case. Today you were 1 for 2, and in my books that is a complete failure. You're lucky you were one of my former students or I would be reporting you to the Law Society for conduct not becoming of an attorney!" As Elijah continued yelling, Samantha began to tear up. Elijah, sensing that he had knocked some sense into her, lowered his voice and continued his speech. "Do you understand now? This is not a game. Sure, lawyers are measured by the amount of cases they win, but it's people's lives that we're dealing with here. If the accused is guilty then prove it, and they'll go to jail. Your goal shouldn't be to see if you can out duel the opposing defense attorney, your goal should be to prove your case beyond a reasonable doubt. Sometimes you'll do that and gain a guilty verdict and sometimes you won't. As long as you can say at the end of the trial that you tried your best, that's all that matters, win or lose."

"You're right Professor," Samantha said as she dried her eyes. "Please tell Mrs. Ravenwood that I am extremely sorry for my comments and that it won't happen again."

"I am not in the business of apologizing on other people's behalf. If you're truly sorry you'll tell her yourself."

Elijah, having said his piece, opened the door and both of them walked out.

"Don't worry, I didn't beat her," Elijah said, with the onlookers not looking as amused with his comments as he was. Before Elijah could stick his foot any further in his mouth, Becca came running awkwardly up the hall with a huge smile on her face.

"You'll never believe it!" Becca said, gasping for air. "Cameron has got something for us!"

"He has! That is excellent news!" Elijah said as he went to pick up Becca, before realizing that that might not be the best of ideas. Instead he decided to hug her, and then they ran to the elevator.

"He'll be waiting for us at the office," Becca said as she weaved around the people standing in the halls.

Elijah quickly motioned for Elliot and his wife to rush to the elevator as he got there and pushed the button. "Then we'd better hurry," Elijah said responding to Becca, "for we haven't a moment to lose."

**********

# Chapter 18

_I Think We've Got 'Em_

Back at Elijah's office, Cameron was enjoying the view. He was amazed that from the comfort of the 21st storey office window one could see most of the city's landmarks like the CN Tower, Roy Thompson Hall, the Air Canada Centre and the Roger's Centre. He thought to himself that he could sit here all day and just stare out the window without any cares in the world.

Waiting for Elijah and company to arrive from the courthouse though, was beginning to feel like an eternity. After the early afternoon sun forced Cameron to close the blinds in the room, he began looking through Elijah's mass collection of law books. Stacked in floor to ceiling bookshelves sat every law book known to man. Whether it was civil law, criminal law, American Law or British Law, it seemed that Elijah owned them all. He even claimed that he had read every one of those books from cover to cover and could cite the case number, summary and outcome of any case found in the bookcase. Cameron challenged him once to put his money where his mouth was and found an obscure case in one of his books. Using one that he had found while completing his first semester of Law School at the University at Buffalo, Cameron thought that he had found a case so tough, that no legal scholar would be able to cite it off the top of their head. What he described for Elijah was a case involving one U.S. state suing three other U.S. states over the right to tax a deceased person's estate. In this case, a special master had been appointed by the court to determine the state of residence of this deceased person at death, and thus determine which state could legally tax the estate. The special master's decision was rendered, and one state disagreed with the ruling and decided to appeal. Without giving the ruling of the case, Cameron asked Elijah to cite it. To Cameron's surprise, Elijah immediately asked him to go over to the section devoted to U.S. Supreme Court Decisions and find the book labeled 'United States Reports Volume 306'. He was then to turn to page 398 where he would find the case entitled 'State of Texas v. State of Florida 306 U.S. 398 (1939)'. Elijah then went on to spout off the arguments made, the decision of the court, and the reasoning behind it. When Cameron asked how on earth he knew which case he was talking about, Elijah smirked and reminded him that he had been studying law for almost 20 years and had not been lying when he said that he had read and could cite every book he owned. Truly amazed, Cameron never again tried to stump Elijah when it came to case law.

Just as Cameron was about to take a criminal case law book off the shelf, Elijah and Becca came barging through the door, soon to be followed by Elliot and Pamela. Cameron asked them all to sit down and he would tell them his findings.

"Now in my discussions with you, it has become apparent to me that you already know who killed Scott Taylor, is that correct Elijah?" asked Cameron.

"I have a good idea who did, but can't yet prove it," Elijah said.

"Do you believe that the two crimes are tied together?"

"In the beginning, yes, but right now I'm leaning a different way. If however you have something that would change my mind, by all means let's hear it."

"I think I do," Cameron said. "As you requested, I began searching the financial records of both Canada's AdventureLand and 'Just in Time Supplies' to see if I could find any irregularities or fake invoices that would point to someone other than Elliot. I couldn't find out anything that we don't already know.

Next, I interviewed the bank manager, who positively identified Elliot as the one who opened the dummy corporation's accounts. I asked him how he could be so sure, and he told me that he never forgets a face or name of a business client."

"Cameron," Elijah interrupted, "we know all of this already. Mr. Granger gave a positive ID this morning, and the auditor hired by Scott Taylor to inspect the finances of the park, testified that Elliot had used clever accounting methods to steer money into his personal accounts."

"But that's a lie!" Elliot exclaimed. "I did not embezzle money nor did I open up those bank accounts."

"No Mr. Ravenwood," Cameron continued, "I don't think that Burt Granger was lying. In his mind he did see Elliot Ravenwood, but was it actually you? If it wasn't, this person was very good at making disguises."

"Do continue," Elijah said.

"Anyway, next I interviewed the tellers and no one remembers serving Mr. Ravenwood."

"That's right," Becca piped in, "you thought that odd Elijah, because of the large amounts of money involved."

"Exactly!" Cameron stated. "That tells me that this probably was an inside job."

"Did you find any evidence to support this theory of yours?" Elijah asked.

"Until yesterday no, but when the judge signed the order for the bank to turn over their security tapes you'll never guess what I found," Cameron said as he saw that everyone was sitting on the edge of their seats in sheer anticipation.

Cameron went into the next office and grabbed the portable TV and DVD player. He popped in the DVD showing security camera footage for August 10, 2009.

"Now watch the video carefully...and STOP!" Cameron said, as he paused the video at precisely 10:05 AM when he saw Elliot Ravenwood come into frame.

"That's not me! I wasn't there! I've never been there!" Elliot shouted.

"Oh don't worry Mr. Ravenwood. I don't think it was you either. But it certainly does look like you doesn't it?" Cameron said. He then started the DVD again, and they watched the person purporting to be Elliot walk up to the teller and transact his business.

"Why can't we see the teller's face?" Elijah asked.

"That's because this is the business teller," Cameron explained. "This camera angle doesn't show their face."

"Is there another angle?" Becca asked.

"Unfortunately no," Cameron said. "The camera they set up in the booth had been on the fritz for about a year starting in early 2009 and going on until October of that year."

"How convenient," Elijah said. "Did they try to fix it?"

"Numerous times. In fact, the repair man was in so much, that one of the tellers told me that they considered him as one of the family," Cameron chuckled. "Despite their efforts, every time they thought it was fixed, it simply went down again."

"OK then," Elijah replied, "we'll just have to match the payroll records we have with the time of the video. Surely that ought to tell us who this mysterious person is."

"I'm way ahead of you on that one Elijah," Cameron said. "The teller's name is Ashley Mortland."

"Ashley Mortland?" Elijah said with a confused look on his face. "Who is Ashley Mortland?"

"That I can help you with as well," Cameron said. "Ashley Mortland is a 48 year old woman who is a 20 year veteran of the Sovereign Bank of Toronto. She has a bachelor's degree in accounting and has been a central teller for numerous branches for the past 15 years, two of which at this specific location. She is married to Stephen Mortland, 51, and has one teenage daughter named Monica. The way I see it is that she and her mysterious friend in this video, (who must have also been an employee of the park), conspired to steal money from it. Using her know how in accounting, and his familiarity with the park, they concocted a complex scheme to stealthily steal millions without the executives knowing. At the bank, she set up the false accounts, and withdrew the money when 'Elliot Ravenwood' came to withdraw it. Unfortunately for the both of them, Scott Taylor found out about the embezzlement, so they killed him."

"Yeah, but that explanation simply doesn't make sense," Elijah said as he leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the desk. "I mean who IS Ashley Mortland? How does she fit in and why have we not come across her until now. It's like a mystery writer who writes the entire story just to have the perpetrator be someone whom you don't meet until the end. I hate those types of novels, although that in and of itself doesn't mean that she was not involved. If she's the one who did it though, she must fit in. There's got to be something that we've missed."

"Well maybe it was not her," Becca said. "Let's see if, as Cameron contends, all of the tapes do in fact have her handling the money of the person pretending to be Elliot."

"What good is that going to do?" Elliot said angrily. "Suppose she's not the one, and we can't prove who the one is? Then we're right back to where we started, with me getting convicted of murder."

"Calm down Elliot," Pamela said. "She's only trying to help.

"It's worth a shot," Becca explained. "Who knows, we might get lucky."

During the next five hours, the four of them poured over hours of video recordings, each showing almost the same thing. From Monday to Thursday, the video confirmed that a man who looked like Elliot Ravenwood would enter the bank between 10:05 and 10:20 in the morning. Like clockwork, he would walk over to the business wicket, and after about 10 minutes, would walk out with the large cash withdrawals.

At about 8:30, Elijah, eating a slice of pizza, began to pontificate. "Why does this man always arrive at the same time?"

"What do you mean?" Cameron asked.

"Why always around 10:00 AM? Why not 1:00 PM, or 3:00 PM? What's so special about 10:00 AM?"

"Maybe that's when he has his break?" Pamela said.

"Possibly, although 10:00 AM is awfully early for a break don't you think?"

"Well maybe he works the night shift at the park and he's on his way home," Cameron stated.

"Even more unlikely," Becca responded. "According to today's testimony, the night shift runs from 10:00 PM until 8:00 AM, four nights a week. Even though this would be the reason that this person doesn't show up on Friday's, it doesn't explain why he chose 10:00 AM. In my opinion, a tired man would show up close to opening time if he worked the night shift at the park."

"No," Elijah said, "there's got to be some other reason that 10:00 AM was chosen as the withdrawal time."

Suddenly, as one of the tapes was being played for the umpteenth time, Elijah, rifling through a stack of bank receipts, glanced up at the screen and yelled at them to pause the video.

"How could we have been so stupid?" Elijah yelled. "The answer has been staring us in the face all night." He quickly ran over to the TV with a large grin on his face to explain what he had found out.

"We've all been assuming that every DVD was showing us that a man looking like Elliot Ravenwood withdrew money that was embezzled from the park and then left the bank. Who could blame us on that assumption? After all, we had transactions which showed the withdrawals and now we had video evidence which backup the paperwork. The question is: 'Does this man walk out of the bank with the embezzled money?'

"How else could it have happened?" Cameron inquired.

"This way," Elijah said. "First off, does anyone know how many 20s come in a bundle?" No one responded.

"Well you should know sis, for after all, our mother is a banker," Elijah said. "For everyone's knowledge, a bundle of 20s contains $2,000. Now according to testimony, every week, $44,661.16 of embezzled money was withdrawn, supposedly by Elliot. That amounts to $11,165.29 per day or two withdrawals of $5,582.64 and $5,582.65 a piece. Knowing this, look closely at the video again. What don't you see?"

After replaying the DVD, Becca exclaimed, "There's no change! Only 6 bundles of 20s were handed out."

"Exactly!" Elijah responded. "The teller handed out $12,000, which would have made the bank short $834.71 every day."

"But the bank always balanced to the penny, the manager told me so himself," Cameron said.

"OK, let's look at the DVD again. Was $12,000 actually handed out?" Elijah asked.

"It sure looks like it," Elliot said, as he watched the monitor once more.

"It goes to show you that what I tell my law students is true: our eyes can deceive us. They can deceive even me," Elijah said. "When you look at the video, you see bundles of green bills being handed out, and you therefore assume that it was a bundle of Canadian 20s. But take a look at the center of these bills, what do you see?"

"I don't know how I could have missed that!" Becca said as she slapped her forehead. "You mean the money never left the bank?"

"Nope, I think whoever was in that booth kept the money, and little by little deposited it into 2 personal accounts, one for them and one for their accomplice. This person concealed the deposits by programming the computers to print out transaction slips throughout the day which they would use to put the money back into the bank. They would of course assign these transactions to other tellers in order to avert suspicion."

