Sedona Law 6 by Dave Daren (best non fiction books of all time .TXT) 📗

premise?” AJ asked. “Are we looking to prove she’s innocent?”

“Not necessarily,” I said. “Because I don’t know that she is. She’s too long winded to be innocent. I mainly want to know where those tusks came from and how they got in the Matthews garage. If we can find that, we’ll have the truth. And once we know what happened, we can craft a defense.”

“You’d defend her even if she’s guilty?” AJ asked.

“That’s our job,” I stated. “You don’t have to like your clients, especially if they are guilty as sin. But we have a duty to get them the best defense that the law allows, and sometimes that means negotiating a reduced sentence while other times it means we are able to get a guilty person off scot free.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” she replied.

“Well, now you know why lawyers have some of the lowest job satisfaction scores in those surveys,” I joked.

“OK, OK, I’ve got the map of Africa and sent it to the copy mat,” AJ said. “It should be ready soon.”

“Great,” I said. “I’m going to zero in on these band members. They were there. If James or Kelsi were smuggling, someone would have seen something.”

I was compiling a list of the band members’ names and contact information, when Phoenix walked into the office.

“Hey, Phoenix,” I said. “How’s it going?”

He raised an eyebrow and wordlessly took a seat in front of my desk.

“Hey, Henry,” he sighed and leaned back in the chair. “I want to talk to you about an idea I had. Not sure if it will work.”

“Oh, yeah?” I leaned back in my chair and toyed with a pencil. “And what idea might that be?”

“I want to start a production studio,” he stated. He crossed his ankle over his knee and leaned back with one arm over the back of the chair.

“Yeah,” I nodded with approval. “That sounds like a viable idea. You have capital?”

“Lady Sara,” he grinned.

I took a deep breath. Lady Sara was our British great grandmother that had left us her ring. She also left me, my sister, and Phoenix generous college funds.

“You want to use your college money for a production studio,” I eyed him.

“Yeah,” he said. “I think formal education is an outdated institution.”

“Is that right?” I smirked.

“I mean,” he gestured back at me. “No offense. In your case it was important because you wanted to go in a highly specialized field. But, aside from that, it’s useless. College was invented by a bunch of rich kids in the Renaissance, who got a bunch of guys who spoke Latin and Greek to interpret and explain Greek and Roman writing. They rented out community halls, and paid the smart guy to teach them what they knew. And, that’s basically what it still is, even though the economy has morphed exponentially.”

I listened to his rant and snickered the whole time. The old Phoenix had largely returned. Well, except for the fact that he had just used the words, “exponentially,” and “morphed,” and correctly too. His favorite word used to be “like.”

“So,” Phoenix continued, “I talked to mom and dad, and they’re totally cool with it. I’m working on a business plan now, but what do we need to do to draw up all the business paperwork and licensing and whatever else we need?”

I nodded as he got to his point. “You want to start a small business?”

“Yeah,” he stated.

“Well,” I said. “In your case, I am not certain that Lady Sara’s money can be used that way.”

“No,” he said. “Mom and dad are the trustees.”

I snickered at his use of the legal phrase. He puffed his chest out when he said it, as if he were relating to me in my field.

“Yeah,” I said. “That doesn’t mean that they can just spend the money how they please. That trust is handled through a law firm in London, but they have a branch in New York, and there’s a lawyer there we typically deal with.”

“Okay,” his voice had a hint of resignation in it. “How do I get money from them?”

I sighed. “I’ve never seen the agreement, so I’m not sure what the stipulations are, but I do know that I would send them my tuition bills, and they would pay the school directly. I never saw the checks. Which leads me to believe you’re not going to get the money without…”

His face fell further and further the longer I went on. Then the door opened and Jim Hurley, our architect, walked in. I watched briefly as Vicki greeted him.

“I tell you what,” I turned to Phoenix. “You work on drawing up a business plan, and get me a copy of the trust. I’ll look it over and see what we’re looking at.”

“Thanks,” he said as he rose. “First day on this project, and I’m already screwed. This is going to be fun.”

“Fortune favors the brave,” I said.

“Since when have you taken to quoting useless platitudes?” he smirked at me.

I laughed. “You may have a point there.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t make it a habit. You’re better than that,” he said.

As he turned to leave, he winked at me, in an uncharacteristic way. Eh, I found his arrogance amusing. Adulthood was going to kick his ass soon enough. He could have his delusions of grandeur for the moment.

“Damn,” AJ cleared her throat after he left. “Phoenix got hot.”

Vicki laughed and I rolled my eyes.

”Why does every woman in my life feel it necessary to impart this information to me?” I muttered.

Vicki and AJ both laughed and I rolled my eyes and turned to Jim. He shook his head and smiled, and had blueprints rolled out onto Vicki’s desk.

“What do we got here?” I asked.

“We’ve added the