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

“Well,” he said. “Congratulations on the engagement. When’s the wedding?”

“April,” Vicki said.

Albert nodded. “Well, we’ll get you in your new house...rough estimate February. Just a couple months before the wedding.”

Vicki’s eyes lit up, and I thought she might cry.

“So we’ll be moved in by the wedding?” she gushed.

“Looks like it,” he said. “Based on the plans Jim sent. That’s what we’re going to shoot for anyway.”

“Thanks, Albert,” I shook his hand again. “We’ll be in touch.”

“You bet,” he saluted me with two fingers, and then we all broke for our vehicles.

“February,” Vicki said as we settled back into the car. “It will be the film festival again. Phoenix will be entering.”

“Which means, we’ll be entering as a production company,” I said.

“I wonder if Landon will run it again,” Vicki said.

Landon’s great uncle had owned the film festival, but he passed away last February, and we had investigated his death.

“I doubt it,” I said. “I don’t think the festival’s in the family anymore. Plus, he’d have to come home.”

“Yeah,” Vicki watched outside the window, the desert stretching before us again.

“What do you think about Landon and AJ?” she asked. “You think they’ll get married?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “But I’m sure we’ll be around to watch.”

“I can’t believe we’re doing this with the production company,” she said. “I’m actually really excited about this project.”

“Me too, honestly,” I said.

We drove back to the office in contented silence. We were getting married. We were building a house. We were investing in a production studio. If that wasn’t roots, I didn’t know what was.

Chapter 11

It was two days after the arraignment. I finally had the Matthews financial records as well as the bank statements for the band, and for Roy.

AJ was in class at the community college and Vicki was off at a hearing. She was defending a sexual harassment claim against the owner of a yoga studio that did meditation retreats in the vortexes. The claim seemed dubious, so Vicki had been trying to get it settled out of court ever since we got back from Tahiti.

It was just me in the office that morning, and I pored over the paper files that Kelsi had pulled out of her safe, and bank files Roy had sent to me. I couldn’t find much of a connection to anything.

All I had found so far was that Kelsi had an Amazon Prime addiction, and that the James Matthews Band did a lot of business with Fender. I knew that guitarists frequently can get endorsement deals for writing blog posts, and so I did an online search to see if James had done blog posts for Fender. My search came up empty.

I sifted through more of the paperwork Kelsi had sent over. It looked like a lot of odds and ends that she never quite sorted through. It appeared she just grabbed file folders and left it at that.

One by one I sorted through papers, trying to make sense of everything. I was trying to sort through each page individually, and put some sort of order to it all, when I got a visit from Leila Jaxson.

“Hey,” I said. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Hi, Henry,” her voice was reserved.

“Come in,” I said. “Have a seat. What can I do for you?”

She sat down and held me with her dark eyes.

“I want to know why you’re trying to buy me out,” she stated.

“I’m not trying to buy you out, Leila,” I said as I twirled a pencil in my fingers. “I’m trying to take a bunch of struggling filmmakers with the same vision, and put them all under one roof, and put some power behind them, so that maybe they won’t be struggling filmmakers anymore. They’ll just be filmmakers.”

“What makes you think I want your help?” she shot at me.

“What makes you think I asked for it?” I countered.

“Phoenix said you practically begged him to get me on board,” she remarked.

I shrugged in agreement. “I think you’re talented. I think you know what you’re doing. Look, bottom line, sign, don’t sign. This is Phoenix, not me. I’m just writing the check.”

“To poach my screenwriter,” she accused. “Who will go with you, because she already works for you.”

“Look,” I said. “If AJ doesn’t want to work with Phoenix, that’s fine. I’m not going to hold it against her. Quite frankly, this is really all Phoenix’s problem, not mine. I don’t need nor appreciate the drama.”

She looked me over, and her expression turned from angry and suspicious to unsure.

“You’re not trying to buy us out?” she asked.

“No,” I said. “The idea hadn’t even crossed my mind.”

“Good,” she stood and jutted her chin out. “Because we’re not for sale.”

With that, she turned on her heel in a huff, and marched toward the door. But, not before she tripped on her own two feet, and fell face forward onto the floor. She didn’t move for a couple of seconds, and I got concerned.

“You alright?” I asked as I moved to help her up.

“I’m fine,” she groaned as she rose from the floor. She pushed my assistance aside.

“Be careful there,” I said. “Those ‘go to hell’ exit lines don’t work unless the delivery’s flawless. The pivot was good though. Very effective.”

She was standing now, and shot me a wry look. But her nose was bleeding.

“Here,” I grabbed a napkin and handed it to her. “You’ve got a bloody nose.”

I gestured toward the bathroom.

“Shit,” she mumbled and disappeared into the restroom.

I tried to do paperwork but then thought about what she had said. She and AJ did have something going there. Should I buy them out? She did have a point about AJ having