"But none of this proves that Ashley Mortland did or didn't do it. Moreover, it doesn't prove that it wasn't me in the video," Elliot said.

"Alone no. But I believe this does," Elijah said, holding up a piece of paper.

"What is that?" Elliot asked.

"A cash delivery receipt," Elijah said. "Everyday, the bank receives its cash shipment between 9:30 AM and 10:00 AM. Ms. Mortland, along with Burt Granger, both have to sign the shipment statement before the truck leaves. They also both have to be present for the entire time that the shipment is being unloaded, to ensure accuracy and prevent theft. These receipts always mark the time the armored truck arrives and when it leaves. If you remember, I said that 10:00 AM had to have meant something, and it did. It meant that at that time, the person who appeared on this video as Elliot Ravenwood could guarantee that Ashley Mortland wasn't at the business wicket. This person also timed the visit perfectly so that they arrived right near the end of the delivery so that the transaction would be recorded just about the time that Ms. Mortland would be returning to the wicket. That way, if anyone was investigating, they would assume that she was involved."

"So who was the person in the booth?" Pamela asked. Elijah handed her a small stack of payroll sheets and asked her to examine them closely. He then asked her if there was any name she recognized."

"You mean...?" Pamela asked.

"Yes I firmly believe so," Elijah responded.

"All right Elijah," Elliot interrupted, "this is all fine and dandy, but you still haven't solved the murder and for what you think you have solved, again I ask you, where's the proof? In my opinion there's no beef on this sandwich, only your guesses and think so's. Do you really think that the judge and the prosecutor are just going to take your word for it? You've got nothing to tie this all together."

"You're right Elliot," Elijah sighed. "So far I've got nothing on the murder, but that might change quickly, if the right evidence surfaced. However on the embezzlement charges, I believe we're a little closer. If only we could identify the person disguised as you, then maybe we'd be able to crack this nut once and for all."

"Oh I think I can help you on that one," Becca said with her face almost glued to the television.

"What do you got for us sis?" Elijah asked.

"Look here at the man standing at the wicket," Becca said.

"OK," Elijah responded.

"Notice that smudge. I believe that that smudge is something else, something that we've seen in only one other place."

Elijah's face brightened up and he grinned wider than the Cheshire cat. "Sis, you're a genius," he said as he kissed her on the cheek. Elijah rushed around to the back of his desk, pulled out a notepad and began to scribble some words down on the paper. "You know this changes everything. For the last 3 months I fooled myself into thinking that these crimes weren't connected, when in fact, they were connected in everyway possible.

Elijah ripped a note from the pad and handed it to Cameron. "Cameron," he said, "I want you and Becca to wake up a judge. We need an emergency court order to examine the computer records for several of the days in question. Once you receive it, I want Becca and a team of computer analysts there at 7:30 AM tomorrow to meet the bank manager on his way in. You can give him the news that not only is his bank going to be closed for the morning, but also that his testimony is needed in court. As for you Cameron, tomorrow morning I have a few important errands that I want you to run. Be here at 8:00 AM sharp to receive your instructions. By noon, I want to say that we've nailed this case down.

Elijah then turned to Elliot and said, "Elliot, for the first time I believe I can honestly say that we've got 'em. Now it's just a matter of showing it in court."

**********

# Chapter 19

_What Goes Up..._

When Elijah, Becca, Elliot and Pamela arrived at the courthouse, they were quickly met by Samantha and ushered into a side room away from the reporters.

"Ms. Ravenwood," Samantha said, "I want to tell you how sorry I am for my behavior yesterday after court. Not only was it unprofessional on my part, but it was insensitive and rude. Before yesterday, this case was just a statistic for me; a big case that I hoped would show my boss that I belong in the upper echelon of crown attorneys. I wanted to show him that I was capable of handling the pressure of a big, well publicized case. In short, I wanted to win at all costs. I wish to convey to you today that my view on what this case is about has changed. This case is not about winning or losing, it is about justice. Now although my opinion about the outcome of this case has not changed, I do wish to apologize for the flippant way I addressed you yesterday, and assure you that it will not happen again."

"Thank you," Pamela responded. "It takes a courageous person to admit when they're out of line and ask for forgiveness. Well Ms. Howard, I do forgive you. Although your remarks were in poor taste, I know that in the courtroom yesterday you were only doing your job, and what an excellent job you did. You will make a fine crown attorney some day, just not this day. Now if you'll excuse us, we've got a court date to attend."

Samantha, sensing that something was up, began pestering Elijah as they walked into the courtroom about what witnesses he would be calling for the session. Elijah smiled at her and said that about 90 minutes ago, her office received the final list of witnesses that he had planned to call, as well as the descriptions of the exhibits that he planned to introduce. When Samantha complained to him that she had not had ample opportunity to review this evidence, Elijah turned and reminded her that it wasn't his job to do her leg work. He told her that he did not hide the evidence and that she could have obtained it for herself had the officers performed a thorough investigation instead of honing in on Elliot. Knowing that Elijah was right, she scowled at him and then took her seat as the clerk called the proceedings to order.

Justice Richardson then entered the court, sat down in her seat and addressed the defense counsel.

"Mr. Deville, please proceed with your opening statement."

"Thank you Your Honor" Elijah responded. "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the jury. I hope you all enjoyed a good night's sleep and have come to court today with an attentive ear to hear the defense for Elliot Ravenwood. Yesterday, the crown attorney told you that I would throw two big words at you: circumstantial evidence. She said that I would try to convince you that these two words were somehow bad and that therefore you must acquit based on that. This is simply not true. While it is correct that cases built solely on circumstantial evidence tend to be weaker than other cases, it is also true that if we threw out cases just because they only had circumstantial evidence, then the prosecutor would be right and we would be convicting hardly anyone. Dangerous people would therefore be walking the street because of this. That type of situation would be completely unacceptable. The reason I am asking you to acquit is not because this case rests only on circumstantial evidence, but because the evidence presented simply does not add up. In other words there is reasonable doubt that my client, Elliot Ravenwood embezzled over $1 million from the Canada's AdventureLand theme park and then killed Scott Taylor in order to hide the crime.

But you shouldn't just take my word for it, let's take a look at the evidence and let the evidence speak for itself. First you have the embezzlement; the crime which the crown said started it all. This was an ingenious and elaborate crime that required a lot of smarts, cunning, and I might add, luck to make it work. After all, a fake company was set up, one business account and two private bank accounts were opened to make the company and its expenditures look legitimate. Fake invoices had to be made along with fake inventory so that the park's expenses looked genuine. The amounts were left relatively small in order to avoid suspicion, and avoid it they did for almost a year. This was the mind of a genius at work.

The evidence also shows the smarts of the perpetrator when it comes to the ride's computer. What you will hear from witnesses called by the defense is that the Colossus was run by a highly sophisticated computer able to detect all defects and or problems on the ride before they happen. If the problems were serious enough, it also had the ability to lock down the ride until the problems were fixed. In order to fool the computer, one had to re-program or deactivate it in order for the ride to even get off the ground. Again this was the mind of a genius at work.

However, then the crown comes along with other evidence and shows that the person who perpetrated this crime must have been a complete moron in order to pull it off without being caught. You see, the crown contends that Elliot devised the plan to kill Scott Taylor after the heated argument he had with him the night before. He then went out and bought an acetylene torch close to his house, and signed his own name on the receipt. Even an idiot knows the police would investigate this shop owner and confiscate the receipt. He then went to the park, torched the ride and was dumb enough to get caught by the security guard coming down the ride's stairs, without any dirt or soot on his clothing I might add. He then must have returned early the next day to retrieve the torch from the ravine where he hid it, only the guard swore that the only way something could be hidden in the ravine would be for it to be placed at the bottom. Now I have traveled down this ravine personally, and so has my associate and both of us came up dirty, even on a day when it hadn't rained in almost a week. But let's just assume for a second that Elliot did somehow manage to hide the torch at the bottom and remain clean, his next actions certainly were moronic if he had committed the crime. You see after coming in early, retrieving the hidden torch, wiping his fingerprints off of it, he placed it in his own trunk, next to the 16 bolts that had been removed from the ride and did nothing. He did not hide them or ditch them; he did nothing of that sort. Instead he just let them sit there almost calling out for the police to find them. That combined with the fact that he didn't shred the documents found in Mr. Taylor's office, or the appointment book that might have identified who Scott Taylor had employed to investigate the embezzlement, show that my client was a moron, if he committed this crime.

The only way this all makes sense is for you to conclude that it is highly likely that another person or persons committed these crimes. Let's say for a moment that someone else did it and see if that would fit the evidence. If someone else did it, with access of course to park finances, and computers, it would be rather easy to make up the fake invoices and inventory. This person would also have access to the ride's computer and, with some expertise, be able to sabotage it. If this person also had an insider in the bank with which the fake company would do business with, it would be easy to subvert the bank's securities and controls, and funnel the money through the fake accounts and then into thin air.

If someone else committed this crime, it would also explain why crucial pieces of evidence pointing to my client's guilt were left lying around for the police to find. This is what I believe happened, and it is what I intend to show to you during this portion of the trial. Thank you."

"Well then Mr. Deville," the judge said, "I assume from your opening statement that you wish to call witnesses, so let's proceed."

"I do Your Honor and we will. The defense calls Burt Granger to the stand. I also wish to inform the court that this examination will be conducted by my associate."

"Mr. Granger," Becca said after he was sworn in, "yesterday it was established that you are the bank manager for the Sovereign Bank of Toronto's Albion Rd. Branch was it not?"

"Yes ma'am, I am," Granger responded.

"How long have you held this position?"

"For almost 10 years."

"In your years of service at the bank, how many central tellers have you had?"

"There have been three. Ms. Hannah Watson was my central teller from 2001-2007, Ms. Audrey Taylor was from 2007-2009, and Ms. Ashley Mortland is the current central teller from that point on."

"Had Ms. Taylor had any prior experience prior to becoming the central teller?"

"No she hadn't, but she had graduated university with an accounting degree and before she was married, her resume said that she worked her way up from mechanic to bookkeeper at the auto shop where she had worked. She had great references, a great attitude and seemed to be a hard worker, which is exactly what I was looking for."

"Why did you not hire from within?" Becca asked.

"Objection Your Honor," Samantha said, "this testimony is irrelevant to the case at hand."

"Your Honor," Becca responded, "this testimony will set the foundation for all of the testimony that is to come. Although it may seem irrelevant right now, I assure you, by the end of this morning, the relevance will be shown."

"The objection is overruled for now. But if you are not right counselor, I will have no other choice but to sustain the crown's objection at a later time and strike this testimony from the record," the judge said.

"The job of a central teller is a highly complex one, involving not only skill in the counting of money, but in the tracking of money, the accounting of money, and the ordering of money. Our branch has some very talented tellers, but since it is so large, I felt that an outside hand would be a much better fit."

"So, since this job is complex, do you ever allow untrained tellers to work as the central teller?" Becca asked.

"No," Granger replied

"Not even for a minute?"

"No, because that's how money mysteriously finds legs and walks out the door," Granger responded.

"So it is safe to assume that only the people in your personnel profile logs who have 'C.T.' in the training section would ever be working as the central teller at your branch."

"That's correct Ms. Deville."

"OK, moving on," Becca said, "yesterday my associate tried to show you Crown's exhibit E and F. This was objected to by the crown and was not allowed to occur. I now show you these exhibits and ask you if you recognize the signature at the bottom of the form."

"When I handed these over to the crown I told them that my signature was on the bottom, but now as I examine this closer, I find that my signature has been forged."

"So it is not your signature that authorized the mysterious Mr. Aria and Mr. Tory to open these accounts?"

"No it is not my signature," Granger said.

"Perhaps then you could clear up the mystery of how these accounts were opened by answering this question. Would a teller at the bank be able to create an account without getting your approval?" Becca asked.

"Normally no, but it is obvious that someone did," Granger replied.

"I ask that the jury be charged to disregard the witness' last statement on the grounds that he drew an unnecessary conclusion," Samantha said.

"The jury will disregard it," Justice Richardson said. "The witness is asked to refrain from drawing conclusions not based in fact.

"Next, would a teller, central or not, also be able to make transactions appear as if they would have come from another teller?"

"No, that would only be possible if the person had learned the password of another teller, and even then, they would also have had to have their identity badge."

"But if that would have happened, could someone make a transaction appear as if it came from another teller?"

"If those things were true, yes."

