Sedona Law 4 by Dave Daren (ready to read books TXT) 📕

I sighed. “Landon--”

“I know, you don’t believe, Henry,” he interrupted. “That’s cool. It takes people a while. But all I’m trying to do here is expose corruption. Think of it that way. You’re on board with that, right?”

I rolled my eyes at his patronizing concession. “So you want to do a documentary on corruption?”

“Yeah,” he said. “How a person can be unjustly accused of a murder, and what the defense team does behind the scenes to prove their innocence.”

I still wasn’t sold. “And what do you want to do with it?”

He hesitated as he formed his answer.

“Assuming that we don’t uncover a government plot, and you make millions selling it to mainstream media,” I clarified.

“Well, barring that, I’m taking a documentary class in the fall,” he said. “I’ll use it as my subject.”

“Education, huh?” I said. “You got me on my soft spot.”

He laughed. “Ahh... is that where it is? Yeah, they like edgy, aggressive subjects for this class. It could get me a scholarship, and if it’s good enough, an internship.”

“Now you’re just bullshitting,” I laughed.

“Ah, come on, man,” he said.

“Alright,” I said. “If it’s for education. But you’ll have to sign an NDA stating that you won’t show a frame of it to anyone outside our team until after the case is closed.”

“Got it,” he said.

“And also I reserve the right to use any of the footage as evidence, or even in court,” I continued.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Totally, feel free, man.”

“And,” I said. “I want to see the final product, and it may, in no way, put us in a bad light.”

“Oh, dude, I would never do that to you,” he said.

I raised an eyebrow.

“Right,” he said. “You’re a lawyer, you’re all legal and proper and shit. Right, no negative light, got it.”

“Alright,” I said. “You got yourself a deal. Vicki will get a signed agreement worked up for you.”

“Cool, man,” he said.

Vicki smirked at me, and I shrugged. I noticed AJ doing a “yes” motion with her fist.

“So now that we’ve got that settled,” AJ said, “Can we go over the suspect list?”

“Perfect,” I said as I rubbed my palms together. “What do we got?”

She gestured for us all to gather in the conference room, and Landon looked awkward and shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged.

“Yeah,” I told him. “Go ahead and set up. Get what you can.”

“Cool,” he smiled and went to get his camera.

Vicki and AJ looked at each other and laughed, and within seconds, our office looked like a department store make-up counter.

“Guys, there’s nothing to worry about,” I insisted. “Just be natural.”

“Ugh, you’re such a guy, Henry,” Vicki said as she uncapped a tube of lipstick.

“I didn’t hear you complaining about that last night,” I muttered.

She blushed, and the whole room, including myself, dissolved into laughter.

“Holy shit,” Landon said. “I didn’t know Henry Irving could make an off-color joke.”

I laughed and turned to Landon. “You’re the one that started all this mess. Are you gonna set up or what?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he had the camera powered up now.

“Alright, ladies, let’s move to the conference room when you’re all glammed up,” I said.

Landon and I went into the other room, and I looked over the notes I had on the case so far. It was all a bunch of half connected dots and assumptions, and I wasn’t even sure we were going in the right direction. Landon rigged up a tripod with books and furniture, and then Vicki and AJ showed up.

“So where are we with the suspect list?” I asked AJ.

She produced a tagboard with photos, and Vicki joined me at the table. I ignored Landon and after a few seconds, it became business as usual.

“Chloe, Julianna, Olivia, and Beowulf were the four dancers that we know were lovers,” AJ said.

“They are all still in town, right?” I asked.

“Correct,” she said “The dance troupe is a budget affair, so they were all staying in private homes as opposed to hotels.”

“Are they still at these houses?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. “They’ve been ordered not to leave town for the time being. Chloe is staying at Michael Knapp’s house.”

Michael Knapp was the director of the performance art league.

“She was the one that discovered the body,” AJ said. “She was clearly upset. Then there was Olivia, she was the one that was on her phone in the green room when the body was discovered. She is staying at a Mooreland House.”

I laughed. “I didn’t know they were still operating.”

“Oh, Mooreland House?” AJ asked. “Every high school art nerd in Sedona wants to live at Mooreland House.”

“It was like that when I was here, too,” I said. “I didn’t know it was still there.”

Mooreland House was an art house just a few blocks down. They bought a brownstone condo, and artists, musicians, actors, all can apply for an internship and live there completely free while they pursue their art. The art league runs it, and typically, they favor young singles in their high school or college gap years. Exceptional interns can apply for semi-permanent status and work for the art league or film festival.

“Oh, it’s still there,” she said. “They had an intern go out of town for a week, and so the art league put her there in his spot.”

“Okay,” I said. “So Chloe’s at Michael’s, Olivia’s at Mooreland, and what else do we have?”

“Julianna and Beowulf were both supposed to stay with a girl named Erin Kramer,” AJ said. “Of course, neither of them made it. But, it would be worth it to talk to her, find out what kind of correspondence they might have had.”

“Right,” I said. “Have we set up interviews with any of these people?”