The Billion Dollar Embezzlement Murders - Chapter 1
Chapter 1 The Event
Sunday afternoon, January 3, 2010
Steve looked around Hank’s large study with its mahogany desk, bookcases, dark
brown carpeted floor, its walls adorned with pictures of the foreign lands Hank had visited. Steve pressed the return key on his laptop
to start a series of programs that checked the balances of a hundred and twenty offshore accounts. Their total value equaled $1,048,432,987.
Steve thought he would soon be able to afford Hank’s high-class life style. He could move out of his apartment with its beer-stained
wooden floor to an exotic country populated with sensual women who appreciated a man with money.
Hank had said, “Access the program
file, Your Share, and execute it.” Steve knew his share should be twenty percent.
Once the program finished running Hank asked, “Is
your take satisfactory?”
Steve nodded, “Yes,” and found it had equaled his expectations.
“Did you tell anyone you were coming here
to my Bethany Beach house tonight?”
“No, you told me not to. I’m taking a two-week sailing vacation in the Caribbean, so no one can
ask me about the withdrawals if they’re discovered early. My cell phone doesn’t work there.” Steve liked visiting Hank’s five-thousand
square foot beach house on the Atlantic Ocean in a gated community just north of the village of Bethany Beach. He wanted to buy a
larger house in the Caribbean in the spring once he had permanently left the country.
“Good, we can’t be too careful. We don’t
want anyone to connect us even though we can’t be traced electronically.” Hank handed Steve a glass of Johnny Walker Black Label neat
and said, “Time to celebrate.”
Steve took a large gulp while Hank sampled a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.
After raising his glass two
more times, he handed it to Hank. Though slightly dizzy and nauseous Steve said, “I’ll have another.”
Hank poured a larger drink for
Steve, then tasted his wine and waited.
Half way through the second drink the benzodiazepine sedative in Steve’s glass kicked in.
He passed out and fell forward on the desk.
Hank smiled.