"Thank you Mr. Granger, no further questions," Becca said.

"Does the crown wish to cross-examine?" Justice Richardson asked.

"Yes Your Honor," Samantha replied.

"For Crown's Exhibits E and F, what are the dates that those accounts were opened?"

"They were both opened on March 17, 2009," Granger replied.

"Now I would like to draw your attention to Crown's Exhibit D. What was the date that the dummy corporation was opened?"

"The paperwork said that this account was opened on March 10, 2009."

"Would the person who opened this account have a copy of this signed document, complete with your signature on it?"

"Absolutely," Granger replied.

"Let the record show that the crown has established that Mr. Ravenwood opened this account and would therefore have had ample time to learn Mr. Granger's signature and forge it on other documents."

"Your Honor," Elijah interrupted, "the crown may very well believe that it has established certain facts, but the defense has stipulated to none of them. I ask you therefore to admonish Ms. Howard and ask her to save her conclusions for her closing statements."

"I agree Mr. Deville," the judge said. "Ms. Howard, you know better than to make statements like that in this court. One more comment like that, and I'll be forced to find you in contempt and declare a mistrial. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Your Honor. I apologize," Samantha said.

"Returning to the matter at hand Mr. Granger, did any of your employees report their passwords compromised or their ID badges stolen?"

"No they did not," Granger responded.

"Thank you, no further questions."

"Does the defense wish to redirect?" the judge said.

"No Your Honor," Becca responded.

"Very well. Mr. Deville, call your next witness."

"Your Honor, the defense calls Kevin Craig to the stand. This witness will also be examined by my associate," Elijah said.

"Mr. Craig, what is your position at the park?" Becca asked.

"I am the computer system's manager at the Canada's AdventureLand theme park," Craig replied.

"What is the job description for a computer system's manager?"

"It is my job to program, maintain and troubleshoot problems with all of the computer systems located at the park. Whether it was the main office computers, or the thrill ride's computers, I was involved with it all."

"Did you design the program that ran the Colossus?"

"Me, along with a team of developers spent over a year designing the state of the art computer system that would control that ride," Craig said.

"Without getting too technical, how did the program work?"

"Well, the computer basically ran every part of the ride. Sensors were placed on the cars, tracks and underneath the ride to detect everything that might pose a danger to riders. A weather analyzer was even installed that would shut down the ride automatically if the conditions deteriorated past a predetermined level. The computer could control the speed of the ride, speeding it up if it was moving to slow and slowing it down if it was going too fast. It could also cut off power to any portion of the ride that malfunctioned. This was a key safety precaution needed on a ride that intense," Craig said.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Mr. Craig, but could you tell us what would happen if a part of the ride did malfunction," Becca asked.

"If any portion of the ride showed abnormal sensor readings, the ride's computer monitor would flash either a yellow warning or a red warning. Yellow warnings were minor warnings that could be overridden by the ride operator and fixed at a later time, while red warnings were major warnings and would have to be dealt with immediately. If a red warning flashed, the computer would lock down the ride, meaning that until the computer gets normal readings from all sensors, no further rides would be able to be run."

"If someone had torched off pieces of the ride's wheel casings, would this have given a red or yellow warning?"

"It would have definitely given a red warning, because of the potential for the wheels to fall off."

"Did the ride's computer give a red warning before the ride that killed Mr. Taylor took off?" asked Becca.

"The only red warning that computer gave was when the car left the track and crashed into the gulley below."

"Then isn't it reasonable to conclude that the computer program was tampered with in order for the ride to be released?"

"Objection Your Honor, not only is defense counsel asking the witness for a conclusion, but she is also asking the witness to speculate," Samantha said.

"My, lady, give me two more questions, and I'll show you the proof."

"Objection is overruled."

"So what about that then Mr. Craig?"

"It was impossible to corrupt the files of this ride. The computer was coded in such a way so as to detect errors in it. Had the files been corrupted, a red warning would have alerted the ride operator and the ride would have been locked down."

"Ah Mr. Craig if only that were true. But as we all know in this computer age, what one man can code, another can decode. In order for this murder to go off without a hitch, the computer had to be sabotaged too, or else the ride wouldn't have gotten off the ground. So, what if I told you that the disk you gave Mr. Deville, you know the one with the newest update of the software was not the same as the software installed the day before the murder."

"I'd say you were mistaken. No one had been allowed to touch the computer system before I gave Mr. Deville those disks," Craig responded.

"Your Honor," Becca said, "I'd like to enter these two computer program disks into evidence as defense exhibits A and B. Exhibit A is the disk with a copy of the computer program on the computer 3 months after the accident, while Exhibit B is the copy of the upgrade installed the day before the murder." Becca, after handing the disks to the clerks came back to the podium and continued. "If you were to examine those two disks, you'd find that they were the same in almost every way, except in one area. On the disk labeled Defense Exhibit B, there is code present that disables all of the warning systems of the ride between 6:00 AM and 7:00 PM on July 1st, 2010. The only warning that was programmed to appear during this time was the one signaling that the cars had left the track. The code is buried so deep in the program that it took our experts until last night to uncover it, but rest assured, the code is there. What kind of person could successfully pull that kind deception off?" Becca asked.

"Ma'am, in order to do that, one would have to be an exceptionally skilled programmer," Craig responded.

"Why is that?"

"Because in order to disable all warning systems, you have to know where the code is in order to disable it. All of the warning systems aren't coded in one place in order to avoid a problem just as you have described. Even then, they had to know that the computer program also had a self diagnostic which should have detected this code. To disable this, you had to know it existed, which wasn't common knowledge, and where to find it, which wasn't easy."

"Mr. Craig, who handed you the update to install onto the computer?" Becca asked.

"Daniel Morris handed it to me after he had said he had done a final test of the maintenance portions of the program and found no errors."

"Thank you Mr. Craig. I have no further questions."

"Ms. Howard?" the judge responded as she saw a listless Samantha slouching in her chair.

"I have no questions for this witness," Samantha said as she shook her head violently to awake herself out of the trance that she had been in.

"At this time the defense calls Daniel Morris to the stand," Elijah said.

**********

# Chapter 20

_Must Come Down_

"Mr. Morris, I can't help but notice that you have a tattoo on your left wrist. How long have you had it?" Elijah asked.

"Objection, Your Honor. That question is irrelevant," Samantha said.

"The objection is sustained. Move on Mr. Deville," the judge said.

"OK. Mr. Morris, what is your position at the theme park?" Elijah asked.

"I am the head inspector. It is my job, along with those inspectors under me, to personally inspect all rides before the park opens each day," Morris said.

"Did you inspect the Colossus, the day of the murder?"

"It was certainly my job to inspect that ride, but no I personally didn't inspect it. I woke up late, and therefore didn't have time to run a full inspection. Since the ride had been fully inspected the day before, I just ran the computer diagnostic which, when done said that there was no faults with the ride. I'll never forgive myself for not inspecting that ride, never Mr. Deville," Morris said with tears in his eyes.

"Well, all tears aside, you didn't do your job, and a man died. Whether or not you will have to live with that on your conscience is immaterial, the question is did you have anything to do with the murder?" Elijah asked as he glared into Morris' eyes.

"You must be joking! I had nothing to do with the murder. I couldn't have, after all I was watching the baseball game on TV at home that night," Morris yelled defiantly.

"OK, we'll come back to that one in a moment," Elijah said. "Do you know my client?"

"I know of him, but I had never met him personally," Morris said with a confused look on his face.

"You say you're an inspector, have you ever been a computer programmer,"

"Yes, I was a computer programmer for three years at IBM before I moved to Canada," Morris responded.

"How about a costume designer?"

"Yes, I did that too. I worked for Career Costuming for four years before moving to IBM."

"That's curious. As a lawyer, I have some well connected friends who were able to quickly search the employee files of IBM and Career Costuming and they couldn't find any record of you working there. Why do you suppose that is?"

"Because I worked under a different name then," Morris said whispering into his hand.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you. Would you mind repeating that?"

"I SAID I WORKED UNDER A DIFFERENT NAME THEN!" Morris yelled.

"And what name would that be?" Elijah asked.

"Dennis Morse," Morris said.

"Would that be any relation to Brady Morse, the infamous Chicago mafia boss?"

"I'm sure your research has shown that I am his oldest son," Morris said in disgust.

"It has. The tattoo, the one that my associate pointed out to me last night, gave it away. All members of the Morse crime family carry it somewhere on their body. What did your father want you to specialize in? Forgery?" Elijah asked.

"Your Honor," Samantha said, "although this is very interesting, and is a nice diversion to confuse the jury, the heritage of Mr. Morris has no bearing on this case."

"On the contrary Your Honor, it most certainly does, and in a moment I will show relevancy," Elijah said.

"Proceed Mr. Deville," the judge said as Samantha threw her pen on the table as she sat down.

"So was it forgery Mr. Morris?"

"Yes," Morris responded.

"But at that time, you didn't want to become part of your father's business did you?"

"No I didn't," Morris responded.

"So you changed your name in order to be allowed to immigrate to Canada," Elijah stated.

"Yes," Morris said.

"Did you open up a bank account?"

"Of course, I opened up an account at the SBT Bank on Albion Rd, which is about a quarter mile from my house."

"You of course used your new name?" Elijah said.

"Of course," Morris said furrowing his brow.

"Funny thing is though, when we subpoenaed the records for "Dennis Morris" and your former identity, it turns out that you have two accounts, one under each name. What's the second account for?" Elijah asked.

"I don't have any knowledge of the second account."

"Really, then why is your signature found on both forms opening the accounts?" Elijah said showing him two forms. "Look, this signature matches this one."

Morris sat there silent.

"Furthermore, what's even stranger is that every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from May 2009 until the end of September 2009, your account received a daily deposit of $5,582.65. Where did that money come from?

"I already said I didn't know about the account, so how would I know about the money?" Morris answered.

"So it was just a coincidence that every week $22,330.60 went into an account using your former identity, money which is exactly half of the money stolen each week from the theme park for which you work."

"It must be, or the fact that your client is trying to frame me."

"I don't think so," Elijah said. "After all you said you didn't know my client, and he assures me that he doesn't know you, so how could he open an account in your name, let alone your former name, and with your signature no less. It just doesn't make sense. No, you were involved in the embezzlement scheme alright, and when it became clear that Scott Taylor was going to uncover the scheme, even if it didn't initially implicate you, you knew that the free money was over unless you did something. With this being the case, you had to murder him."

"Objection, Your Honor! Defense counsel is badgering the witness!" Samantha said.

"I WAS AT HOME WATCHING THE BASEBALL GAME, WHAT PART OF THAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?" Morris yelled, standing up as if he was ready run and take a swipe at Elijah. The bailiff quickly ran and restrained Morris as the courtroom quickly went into an uproar.

"Enough!" yelled Justice Richardson. "Sit down Mr. Morris or I'll have you cited for contempt. As for you Mr. Deville, you will confine your questioning to areas that you can substantiate with proof. Is that clear?"

"Crystal clear Your Honor," Elijah responded. After a short pause, he continued.

"Wow Mr. Morris, you have quite the temper. I certainly wouldn't want to be on the other end of a punch that you threw," Elijah stated with a smile.

"Your Honor," Samantha said with a whine in her voice.

"Mr. Deville, this is your last warning. Continue your examination now, or this witness will be excused," the judge said.

"Sorry Your Honor, it won't happen again," Elijah said. He then turned to the witness and moved on with his questioning. "Mr. Morris, earlier you stated that you had once worked at IBM as a computer programmer. Were you any good?"

"I was one of their best," Morris said.

"Then why did you leave?"

"I got bored with the job. I couldn't stand sitting day in and day out writing code. It was driving me crazy! That, along with the fact that my father was beginning to lay down the law with me saying that unless I started participating in the family business that I would be disinherited. Not wanting to become a criminal, I fled as far away from him as I could get. Soon after that, I realized that coming to Canada would be my safest bet, so I legally changed my name and moved up here. I got a job as a ride inspector and eventually worked my way up to the lead inspector. Not bad for a gangster's son in my opinion."

"No not bad at all. In fact, that part is quite commendable. But the point I was driving at was that you knew the ins and outs of the computer program that ran the Colossus, did you not?" Elijah asked.

"Of course. It was my job to know. Although I did not write the program itself, I had to supervise the code being written for inspection and safety to insure that the computer would be able to inspect and diagnose all problems associated with the ride. The computer wouldn't eliminate the need for daily inspections, but it would assist us in finding problems quickly in the event of an unexpected breakdown," Morris responded.

