The Embezzler

The Embezzler is a 1938 short novel by James M. Cain. The work first appeared as a serial in Liberty magazine in 1940 under the title Money and the Woman. In 1943, Alfred A. Knopf published the work as The Embezzler in a collection of novellas by Cain entitled Three of a Kind. Plot summary Dave Bennett, a senior bank executive, makes a routine visit to one of its branch offices to observe operations; the branch's savings to commercial deposit ratio seems too good to be true. He discovers that the head teller, the elderly Charles Brent, is suffering from a stomach ulcer; the workaholic strenuously objects to taking leave for the needed surgery. His wife, Sheila, a very attractive young woman, asks Bennett to allow her to assume her husband's duties while he is in hospital, and both men consent. While temporarily presiding over the branch, Bennett, as well as Sheila, discover that Charles is embezzling funds and has cunningly concealed the imbalance in the accounts. Charles is using the stolen funds to provide his mistress, an employee at the branch, with gifts. Rather than report the matter to his superiors, Bennett—who is falling in love with the beautiful Sheila—enters into a pact with the married woman to correct the accounts and conceal her husband's criminality. Sheila is motivated by her desire to protect her two children from the “disgrace” of having a convicted criminal for a father. Bennett is motivated by his infatuation with Sheila, though their relationship remains chaste. Released from the hospital, Charles Brent dies in an armed confrontation with the police. Bennett and Sheila are now free to marry.