Sedona Law 6: A Legal Thriller

by Dave Daren

  The band members were crushed and took a healing pilgrimage to Sedona to be near the vortexes. They studied under a Hindu guru, which is how they met my mom.

  She was the daughter of a rebellious British aristocrat who had moved to New York to join the hippie revolution of the sixties. My mom was a faithful hippie that moved to Sedona because she was looking for someone to backpack across the United States with like Jack Keraouac.

  They were married in a ceremony by the guru in a ceremony on Cathedral Rock.

  But, the deal falling through with Columbia Records had changed the destinies of us all. Even in my L.A. years, when I would go to their offices for meetings, I would wonder how my life might have been different had that deal not fallen through.

  “Well,” I said. “Maybe you’ve come full circle in your life.”

  “I think you’ve always seen that wrong, Henry,” he said. “I’ve never regretted what happened back then. It was disappointing and hurtful, yes. But, you know, the universe is unpredictable like that. If that thing with Columbia hadn’t fallen through all those years ago, I wouldn’t have met your mother, and had you kids. And, when I think about how I was back then, I couldn’t have handled a big record deal like that. Touring. Ugh. I’ve had my fill of touring.”

  I laughed. “I did a one week tour with a client once. It sucks.”

  “It does,” he said. “You know, I’ve always thought that you believed I missed it in life. And that’s why you went to L.A. yourself.”

  Whoa. This was getting to be a deep conversation for a hallway. The worst part was, he may have been right.

  “I-I...” I slowly stammered a response to get conversation back to shallow waters.

  “I’m not offended,” he said. “I just think you should know that before you get married. I think maybe you might have seen life a little differently if you had known that. I chose Sedona over L.A. too and I’m happy with that.”

  “I’m happy too, dad,” I said. “So about this Columbia Record thing.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “So they’re doing a taping tomorrow night. I wanted to invite you guys.”

  “Absolutely,” I said. “We’ll be there.”

  “Great,” he said. “Good to have you home.”

  “Good to be home,” I said.

  I got off the phone and Vicki was finally done with the client.

  “Good win,” I smiled at her.

  “Thanks,” she said. “I got lucky.”

  “I think we should celebrate,” I said.

  “Hmm,” she said. “That sounds good. What do you have in mind?”

  “Well,” I smirked. “Something not entirely not safe for work.”

  She laughed. “Your mother just texted me though.”

  “Oh yeah?” I asked and checked my phone. “I just off the phone with dad.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “Phoenix is coming home.”

  My twenty year old brother had gone to South America for a year on a vision quest.

  “It hasn’t been a year yet,” I said.

  “Well,” she said, “Apparently he’s at the airport now. They want us to pick him up.”

  “Absolutely,” I said.

  The airport was in Flagstaff, so it made sense to pick him up since we were out here anyway. Vicki and loaded into my car for the drive out to the airport to pick up my brother.

  Chapter 2

  I barely recognized Phoenix when strolled out of the terminal and into baggage claim.

  “Christ Almighty,” I muttered. “You’ve got a beard.”

  He smiled and stroked his facial hair and laughed. When he left, he was a gangly emo kid, lost in life and insecure.

  But now, he was filled out and well built. He had a scruffy beard and his dark hair, normally unkempt and falling in his eyes was well trimmed. He wore khaki shorts and a white t-shirt with sunglasses hanging off it. He strode with a confidence I had never seen in him.

  “You look so grown up,” Vicki gushed as she rushed to hug him.

  “Hey, Vicki,” he smiled and I caught just a tiny glimpse of someone I recognized under that beard.

  “Nice rock,” he smirked at me, and I laughed.

  Our great grandmother, the British aristocrat, had left the ring to either me or Phoenix, whichever one of us got engaged first.

  During my bachelor years there was a running joke that I would never settle down, and middle school Phoenix would be the one to get the ring. It just took that long to find the right woman, I guess.

  I shrugged at Phoenix and hugged him.

  “Well, you were a good contender,” I laughed.