"So you not only knew what was coded into the program, but you could manipulate the program and thus activate or deactivate certain inspection parts if needed."

"I don't like what you're insinuating Mr. Deville," Morris said while frowning.

"I'm not insinuating anything Mr. Morris, what I'm simply stating is that a computer programmer in your position would theoretically be able to deactivate certain parts of a program so that it wouldn't detect a serious problem."

"Theoretically that's possible, but I didn't do it."

"Sure you did. You were the last person to handle the final update of the program, the one that was installed the day before the murder. We already have entered into evidence the sabotaged disk containing code that shut down the diagnostic portions of the program on the day of the murder. You had the program last, and according to the other programmers, you examined it for over two hours before you handed it to Kevin Craig to install. That gave you ample time to disable those portions of the program so that it appeared to do the diagnostics but in reality did absolutely nothing."

"That's a lie Mr. Deville and you can't prove a word of it. I did not sabotage that disk, and I did not torch that ride. Now, I'm going to tell you for the third time, I could not have torched that ride, for I was at home watching a baseball game on television."

"Oh I believe that part Mr. Morris. I do believe you watched the baseball game that night, and what an epic 18 inning ball game that was. It didn't end until almost 1 AM. You see you're forgetting one thing: I never said that you torched the ride; I said you changed the computer program in order to allow the person who torched the ride to get away with it. Since you have never met my client, I know that you weren't working with him; the question is who were you working with? The answer to that will come in a few moments. As for you Mr. Morris, if I were you, I would be hoping that the Toronto Police Department are a bunch of inept fools, for that's the only hope you have of staying out of jail." Elijah was beginning to sit down, when he returned to the podium and said, "I wouldn't count on it though. No further questions Your Honor."

"Cross-examine Ms. Howard?" the judge asked.

"No, Your Honor," Samantha said.

"In that case, the defense calls Audrey Taylor to the stand." The court room gallery seemed so shocked that Audrey was being called, that they all began to whisper quietly to the person beside them. After Audrey was sworn in, the gallery quieted down and Elijah then began asking his questions.

"Mrs. Taylor, the gallery seems surprised that I called you to testify just now, are you surprised?"

"I am stunned Mr. Deville. I loved my husband and I certainly didn't kill him," Audrey said. Amused by her answer, Elijah said, "I'm sure that's what you'd want everyone to believe, but we both know different."

"What you think you know and what the actual truth is Mr. Deville, I'm sure are worlds apart."

"Well we'll see Mrs. Taylor, but for the moment we'll leave that part, for I have a few other questions. Before you were a banker, what was your job?"

"I was a bookkeeper for Dan's Machine Shop located in Oakville," Audrey replied.

"And before that?"

"I was a welder for the same business. My father was a welder there, and it helped pay my bills through university."

"So would you consider yourself an expert using an acetylene torch?" Elijah asked.

"Well certainly not an expert, but I have experience using an acetylene torch if that is what you're asking," Audrey responded.

"That is precisely what I'm asking Mrs. Taylor. Now a few moments ago, you said that you loved your husband. Does that mean that you were completely faithful to him for the duration of your marriage?"

"Daniel has already told me that you know of our affair, but that doesn't change the fact that I loved my husband. Scott knew that he wasn't paying enough attention to me, so after a week of being angry at me, he consented to me seeing Daniel if that's what both of us wanted. We weren't going to get divorced, but it did add another layer of strain to our already tumultuous marriage."

"Without getting into the graphic details, when did the affair start, and how often did you meet."

"The affair started in December of 2008 and has continued right up until now. In fact, just yesterday Daniel asked me to marry him."

"Congratulations, Mrs. Taylor," Elijah responded, "but please answer the last part of my question, how often did you meet?"

"We usually met on Tuesday nights at a motel near my house, though sometimes we met at my house. Tuesday was the night that Katie had soccer practice that a neighbour would take her to, and Scott had his weekly poker game with his friends," Audrey explained.

"OK, and do you know my client, Elliot Ravenwood?"

"Absolutely, Elliot and Pamela were close friends of the family. In fact that is why I recommended to our bank manager that Elliot be allowed to set up a bank account for the new business he was starting."

"About that business Mrs. Taylor, the thing is, Mr. Granger had never personally met Mr. Ravenwood before this account was set up so it would be easy for you and Mr. Morris to deceive him. With his background in costume design, Mr. Morris disguised himself as Elliot Ravenwood, and it was he who opened up the account.

"You'll have to ask him, for I know nothing about it," Audrey replied.

"Sure you do," Elijah said, "After all, you just testified that you not only knew Elliot Ravenwood, but you recommended to your boss that he be able to set up an account. You were present when the business papers were signed as this would reflect well on your account referrals record. You certainly would have noticed, as the bank's security guard told me that he did, that the man who signed the paperwork had a small tattoo on his left wrist. My client does not have a tattoo on his left wrist, but your fiancé, Daniel Morris, does."

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Audrey replied.

"If only that was true Mrs. Taylor, if only that was true. These DVDs though, tell a different story. Your Honor at this time I would wish to enter into evidence 8 days worth of bank surveillance videos and have them marked Defense Exhibit C for identification. I would also at this time wish to show portions of these tapes to the court." The clerk marked the tapes as requested while a television and DVD player was wheeled into the courtroom. After a few minutes of setup, Elijah cued up the tapes to the desired sections.

"What you're about to see on these tapes Mrs. Taylor is that in fact Daniel Morris, disguised as Elliot Ravenwood, was a frequent visitor of yours," Elijah said. Elijah then proceeded to show the court 3 of the videos, fast forwarding to the portions of the tape where 'Elliot Ravenwood' visited the cash cage.

Elijah paused for a moment, and then continued. "Look, the man in all of these videos has the same tattoo that the bank security guard remembers. This man also has the same tattoo that we saw today on the wrist of Daniel Morris. How do you explain not knowing that it was him?"

"I wasn't in the cash cage, for I'm not the central teller. Obviously, Daniel came up to Ashley Mortland, so why don't you question her instead of harassing me?" Audrey retorted.

"That was you in the cash cage all right," Elijah said. "You see I always wondered why this man always came to the bank at around 10:00 AM. What was going on at 10 o'clock everyday? As I went through the bank records, I found out what was going on: cash deliveries. Between 9:30 and 10:30 every morning, Ashley Mortland wasn't at the business wicket because she was in the basement with Mr. Granger, signing and observing the delivery and removal of money from the bank's vaults. Since Mr. Granger testified that only trained personnel would be allowed to work at the business wicket that meant that you were the only person on duty, who could have been the teller at that time on this tape. You knew you'd be there and Daniel Morris knew you'd be there because both of you set up the embezzlement scheme together. Together you found out how to launder the money right under the bank's nose."

"What you just said is absolutely not true and I can prove it. Show the last tape to me if you please," Audrey said. Elijah went along and backed the DVD up to the last transaction. "You see Mr. Deville, did you count how much money was handed out. It was 6 stacks of 20 dollar bills which totals $12,000. Now I've sat through this trial from the beginning and I know for a fact that the embezzled money was withdrawn in the amount of $11,164.29. Although Daniel might have fooled me, and been the man at this point of the security footage, these transactions must not have been the ones in question because if you check my records, when I'm in the cash cage, I am never out any money," Audrey said smugly. The courtroom was all a buzz when they thought that Elijah had been outsmarted. Even Samantha had an amused look on her face.

"You know Mrs. Taylor," Elijah said, "even the investigator that I hired to look into this case had missed this one. It is true, that you are never out any money, not even a penny. The question is not whether this was the actual transaction, because it was. The real question is did you actually hand out any money?"

"I don't quite understand. The tape shows that $12,000.00 in cash was handed out."

"Does it? You see our eyes have a bad habit of fooling our brain into thinking we saw something happen when in fact it did not," Elijah said as everyone in the courtroom looked befuddled. "You see, since Canadian Twenty Dollar Bills are green, and since we saw that the money handed out in the bank was green, we therefore assumed that the money handed out were stacks of Canadian Twenty Dollar Bills. Upon a closer examination this couldn't be farther from the truth. What you actually handed out was not 6 stacks of Canadian Twenty Dollar Bills totaling $12,000.00, but 6 stacks of Monopoly Twenty Dollar Bills totaling absolutely nothing. You were very clever in disguising the large 20 in the center by putting the bank strap around it, but as an avid fan of the game of Monopoly it was quite elementary to uncover your deception.

After handing out the fake money, it became necessary to deposit the real money withdrawn from the "Just in Time Supplies' business account, into accounts owned by you and Daniel Morris. Your account was registered under Audrey Hastert, your maiden name, while Daniel Morris' account was under the name Dennis Morse, his birth name. How you accomplished this without being noticed, is a little more complex. First, you needed access to other teller's personal ID cards and passwords so that you could deposit the stolen money into your accounts using their names as having completed the transaction. You used a magnetic strip collector to do this. Next, you needed a way to remove the almost $12,000 from the cash cage. How you accomplished this was very sneaky. You see that large purse you're carrying. That purse is also found on the videos and could easily carry a large amount of money without attracting attention. Lastly, you needed Daniel's expertise of computers in order to accomplish this last part. Daniel Morris, on your instructions, created a computer program that would allow you to create deposit transactions before the time that they were supposed to have occurred. You always preprogrammed the deposits before the bank opened, I assume because it's the only point of the day you had the time. These slips would then print out at your printer during the course of the day and nothing would seem out of place. You would then privately, while on break add these slips to the plastic envelopes of the embezzled money and hand it back with all of your deposits.

Now ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you might be asking why they went to all of this trouble to conceal the money. Why didn't she just hand it out in the beginning? The problem was if she had done it this way, then it would have been harder to deposit the money into their own accounts without raising suspicion. It would have definitely been slower. Since they were planning to deal with hundreds of thousands of dollars, doing it a slower way simply would not have been feasible. Their only other option was to keep the money in the bank and have Audrey deposit the money by executing this complex scheme."

Elijah, finishing his soliloquy to the jury, turned back to Audrey and said, "So, how did I do, Mrs. Taylor?"

"Everything you just said is a lie. None of it's true. You have no proof," Audrey said defiantly.

"I never make unsubstantiated claims in court," Elijah said. "I now would like to show the court more video evidence that shows what I have just been stating is true." Elijah started and stopped the tape about a dozen times, showing that transaction slips printed at Audrey Taylor's wicket when no deposits or withdrawals were being made. The tape also showed that she collected these slips until her break, at which time she took them with her. "This stack of records, are the computer printouts of all of the deposits seen on those video tapes. I ask that they be marked Defense Exhibit D," Elijah said as the clerk took and labeled the evidence. "As you can see, these deposits match the deposits found on these two bank statements, one owned by you, and one owned by Mr. Morris. I ask the court to label these two statements Defense Exhibits E and F." Elijah paused for a moment to catch his breath while the clerk labeled the evidence.

"I have to hand it to you Mrs. Taylor. You devised a very ingenious plan. But just like so many well laid plans this plan had one flaw: unlike Daniel, you don't know all that much about computers. Up until now, you could have easily denied what I said, without any way for me to prove otherwise. But it's that flaw that's going to get you, for what you may not have noticed is that each terminal at the bank is labeled, and each transaction can be traced to a computer terminal. For instance, the transaction number '01-23456-1032-090504 Audrey Taylor' would tell me that that the transaction took place on terminal 1, at 10:32 am on May 4,2009, by Audrey Taylor and was numbered 23456. You probably never noticed or cared how the transaction was labeled, but in this case that hurt you. The transaction that I just read was the first transaction ever done over the period of this scheme. The next transaction, the one for the same amount that was supposed to have been done by another teller was labeled '01-23876-1042-090504 Janice Turnbow.' Although it appears that Ms. Turnbow completed this transaction, she couldn't have, because it was done at Terminal 1, your terminal and not at Ms. Turnbow's terminal which would have been terminal 11 that morning. You withdrew all of the money from the front company's accounts, which the tapes corroborate, and then you deposited it in smaller amounts into the two personal accounts that I just mentioned. It was you who stole this money, wasn't it?" asked Elijah.

After a short pause, Audrey answered, "Yes, Daniel and I were the ones who embezzled the money from the park, but we didn't kill him. I was in Montreal the night the ride was torched and didn't land at Pearson until 2 AM."

