Aahana Swrup
The complex interconnected storylines in ‘The Accountant’ revolve around an autistic sharpshooting auditor, an intimidating assassin, the National Treasury Officers, and a corporate plot for a financial fraud. Thus, as the audience follows the titular character, Christian Wolff, on his deadly misadventures, some narrative threads may prove to be harder to follow than others. The abrupt assassination of Rita Blackburn at the hands of a killer hired by her own brother, Lamar, remains one such thread. Therefore, if the menacing inner-working at play within LivingRobotics left you perplexed, you must be seeking answers for the motives behind the murder of the CEO’s sister. SPOILERS AHEAD!
LivingRobotics’ Financial Fraud That Racked Up a Body Count
Rita Blackburn’s introduction into the plot comes from her managerial position within LivingRobotics, a prosthesis technology company headed by her brother, Lamar. Dana Cummings, an employee in the company’s accounting division, recognizes a fault in their books that suggests someone has been skimming funds from the company. As a result, Rita reaches out to Christian Wolff, one of the most favored but obscure accountants in the industry.
Given Christian’s impressive skills and ability to dedicate himself to any task he picks up, he manages to tackle the mammoth assignment with considerable efficiency. As such, after thumbing through files upon files of the company’s accounts dating back more than a decade, Christian spots the leak in LivingRobotics’ finances.
Ed Chilton, another higher-up within the company who oversaw Christian’s appointment, has been authorizing funds transfer to Slewitt Manufacturing for a long time now. However, the manufacturing company is actually a front that Chilton has been siphoning money into. As a result, he has effectively robbed the company of 61 million dollars without anyone even recognizing it until Dana.
Nonetheless, the fraud doesn’t stop there. Chilton’s unnoticed robbery from LivingRobotics isn’t simply a scheme for the man to make extra riches on the side. Instead, it’s actually a part of a bigger corporate conspiracy. The company is opening itself up to the public stock market to invite investors into its mix. Therefore, in order to secure high investments, LivingRobotics needs to be able to showcase a high revenue.
Thus, over the past few years, Chilton has been funneling the stolen funds back into the company’s finances to drive an increase in profit flow, fabricating the illusion of inflated success. By doing so, the company can milk investors for more than their worth and make huge profits from the upcoming IPO. Considering the impact and implication of such a scheme, the company’s highest authority, CEO Lamar Blackburn’s involvement remains evident.
Yet, before Lamar’s plans can come to fruition, Dana happens to uncover a financial discrepancy. For the same reason, Lamar hires Christian to spot where his financial books can leak information about his fraud. Since Christian’s research leads him to Ed Chilton, Lamar sends his hired assassin, Brax, to kill the man.
Afterward, Lamar dismisses Christian’s services under the guise of guilt over his friend’s death, proclaiming that their investigation pushed Chilton toward suicide for fear of getting caught. Thus, after Chilton’s death, Lamar also sends assassins after Christian and Dana to tie up the final loose ends. Yet, one other individual with knowledge of Lamar’s fraud remains: Rita Blackburn.
Rita’s Assassination
After Christian escapes the assassination attempt on his own life and rescues Dana from hers, he also comes to the conclusion that Rita stands as Lamar’s next possible target. Lamar desperately wants his company’s upcoming IPO to work out flawlessly and earn him a profit. Therefore, he’s willing to go to extreme lengths to ensure the same. As such, if Rita Blackburn truly isn’t in on Lamar’s scheme, she would stand as a possible threat to his future plans.
Inversely, even if Rita corroborates with Lamar on the fraud, he could still benefit from her death as he did with Ed Chilton. Consequently, the man sends Brax to assassinate his sister. Since Rita died of a clean headshot rather than a staged accidental death, as Chilton did, it would be fair to assume the woman was in the dark regarding Lamar’s illegal activities. As such, it’s likely that Brax offered her the chance to stay silent on the matter and killed her upon her refusal.
Likewise, Rita’s assassination could have also played out as Chilton’s, with Brax offering the woman an easy death that can be confirmed as an accident to reap insurance benefits. Only unlike Chilton, Rita would have had to deny the offer, leading to an unambiguously homicidal death. Either way, her involvement with LivingRobotics and refusal to stay silent about its financial fraud scheme resulted in the woman’s death, ordered by her own brother.
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