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

high end designers and had like Coach and Louis Vuitton bags. Then, their house got foreclosed on, and she just fell off the social radar. Sad.”

“Hmmm,” I said. “I might need to try a different approach with Steve, then.”

I moved to my next call, the guitarist Gary. He answered on the first ring.

“Gary,” I said. “I’m calling in regards to Kelsi Matthews--”

“I don’t have the bail money,” he interrupted me. “She already hit me up.”

“Did she?” I repeated. “Well, I’m not trying to find her bail money, I’m her lawyer.”

“Oh, yeah?” he responded. “Look, I know she’s in some pretty deep shit. She’s a nice lady, good person. I don’t want to say anything to screw things up for her. Not that there’s anything to screw up for her, but you gotta be careful when you talk to lawyers, cause you could say the sky is blue, and the next thing you know, they’ve got you admitting to a bank robbery. No offense.”

“None taken,” I laughed. “I understand the system all too well. But, in this case, the system is working for her.”

“And no, I did not rob a bank,” he interrupted. “Let the record show. That was just an example.”

“I understand, Gary,” I frowned and rubbed my forehead. “I didn’t think you robbed a bank.”

“Aww, shit,” he said. “I really suck at this. Can we start over?”

“Please,” I said.

I was batting zero for two, I needed to figure out a different approach with these guys.

“I’ll tell you what,” I said. “It’s not just you I need to speak with, I want to talk to the whole band. I want to find out what you guys know that could help Kelsi.”

“She didn’t smuggle anything,” he said. “That’s ridiculous.”

“I think so too,” I said. “But the Feds don’t. So, I need to find out what you guys know. I’d like to meet up with the whole band for drinks.”

“That sounds reasonable,” he said. “I don’t know what the guys would think.”

“Maybe you could talk to them for me?” I asked. “Arrange it with everyone, let me know? I think they’d rather hear from you than from me. It’s for Kesli. And drinks on me.”

“Well,” he said slowly. “We’ve had this show at Slingers booked for weeks, and they told us we could do a tribute set to James.”

“Slingers, huh?” I replied.

Slingers was an outlaw country western bar, not exactly the dulcimer playing vegan crowd.

“It pays good,” he countered my unspoken objection. “And we usually edge up some old Merle Haggard or Willie Nelson, and it goes over pretty well.”

“Ah,” I said. “That makes more sense.”

“We’re playing tonight, at seven thirty,” he said. “After the show, if you wanted to talk, I could get the guys together for you.”

Considering that Steve wouldn’t take my calls, and Gary stepped all over his words, this was about as good as I was going to get.

“Sounds good,” I said. “I’ll see you tonight.”

“See you tonight,” he said.

We said our goodbyes and ended the call. Vicki was on the phone with what sounded like an old lover of Irwin Montague, and AJ was watching some kind of YouTube video on the elephant tusk trade.

Now that they were busy, I needed to switch gears and find out about Lady Sara’s trust. I was fairly certain that Phoenix couldn’t use his college money to start a studio, but I wanted to see if I could find a loophole. I knew my mom had a copy of it in the safe, so I texted her.

While I waited, I searched my brother’s name online. A full website came up, and I clicked on it. I was shocked at what I found.

“Check this out,” I told Vicki.

“What?” she and AJ gathered around my screen.

I played a clip on Phoenix’s website. It was a documentary on Columbian poverty, which I knew global income inequality was a passion of his. But, I didn’t expect this.

The camera spanned a refugee camp in Columbia where Venuzealans were fleeing from conditions back home. The video zoned in on the children at the heart of the camp, and had subtitles as they talked about leaving beloved toys and friends and schools. It broke my heart really.

“He’s good,” Vicki commented.

“I know,” AJ said. “I’ve seen this website. There’s some good stuff on here. He told Landon he met a couple of guys that were into film and he learned a lot of techniques from them.

I clicked on a few more video clips, and I just couldn’t believe how professionally done this stuff was. Phoenix’s last film had paper mache hippos. Vicki eyed me with a smile. She knew what I was thinking.

“Give it time,” she said. “It’s a big, big, project. Let him get settled in back home, see how this all plays out.”

“What plays out?” AJ asked.

Vicki and I let a pregnant silence fall before I answered the question.

“I know too many filmmakers,” I said. “It’s a shame you guys can’t all find each other.”

“I know, right?” AJ laughed. “The old guard is changing out here.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well,” she said. “Clifton’s death was sad. But, it’s changed a lot of things.”

“How so?” I asked.

“It’s more…” she trailed off as she tried to find words. “People that I know that do film, now that he’s not at the center of the film community, it’s kind of a free for for all, I guess. It’s fresh, new, life. It’s Change. A lot of people are doing some new stuff these days. Real avante garde experimental stuff. New projects, new filmmakers popping up all the time”

She turned from her keyboard and her words came out fast, and passionate, and her eyes lit up. “There’s so much more energy in the