"You most certainly did kill your husband, and I can prove that too. Sure your charter returned at 2 AM along with some local tellers from the area, but you weren't on that plane. How do I know that you might ask? Because you drove your car, License number YVRZ 602, out of long term parking at Pearson at 5:25 PM on June 30, 2010 according to a credit card receipt you signed. You were back in Toronto at 5:00 and a 45 minute drive to the park would put you there just about the time to hear your husband and Elliot fighting about the embezzlement. Whether or not you intended to frame Elliot for the murder before that argument is immaterial, the fact is that you did frame him. You had Daniel buy the torch, having him sign Elliot's name on the receipt as he had done many times before. He then gave the torch to you and you then went and sabotaged the ride that night. It was you that Elliot heard at midnight, and, being an avid rock climber, you could have easily stood on the side of the ravine in the bushes without being seen. The next morning, you had Daniel hide the tank and bolts in Elliot's car, which was the reason that Daniel was late to work. All of that, so you could hide the fact that you were afraid that your husband might eventually find out that it was you who stole the money. You had means, motive and opportunity. You killed Scott Taylor, didn't you?"

"I did not!" Audrey exclaimed. "It is true that I landed at Pearson at 5:00 and not 2:00 AM, but I was no where near the park that night. I was at a local hotel meeting Daniel. The hotel is on Century Rd., just off of Exit 39 on Highway 407. We checked in at 5:45 PM and were both there until we checked out at 2:30 AM. Neither of us left the hotel the entire night."

"Oh come on. You have lied to this court about your involvement in the embezzlement; you have lied to this court about when you arrived back in Toronto, so why should this court believe you now, in what is an obvious attempt to save your own hide?"

"You don't have to take my word for it, just check the hotel registration, just check with the two room service bills signed by Daniel and myself, just check with the man who brought us our food that night. All will testify that we were both there that night and did not leave until 2:30 in the morning."

The courtroom was in obvious shock at the revelation, while Samantha was in obvious jubilation as she tossed her pencil on the table and leaned back in her chair. As for Elijah, his face couldn't describe the utter disbelief he felt in being dealt a major blow to proving his client innocent.

"Your Honor," Elijah said, "The defense moves for an adjournment until the scheduled time tomorrow, so that we can corroborate this witness' testimony."

"Your motion is granted. This court will stand adjourned until 2:30 tomorrow afternoon, at which time the defense will continue, if it desires to, the examination of this witness," Justice Richardson announced.

The gallery quickly filed out of the courtroom as reporters ran down the halls to the front steps to begin filing their story for the 6 PM news. Elijah walked over to Cameron and told him to go to the hotel in question and verify this newly discovered alibi. As Cameron quickly left, a disgusted Elijah slowly walked out of the courtroom. He hated surprises! Especially ones that made him look like a fool in court. Unless he could unravel this one, reality was quickly beginning to set in that he could lose this case, resulting in Elliot spending the rest of his life in prison. That situation, of letting an innocent man rot in jail, was intolerable to Elijah, but alas, as the afternoon became evening, it was something that he might be powerless to prevent.

**********

# Chapter 21

_When Idle Words Come Back to Haunt You_

"I thought we had them!" Elijah said from the living room of his large, grey, two storey home located in the north east section of Toronto known as Rosedale.

"What happened in there?" Elliot asked, "Yesterday evening when we were talking, everything seemed to fit nicely together, and now, night has fallen and we're still no closer to finding the real murderer."

"It's called we didn't have all of our ducks in a row," Becca replied sipping her water. "Since the defense doesn't have the burden of proof and only has to show reasonable doubt, sometimes the conclusions we draw come back to bite us in the butt."

"Still Becca, this was an amateur mistake on my part," Elijah said in despair. "We worked so hard on the angle that the embezzler had to be the murderer that we twisted the facts we had to suit our theory, instead of our theory to suit the facts. The facts we thought pointed to Daniel and Audrey as the murderers in actuality do not point any such way. We could not place either one at the park, and even though Audrey lied as to when she arrived back in Toronto, we should have investigated further as to her whereabouts. Instead, we drew an inference and ended up jumping to the wrong conclusion."

"So what do we do now Elijah?" Becca asked. "Do we look at other suspects? What about Tim Parker and Kevin Craig. Perhaps we need to give them another look. They after all had a lot to gain with Scott Taylor out of the way."

"Tim Parker and Kevin Craig could have done it, but what was their motive? The OPP were already onto their drug scheme, so it only would have been a matter of time before they were exposed," Elijah said.

"Yeah, but they didn't know that. I say we give them another look," Becca said.

"You can give it a try, but I don't think you'll get anywhere," Elijah said.

"Then what do we do!" Pamela said. "My husband is about to be convicted of a murder that he didn't commit, and all that seems to matter to you is that you were hoodwinked in the courtroom."

"It does matter that I was hoodwinked in the courtroom!" Elijah responded. "I'm not discouraged because my ego was hurt here, but because I'm running out of time to show that your husband didn't kill Scott Taylor. Sending an innocent man to jail is a vast injustice, but that is exactly what will happen unless we find something in the evidence already collected. The solution to this murder is sitting right here in this stack of papers. I have been through the interviews and exhibits a dozen times but still haven't found that one clue which will prove to be the key. I know it's there though."

Cameron's car pulled into the driveway, and Elijah saw him admiring the house as he walked up the flight of stairs to the front door. Becca opened the door and invited Cameron inside.

"Wow, you and Becca really have a nice house. How much did it cost you?" Cameron said.

"That doesn't concern you," Elijah commented. "So what have you got for us?"

"Audrey's story checks out. Both her and Daniel checked into the hotel on Century Rd. at 5:45 PM and were shown to their room. The hotel offers 24-hour room service which the couple took complete advantage of. At 8:00 PM they ordered dinner, to which Audrey signed for, and at 11:00 PM, they ordered dessert to which Daniel signed for. The dinner trays were picked up by the waiter who remembers Daniel handing them to him, while the dessert trays were handed to the waiter by Audrey at 1:45 AM. They checked out of the hotel at 2:35 AM. It is exactly how Audrey Taylor described it in court today."

"Doesn't that seem a little odd to you? It's almost as if they went out of their way to show the waiter that they both were in the room. One picked up dinner, one handed back the trays. Then one picked up dessert and the other handed back the trays. Now that could be just a coincidence or a crafty ploy to hide the fact that there was only 1 person in the hotel room," Elijah said.

"That still doesn't prove anything. Besides, both times food was delivered, the waiter remembers hearing the shower. Two people were in that hotel room and no one can prove otherwise," Cameron responded.

"Dinner's ready!" Becca yelled, carrying a pot roast into the dining room.

"Smells good," Cameron said. As he sat down at the table he remarked, "Elijah, not only is your sister a great lawyer, it looks like she's a good cook as well."

"Hey, wait a minute. I cook in this house too. It just so happens that it was her night," Elijah said as he sat down.

Once everyone had gathered around the table, Elijah said a prayer and everyone began to eat. Cameron thanked Becca for the dinner invitation commenting that this was the first home cooked meal he had had in weeks. When asked why, Cameron said that between school and investigative work, he barely spends anytime in his house, let alone in the kitchen, cooking.

A tradition in the Deville house is that whoever doesn't cook does the dishes. After everyone was done eating their meal along with their cheesecake for dessert, Elijah went into the kitchen to tackle the mounting load of plates and silverware. The rest went into the family room that was adjacent to the kitchen and turned on the 6 o'clock Toronto Television Newscast. The lead story of course was the debacle for the defense. Reporters described the scene as an embarrassment for the city renowned lawyer Elijah Deville who rarely makes mistakes in the courtroom. During the story, the crime reporter tried to ask Audrey Taylor, who the police were leading away in handcuffs, if she had killed her husband, but got no response. After the report was finished, the next piece was about how the police had finally arrested a man who fled the scene of a hit and run accident on June 30, 2010. Bored with the news, Becca picked up the clicker and changed the channel. Just as she was going to begin an epic round of channel surfing, Elijah yelled from the kitchen for her to go back to TTV and turn up the volume. Upon returning to the program, Police Correspondent Tammy Cerise was about to begin reporting.

"At 7:00 PM on June 30, 2010, a family's life was changed forever," the story began. "Traveling westbound on the 407 just east of Exit 39 in Mississauga, the SUV carrying Edwin and Marissa Cloverleaf and their 10 year daughter Miranda was struck in the rear by a passing pickup truck. The SUV swerved off of the road and hit a lamp post, while the driver of the pickup truck fled the scene. EMS arrived on the scene at around 7:20 PM, and managed to pull all three victims from the car. Despite life saving procedures being performed, Mr. and Mrs. Cloverleaf died at the hospital a short time later, orphaning their only daughter who sustained only minor injuries. The suspect in custody is Terry Giguere of Oshawa. He was arrested late Tuesday night after a tip was received by the OPP saying that Giguere had confessed to a neighbor about accidentally being involved in a motor accident that he had ran away from. Giguere is charged with fleeing the scene of a crime for now, although the crown expects to file other charges in the near future. For TTV news, I'm Tammy Cerise, back to you Cale and Kristy."

After hearing the story, Elijah immediately dropped the plate that he was washing and ran to the living room. Hearing the commotion, Becca and the others rushed after him, not knowing what the matter was. Once they got to the living room, all they could see was Elijah frantically rifling through papers, quickly reading them and then casting aside the irrelevant ones.

"What's the matter Elijah?" Becca asked.

"I don't know yet, but I think I just remembered something that we previous thought was meaningless, which in fact could be the answer to all of our problems." Elijah then found a copy of an interview stapled to a receipt and his eyes opened so wide, that you thought they might fall out.

"What is it?" Becca said.

Elijah showed them the papers and said "It was there all along." Becca then showed the papers to Elliot, Pamela and Cameron. Elijah leaned back on the sofa and remarked "Sometimes the smallest detail will end up being the deciding factor."

**********

# Chapter 22

_Taking the 5th...Sort of_

The next day in the courtroom, Elijah sat down with a much better disposition than the one that he had left with the day before. Once the judge entered the courtroom, she asked Elijah how he wished to proceed.

"If I may interrupt Your Honor," Samantha said, "the crown has something that it wishes to say."

"Go ahead Ms. Howard," the judge said.

"Due to the testimony presented yesterday, the crown wishes to dismiss the charges of fraud and theft against Mr. Ravenwood, but will proceed on the top count of murder in the 1st degree."

"On the motion of the crown, those charges are dismissed. The jury will now not render a verdict on those counts of the indictment. Even with this being the case, you still can consider this evidence as a possible motive for the top count of Murder in the 1st Degree." After a short pause, the judge again asked Elijah how he wished to proceed.

"Your Honor, I wish to continue my examination of Audrey Taylor."

Audrey Taylor, now being escorted to the stand by a bailiff, was reminded by the judge that she was still under oath.

"Mrs. Taylor, my what a difference a day makes. I mean when you entered this courtroom yesterday, you were a free woman, and now you have to be brought into court by a police escort."

"Objection Your Honor, the defense counsel is badgering the witness and is trying to illicit testimony that is irrelevant to this case."

"The objection is sustained. Mr. Deville please refrain from commentary and start asking questions," Justice Richardson said.

"Yes Your Honor," Elijah responded. "Yesterday you shocked this court in revealing that when you left the airport at around 5:25, you went to a hotel on Century Rd. and checked in around 5:45 PM with Daniel Morris and remained there until 2:30 AM the next morning. Is that still your testimony?" Elijah asked.

"It's the truth Mr. Deville," Audrey said.

"Yes, and we confirmed that you did check in with Mr. Morris at 5:45 PM, you did order room service at 8 PM and 11 PM and that the waiter remembers seeing both of you at one time or another throughout the night. What is interesting though is that he never reports seeing both of you at the same time. I mean on two occasions you answered the door and on two occasions Daniel answered the door. He remembers that he never saw both of you standing in the room when he arrived."

"That probably means that one of us was in the bathroom because neither of us left all night."

"Oh I don't believe that is true, not for a minute. Last night, I was brooding over that question for a few hours, for I knew in my heart of hearts that both you and Daniel killed your husband, but I couldn't prove that you had in fact left the hotel. I couldn't prove it until listening to last night's news report that is.

Upon hearing the report about the hit and run accident that took place on the 407 on June 30th of last year, all the pieces began to fit into place. First of all, your husband hated driving on the 407 did he not?" Elijah asked.

