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

middle of it all. I thought I’d see some cool British underground bands, too.”

“So, the future King of England was going to marry an American punk rocker?” I clarified. “God had better save the queen, after the coronary that would give her.”

“Eh,” she said. “It was just a fun fantasy. What girl doesn’t want to think she has the opportunity to be a real life princess?”

“And then you met me,” I said.

“And then I met you,” she said. “And besides, Prince William kind of lost it somewhere along the way. I don’t know, once he hit thirty, he just… Ugh. I don’t know what happened to that guy.”

“Married life is what happened to him,” I said.

“Is that your idea of what marriage does to people?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe to some people, not all people.”

She cuddled up close to me, “Do me a favor.”

“What?” I responded.

“Don’t ever let us get like that,” she said.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Be in our thirties?”

“No,” she said. “One of those couples that changes so much as they age, they lose a part of themselves.”

“We won’t be like that,” I said. “We’ll be like us.”

She laughed but didn’t say anything. Something had changed with her. She would usually respond to that with some sort of witty retort. But tonight, she just leaned into me, and we watched wealthy British aristocrats in the 1920s navigate their love lives.

Tonight, she had her dark hair piled on top of her head in the sexiest messy bun I had ever seen. She wore a blue tank top, and black spandex boyshort underwear. She had a box of nail polish bottles discarded on the bed table, where she had just finished painting her toenails, and now the fresh scent of nail polish lingered with the food aroma.

I kissed her hair, and she smiled contentedly. My heart was completely out of my control. I had fallen for her, and fallen hard. There was nothing I could do about it, except enjoy the ride.

It was two more days before we had any real movement on the case. The development came none too soon, as it was the day before the arraignment.

Vicki and I were having breakfast at Jitters before going into the office. AJ and Landon were doing a pretty good job researching all of our suspects and had uncovered more dirty laundry on all of them than I would ever care to know about anyone.

Not that they were particularly of the criminal element, it was just the usual fare of dysfunctional humanity. Messy divorces, therapists, financial problems, unfinished schooling, and the like. But we still weren’t really any closer to any truth. The only solace all of this brought me was that the more we uncovered, the less they had dark secrets to hide.

But, the big item on the agenda today, was an afternoon conference call with Senator John Malone.

“I think it’s a bit dickish for him to arrange this interview by phone,” Vicki said. “We could have just as well driven up to Flagstaff and met with him in person.”

“It’s definitely passive aggressive,” I said. “But, he wanted to have his lawyer on three-way.”

“He knows what he’s doing,” she said.

“He does,” I replied.

“It still means he can end the conversation at the press of a button,” she said.

“What about the arraignment?” I asked her, in a change of subject. “Are we ready for that?”

“The last time I talked to Julianna and Gabriel was when I explained the plea bargain,” Vicki said. “But other than that, I haven’t had much interaction with them.”

My phone buzzed with a call. It was the police station.

“Hello, Mr. Irving,” I didn’t recognize the voice. “This is Hal Durant, the chief of police. How are you doing this morning?”

“I’m doing well, Officer Durant,” I said. “What can I do for you?”

“Well,” he said, his voice was slow. “We’ve had a development in the Beowulf murder case. We haven’t taken it to the prosecutor yet, because we’re not sure what to make of it. But we think your client should be aware of it.”

“Oh, yeah?” I said. “What’s that?”

He sighed long and deep. “Well, Judith Klein has confessed to the murder.”

I was silent for a moment. “Judith confessed?”

“Yeah,” he said. “But like I said, we’re not sure what to make of it. We’re going to have to get the prosecutor to listen to the confession, before he drops the charges.”

“So what’s the problem?” I asked.

“Well,” he said. “The confession seems a bit unlikely. Even her attorney was unaware that she intended to make the confession.”

“You think it was false?” I asked.

“That’s just it,” the officer said. “I don’t think it’s false. I’m certain it’s false.”

“Why would she falsely confess to a murder?” I asked.

“That’s what we intend to find out,” he said. “I just thought you and your client should know.”

“Thank you,” I said.

I ended the call and tapped my phone against my chin as I thought. Vicki had overheard enough of the conversation that I didn’t have to fill her in.

“Why would she falsely confess to a murder?” she asked. “And the day before the arraignment.”

“And the day we question John Malone,” the answer came to me before I finished the sentence. “She’s being paid. Blackmailed or paid off.”

“Being a dominatrix is not illegal,” she said. “He’s got to have something else on her.”

“Shit,” I said as it all suddenly came to me. “We’ve been looking in the wrong places. The connection is not Iakova, Malone, and the censorship bill. The connection is Kat Studios.”

“What connection could a bunch of New York dancers have to a small time Sedona... what do they even call those things?”

“Dungeons, I think,” I said as