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

I threw a bill on the table and rose to leave. “But we’ve got so much research on these people, we may know everything we need to know.”

We left Jitters and went back to the office, where AJ was working on our discovery requests for tomorrow. She narrated it for Landon and the camera.

“So at the arraignment tomorrow,” she said. “They’ll need to submit these to the judge, and the judge will set a date for the prosecution to submit the evidence to us and vice versa.”

She looked relieved to see us. “Hey, guys.”

Vicki and I looked at each other, and Vicki wordlessly picked up the phone to call Julianna.

“Well,” I told Landon and AJ. “There’s been a development.”

“What kind of development?” AJ asked.

“Judith has just confessed to the murder,” I said.

“What?” both AJ and Landon said in unison.

“So that’s it, then?” Landon was disappointed. “The case is over?”

“Not at all,” I said. “The cops think she’s lying.”

“Why would she lie about that?” AJ asked.

“That’s what I’m hoping you can find out,” I said.

“What do we know about Judith?” I asked as I took a perch on the side of my desk. “Other than that she works at Kat Studios. Does she own that, or does she just work there?”

AJ flipped through her notes. “She owns it. She founded it about five years ago, at that time she actually had a photographer to cover for her.”

“What did she do before she opened the studio?” I asked.

“There’s nothing on her before then,” she said. “I ran a background check, and there was an address in Tucson, but that’s all I could find.”

“So, she’s from Tucson,” I clarified and then followed a hunch. “Who was the photographer?”

“His name was Jack Winslow,” she said. “He was a photography student at the University of Arizona.”

I sighed. “Do we have a picture of this Jack?”

“Yes,” she handed me a printout, and I didn’t want to look at it. When I did, my suspicions were confirmed. It was Harmony’s Jack. I tossed the paper on my desk.

“Keep digging into Judith,” I sighed. “I’ll be back.”

I grabbed my phone, and Vicki curiously picked up the paper. She caught my eye and sighed

“It doesn’t mean--” she started. “It just means…”

“I know,” I said. “But what kind of a scumbag fronts that kind of a business?”

She raised her eyebrows, and I headed out the door. I got Jack after one ring. I guessed he thought I was calling about a record deal.

“Hey,” I said, “Would you be up for meeting for a drink?”

“Sure,” he said. “When?”

“Right now,” I said. “It’s urgent.”

I met him at a French Bohemian style bar on the outskirts of town. The place was a little gimmicky and tried too much to cater to the whole Les Miserable motif. I had been here once before, and they had a performance artist. But, now the red velvet curtains were closed, and in the mid-morning light, the place was nearly deserted.

Jack didn’t take long to meet me and seemed confused and a bit concerned as to why I wanted to meet him so urgently. He entered the dimly lit room with a motorcycle helmet in his hand and joined me at a table. He sat down, and I got to my point quickly. Maybe a bit too quickly.

“Look,” he played with his fingers. “I didn’t know what she was doing back then. I swear to you. That’s why I got out.”

“What did you think she was doing?” I asked.

He shrugged. “She said she wanted to open a photography studio in Sedona. It’s a great place to open one. This place is beautiful.”

“So you’re not from here?” I asked.

“No,” he said. “I’m from Atlanta, which is home, and I love it. But, I’m from downtown, you know the inner city, concrete jungle. I went to the University of Arizona, because they had a good photography program at that time. And, that’s when I met Judith.”

“How did you meet her?” I asked.

“She was in graduate school,” he said. “And I forget how our paths originally crossed. But, word had it she was a VC investor, and so I pitched her my work. I wanted to do a series on alt-culture, and I was hoping she would underwrite me. She listened politely, and I thought she was going to pass. Then, three months later, she calls me out of the blue. She says she has moved to Sedona and was interested in opening a photography studio, and she wanted to know if I would be the head photographer. I was so excited, I didn’t ask as many questions as I should have. I pretty much just packed up and moved to Sedona.”

“What was it like with her once you got here?” I asked.

“It was weird,” he said. “Really weird.”

“How so?” I asked.

“So, I moved in with these guys I found on Facebook, they were really cool, so that wasn’t a problem,” he said. “But, she had already chosen this run down old building out in the country. It had once been a massage place, but it needed a lot of work, like basic work, like the plumbing was shot.”

“There was no plumbing in the building?” I asked.

“There was…” he qualified. “It was just iffy. I just made sure not to use the restroom there. But, she was paying me, so I didn’t care a whole lot. But, then she didn’t want to give me much space to display my work. We had a lobby, and she told me I could do whatever I wanted with it, but she said we could only be open like ten hours a week.”

“She paid you for ten hours a week?”

“I was salaried,” he said. “It was wild. She said I