by Dave Daren
She sighed and shook her head again. She wiped her eyes with the tissue. “James was always very possessive of his trumpet. No one could touch it. But, that night, James and Roy got into a big argument, and Gary stole the mouthpiece on the trumpet. Roy had to go Flagstaff to get another one, and in the meantime, Gary coated with that Devil’s Breath plant, believing it not to be traceable. All during rehearsals, James used the new mouthpiece. But, right before taping, Gary switched it the mouthpiece to the identical poisoned one. When the gear was packed, I remember Gary giving this whole song and dance about how important the trumpet was to James, and how he was going to make sure it was packed properly in its case. I thought it was sweet of him. Now I know why.”
“So,” I said. “He poisoned your husband to defend your honor?”
Kelsi sighed. “In a nutshell, yeah.”
“Does he have a documented history of mental illness?” Vicki asked.
“Who knows?” she said. “That family, they don’t believe in doctors, or therapists or anything like that.”
“Right,” I said. “Off the grid.”
“Off the grid,” she snorted. “The police have said they’re giving him a full psych evaluation.”
“Anything we can do to help?” Vicki asked.
Kelsi smiled. “Well, you scared the shit out of Brent Levinson. I called him the day you asked me to. As soon as I said your name, he hung up. And, then the next day, a courier shows up with a check for half a million.”
I laughed. “Well, you got one hell of a life insurance payout from La Vista, I guess.”
“There you go,” she shrugged. “Silver lining.”
I handed her the paperwork to close out her file, and as she signed we got another visitor.
“Well,” I rose to greet Jim Hurley. “We’ve got the busy morning today.”
Jim smiled big and cleared his throat. “Uh, well, as you know, we break ground this weekend.”
“Yeah,” I smiled. “Glad to hear it. We’re excited.”
Jim nodded and cleared his throat again. “Some of the...uh...well, given that it’s Teddy Roosevelt’s land and all, some of the construction workers wanted to make an event of it.”
“An event?” I asked. “What kind of event?”
“They want to have a little groundbreaking party tomorrow afternoon,” he said. “You know, you guys are a big deal in town.”
“Us?” Vicki answered. “We’re a big deal?”
“Yeah,” Jim said. “People like you guys. Look, the construction crew just wants you to be at a party tomorrow afternoon for the groundbreaking. Can you do it? It would really mean a lot to them.”
I glanced at Vicki, and we both shrugged.
“Uh, sure,” I said. “We can make an appearance, I guess. If it means that much to the construction crew.”
“It does,” Jim nodded. “It really does.”
“Okay,” I said. “We’ll be there.”
“Around four,” he said. “Make sure you’re there. The guys, they have a gift for you. So, it’s important.”
“A gift?” Vicki asked. “What kind of gift?”
Jim shrugged. “I can’t...anyway, just make sure to come.”
“Done,” I said.
“Thanks,” he rolled his eyes. “My guys can be kind of sentimental sometimes.They’re good guys, so I try to take care of them.”
We laughed and he left the office.
“Well,” Kelsi said as she finished signing all the paperwork. “You’re the popular ones.”
“Apparently,” I said.
“Well,” she smiled and handed the paperwork back. “Thanks for all your help.”
She rose and offered her hand and I shook it.
“You guys have really come through for me on all counts,” she said. “I couldn’t have survived this without you.”
“Thanks, Kelsi,” I said. “Glad we could get you some answers. Bring the kids by later. Have some photos taken.”
“Yeah,” she said. “We should.”
She smiled and left the office, and I turned to Vicki.
“Well,” I said. “Another adventure wrapped up.”
Vicki’s wiped a tendril of hair out her face as she typed away on her laptop.
“Another one wrapped up,” she said.
Then, her face lit up.
“Oh my gosh,” she said. “It’s coming today.”
“What?” I asked.
“The conference table,” she said.
“We bought a conference table?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “I only bought that one at a thrift store because I was tired of shopping for office furniture and we were running low on our startup budget. Now that we’ve had more money coming in, I ordered it.”
“I like our conference table,” I muttered.
“It’s an old dining table,” she said.
“Well,” I said, “it was when we got it. Now so many memories. Brooke, Julianna, Chloe…”
“Landon’s documentary,” she supplied.
“Ha,” I smiled. “Landon’s documentary. Jerry’s Hindu music.”
