Chapter 1 - - The Board Decides
Several years had passed since St. Mark's books had been subject to an outside audit. Over the years, the board had been reluctant to spend the funds required for an outside report. However, in 2010 a few new board members were elected. The new members were inquisitive about the cash flow, the investments, the designated funds, and the levels of expenditure in the various categories. The board was swayed by their questions and it was agreed that an outside auditor would be engaged to review the records and report on the state of the church finances.
That's where I came into the picture. The board asked for quotes from a few accountants, and my price apparently attracted them. I was introduced to a few board members, and they in turn directed me to the treasurer.
Harold Koch was a respected elder, and had served as Treasurer for nearly eleven years. Harold was well known in the community. He ran a mortgage placement business and was also active in municipal politics. Harold was, in fact, looking to move up the political food chain. He was already the deputy mayor of the community, and his first step upward would be to run for county council. That move was often the conduit to becoming a candidate for the legislature, and Harold had his mind set on the legislature as a long term goal.
Being busy with his municipal duties as well as his business, Harold relied largely on his wife, Ellie, to handle the treasury function of the church. After all, she had been a bookkeeper before they were married. All Harold had to do was submit her monthly statements to the board. To simplify the job, Harold had made arrangements with the bank to have Ellie become a signing authority. He didn't really have to spend much time on the books, but he garnered a lot of respect from the members of St. Mark's in his role as treasurer.
It didn't take long for Harold to turn me over to Ellie in order to commence the audit. She was a pleasant woman to deal with, and our initial meeting went well. Ellie brought me her statements for the last two years. I asked for the cancelled checks for the last three years as well. At first she wasn't able to locate them, but I persisted in my requests and gradually she located the bank records. She delivered them to me one year at a time, about a week apart.
"Can you walk me through the investments," I asked.
"Well, there's the building fund, the missions fund, the emergency fund, the benevolent fund, the hospital fund, and several specified bequests from members' estates."
"Good, can you show me the debits and credits to these fund accounts?"
Ellie looked a little puzzled. "It's hard to remember all that activity, it took place over several years. We may have to go back a few more years than the three years that we pulled the records for."
"Yes, we will," I agreed. "Can you bring me all the bank records and cancelled checks that you have in your possession? I'll need them by the end of the week."
As Ellie seemed a bit unsure of the financial transactions, I decided to review the bank records rather carefully. I was amazed to see numerous checks written to Ellie, all of them being balance sheet items that didn't appear on the monthly and yearly profit and loss statements. When Ellie came to my office with a few more records, I decided to broach the matter with her.
"Ellie, can you explain these entries to me?" I asked. "It appears that you have written numerous checks to yourself and to Harold. So far, it looks like twenty thousand dollars or so, and I'm only part way through the analysis. It seems rather odd. What's the explanation for this?"
Ellie looked shaken. "It started with the election expenses. We had to have some cash quickly and we anticipated that the fund-raising and donations would easily cover it, so we just borrowed it from one of the designated estate funds. There's tons of money at St. Mark's and a lot of it's just sitting doing nothing. Most of those estate funds have so many conditions imposed by the will or the estate that it's hard to spend them."
"How much was involved that time?" I inquired.
"Thirty two hundred was the amount. We anticipated that we could repay it in a few weeks, but the donations just didn't come in as we expected. We were only able to pay back about two thousand, and that took us two months."
"Then what?"
Ellie's lips quivered. "Well, we seemed to need cash for a lot of things. It was a lot easier to borrow it from St. Marks than to deal with the bank. It escalated. Harold isn't really all that aware of what took place, except for the election expenses. He just knows that I borrow when I need to."
"Ellie, I'm sure you know that this is illegal. Not only that, Harold can kiss to his political career goodbye once this information goes to the board. Even if you find a way to pay it back, it's sure to get leaked to the press and likely to the police once I submit my audit report. I can't do anything but tell the board that there's money missing and explain where it went."
"I'll do anything to resolve this," said Ellie. We can mortgage the house. That should easily cover the debt."
"What is Harold going to say when you tell him about your continuing theft?" I asked.
"Oh no!" Ellie moaned. "He'll divorce me, and Harold has a terrible temper. Can you give me a little time to mortgage the house? Please, I'll do anything to get out of this mess that I've created."
"How much time do you need?"
"I'm not sure, a couple of weeks, less than a month I hope. Please, don't tell anyone. Give me a chance to make this right," Ellie pleaded.
An idle thought entered my mind as I looked at Ellie. She was pretty good looking at forty-two. I ran my eyes over her, and tried to imagine what she would look like without clothes.
"What are you thinking?" she asked. "I see that look, and I think I know what's going on in your mind."
I asked, "What do you mean?" as innocently as I could.
"You're undressing me mentally, I can tell." Ellie replied. "Normally I'd be annoyed, but right now I'm not. If I surrender myself to you, would you consider holding off on reporting to the board until we can pay back the borrowed funds?"
"There's no one left in the office," I said. "Why don't you show me what surrendering means?"
Ellie meant what she said. She knew the fix she was in would ruin both her and her husband. She took a deep breath and unzipped her skirt. She looked shaken, but she was determined to work her way out of trouble. Next, she pulled down her panties and stood in front of me.
"See, I'm not just playing you," she said.
With that, she sidled up to me and sat on my lap, facing me with her legs apart.
"Go ahead," she said, "I'm all yours."
Ellie was so tense that she was trembling. I saw a little tear fall from her eye.
"This is a nice handful," I said, and cupped her womanhood in the palm of my hand.
As my fingers explored her pussy, she seemed to calm herself. I rubbed her clit and parted her little lips.
"Let me have a better look," I asked.
Ellie leaned back a bit and scooted her bum forward so I could see her goodies.
"Looks good enough to kiss," I told Ellie.
"Let me get up on the desk here," she answered, "kiss away!"
As I went to work with my lips and tongue, Ellie was busy opening her shirt and unclasping her bra. She was a good looking woman.
"Oooh, oooh," she exclaimed, "That feels good – suck on it a bit."
I licked and sucked until Ellie was nicely relaxed, but I could tell that this was all too sudden for her to reach a climax.