"Yes he did, he felt it was a waste of money," Audrey responded.

"But you like driving on it, is that correct?"

"I would drive the 407 whenever it got me to where I was going. It helped me avoid the horrendous traffic of the 401."

"You see, the fact that you liked the 407, but your husband hated it always bugged me a little. If your husband hated the 407 so much, why did he drive on it twice the night before he was killed? And if you loved the 407 so much, why didn't you drive on it after leaving the airport? After looking at your toll statement, one that will be placed into evidence as Defense exhibit G; your husband's license plate only appeared on the bill 3 times in the last six months, all three on June 30, 2010. Your license plate appears nowhere on the bill on this date.

The bill also shows that he didn't even let you drive on the 407 the next day when you told me that you drove the family to the park. Then it hit me, what if he wasn't driving his car that night," Elijah said.

"You're joking! Of course Scott was driving his car. He always drove it."

"Yes he did, but you and your husband owned twin Mercedes Benz convertibles did you not?"

"Yes we did."

"You told my associate Rebecca, that as a special feature, you had identical keys made for the doors and ignition of the car, so that either person could use either car without needing an extra set of keys. Is that correct Mrs. Taylor?"

"Yes it is, but we never got our cars mixed up."

"Sure when they were in the driveway. You had your spot and he had his. You parked on the left side of the driveway and he parked on the right side of the driveway. Except at the park, the situation would have been reversed. You see the CEOs car would have been parked on the left, and right next to it, on the right, a guest of the CEO was able to park. I checked the signage myself just to be sure. According to security, this spot was normally empty unless you visited the park. You did visit the park the night before the murder didn't you? After checking into the hotel, you quickly left so that you could get to the park before your husband departed for the evening. You see, you needed your husband's ID badge in order to get into the park later that night. You were careful not to take the toll highway so that there would be no record of your visit. However, when you got there, you overheard the now famous argument between your husband and Elliot and got a brilliant idea. Instead of making the crash appear as just a freak accident, you decided to frame Elliot for the murder. But in your haste to leave and get Daniel to buy an acetylene tank using Elliot's name, you rushed out of the park and drove off in your husband's car. Since your husband stormed out in a rage a few minutes later, he probably didn't notice that his car wasn't in its normal spot and as a result, drove your car home. Isn't it true that it was your husband's car that you were driving that night? Isn't it true, while driving that car, out of a force of habit, you entered the 407 at 7:11 PM and got off at Exit 39 at 7:30 PM? Isn't it true, that you returned to the park later that night, again driving your husband's car? Isn't it true that you stole your husband's pass and used his fingerprint to bypass security that night so you could sabotage the ride? Isn't it true that it was you who asked Daniel Morris to buy the torch in Elliot Ravenwood's name? Isn't it also true that you were the mysterious "A." in the note found in Scott Taylor's notepad? He wasn't accusing Elliot Ravenwood of theft. He was reminding himself to chew you out for racking up $500 per month bills driving on the Highway 407, or as it is otherwise known, the 'Express Toll Route'. Isn't all of that true?"

"That is absolutely not true! You can't prove a word that you just said. I didn't kill my husband!" Audrey yelled.

"I most certainly can prove it-- and I will," Elijah said indignantly. "Have you ever witnessed an accident on the 407?"

"Yes, I have," Audrey replied.

"Did you witness one on the night of June 30, 2010.

"I don't know, but if you're talking about the hit and run accident that orphaned a little girl, then yes I saw the aftermath of that accident."

"Well then that's a problem. The accident you just described took place on June 30, 2010 at 7:00 PM about 1 km east of Exit 39 of the 407. Your car was never recorded as being on the 407 that night. Your husband's car on the other hand, was on the 407 that night, in fact, the car got off on Exit 39 twice that night, once being right around the time of this accident. My question to you though is this: if you didn't leave the hotel that night, and if your car, the one that you left the airport in, was never on the 407 that night, how did you witness the aftermath of that accident, the one you described to Elliot and Rebecca in such vivid detail? The only way you could have witnessed that accident was if you were driving your husband's car. And the only way you could be driving your husband's car was if you visited the park that night. You drove your husband's car that night. You returned to the park, and you sabotaged the ride. You killed Scott Taylor, didn't you?" Elijah asked.

After about 15 seconds Audrey responded, "Mr. Deville, you have all but convicted me for embezzling money, I'm not going to let you do the same for murder, so I respectfully invoke my 5th Amendment rights and refuse to answer any more questions until such time that I can speak to my attorney."

Elijah chuckled rather loudly and remarked, "You see that's one of the problems of American TV being broadcast up here in Canada. People watch shows like Law and Order, CSI and Criminal Minds and come away thinking that Canada's Justice system is exactly the same as America's Justice System. First year law students come to law school with the same misconceptions.

Mrs. Taylor, you can't claim your 5th Amendment rights, because Canada does not have a 5th Amendment. Now I've had students tell me that we have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Section 13 of that document contains the same right against self incrimination as the 5th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

But is that truly the case? Let's examine the two documents to find out. In the U.S., the 5th Amendment reads as follows:

'No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.'

That is a very powerful right, one that many criminals have availed themselves of. But the question is, does Canada grant the exact same right? Let everyone in this courtroom be the judge. The 13th Section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms says that:

'A witness who testifies in any proceedings has the right not to have any incriminating evidence so given used to incriminate that witness in any other proceedings, except in a prosecution for perjury or for the giving of contradictory evidence.'

The parts on self incrimination are similar though not the same. In the United States, everyone has the right not to incriminate themselves in courts of law or anywhere else, and can refuse to answer any question if they are afraid of doing such. In Canada, suspects do not have to answer questions unless they're in court. If you are called as a witness (though an accused cannot be compelled to testify), you must answer all questions. The answers you give in court though cannot be used against you at another trial. What this means Mrs. Taylor, is that you must answer the question. Just so you remember, I asked you how you could have seen the aftermath of an accident on the 407 at around 7:30 PM when you were supposed to have never left the hotel until early the next morning."

Audrey, glaring back at Elijah, responded, "Mr. Deville, I told you that I was no where near the park that night. I don't know who was driving Scott's car but it wasn't me. I did not kill my husband and you can't prove that I did. There's nothing you can say that will convince me to change my story."

"Maybe not Mrs. Taylor, but I don't have to provide definitive proof that you killed your husband, that's the work for the police and the crown attorney. My job is to show this jury that there is a reasonable doubt that Elliot Ravenwood killed your husband, and I believe I have done that.

With that being said, all of the evidence points to you and Daniel Morris as the killers of your husband. It will only be a matter of time before the police find a witness who saw you in a car near the park that night. When that happens, I hope you can find a good lawyer, because the charge will be Murder in the 1st degree. No further questions."

"Does the crown wish to cross-examine this witness?" the judge said.

"No, Your Honor," Samantha said quietly.

"The crown now has the opportunity to call any rebuttal witnesses. Does it wish to do so?" Justice Richardson asked.

"We don't have any, Your Honor."

"The time is now 4:00 PM," Justice Richardson stated. "Even though it is late in the day, I see no reason that we should not proceed to closing arguments. Mr. Deville, you're up."

**********

# Chapter 23

_Closing Time_

"After 3 days of testimony, the case is now in your hands," Elijah told the jury. "When you go into the deliberation room, you will be deciding on the guilt or innocence of Elliot Ravenwood. You are probably going to be asking many questions. While these questions might be important, there's only one that really matters-- has the crown proven guilt beyond a reasonable doubt? This is the standard of proof that we have in this country, and the only thing that you can consider when determining the innocence or guilt of the accused.

So I ask you the question: 'Was Elliot Ravenwood proven to have committed 1st Degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt?' Now you probably know what my answer would be, but I prefer to let the evidence speak for itself.

First, the crown contends that my client bought a torch using his own name, brought it to the park, sabotaged the Colossus, and then, instead of disposing of the incriminating evidence, kept it in his trunk for the police to find. Does that sound like a logical thing to do by a person who obviously planned an ingenious murder? If you were the ones committing this murder, would you have done something so stupid? The obvious answer is no. The only criminals who act this reckless are the ones that are depicted in the numerous mystery novels that are found at your local library. What makes the crown's conclusion even more untenable is the fact that there weren't any fingerprints on the torch. Now think about it. The crown wants you to conclude that Elliot Ravenwood remembered to wipe his fingerprints off of the torch, but not remember to dispose it. As my father used to tell me when I was younger, this theory doesn't pass the smell test.

Next, the crown wants you to believe that my client committed this murder because he was afraid of being exposed as an embezzler. We now know that Mr. Ravenwood isn't guilty of those charges, so again, the crown's evidence has been refuted.

Finally, they want you to believe that since my client was seen near the ride on the night before the murder, that he must have sabotaged it. They have not explained how Mr. Amherst, the park's security guard, noted that my client wasn't dirty after almost 45 minutes of using an acetylene torch. They also didn't show how my client was supposed to have sabotaged the computer system. We have presented evidence that the ride's computer was so sophisticated, that even an expert thought it was tamper proof. If this is true, then it would have taken another expert to successfully alter the program without other people finding out. My client is a lot of things, but a computer genius he is not. There is no way that he could have re-programmed this computer. So, as has clearly been shown, the crown hasn't proven these points either.

But even if you can get past these assertions and actually believe that the crown has established these facts, you must also consider that the defense has shown that it is not only possible for someone else to have committed this crime, but that it is highly probable that someone else did in fact do just that.

To understand how we have done this, you must ask yourself a few questions. To begin with, who had a real motive for murdering Scott Taylor? The crown contended that my client did. But the evidence doesn't support that because Elliot Ravenwood did not embezzle from the park. That leaves us with the answer being Audrey Taylor and Daniel Morris. After all, it was they who swindled $1 million away from the park. They knew that unless Scott Taylor was killed, that eventually he would find out about their involvement in the theft, and report it to the police.

Next, who had the real means to murder Scott Taylor? Again, the crown contended that my client did because he was seen walking down the steps of the ride the night that it was sabotaged. But my client did not have any experience with acetylene torches, so how could he torch the ride, let alone come down its steps completely clean? With this being the case, the answer then returns to Audrey Taylor and Daniel Morris. Having worked as a computer programmer, it was easy for Mr. Morris to have altered the ride's safety program without anyone else knowing. Who else besides Mr. Morris could have done this? Certainly not my client, for he barely knows how to run his home computer, let alone a program as sophisticated as this one was.

As for Mrs. Taylor, she worked as a welder when she was younger, providing her with the required expertise to torch the casings just enough to insure disaster, but not enough to be noticed before the inaugural ride. The lack of detection was also ensured because Daniel Morris, her accomplice in this crime intentionally did not inspect the ride that morning. They made it look like an accident, but an accident it was not.

Finally, who had the real opportunity to murder Scott Taylor? It was certainly not my client, because he was in his office until midnight. Now I don't want to sound like a broken record, but that only leaves us with Audrey Taylor and Daniel Morris. Sure they said that they had checked into a hotel that night, but besides the front desk, who actually saw them together for the rest of the night? The answer is nobody did. The room service attendant saw Mrs. Taylor the first time, but not Daniel Morris. That's because Daniel Morris was out buying the acetylene torch. The second time, the attendant saw Daniel Morris, but not Audrey Taylor. That's because Mrs. Taylor was at the park, sabotaging the Colossus. How do I know this? It's because of the Highway 407 logs. These logs place Mrs. Taylor in her husband's car the night before the murder because she witnessed an accident on the 407 at the very time she was supposed to be in her hotel room. The only way she could have swapped cars, was if she was at the park before 7:00 PM that night. If she had her husband's car at 7 o'clock, she had it later on that night, when logs showed that the car returned to the park. It was assumed that Scott Taylor returned to the park that night, when in actuality, his wife returned and used his ID badge and fingerprint to gain access. It was at this time, between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM, that she sabotaged the ride. Now she denies this description of the events, but I assure you that it is the absolute truth.

So you see ladies and gentlemen, we have clearly shown that there is reasonable doubt that my client committed this murder. In fact I can go further in saying that there's more than just reasonable doubt, there's significant doubt that my client committed this murder. In all fairness, and in the interest of justice, you must therefore find my client not guilty of these charges. Thank you very much."

With Elijah sitting down, it was now the crown's turn to provide a closing statement.

