Sedona Law 6 by Dave Daren (ebook pdf reader for pc .TXT) 📕

“SNL was supposed to be our last show together,” Gary said. “In a way it was.”

“That’s rough, but what I’m more interested in,” I said, “is what happened in Africa.”

Tim snorted. “No one smuggled elephant tusks into the country.”

“For real man,” Gary said. “This is insane.”

“Yeah,” Charlie leaned forward and made eye contact with me. “We go to Kenya, and we go on this wildlife expedition.”

“Oh, God, Charlie,” Tim whined sarcastically.

“What?” Charlie turned back to him.

“Just admit that, why don’t you?” Tim snorted. “Kelsi’s in jail for smuggling, and you just told her lawyer we all went on safari in Kenya.

“So Kelsi was on this wildlife expedition?” I clarified.

“Oh God,” Tim groaned and rose from the table. He pointed at Charlie. “You fix this.”

I watched Tim walk away in frustration.

“I already knew all of that anyway, Tim,” I called after him.

“Okay,” Charlie clarified. “Kelsi was not on the wildlife expedition. She went home like...three days earlier.”

“There was something with one of the kids,” Roy explained. “He got sick and he was with the nanny. So, Kelsi flew home early. She should have the plane ticket, and maybe the doctor’s records.”

I nodded. We would need those, but they still didn’t really prove anything. The prosecution would argue that she could have gotten the tusks at any time during her visit, or even had them somehow delivered to her at any time before, during, or after her overseas trip.

I did wonder why she didn’t tell me this herself. But, then, why would she tell me about a safari she didn’t go on? If she had gone to Kenya, whether she left earlier than intended wouldn’t have been immediately relevant.

“So the band went on a wildlife expedition,” I repeated. “Did James go?”

“Yeah,” Charlie looked hesitant. “He was all like…”

Charlie started laughing and then the rest of the band cracked up.

“He was all like, ‘oh worship nature,’” Charlie mocked. “He got kinda…”

“Weeeird,” Gary laughed.

“Yeah,” Charlie shook his head. “He went off with his notebook and started writing poetry about the animals. And he got super defensive and then he donated to the wildlife conservation charity there that was sponsoring the expedition.”

“He donated to a wildlife charity?” I repeated.

“Yeah,” Charlie said. “He was in one of those moods, ‘James Weirdness,’ we called it.”

The rest of the band laughed and repeated the phrase.

“He gets all moody,” Gary said. “And all morose and poetic and you want to be like, ‘I don’t know who you are right now.’”

“You just have to let it pass,” Charlie said. “There’s no way to get him out of that funk. He’s just going to be a pretentious asshole for a while until it blows over.”

A shadow passed across Charlie’s face and the table got quiet.

“Do you know how much he donated?” I asked.

“Uh,” Charlie scratched his leg in thought, and Tim returned to the table.

“How much did James donate to that wildlife fund thing in Kenya?” Charlie asked Tim.

Tim blinked in thought. “It wasn’t pocket change, I know that much.”

“How did he do it?” I asked. “Is there a record?”

“It was a card,” Roy, the manager remembered. He had been largely silent for the conversation.

“Did they give him any kind of paperwork, receipt…” I asked.

“I couldn’t tell you,” Roy shook his head. “I just remember he talked to the manager for a long time, and they went into an office for a while. Too long. So I went to check on them, we were all waiting and I saw a credit card on the desk.”

I eyed Roy as he told the story, and everyone stared at him.

“When I say it that way…” Roy’s voice croaked.

“He went into a private office,” Tim finished his earlier thought, “and no one really knows what happened in that conversation.”

“It was a donation,” Roy insisted. “He gave a private donation.”

“I’m sure that’s what was on the books,” I said. “But the prosecution will argue that the donation was a front.”

“You never told us that story,” Charlie turned to Roy.

“I didn’t think anything of it,” Roy shrugged. “He was in a mood, and we had to get to Nairobi in the morning for another show, and it wasn’t something that I would remember. In fact, I had forgotten all about it, until Charlie said something.”

“So,” I said. “This fact can either work for us or against us. I’ll need to find out the name of the charity and how much was donated.”

“It was,” Charlie scanned the ceiling as he searched his brain. “The Kenyan Wildlife Foundation.”

I scrawled the name down on my notepad. “And you don’t know how much he donated?”

The band members all shook their heads.

“That’s fine,” I said. “I can get Kelsi to look that up.”

“Look,” Tim said. “We’ve all got our beef with James. He wasn’t all that nice in the years before his death. JMB was getting some recognition out there, and I think it changed him. But, beneath the bullshit, we all knew the real James.”

Nods and murmurs of agreement followed.

“So,” Tim continued. “This whole...smuggling this, is offensive. It’s offensive to our grief. It’s offensive to Kelsi’s grief. It’s offensive to the man’s memory. James had a dark side, so do all of us. This is outrageous. For his darkside to be magnified and scrutinized at the end of his life like this.”

He clenched his fist and mimed slamming the table, but didn’t.

“I want to grab these federal agents,” he mimed a neck wringing gesture. “And just tell them, ‘Have you no shame?’”

I raised an eyebrow, because I saw through the thinly veiled misdirection and knew the comment was a threat directed at me.

“I certainly understand your concern,” I said as I