  “It looks better on her,” he said. “Girls my age, that kind of ring just doesn’t look right. But she’s got that sophisticated look. It works on her.”

  “Awww, thanks, Phoenix,” Vicki smiled and patted his back. He winked and grabbed his bag off the carousel.

  “Congratulations, by the way,” he smiled and I was taken aback by the voice coming out of that body.

  It was deeper, but also more confident, and devoid of the filler words and pauses that characterized my brother’s speech patterns. He tossed his duffel bag over his shoulder in one quick agile movement, and his dark eyes scanned the terminal as if he had a library of thoughts all competing for his conscious mind.

  “Awww,” Vicki said. “You’re so sweet Phoenix. Thank you.”

  “Well,” I said. “Where do you want us to take you? You want to go home?”

  “I’m not going to stay with mom and dad,” he stated.

  “No?” I asked. “Do they know this?”

  “Landon Verhelst is in art school in Chicago,” he said.

  Landon was AJ’s boyfriend, and I knew all about him going to art school in Chicago.

  “Right,” I said. “I forget you guys are all the same age.”

  “Yeah,” Phoenix said. “I went to high school with him. Good guy. He said I could crash in his RV until I find a place.”

  “You want to me to take you to Landon’s RV?” I asked dubiously.

  I had never seen the place, but I knew Landon well enough to know things like home repairs or house cleaning weren’t things he spent a lot of time thinking about.

  “If you could,” he said. “He told where to get the key.”

  I had pressured Phoenix about being the whole driftless zoomer manchild, but I wasn’t sure if living in an RV, as opposed to our parents house, was the best idea. Then again, it wasn’t too long ago that I was a twenty-year-old bachelor. I never lived in an RV, but I don’t think it would have bothered me. But, if I dropped Phoenix off at an RV, I would never hear the end of it from my mother.

  “I’ll tell you what,” I said. “I know mom and dad are anxious to see you, and I’ve got to get back to the office. Why don’t I take you back to the house first, and you can call me later, I’ll take you over there.”

  He nodded slowly, and didn’t say anything. This was so unlike him. Usually he would have some sort of apologetic sounding response to me effectively saying no.

  We loaded up in my car and Vicki kept trying to get details from Phoenix about his trip. He wasn’t saying too much, and I wasn’t sure why.

  “Landon’s girlfriend still work for you?” he finally asked me.

  “AJ,” I supplied. “Yeah, she does. What did you talk to him online a lot?”

  “Some,” he said. “I need contacts in film. He’s got some.”

  “He’s got a few,” I said.

  Phoenix had been a student filmmaker, and had gone to South America partly to find a documentary subject.

  “Jerry Steele died you know,” I told him. Jerry Steele had owned film studio in town, and we had been involved in the murder investigation. The grisly case had been partly responsible for our sudden trip to Tahiti.

  “Seriously?” Phoenix was aghast. “What happened?”

  “Allison Pierce,” Vicki said. “It was an accident.”

  “Damn,” Phoenix said.

  I blinked in s
urprise. Phoenix had always been a kid. I wasn’t used to hearing profanity roll off his tongue with such ease.

  “What’s happening to Steele Productions?” he asked.

  “It’s morphing,” I said. “Leila Jaxson, his old assistant, is keeping it going in some form. AJ did some work with her, she would know more.”

  “Leila Jaxson,” he said. “She’s a badass. You know she used to be gypsy? She toured with a traveling artist group in a fifteen passenger van, and they all lived in an art and music commune.”

  “I did not know that,” Vicki said. “But it doesn’t surprise me.”

  I had met Leila Jaxson as Jerry’s assistant, and she had helped a lot in investigating his murder.

  “Well,” Vicki said. “She’s working for a music magazine now.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “I read some of her stuff. She’s pretty deep. Art and culture and how music captures a culture’s heartbeat.”

  “You kept up pretty well with Sedona while out of the country,” I said.

  “Some parts of it,” he said. “The parts I want to be part of anyway.”

