Sedona Law 4 by Dave Daren (free ebook reader for ipad .txt) 📗

the physical, mental and spiritual energies at this table into alignment.”

I blinked in shock. How did we get here?

“I mean,” Julianna said, “only if you guys are into it.”

“We’re just not at that place spiritually,” Vicki said. “We’re all at different places in our journey toward wholeness and enlightenment. And, I’m not sure group sex is the right choice for us right now.”

I nodded solemnly to Gabriel and Julianna, but I completely admired Vicki right then. I would have gone with the whole, “Are you nuts?” approach.

“Totally,” Julianna’s tone had that overly open and accepting note New Agers use. “Whenever you’re ready.”

“Yeah,” Gabriel said. “It’s a big step.”

I promptly paid the bill and rose to end the evening as fast as I could without offending our clients. When Vicki and I got back to our car, we both dissolved into laughter. ”

“Wow,” she said. “That’s a first.”

“And I thought I had seen everything Sedona had to offer,” I said.

“Apparently not,” she said. “We’ve got a sex therapist on our hands.”

“It’s always something,” I said.

Chapter 13

It was the morning of the arraignment, and we were scheduled for the courthouse in Preston. Vicki and I made the hour drive out there and rehashed the details of the case on the way.

“But we still don’t have a motive for the murder,” she said. “We have a dirty politician, a call girl, and a madam, but how does that factor in to a murder?”

“We know that Malone hated Beowulf,” I said.

“Right,” she replied. “But, what would be the inciting incident?”

“Jealousy?” I threw out. “Disagreement over money? I don’t know. We still need that smoking gun.”

“We need to talk to Judith again,” she said.

“Yeah,” I said. “This is all going to get really nasty over the next few weeks, because half of these people lied to us. I want to do all of those interviews again.”

We were quiet for a few minutes as the southwest landscape whizzed by us.

“This is my first time in court,” Vicki stated.

It hadn’t occurred to me until then that she hadn’t tried a case. In California she hadn’t been licensed, and in Arizona our big cases were a team effort, and I had done all of the court appearances alone, just because it was easier.

“How is the case going with Elena?” I asked her.

She would be doing that one alone, although I would be there if she needed me.

“We have a preliminary hearing scheduled for next week,” she said. “Asylum cases can get hung up for years. but I’ve been communicating back and forth with her immigration case worker. She should be able to get a temporary visa next week until her case is fully heard.”

“Wow,” I said. “Good work.”

“Well, it’s not over yet,” she said.

“How is she holding up?” I asked.

“She’s nervous,” she said.

“Clients typically are,” I said. “You’ve got to have a bag of tricks for that.”

“Oh, I’ve seen your bag of tricks,” she laughed. “Bullshitting them all the way into the courtroom.”

“It works,” I said.

“Poor lady,” she said. “She’s so sweet. I just love her. You know she brought us homemade breakfast burritos the other day?”

“How did I miss that?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “You missed out, they were good. But I’m pretty confident we’ve got her case under control, so that’s been helping.”

“How has she been since we liquidated the estate?” I asked.

We met Elena because she had been the housekeeper for our wealthy client who died. Per the instructions of his will, we liquidated the estate, which was unfortunate for her, because she both lived and worked at the estate.

“She moved in with her daughter for a little while,” Vicki said. “Now she’s got a little place and another housekeeping job.”

“That’s good,” I said. “I hated to lay her off.”

“Maybe that’s why she didn’t bring you a burrito,” she said.

“That’s it,” I said. “No more pro bono work for her until she brings me a burrito.”

We arrived at the court, and it was a madhouse. Everywhere we looked, there were news vans, cameras, and reporters talking into live feeds. They weren’t allowed inside the building, so a couple of security guards stood on alert on the steps, and a few stood out in the lot directing traffic and trying to keep some sense of order.

“Shit,” I said.

“Thank you, Marvin,” Vicki muttered as a security guard in an orange vest halted us, and let traffic come through past us.

“Ratings,” I said.

Finally, he waved us through, and we inched our way through several other security guards, and the overall badly managed pandemonium. This was a small town courthouse, they weren’t designed or prepared for scandalous media trials.

Vicki checked her reflection in the mirror and reapplied her make-up as I parked. She looked stunning in a form fitting skirt suit. She had a black and white patterned blazer top, and a knee-length black skirt that accentuated her curves. Her long hair fell in soft curls around her face, and the scent of her perfume filled the car.

“It’s just an arraignment,” she muttered as she fixed her hair for the cameras.

“Anything else going on in this town?” I laughed.

“I hear the county fair has a goat competition,” she said.

“My point exactly,” I said.

“I don’t know,” she browsed her phone. “They’re giving away ten thousand dollars.”

“Really?” I said as we exited the car. “We should get ourselves a goat.”

“I hear they’re good lawn mowers,” she said.

“Is that right?” I laughed.

“Yeah,” she said. “You get a goat, it’s eco-friendly lawn care.”

“Well, damn,” I said. “We live in the downtown district, though. You think they’d let us have a goat?”

“It is Sedona,” she said.

I laughed. “It is Sedona.”

“And