Sedona Law 5 by Dave Daren (romantic novels in english .TXT) 📕

“Come on,” Allison begged and took Vicki’s hands. Then Allison slipped off her shirt, and I instinctively turned away at the sight of her purple bra.

“Whoa,” Vicki said. “Let’s put that back on.”

Allison clumsily put her shirt on and pouted.

“You’re a stick in the mud,” she slurred and pointed to Vicki. “That’s what you are. I know you. You’re the stick mud lady.”

“You know what?” Vicki said with a super dramatic voice. “I have a great idea.”

I looked at her quizzically and she ignored me, but Allison looked intrigued.

“Come closer,” Vicki leaned in toward her, “they can’t hear us.”

Allison gasped. “Who can’t hear us?”

Vicki made a shushing motion with her fingers, looked around, and then tiptoed toward the stairs.

“Where are we going?” Allison whispered and followed her.

“I can’t tell you down here,” Vicki stage whispered across the room.

“Oh … ” Allison said, and Vicki pointed up the stairs in a super dramatic gesture.

I had no idea what was going on, so I caught Vicki’s eye, but she just shook her head.

Following Vicki’s melodramatic sneaking, Allison tiptoed up the stairs and stumbled at least twice. She giggled loudly, and I heard Vicki shush her.

I drank my coffee and read my phone while I waited for them downstairs. I also snooped around a bit while I waited and took photos of mail lying on the counter. It was mainly bills and a couple of other random notices. I tsked out loud when I saw the red notice for the electric bill.

“Someone around here doesn’t pay bills,” I muttered.

I heard Vicki and Allison stumble around for a few minutes, until finally I heard the shower come on, and then Allison screamed.

“Sober up, honey,” I heard Vicki say. The house was all linoleum and open space, so the sound carried down the stairs disturbingly well.

“Jerry’s gone,” Vicki continued, “and no amount of wallowing in booze is going to change that. If you want any chance of justice for the murderer, you’d better put on your big girl panties and talk. This is your chance for justice. This is your chance to do what’s right by Jerry.”

“It’s true,” Allison sobbed loudly. “You’re right. You’re so right. I need to face this head on. Okay. Okay. Just give me a minute.”

Their words turned to gentler muffles that I couldn’t make out any more, and after a few seconds, Vicki showed up back downstairs.

I looked at her incredulously. “Did you just douse her with a shower?” I asked.

Vicki winked. “We’re out of time. We need her to talk and talk now.”

“She could sue us for assault,” I pointed out.

“No, she won’t,” Vicki motioned to the same red notice I’d just looked at, “they can’t even pay the electric bill.”

I laughed. “I suppose you’re right. Is she coming down?”

Vicki nodded. “Yeah. She was just changing.”

“I’m glad she’s doing that upstairs,” I muttered as I took a sip of coffee.

Vicki laughed. “Poor Henry. Earlier we were talking about boob jobs and then you get flashed by a drunk actress.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s all necessarily unfortunate,” I teased.

She smacked my arm, and I laughed.

A couple of minutes later, Allison showed up downstairs. She was still drying her wet hair and looked a mixture of embarrassed and offended.

“You ready to talk about this?” Vicki asked gently.

“Yeah,” Allison murmured as she sat down. “You know, I loved Jerry.”

“Were you with him?” I asked.

“Not officially, no,” she shook her head, “but we’d been talking for about a year. He paid the deposit on this place.”

“It’s a beautiful place,” I remarked.

“Yeah,” she sighed. “We’ve got eight people crammed in here, so it’s affordable, and it’s a great time. But I really fell for Jerry.”

“How did you meet him?” Vicki asked.

“A friend of a friend introduced me,” Allison replied, “and he really liked my work. I did a lot of modeling, but I wanted to move to L.A. to be an actress. Jerry cast me in a lot of parts, and he really opened me up, and I feel like I really grew with him.”

“So, you had a professional relationship with him, then?” Vicki questioned.

“Well,” Allison sighed, “it started out that way. But he was always telling me how beautiful I was, and how talented I was and how I could be a big star if I wanted. He told me he had these connections in L.A. and that he would hook me up if I ever wanted to move out there.”

“Did he ever do that?” Vicki asked.

“No,” the actress replied. “By the time he told me all of that, I was so in love with him, I couldn’t imagine leaving without him.”

“Did he offer to go with you?” Vicki inquired.

“Yes,” Allison nodded, “and that’s the thing. The plan was that after American Tale, we were going to move to L.A. I even found a place for us. It wasn’t much, but I’d saved enough for a deposit. We were going to leave after the film premiere. Now, none of that will ever happen.” She sniffled and swiped at her eyes.

“He had contacts in L.A.?” Vicki asked.

“He did work on a few big films out there,” Allison replied, “and he knows all of these people who could get us both work. He said the only reason he was in Sedona was because of his ex-wife. But he wanted to sell his studio and move to L.A., and then he could have his son come back and forth.”

Allison fingered her coffee mug, and then started to cry in earnest.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I just … ” She composed herself and then looked at us resolutely. “He was my best friend, you know. And I don’t have anyone