  “Dad’s playing Sedona Nightlife tomorrow,” I said.

  “That show’s lame,” he said. “It tries too hard to make Sedona cool.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe. But Leila Jaxson will probably be covering it, if you were looking to talk to her.”

  It wasn’t long before we pulled up to the Irving manor. My parents house was a one story modest wood frame house.

  “Lavender,” Vicki remarked and I shook my head. It seemed like everytime we came out here, the house was a different color.

  The front lawn had gravel instead of grass, because Phoenix had some kind of environmental objection to grass.

  “They put grass on the backyard,” I said as I pulled into the drive.

  “Oh yeah?” he smiled.

  “Mom’s yoga class,” I said.

  “Mmm,” he didn’t seem interested.

  I parked and we all went inside.

  “Hello?” I called out.

  My mom was the first to come out. Saffron Irving wall tall with long willowy brown hair. It was pulled back with a cotton headband, and she wore an ankle length flowing patchwork skirt and tank top. I knew the skirt was one of my sister’s designs. She had just started her own design shop on Etsy.

  “Phoenix!” she exclaimed. “Oh my God, look at you.”

  “Hey mom,” he smiled and his dark eyes held hers, and then she embraced him a hug. She laughed as she held him, and then he smiled ruefully when she released him.

  “Vicki, Henry,” she greeted us warmly.

  “Hey mom,” I gave her a quick side hug. “Good to see you.”

  “How’d the case go?” she said. “Your dad said you were in court today.”

  “Vicki was,” I said. “She won her case.”

  Vicki smiled. “It was luck.”

  “Congratulations, sweetheart,” my mom hugged Vicki. “Oh, and I love that ring on you. I haven’t seen it yet.”

  Vicki held out her hand for my mom to admire.

  “It just fits you so well,” my mom smiled and she winked at me.

  I rolled my eyes. My mom also worked as a midwife, and I had had the whole grandkids lecture from her a couple of times now.

  “Aww, thank you,” Vicki smiled.

  “Your dad’s not here,” my mom told Phoenix. “But, that will give you some time to settle in before dinner.”

  “Oh, I’m not staying,” he told her.

  The smile faded from my mom’s face.

  “You’re not staying?” she repeated. “What do you mean?”

  “Landon Verhelst offered me his RV until I get my own place,” he said. “Henry said he’d take me over there.”

  My mom shot me a dirty look and then turned back to Phoenix. “You’re moving out?” she asked.

  “I think it’s time,” he said. “I’ll just be down the road.’

  “To an RV?” the disapproval was thick in her voice.

  “Well,” I slapped Phoenix on the back. “I’ve got to get back to the office. Call me if you need anything.”

  “Sure,” he said.

  Vicki and I quickly walked out the door, and I sighed as I unlocked the car door.

  “Your mom’s not happy about that RV,” Vicki shook her head and snickered.

  “Honestly,” I said. “It’s not all that bad of an idea. It’s just that he’s the baby.”

  We buckled in, and I gunned the engine.

  “He’s not a baby anymore,” she said. “That is a grown ass man.”

  “Noticed that, did ya?” I raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Oh, whatever,” she laughed. “I’m so high maintenance, you’re the only man in Sedona that could handle me.”

  “You’re right about that,” I smirked.

  “Well, you’re no walk in the park yourself,” she teased back.

  “I never claimed to be,” I laughed. “That’s why I had to leave Sedona to find a woman that would put up with me.”

  She laughed heartily. “I have noticed that. There’s not a trail of old girlfriends popping up around town.”

  “No,” I said. “I knew what I wanted, and I knew it wasn’t in Sedona.”

  She took my hand over the center console and we drove back to the office in contented silence.

  We arrived back at the office, and AJ had already come in. Our office was a small storefront in a revitalized downtown strip center. We were sandwiched between a smoothie shop and a vintage record store.

  Lately, I had noticed an ad in their window stating they had original Beatles records. Every day on my way into work, I think about stopping by to see if they had anything my dad would want. Every evening on my home, I forget.

