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

“Not yet,” she said. “I just got all their numbers from Michael. But, since they are all stuck in town because of the murder, I am sure they don’t have a full social calendar.”

“That would be a good assumption,” I said. “And then there’s Judith.”

“Right,” she said. “I did get into contact with her. We’ve got a meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning.”

“In the morning, huh?” I said. “Thanks for setting that up. I’ll talk to her.”

“She’s a nutcase,” AJ said. “She wrote this book. It’s called Devils and Goddesses--The War Between the Sexes. I read some of it. The whole thing is straight up man bashing.”

“Hmm...” I said. “Maybe that’s not the best idea.”

“I’ll talk to her,” Vicki said.

“Yeah,” I said. “Might work a little better.”

“I want to know what Michael Knapp knows,” Vicki said. “We haven’t even talked about that angle.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well,” she said, “he was the original contact for the team, and it blew up into a media circus. One of the ideas we’re circulating around is that the murder was planned by Marvin for a publicity stunt. He dealt with both Marvin and Beowulf. Were there any indicators that something wasn’t right?”

“Good thinking,” I said. “See if you can get an interview with Michael. Find out what he knows.”

“Okay, what else?” I asked.

“We’ve also got Marvin,” AJ said with hesitance. “I hate to add him to our suspect list, but right now he’s top of the list. And we’ve got to handle him delicately.”

I sighed. By delicately, she meant, out of everyone, it would be me that would have to investigate the media mogul of conspiracy to commit murder. It wasn’t a task I particularly wanted.

“Let’s wait on that,” I said. “We want to build a solid case before we let him know that we think he’s a suspect.”

“Do we even have to let him know that’s what we think?” Vicki asked. “If you framed it as innocently asking questions to get his perspective on it, he probably wouldn’t be spooked.”

“Good point, I can just say I’m doing my due diligence and talking to everybody who is even remotely associated,” I agreed.

“Finally,” she said. “We have State Senator John Malone. He’s not a suspect, but he’s a person of interest.”

“Right,” Vicki said. “I did some research on him. John Malone used to be on the board of directors at Starbright. He only resigned when he decided to run for political office.”

“Okay,” I said. “Iakova owns Malone. For our purposes, they’re basically the same.”

“His entire re-election campaign is about limiting the power of media legislation and expanding free speech laws,” she said.

“Plus, the typical stuff which favors big business,” I said. “Is the legislature in session? Is he here or in Tucson?”

Vicki and I pulled out our phones, and she found it first.

“No, they are not in session,” she said. “And, he’s got an office in Flagstaff.”

“Great,” I said. “Let’s set up an appointment with him. By the time we can actually get in to see him, we’ll have a clearer picture of where he fits in.”

“Got it,” Vicki said.

“Alright,” I said. “I think we’ve got our work cut out for us. We need to do interviews with all the dancers, see what they know, what they don’t. Vicki, get with Knapp, and whoever else on the league that we might need to talk to. AJ, get with Erin Kramer. I don’t think she knows anything, but if she’s even got an e-mail, or a text that can give us a clue, it will be worth a conversation. And, we’ll wait on Iakova and Malone until we’ve got our big guns loaded.”

“Great,” AJ said.

“Sounds good, let’s get on the phone, people,” I said. “Let’s kick up some dirt.”

With that, the three of us adjourned to the main room, where we made our respective calls. Landon buzzed around with a camera and set up shop on the side of AJ’s desk.

I called the number we had for the first dancer, Chloe, and set up an appointment to meet with her that afternoon.

“We just want to talk to you about that night,” I said.

“Julianna didn’t do it,” she said. “I know her. She would never do something like that.”

“Well,” I said, “that’s why we need to talk to you. We want to go over everything you remember about that night, and any connections that may help us get to the real killer. It will bring justice for Julianna and for Beowulf.”

She started crying, and I sighed. These interviews were going to be harder than I’d anticipated. I also called the other dancer, Olivia, and she was a soft spoken wispy girl.

“Yes,” she said. “It’s so good to hear from someone from the investigation. Chloe and I have been tortured for days. We haven’t heard anything from anyone since the first day that the police questioned us. Do they have any idea of what happened?”

“I am not aware of what the prosecution is doing,” I said. “Our job is simply to clear Julianna.”

“Julianna and I were very close. I know she didn’t kill Beyo. You can come anytime,” she said. “All I do is sit here and play that night over and over again. It would be nice to have a fresh ear to talk to about what happened.”

I finished up with Olivia and turned to Landon.

“We’ll film the interviews,” I said. “It will work better than taking notes.”

He grinned. “That works for me.”

I grabbed my bag, and he looked surprised.

“You want to go now?” he asked.

“Yep,” I said. “Those dancers are ready to talk. We’ll start with Chloe.”

Landon and I settled into my BMW and drove out to the address I had for Michael Knapp, where Chloe was staying.

“I can’t