Among other things we have found that Bolton Brown has been leading a rather fast life, quite unknown to his fellow-officials.We know that he has been speculating secretly in the wheat corner that went to pieces, but the most significant thing is that he has been altogether too intimate with an adventuress, Adele DeMott, who has had some success as a woman of high finance in various cities here and in Europe and even in South America.It looks bad for him from the commonsense standpoint, though of course I'm not competent to speak of the legal side of the matter.But, at any rate, we know that the insider must have been some one pretty close to the head of the By-Products Company or the By-Products Bank.""What was the character of the forgeries?" asked Kennedy.
"They seem to have been of two kinds.As far as we are concerned it is the check forgeries only that interest the Surety Company.
For some time, apparently, checks have been coming into the bank for sums all the way from a hundred dollars to five thousand.
They have been so well executed that some of them have been certified by the bank, all of them have been accepted when they came back from other banks, and even the officers of the company don't seem to be able to pick any flaws in them except as to the payee and the amounts for which they were drawn.They have the correct safety tint on the paper and are stamped with rubber stamps that are almost precisely like those used by the By-Products Company.
"You know that banking customs often make some kinds of fraud comparatively easy.For instance no bank will pay out a hundred dollars or often even a dollar without identification, but they will certify a check for almost any office boy who comes in with it.
The common method of forgers lately has been to take such a certified forged check, deposit it in another bank, then gradually withdraw it in a few days before there is time to discover the forgery.In this case they must have had the additional advantage that the insider in the company or bank could give information and tip the forger off if the forgery happened to be discovered.""Who is the treasurer of the company?" asked Craig quickly.
"John Carroll - merely a figurehead, I understand.He's in New York now, working with us, as I shall tell you presently.If there is any one else besides Brown in it, it might be Michael Dawson, the nominal assistant but really the active treasurer.There you have another man whom we suspect, and, strangely enough, can't find.Dawson was the assistant treasurer of the company, you understand, not of the bank.""You can't find him? Why?" asked Kennedy, considerably puzzled.
"No, we can't find him.He was married a few days ago, married a pretty prominent society girl in the city, Miss Sibyl Sanderson.It seems they kept the itinerary of their honeymoon secret, more as a joke on their friends than anything else, they said, for Miss Sanderson was a well-known beauty and the newspapers bothered the couple a good deal with publicity that was distasteful.At least that was his story.No one knows where they are or whether they'll ever turn up again.
"You see, this getting married had something to do with the exposure in the first place.For the major part of the forgeries consists not so much in the checks, which interest my company, but in fraudulently issued stock certificates of the By-Products Company.
About a million of the common stock was held as treasury stock - was never issued.
"Some one has issued a large amount of it, all properly signed and sealed.Whoever it was had a little office in Chicago from which the stock was sold quietly by a confederate, probably a woman, for women seem to rope in the suckers best in these get-rich-quick schemes.And, well, if it was Dawson the honeymoon has given him a splendid chance to make his get-away, though it also resulted in the exposure of the forgeries.Carroll had to take up more or less active duty, with the result that a new man unearthed the - but, say, are you really interested in this case?"Williams was leaning forward, looking anxiously at Kennedy and it would not have taken a clairvoyant to guess what answer he wanted to his abrupt question.
"Indeed I am," replied Craig, "especially as there seems to be a doubt about the guilty person on the inside.""There is doubt enough, all right," rejoined Williams, "at least Ithink so, though our detectives in Chicago who have gone over the thing pretty thoroughly have been sure of fixing something on Bolton Brown, the cashier.You see the blank stock certificates were kept in the company's vault in the bank to which, of course, Brown had access.But then, as Carroll argues, Dawson had access to them, too, which is very true - more so for Dawson than for Brown, who was in the bank and not in the company.I'm all at sea.Perhaps if you're interested you'd better see Carroll.He's here in the city and I'm sure I could get you a good fee out of the case if you cared to take it up.Shall I see if I can get him on the wire?"We had finished luncheon and, as Craig nodded, Williams dived into a telephone booth outside the dining-room and in a few moments emerged, perspiring from the closeness.He announced that Carroll requested that we call on him at an office in Wall Street, a few blocks away, where he made his headquarters when he was in New York.
The whole thing was done with such despatch that I could not help feeling that Carroll had been waiting to hear from his friend in the insurance company.The look of relief on Williams's face when Kennedy said he would go immediately showed plainly that the insurance man considered the cost of the luncheon, which had been no slight affair, in the light of a good investment in the interest of his company, which was "in bad" for the largest forgery insurance loss since they had begun to write that sort of business.
