Excerpt
Canyon View Country Club is situated outside of the Los Angeles area. About four years ago the Board of Directors chose Jack Marshell from a neighboring club, to be their General Manager. Jack is responsible to the Board and its members for the financial well being of the club, as well as, the continued profitability from several key business areas within the club. Reporting to Jack is the accounting department which is supervised by Erika Leeders, as senior accountant. Within a few years Jack and Erika begin an affair. In fact, Jack would plan on being with Erika a few times every week after work at her condo. He is also paying for Erikas monthly mortgage payment and other condo incidentals as Erikas salary couldnt justify the monthly costs without his help.
Jack is married to Irene and they live near the club in a home, that Irenes parents had helped purchase. Neither, Irene nor Jack played golf or tennis, so they had limited club exposure during events. However, Irene is an avid Mahjong player and plays a few times a week at the club with other members. In fact, a prior Board members wife, Emily Forester, is a frequent player in her game.
Jack spends considerable effort to be sure all the various departments and personnel followed his rules for cash collection procedures. The club is always available to outside organizations on Mondays, so they could bring in extra income. Many local businesses, religious groups, and charities, hold either golf or tennis tournaments at Canyon View Country Club on Mondays.
Jack realized, after being the clubs General Manager for a few years that he wasnt getting enough annual salary increases. He decided to start skimming cash on outside tournament play days. At the same time, along with skimming cash, he began to have his relationship with Erika become part of his standard weekly routine. Using the money he was stealing every week, he setup a checking account, JM Industries. He told Erika, when he wrote checks from the account for her monthly expenses, that it was an inheritance from his brother.
Erikas life was limited to work, Jack, and a few girlfriends. One friend in particular, Marcie, was really interested in beginning a lesbian relationship with Erika. In addition, both of these ladies always bought lottery tickets and, by a stroke of luck, ended up winning a lottery jackpot. This event changed Erikas life dramatically.
Jack continued to manipulate various employees of the club in order to collect cash to support his lifestyle and mistress. A new Board of Directors is elected and pushed Jack to improve membership, increase catering activities, and improve sales of golf and tennis merchandise. One member of the board, Fred Wenter, is a CPA and he starts making inquiries to improve the clubs profitability. He also gets the clubs outside accountants involved in the Boards pursuit of updating the clubs facilities.
During the past year, unaware of any outside activities by his wife, a letter arrives at Jacks home from a motel in Ojai, California. The Ojai motel is about an hour away from Jacks home and the envelope contains only Irenes earring. He suspects foul play.
He discovers that Art Forester and Irene had been coming to this motel for over a year to have weekly sexual encounters. Meanwhile, Art Forester discovers his wife Emily has committed suicide. The police are not convinced its suicide and they arrest Art. He was married before, and his first wife also died under similar circumstances.
When Erika realizes that she needs advice on investing her lottery money, she looks up a former sorority sister, Kim Atters, in Century City. Kim and her husband have built a large CPA practice with computer firms. They offer Erika a position and a potential partnership if she will help them develop a niche market with country clubs.
Erika goes to Las Vegas with her girlfriend Marcie to celebrate their lottery win. In a real turn of events, she discovers an organization that could change the way country clubs do business and there she meets David Arthur. They both attend a Las Vegas seminar and learn about a unique organization, Iwatchout4U.com. Her girlfriend, Marcie meets Amy and they begin an instant relationship.
Irene and Jack go through a relationship drama and he confronts Irene with her infidelity. However, after getting advice from a divorce attorney he decides to try and save his marriage.
The police, who investigated a robbery at the club, have now involved Jack in the death of Art Foresters wife. He confides to the police that Art and his wife, Irene, were having an affair. Art and his attorney work hard at proving that Emily died of an overdose and a combination of drugs.
The CPA firm that Erika has joined is busy preparing a proposal to take over as the Canyon View Country Clubs new accounting firm. This proposal will highlight the need for more control of cash transactions via the Iwatchout4U.com software products.
The Board of Canyon View is given a presentation by Erika for her new employers, Atters and Atters, to take over the accounting services and implement the Iwatchout4u.com services. The Board approves the proposal and shortly afterwards Erika discovers that Jack has been skimming thousands of dollars. Erika confronts him and he realizes his scam has been uncovered.
Jack is unable to handle all that has gone wrong in his life and he ends his life. Irene discovers him dead and her life falls apart. Erika has begun to infiltrate other country clubs and has an on going romance with David Arthur. The insider, Erika, has now begun to pursue other opportunities.
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