"I thank you ladies and gentlemen of the jury for being attentive and taking notes throughout the course of this trial," Samantha began by saying. "The defense counsel just got up here and gave a great oratory on reasonable doubt. He's correct in saying that the crown must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. That's the standard of proof that our justice system demands. It is the only fair way to make sure that the innocent go free and the guilty go to jail. It is the only way to insure that the police follow the law and the crown follows procedure when prosecuting crimes. It is at the very foundation of our criminal justice system.

After that great explanation however, his speech sort of ran into the ditch. You see, he seems to think that suppositions and innuendo take the place of fact in showing reasonable doubt. His entire story about Mrs. Taylor and Mr. Morris is entirely based on his opinion. There's not one shred of proof. He doesn't have an eyewitness who would place Mr. Morris in the store buying the torch. That type of evidence could prove crippling to our case for it would clearly show that Elliot Ravenwood did not buy the torch. This would obviously lead us to question that if Elliot Ravenwood didn't buy the torch, did he have the opportunity to commit the murder since he and Mr. Morris did not even know each other. If Mr. Deville is so certain that Mr. Morris bought the torch, why didn't he produce the seller of the torch in court? The answer is because Mr. Morris didn't buy the torch, his client, Elliot Ravenwood did.

Mr. Deville also doesn't have any eyewitnesses to place Audrey Taylor at the park sabotaging the Colossus. Certainly a security guard would have noticed a beautiful woman in the park had she been there. Certainly he would have smelled her perfume when he went to investigate the claims that Mr. Ravenwood had seen something going on near the Colossus. But the security guard neither saw nor smelt any of these things because Audrey Taylor was not at the park that night. Elliot Ravenwood was at the park, and he was seen near the ride. So what if he wasn't dirty. For all we know, he might have put on a pair of overalls to protect his clothing. The fact of the matter is that he was the only one seen near the ride that night. He is the only one with the opportunity. As for Audrey Taylor having witnessed an accident on the 407, it only serves as a distraction in order to confuse you. She could have witnessed that accident while on an evening walk since the highway is only a 10 minute walk from the hotel. Mr. Deville doesn't have one piece of physical evidence to place Mrs. Taylor behind the wheel of her husband's car, so you can't consider his suppositions as evidence. You can't acquit based on an opinion. You must have facts, and Mr. Deville doesn't have facts. Let's examine his closing arguments more closely and the lack of evidence for Mr. Deville's claims will become quite clear to you.

Mr. Deville begins by telling you that since Elliot Ravenwood didn't commit the embezzlement, that he couldn't have possibly had a motive to kill Scott Taylor. This is patently false. First of all, although he knew that he didn't do it, the fact remained that Mr. Taylor thought he did. If the word got out that the accused was even suspected of fraud or theft, then Mr. Ravenwood could kiss his reputation good-bye and thus any chance of advancement. No, Elliot Ravenwood had a motive, and it was to keep Scott Taylor from even announcing that he might be involved with the embezzlement. He devised the plan in his office that night, and then executed it.

Mr. Deville then proceeded to tell you that because nobody saw the accused torch the ride and because the accused is not skilled with an acetylene torch that he couldn't have possibly done it. This again is false. The whole idea of this crime was to have no eye witnesses. The lack of eye witnesses doesn't prove a thing. And whether or not the accused is skilled with a torch does not mean that he couldn't have used one. People do things that they're not skilled at all the time. If people didn't, you wouldn't see all these remodeling shows on TV trying to fix what an unskilled person thought they could do themselves. Inexperience does not mean that the accused didn't do it.

The lack of fingerprints on the torch also does not prove that the accused didn't do it. It certainly doesn't prove that this was the work of a moron. People do funny things under pressure and I'm sure Mr. Ravenwood thought that he would have time to get rid of the torch. He simply wiped off his prints so that he wouldn't forget later. That is reasonable to deduce. To prove my point, I ask you, just as Mr. Deville did, that if you would have committed this crime, wouldn't it have been easy to assume that you would have had time to dispose of the weapon later. After all, it would certainly take police days to investigate the crime and develop suspects, giving you ample time to dispose of the torch. In this case though, you would have been unlucky because the police found out about the embezzlement investigation early and immediately made an arrest. They then had probable cause to search your car, where the torch and bolts were found. So you see, even though you're smart and intelligent, it doesn't make you immune from making a mistake in judgment that could end up proving you guilty of murder.

Mr. Deville then went on to challenge the signed receipt, saying that Daniel Morris forged it. This was pure speculation on the defense counsel's part without any proof to back it up. Again I ask you, where was the shop keeper to verify this. He wasn't called because Daniel Morris didn't forge the signature, for it was the real signature of Elliot Ravenwood.

Finally, the defense tried to pin the murder on someone else, again without a shred of proof. I know the defense does not have to show proof, but in order to establish reasonable doubt, there must be a reasonable suspicion that someone else did it. This is not the case in this instance. Audrey Taylor said she didn't kill her husband and was nowhere near the park. No matter what the defense speculated related to the switching of cars and the witnessing of an accident, the fact of the matter is that nothing places Audrey Taylor behind the wheel of her husband's car at anytime on the day before the murder. To assume otherwise is to engage in speculation and ignore established facts.

What are those facts? The torch that sabotaged the ride was found in the trunk of Mr. Ravenwood's car next to a receipt of purchase bearing his signature. Mr. Ravenwood was seen near the ride by a security guard right around the time the ride was sabotaged. Mr. Ravenwood had the motive to keep the false charges about embezzlement from ever surfacing so that he could save his own skin. This clearly shows a deliberate plan to kill Scott Taylor. You have been given means, motive, and opportunity. All of these have been established beyond a reasonable doubt. It is therefore in the interest of justice that you find Mr. Ravenwood guilty of murder in the 1st Degree. Thank you."

"Thank you counselors," Justice Richardson said. "Now it is my turn. Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, the case is now being presented to you for adjudication. You have heard from the crown and the defense in the matter of the Crown v. Elliot Ravenwood. You must now decide if the charge of murder in the 1st degree was proven beyond a reasonable doubt. This involves three things: was a murder committed, was a 1st degree murder committed and if so, was it proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused committed the crime. If you answer 'no' to any of these aspects you must find the accused not guilty. To fully be able to consider this case though, I must quickly educate you about the law in Canada.

First, murder is not just the killing of another person. It is defined in Section 229 of the Criminal Code of Canada as follows:

(a) where the person who causes the death of a human being means to cause his death, or means to cause him bodily harm that he knows is likely to cause his death, and is reckless whether death ensues or not;

(b) where a person, meaning to cause death to a human being or meaning to cause him bodily harm that he knows is likely to cause his death, and being reckless whether death ensues or not, by accident or mistake causes death to another human being, notwithstanding that he does not mean to cause death or bodily harm to that human being; or

(c) where a person, for an unlawful object, does anything that he knows or ought to know is likely to cause death, and thereby causes death to a human being, notwithstanding that he desires to effect his object without causing death or bodily harm to any human being.

In other words, murder is not an accident. Murder in the 1st degree is defined in Section 231 of the Criminal Code as being planned and deliberate.

In order to convict, you must believe that the crown has proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. A reasonable doubt does not eliminate all doubt, but proof beyond a reasonable doubt eliminates the possibility that a reasonable person would not be able to convict based on the evidence presented. You must find the accused not guilty of 1st degree murder, unless the crown has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that it was the accused who committed the offense at the time and place described in the indictment. Specifically, the crown must have proven each of the following elements beyond a reasonable doubt:

Number one: did the accused commit an unlawful act? This not only has to do with whether the accused actually committed the crime set forth in the indictment, but if the accused did kill Mr. Taylor, was the killing the result of an unlawful act. Unless you are satisfied that the crown proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused committed an unlawful act, you must render a verdict of not guilty. If however you are satisfied that the crown has proven this element beyond a reasonable doubt, you must move onto the next question.

Number two: did the unlawful act of the accused cause Mr. Taylor's death? To prove that the unlawful act caused the victim's death, the crown must have proven beyond a reasonable doubt, that the conduct of the accused contributed significantly to the death of Mr. Taylor. Unless you are satisfied that the crown has proven this part of the case beyond a reasonable doubt, you must return a verdict of not guilty. If you are satisfied, then you must move onto the third question.

Number three: did the accused have the intent required to commit murder? To prove this, the crown would had to have shown beyond a reasonable doubt, that either the accused meant to cause Mr. Taylor's death, or that the accused meant to cause bodily harm that he knew was likely to cause the death of Mr. Taylor. To determine this, you must look at all of the evidence presented in the court, including the nature of the harm inflicted. You may take into account that a person usually knows what the predictable outcome of their actions would be, and means to bring them about. However, you are not required to draw that inference about the accused. Unless you are completely satisfied that the crown has proven this aspect of the case beyond a reasonable doubt, you must return a verdict of not guilty of murder, but guilty of the included offense of manslaughter. If you are satisfied that the crown has proven this element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt, you must move on to the fourth and final question.

Number four: Was the murder of Mr. Taylor, by the accused, planned and deliberate? To prove 1st degree murder, the crown must also have proven that the intended murder was planned and deliberate. This term is not the same as intention. Planned means a calculated scheme that has been carefully thought out. The plan does not have to be complex, nor does it have to have been planned out over a long period of time. Deliberate means that the plan was considered, and not impulsive. It is up to you to decide whether or not the actions of the accused were planned and deliberate. Unless you are satisfied that the crown has proven this beyond a reasonable doubt, you must return a not guilty verdict on the charge of 1st degree murder, but a guilty verdict of the included offence of 2nd degree murder. A verdict of manslaughter is not an option. If you are satisfied, then you must return a verdict of guilty on the charge of 1st degree murder.

Your verdict must be unanimous. You may not consider any mitigating factors as to why the accused may be justified in committing this crime. You may not consider any evidence that was not presented at trial. You may only consider the testimony and evidence given to you during the last three days. Should you request anything, you may send a note to the bailiff at which point the court would re-convene at the earliest possible time to hear the request. As stated at the beginning of the trial, your deliberations begin at 9:00 AM tomorrow morning in Jury Deliberation Room # 7. They will end at 5:00 PM each weekday or when a unanimous verdict has been reached. When a verdict has been reached, you will immediately call the bailiff, who will then inform the court. The verdict will then be read at 9:00 AM in this courtroom on the weekday after that announcement. I advise you to go home and get a good night sleep, and remind you that you are under strict orders to not discuss this case with anyone. With that, this court stands adjourned until such time as a verdict has been reached."

The courtroom gallery quickly filed out. Elijah told Elliot and Pamela to go home and speak to no one, not even their families until the verdict is rendered. He also told them to meet him the next morning in his office, where they could wait temporarily to see if the jury reaches a quick verdict. Elijah, impressed with the results in the courtroom today, decided that tonight after church he would not cook but instead take his sister out to a nice restaurant to celebrate the near end of a difficult case.

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# Chapter 24

_Waiting_

Most residents of Toronto will admit that their city can be quite a cold place in the winter. On some days, when one is standing on the street corner, it can feel like -28 degrees Celsius when the wind-chill is factored in. That, along with the fact that many transit commuters have to wait outside for the bus or subway meant that by the time one got to the office, chances were they're completely frozen.

Such was the case in Elijah's office, where Elijah was standing next to a floor heater he had bought, trying to get warm.

"I told you that you should have bought a thicker coat," Becca said.

"A thicker coat would wrinkle my suit jacket, meaning that I would have to change once I get here. That is simply not an option. No, I am happy to sit here and warm up. Give me 10 minutes and I'll be just fine," Elijah said as rubbed his hands together.

"Suit yourself," Becca said as she picked up a folder off of the table.

"What's that?" Elijah asked.

"This is the application to appeal the conviction and sentence that was just filed with the court of appeals in the Simon Donovan case."

"So it's done then? We're ready to start the appeals process?"

"We're as ready as we're ever going to be. Seeing that there weren't any errors in law at the trial, and we don't have any new evidence to present, I don't know how we're going to win the appeal. This case is about as dead on arrival as I've seen us defend recently," Becca said.

"Even still, we must give it a try. After all, there was just something funny about that case that I can't quite put my finger on, but I believe will prove crucial to solving it. I don't know if it was something that was said at trial or the condition of the crime scene, but something just wasn't right. I mean if you're going to kill the Chief Justice of Ontario, you better make sure you do it well, or you're going to get caught. And yet, if Simon did it, he either didn't plan it too well or was sloppy, both of which do not fit well with his character. I mean as a doctor he was trained to be extremely deliberate and careful, why would he leave himself open to such amateur mistakes?" Elijah said.

