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

a struggling waitress and couldn’t really afford to take care of my car, and so I was always getting pulled over for maintenance violations, or expired registration or no insurance, or...so over time, these accumulated into a lot of charges that I couldn’t pay.”

“So you drove illegally?” Vicki asked. “It’s fine. The statute of limitations has long since passed from 2005.’

“Okay,” Topaz said. “Yes. I drove illegally, and then I got arrested on a traffic warrant and Onyx bailed me out, but I still had all of these charges from my arrest and I couldn’t pay any of it, then my license expired anyway and I couldn’t renew it. So the whole thing was all a huge mess, it took like six years to pay it all off. So, when Onyx went to the courthouse to change his name, I didn’t have a valid identification so I couldn’t do the name change with him.”

Then the client as we knew her didn’t exist?

“But you still went by the name Topaz,” Vicki said.

“Yes,” Topaz said. “I changed it informally.”

“Do you have valid identification now?” Vicki asked.

“Yes,” Topaz blushed.

“And you still haven’t gone back to change your name?” Vicki questioned.

“No,” Topaz said. “It was just a hassle. I was already Topaz by common law.”

“Right,” Vicki moved in for her final point that I had seen coming for a while. I smiled. She was good.

“Well,” Vicki said. “Common law doesn’t apply to name changes. Otherwise every woman in America could put ‘Baby’ on her driver’s license.”

She grabbed the contentious bill of sale from her padfolio and crossed the room to Onyx.

“Can you read the signature on this form?” she asked.

Onyx sighed. “It says ‘Topaz Whitestone.’”

Markle palmed his face and sighed. Gotcha, bud.

“Topaz Whitestone,” Vicki started.

“Doesn’t exist,” Markle finished in defeat.

Ohhh...and another one bites the dust.

“Exactly,” Vicki said. “That’s all your honor.”

The judge nodded and then looked over the document of sale that she had.

“In light of this revelation,” the judge said. “The court rules this contract null and void. The business in question belongs to Amelia Whitestone and Onyx Thomspson. I would suggest that a proper bill of sale be drawn up, and this time...read it.”

“Yes, your honor,” Topaz grinned and nodded.

“Court adjourned,” Judge Preston banged the gavel.

“Wow,” Topaz turned to the Vicki as we all filed out. “I can’t believe you did that. How did you know?”

“I had a hunch last night,” Vicki said. “When I was talking to Henry’s parents, Saffron and Moondust. You guys aren’t the only ones in  Sedona with fake names.”

“Saffron Irving has a fake name?” Topaz’s eyes grew wide. “I know her.”

“No,” I said. “Saffron’s real. Moondust isn’t. But his is legal. He doesn’t want anyone to know his birth name. It’s kind of a thing with him.”

“Really?” Topaz looked at me quizzically. “Do you know his real name?”

“I do,” I said. “But Vicki doesn’t.”

“I don’t want to know,” she said. “It’s his secret and it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you got your store back.”

“Yeah,” Topaz shook her head. “I gotta tell you, I was scared there for a minute.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Well,” she blushed. “I had my own reasons for wanting to get rid of Amelia Whitestone, and so back when I owed all of that money...well, I did something I shouldn’t have.”

“What did you do?” Vicki asked.

“I went to a guy that does fake ID’s,” she said. “And I had one made so that I could do business under Topaz.”

“Wow,” I said. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t tell us that.”

“Yeah,” Vicki said. “My legal advice--get real identification please, because all of your business dealings are similarly null and void.”

“I will definitely do that now,” she said.

We were back in the lobby now. I didn’t see Onyx or Markle anywhere.

“Have a safe trip back to Sedona,” I shook hands with Topaz or Amelia or whatever her name was.

“Thanks,” she said.

Vicki talked to the client for a few more minutes, and then I heard my phone buzz, in Vicki’s purse.

“You left it in the courtroom,” she said and she pulled it out.

“Moondust,” she read the display as she handed it to me. “I can’t believe you still have your dad saved under his real name.”

“It’s not his name,” I replied.

“I guess not,” she laughed.

“Hey, Dad,” I answered as I walked away from Vicki and the client still chatting. “What’s up?”

“Henry,” his tone was light and airy. “I’ve got some great news.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked as I sat in a plastic chair in the hallway. “What’s going on?”

“You know that show, Sedona Nightlife?” he asked.

Ah yes. That show. This was our local version of SNL. But where the iconic NBC show majored on sketch comedy and minored on music, Sedona Nightlife, also presumptuously abbreviated SNL, our version majored on local music acts, and minored on sketch comedy.

Most of the bands were decent, a lot of them were trendy hipster bands. But my dad spent his whole life in and out of bands, and had been on the show a handful of times as a fill in musician in some act or another.

“Of course,” I said. “What about it?”

“So,” he said. “We’re headlining it.”

“Seriously?” I replied. “That’s excellent.”

“And they want the new song,” he continued.

“What new song?” I had been in Tahiti for the last month and I hadn’t gotten a chance to catch up with my family.

“You haven’t heard about this?” he asked incredulously.

“No,” I said. “I’ve been in Tahiti.”

He whistled. “That’s right. I guess if I was on a Tahitian beach getting laid around the clock--”

“Oh God, dad,” I snickered.

“I’m just saying,” he replied, “if I would have known that’s what the life of