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

I do know that according to this, it wasn’t a freak accident that your husband is gone. There is someone that’s responsible.”

She was quiet for a minute.

“You’re suggesting that James was...murdered?” her voice choked up.

“According to the coroner’s report,” she said. “He was poisoned.”

“Poisoned?” her voice cracked. “How? By whom?”

“We don’t know,” she said. “And the toxicology report said they were unable to identify the poison type. It was an unknown substance, was the phrase they used.”

“Stop,” she cried. “Stop. Stop.”

“Okay,” Vicki said. “I just thought you had a right to know.”

Kelsi wept on the phone.

“I can’t do any of this anymore,” she said. “Please don’t call me.”

I raised an eyebrow and jumped into the conversation.

“Kelsi,” I leaned into the speaker. “This is Henry Irving. Are you stating that you would like to seek new representation?”

“No, no,” she sighed. “You guys are fine. I just...all of this is too much.”

“We understand,” Vicki said. “But we have a responsibility to follow up with these findings with the police. I don’t know what they’re going to do with it.”

Kelsi sighed long and disappointed. “They’re going to go digging around asking more questions, and more questions until I’ve answered them all a dozen times.”

“I’m sorry you’re going through this, Kelsi,” I said. “We will only contact you when absolutely necessary.”

“Thank you,” she said softly.

“Get some rest, Kelsi,” Vicki said.

“Thank you,” Kelsi said and she ended the call.

We disconnected the phone and Vicki whistled and perched on the side of my desk.

“She sounds guilty,” Vicki said.

“That she does,” I said.

“Let me call Hal,” I said. I referred to the police chief Hal Leonard. “Let’s find out if he’s got an investigation on this in the works somehow.”

“Right,” she said.

Then I followed a hunch.

“Let’s find out about indigenous Kenyan poisons and what they can do to a person,” I said.

“Got it,” she said.

Vicki got online to research African poisons, and I got on the phone with the police chief.

“Hal Durant,” the police chief sounded annoyed.

My caller ID tended to make legal figures in this town do that. I was surprised he even picked up. I’m sure he debated it.

“Hal,” I said. “Henry Irving. How’s it going this morning?”

“Peachy,” he said. “What can I do for you, Irving?”

“I wanted to talk to you about something came across my desk,” I said. “I’m investigating this Kelsi Matthews smuggling case.”

“Uh-huh,” he said.

“And I’m sure you know about what happened with her husband on Sedona Nightlife,” I said.

“Yeah,” Hal said. “Dropped dead of a heart arrhythmia.”

Although he didn’t say it, there was a note in his tone that suggested he kind of wished the same would happen to me.

“That’s the thing,” I said. “I don’t know why you weren’t contacted by the coroner. But I’ve got the coroner’s report here that states that wasn’t what happened.”

“That right, huh?” Hal sighed deep. “What’s it say he died of?”

“The toxicology report clearly states he was poisoned,” I said. “It was an unknown substance. But James and the whole band had been in Africa for a month.”

“So you think one of this man’s band mates picked up some exotic poison, smuggled it through customs, waited until they got home, and then poison him to death?” Hal retorted.

“It’s an idea,” I said. “But I’ll fax you over the report.”

“Yeah,” he said. “Fax it on over to me and I’ll look it over and get an original from the coroner.”

“Thanks, Hal,” I said.

“You bet Irving,” he said. “You know, we didn’t used to have homicides here until you moved here. Now we have them all the time.”

“What are you suggesting?” I asked.

“I’m not suggesting anything,” he said. “I just wonder why people want to kill people once you get into town.”

“I ask myself that every day, Hal,” I said.

“Yeah,” he snorted. “Keep busy with that smuggling case. Defend people that really need defending and stop making up crimes.”

“Wow,” I said. “Alright Hal, I’ll see you around.”

“See you around,” he said and hung up.

“Geez,” I said as I looked at the dead phone receiver. “No love lost there.”

“They’re just sore losers,” Vicki said.

“Incompetent and lazy is what they are,” I said.

“Well, I guess I should wait to go down there and talk to Tony Sanchez the pot dealer,” I said.

“I told you,” Vicki said. “He’s not going to talk.”

“Where are you on the African poisons?’ I asked.

“I’m not finding really anything,” she said.

The door opened and Jim Hurley walked in with an armful of papers.

“Jim,” I rose and shook his hand. “How’s it going?”

“It’s going well,” he said. “I just have a few papers for you guys to sign.”

“Great,” I said. “Are we still on schedule for the ground breaking next week?”

“Still on schedule,” he shot me a thumbs up.

“So Henry wanted to make some adjustments to the blueprints,” Vicki chimed in.

Jim nodded slowly. “Okay.”

I looked at Vicki quizzically.

“He wants a window seat in all the bedrooms, and scrap the wooden staircase,” she babbled. “Let’s do a winding metal one and we want to add a third story--a built out loft that could serve as a guest apartment, and let’s deck it out with a full kitchen...and a private balcony. And we also want to put an infinity pool on the roof--with a cabana and a wet bar in the center of the pool.”

Jim looked horrified. “Yeah. We can still make those kinds of changes this late,” his voice was slow and halting.

I smirked at Vicki who burst into laughter.

“I’m totally joking,” she told Jim.

Jim laughed and clutched his chest. “You were going to give me a heart attack.”

“We were watching HGTV