  Our office, so we’ve been told, was built in the 1900’s, and I think that historic appeal was attracted me to it in the first place. It was all tiered windows in the front, and a glass door with a green wooden frame. The inside is two rooms with wooden floors. The main room is where we have desks set up for the three of us.

  Vicki decorated it with sleek white desks, and chrome task lamps with a minimalist contemporary office look. One one wall, I had an eight by ten framed and matted photo of a vandalism incident. We had once had a break in, and the vandal spray painted in red letters: Sedona to Irving--Go home. I love that photo.

  We got to the bottom of the incident, and it turned out our break in was just the tip of the iceberg on a monster case. Now the guilty parties were all rotting in jail for the better part of their lives. But, I keep the photo as a reminder of how much of a difference we were making in this town.

  To the other side of the room, we had a small kitchenette. It had a single serve coffee maker, and a mini fridge that the two women I work with constantly discuss cleaning out.

  I have never once cleaned it out, but I have noticed my leftovers frequently disappear. I don’t enter the conversation for fear that I might get handed a spray bottle and a rag.

  On the other side of the main office, is the conference room. Vicki had spent the whole decorating budget on the main room, so she had only bought a second hand dining table as a placeholder until we could get a chance to get something nice.

  Lately, Vicki and AJ had been online shopping for a good conference table, but I secretly had grown attached to that old table. There had been a lot of crap go down in that room around that table.

  We arrived at the office, and AJ emerged from the conference room. At nineteen, AJ stood about five foot six, and had long dark hair, and pulled off the professional emo look with an ease that impressed me. Today she wore a flared black skirt, a white button down blouse, paired with white knee high stockings and black platform wedges.

  “Hey guys,” she greeted us. “How did it go today?”

  I let Vicki talk as I unloaded my bag onto my desk. Vicki talked about the trial and how it had all gone.

  “So,” AJ said once Vicki filled her in. “While you guys were in Tahiti and yo
ur engagement hit Facebook, every wedding planner in Sedona sent messages to the firm’s Facebook page. Some of them have been following up.”

  I sighed. AJ managed all of our social media for this reason. I didn’t want to deal with it.

  “A wedding planner,” Vicki sighed. “I hadn’t even thought about what we want to do yet. We haven’t even set a date.”

  “I don’t know,” I said as I powered up my laptop for what remained of the workday. “We haven’t even decided on a city to have the wedding.”

  “I think we should have it here,” Vicki said.

  “There’s some super cool places to have a wedding here,” AJ said. “What about Cathedral Rock?”

  I sent her a dirty look and then pulled up my e-mails.

  “What?” AJ shrugged.

  “His parents did theirs on Cathedral Rock,” Vicki informed her.

  “Awww,” AJ clutched her hand over her heart. “Saffron and Moondust got married on Cathedral Rock? That is so awesome.”

  I sighed. I forgot AJ thought my mother was the coolest person in all of Sedona.

  Vicki and AJ continued to discuss wedding plans, I caught up on e-mails. I had read a couple of them at the courthouse, but now I had some time to ruminate on a couple of the responses. I buried myself in answering e-mails when a visitor popped in.

  “Hey,” Leila Jaxson’s voice rang through the office.

  Leila was a petite Persian woman, with dark skin and dark features. She worked as a reporter for an edgy music blog, so she looked the part, in a black skinny jeans and a striped button down shirt. We had met her in an ill-fated film that Jerry did. I was supposed to be playing Thomas Jefferson. But, it never made it past the second rehearsal.

  “Hey,” AJ rushed to greet her, and enveloped her in a hug. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.”

  “I know,” she said. “I came by to talk to you about the new project.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” AJ pulled a flash drive out of her purse. “This is the new script. It should be ready to cast.”

  “It’s finished?” Leila asked.

  “Yep,” AJ smiled. “All we need are actors and a film crew.”

  “Oh my gosh,” Leila gushed. “I can’t wait to read it.”