"Well Elijah," Becca said, "as Samantha said in this case, people may be well trained in their field, but few people are well trained to be murderers. And even when one is trained, seldom are there no clues for the police to go on. No, even though there are many unsolved murders, I still believe that there is no such thing as the perfect murder. There are just lucky criminals. That being said, I don't think Donovan is one of them. I don't know what you see in him, because I believe he is guilty of murder and he did it just as the crown said."

"Maybe, but that doesn't change my gut feeling, and it doesn't change the fact that we've got to provide him with the best appeal possible. Get Cameron on the case to see if he can dig up anything we could use to get a new trial."

"As you wish," Becca sighed.

At about 10:30, Elliot and his wife, obviously seeking refuge from the cold, knocked on the office door, then came in and sat down.

"Is there any word yet?" Elliot asked.

"The jury just started deliberating 90 minutes ago, so no there's no word yet," Elijah said.

"When do you expect the call?" Pamela said, sounding worried.

"It's hard to say. The crown attorney gave a great closing statement, considering her case was basically blown to bits. It all comes down to which side do you believe?"

"Do you think he'll be acquitted Mr. Deville?" Pamela asked.

"With juries you never know. Based on the evidence, I feel there is sufficient reasonable doubt to acquit, but then again I'm partial-- I'm supposed to believe reasonable doubt is always present. We also have to prepare for the possibility that 1 or 2 jurors aren't convinced one way or another, resulting in a hung jury."

"Is that likely?" Elliot asked.

"In this case probably not. Either the jury will convict if they believe you acted out of self preservation or they'll acquit you if they believe that Daniel and Audrey framed you just as they framed you for the embezzlement. In any case, the jury would have to deliberate for many days before the judge would let them come back deadlocked. Toronto's court system is too log jammed as it is, the last thing we need is to have to re-try this case," Elijah said.

"But if that happened," asked Pamela, "when would the trial be re-scheduled"

"In that event, you're probably looking at any where from late June, early July to early September. You see the courts usually take much of the summer off, sparing time only for bail hearings and preliminary court dates. That is why your trial sped through the system, because your previous lawyer didn't ask for adjournments and because the major portion of the trial, the preliminary work, was completed during the less busy summer session."

"Wow, you say that this trial happened fast, I thought 6 months was rather slow," Elliot remarked.

"Actually, this case traveled at warp speed compared to most murder trials," Becca interjected. "If the crime was committed in another jurisdiction, you could have easily waited 2-4 years for resolution. These places are so backlogged, that their courts just began scheduling trials for crimes committed in 2007."

"How does that fit with the right to a fair and speedy trial?" Pamela asked.

"It doesn't really," Elijah said. "But the reality is that the court system has no money. With times being tough, no government is willing to spend much money on anything, so the courts are understaffed when it comes to judges and underutilized when it comes to space. The effect of this is that trials take a long time. Sometimes lawyers are able to convince a judge that a case has taken too long to resolve itself, but such motions are often denied. This is why many clients plead guilty to crimes they didn't commit. They see it as a way to avoid hefty lawyer fees and a way to move on with their lives. Unfortunately, once they get out of jail, they realize that a criminal record really inhibits their prospects of landing a good paying job. Penny-wise and pound-foolish almost always leads to trouble, especially when it comes to criminal justice."

"Speaking of money," Elliot said, "I have talked to your finance department and they said that you accept monthly payments in order to pay off your fee."

"We do accept monthly payments, however, if you choose to not pay in full by the time the case is resolved, we would give you 1 year interest free starting from the date of the last court appearance. After the one year term has expired, the remaining balance is subject to a 5.4% interest rate which is compounded annually until the balance is paid in full. I highly advise that you pay completely as soon as possible because those interest charges can really come back to haunt you," Elijah explained.

"That's what we thought, but we did want your advice as to the easiest way to pay you," Pamela said.

"All you have to do is write a check to the company and give it to the finance department and they'll handle it from there," Becca said.

The four of them spent the next hour in pleasant conversation as they awaited any news from the courthouse. As noon rolled around, Elijah warned them that they were about to have to go home for the day as he had an afternoon court date and then had to prepare for his Thursday night Evidence Law lecture. Just as they were about to part ways, the phone rang in the office and the room fell silent. Elijah picked it up and the clerk of the court told them that the jury had reached a verdict which would be read at 9:00 am on Friday morning. Elijah then hung up and smiled.

"Three hours, that's good right?" Pamela asked.

"I certainly hope so, ma'am, I certainly hope so. Go home, get a good night sleep and be at the office at 7:30 AM sharp. I'll quickly go over the procedure for the morning, and then we'll take the subway up to the courthouse."

Becca then showed the Ravenwood's out and smiled at her brother as she closed the door to his office. Elijah had gone through many trials before, but waiting for the verdict and the anticipation of what it would be always tied his stomach in knots. On this particular occasion though, he felt a unique sense of calm, knowing that win or lose, he put up the best defense possible given the deck that he was dealt. After a short pause, Elijah went to his computer to go over his notes for the evening lecture.

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# Chapter 25

_We the Jury..._

D-day in the Elliot Ravenwood trial proved to be an even bigger media circus than when the trial began. All of the big name reporters were present to report the final outcome, and all tried, to no avail, to elicit a comment from Elijah or Elliot on their way up the stairs to the courthouse. It didn't hurt that Elijah could give the excuse that it was -34 degrees Celsius and that they for one wanted to get into the warmth of the University Ave. Court Building.

As Elijah had told Elliot, a verdict proceeding is usually very quick. The verdict is read and the jury is polled, and should he be found guilty, a sentencing hearing would be set. Once inside the room, the case proceeded just as expected. Justice Richardson entered the chamber and the clerk called the court to order.

"I understand the jury has reached a unanimous verdict," Justice Richardson stated.

"We have Your Honor," the jury foreman said.

"I would ask the accused to rise, as the foreman reads the verdict." Elijah and Elliot stood up and faced the jury.

"We the jury, in the case of the Crown v. Elliot Ravenwood, find the accused 'Not Guilty' of the crime of Murder in the 1st Degree."

After the verdict was read, Elliot obviously relieved broke down into tears as did his wife in the gallery. It was finally over! Six months of uncertainty was brought to an end and Elliot would get the chance to begin his life again without a cloud over his head. After composing himself, Elliot turned to an elated Elijah and gave a thumbs up, showing the gratitude for the long hours spent in preparing and executing his defense.

There was though, one last piece of business to conduct before the trial would be adjourned.

"Does the crown wish to have the jury polled?"

"We do Your Honor," Samantha said.

Each juror was then asked whether or not the verdict rendered reflected their vote. Each of the 12 jurors answered in the affirmative, which effectively ended the case.

Justice Richardson then presented her final remarks.

"With a verdict of 'Not Guilty' entered into the record, I wish to thank the jury for their service and to all those who participated in this trial for their long hours of work in preparing this case. I do hereby order that the jury be dismissed, the accused be released without any conditions on his movements, and bail be returned. This court is now adjourned."

With that, the bailiff opened the door to the box and Elliot Ravenwood walked out for the first time in six months, a free man. After shaking hands with Becca and Elijah, Elliot assured them that their well deserved check would be in the mail. Elijah wished the Ravenwood's well in the future and then they parted ways.

Before Elijah could leave the courtroom to face the throngs of reporters waiting outside, Samantha motioned him to meet her in the hall. Once there, she shook his hand and had a couple of comments for her old law school professor.

"Well, well, well, the lawyer who never loses pulled a rabbit out of the hat today. How'd you do it Professor?" Samantha asked.

"First off, I do lose, even if only occasionally. Second, I did it by showing the jury that Elliot Ravenwood was actually an innocent man and not the brutal murderer as you contended. I hope this teaches you a lesson, that no case is a slam dunk until the ball goes all the way through the net. From the very beginning, your case had many holes that I simply exploited. It also didn't hurt finding the real murderers in the process. All in all this was a very good day," Elijah said smiling.

"Speaking of that, it is going to be hard to prosecute Audrey Taylor and Daniel Morris for the murder seeing as how the only evidence you had, was their testimony," Samantha said.

"I don't believe that's true for a minute," Elijah said. "You have a clear motive for the crime in that they didn't want their embezzlement scheme exposed. You have the 407 logs that show that the only way that Audrey Taylor could have seen the accident that night, was if she was driving her husband's car. That places her back at the park near the time that the Colossus was sabotaged. You also have the fact that Daniel Morris was a skilled forger and could have easily forged Elliot Ravenwood's signature on the torch's purchase receipt, just as he had done hundreds of times on other documents. Now granted you don't have any eyewitnesses, but I'm sure you will find someone. These two were very good, but every criminal makes mistakes. With a little investigating I'm sure you'll find someone who will identify that Scott Taylor's car was parked outside the hotel instead of Audrey Taylor's car. You might find that Daniel Morris' disguise didn't quite fool the shop owner, who therefore might be able to identify him as the one who bought the torch. Hey, with a little luck, maybe even one of the security guards will remember seeing something that they didn't reveal at trial. Sure it looks dark now, but you do have one thing going for you."

"What's that?" Samantha said.

"I won't be defending Audrey Taylor and Daniel Morris." They each laughed at the remark, and then parted their separate ways.

Waiting for Elijah outside the courthouse were the throngs of reporters that he always loathed to talk to. He had no desire to explain to them how he had solved the case, or even how he felt now that it was over. It was not that he thought what the media was doing was unnecessary, but rather it was his apprehension for sharing his feelings in public. How did he feel? Absolutely elated. Finding Scott Taylor's murderer was a difficult task, as so many things in life are. But find them he did, and not a moment too soon.

As Elijah walked up to the microphone, he caught a glimpse of Elliot and Pamela Ravenwood getting into a taxi and he began to smile. It was that sight, the sight of an innocent man being set free, of justice being served, that kept Elijah going everyday. He couldn't help being reminded of what his former professor had always used to utter in class: ' Don't ever take your freedom for granted, for the day that you do, is the day you will lose it.'

For Elliot Ravenwood, he gained his freedom back thanks to a little luck, and the legal mind of Elijah Deville. What cases lay ahead for Elijah are uncertain, but one thing is for sure: his personal fight in support of liberty and justice for all will carry on unabated.

###

# Other Novels in the Elijah Deville Mystery Series

Next Novels:

1. Elijah Deville in Judged Worthy of Death (Released in August, 2012)

2. Elijah Deville in Guilty Until Proven Innocent (Released in December 2013)

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# About the Author

J.R. Diestelkamp was born on July 4, 1983, in St. Catharines, Ontario. Growing up, Diestelkamp became interested in entering the teaching profession because of his love for working with children. He went to school at Brock University and studied Chemistry and Education. He graduated in 2006, with a Bachelor's of Education and a Bachelor of Science focused in Chemistry.

Upon graduating, Diestelkamp was hired by the local school board and has been a substitute teacher up to the date of publication for this novel. Even though Chemistry is his main focus, he always has had a knack for creative writing. In 2011, he published his first novel titled 'Elijah Deville in Coasting to Death'.

The series itself follows the cases of Elijah Deville, a rich Canadian lawyer situated in Toronto. Along with his sister Becca, and his investigator, Cameron Mills, Elijah helps defend guilty looking clients against scurrilous criminal charges. Somewhat based off of fictional lawyers, Perry Mason and Ben Matlock, Elijah always says that he'll vigourously defend his clients in the courtroom. However, personal ethics sometimes hinder his cause, creating situations that other fictional lawyers might not face.

Unlike other detective stories, Diestelkamp attempts to place his characters in a time and place. Although real names and events, close to the time period have been changed, you'll notice that sometimes novels refer to other cases that have already happened or are about to happen. Sometimes, clues might be given in one novel, that might shed some light on a case in another one. Diestelkamp hopes that this feature not only keeps readers coming back to the series, but that it adds a sense of realism, in that these characters really do have lives, and are not just bounding from case to case.

At the time of publication, J.R. Diestelkamp resides in Thorold, Ontario, a town of 18,000 people, situated about 15 minutes west of Niagara Falls. He is active in his community, including the church where he attends known as the Garden City Church of Christ. He hopes you enjoy the series, and looks forward to write many more novels in the years to come.

To find out more about the author or about upcoming books in the Elijah Deville novel series follow me on:

Twitter: JR Diestelkamp (JR_Author) on Twitter (JR_Author)