We both laughed.
“Those were some fun days,” she said. “Jerry’s Hindu music.”
“How many Jitters cups and Fifth Street Bistro have we had on that table?” I laughed.
“God,” she laughed. “What haven’t we done on that table?”
I laughed back. “Well, I can think of one thing.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’ve got to be kidding me. It’s the middle of the workday, and there’s like fifty windows.”
“We can work around that,” I said. “I think it’s a proper goodbye to that table, in the true spirit of the treehouse days.”
“Would it kill the mood if I told you I’d already promised that table to your brother?” she said.
“Aww, man,” I laughed. “Why did you have to tell me that now?”
She laughed. “The Paradigm Group found an office, and AJ already asked me for the table.”
“Where’s the office?” I asked.
“They’ve bartered for a room in Horace’s theatre,” she said.
I laughed. “Well that should be interesting. What did they barter?”
“Occasional camera usage,” she said.
“That sounds like a really bad idea,” I said. “I don’t know if I want to be in business with Horace.”
“It will be a full circle of sorts for us,” she said.
“Uh-huh,” I said. “As long as he doesn’t put me in another production.”
“Oh,” she smiled. “I’m sure he will. Don’t worry.”
I laughed. “Oh, I’m worried. What the hell has my brother gotten me into?”
At that moment, a delivery truck arrived.
“There is it,” she said. “Our table.”
While two delivery drivers brought in a massive glass top table with an expansive white marble base, Vicki and I scrambled to get the table out of the conference room.
We meshed it up against the side of the wall.
“I’ll text Phoenix to come get it,” I said as I pulled out my phone.
“Where do you want this?” The driver asked.
“In here,” I gestured as I finished the text.
The two delivery drivers set up the table, and brought in the matching leather high back chairs. Wow. It really looked good. The wood floors, white walls and ample windows, looked good with anything. But, this took the office to a whole new level. It looked like something out of a conference room in our old firm back in L.A.
I stood and watched them set it up, and I put my arm around Vicki. I felt a wave of emotion wash over me.
“We aren’t a startup anymore,” I told her. “We’re legit.”
“Long way from the treehouse days, huh?” she said.
“Sure enough, Toto,” I laughed.
Chapter 23
Saturday was long and lazy. But sometime in the mid afternoon, I got an odd call. It was from my
old friend River Watson.
“River,” I said. “Wow, how long has it been?”
River and I had gone to college at UCLA together, but he had been a business major that went on to the financial sector. He was the head of our little group of drinking buddies in L.A., the one guy that brought us all together. I was shocked to hear from him.
“Too long, bud,” he said. “Too long. Look, I just wanted to say congratulations on the engagement.”
“Thanks,” I said. “I didn’t know the word was out yet.”
“Yeah,” he said. “That AJ chick, she posted the link on your Facebook.”
“AJ, huh?” I said.
“Yeah,” he said. “Is she single? She’s hot.”
“Uh,” I said. “She’s not single.”
“She’s still smoking hot,” he said. “You’ve got to admit that.”
“I’m engaged, River,” I said.
“So,” he said. “Doesn’t mean you can’t look. Just can’t touch. Those legs, go on for days man.”
He whistled. I was puzzled. I guessed you could tell that from a Facebook photo. Not really, though.
“What are you going through her photos?” I said.
“Uh...yeah, reconnaissance bro,” he said. “So tell me about this Vicki chick? What’s she like? What are you doing?”
I smiled and told River all about Vicki and our firm, and now Paradigm Productions.
“Wow,” he said when I was finished. “You’ve been busy. I respect you, man. All I’m doing is chasing skirts. You’re out there, making it happen for you, bud. Glad to hear it.”
“Thanks, River,” I said. “I appreciate that.”
“Now,” he said. “About that bachelor party…”
I laughed. “Now that, we should talk about.”
I talked to River for a while longer. It was nice to hear from an old friend, especially after what Brent had said. Apparently the entire population of Orange County did not believe I had had a mental breakdown.
“Who was that?” Vicki asked as soon as I ended the call.
I was still laying in bed, and she climbed back in with me.
“River Watson,” I told her as I toyed with her hair. “Old friend from college. Nice guy. Just wanted to congratulate us.”
“That’s sweet,” she said. “Between Jessica, AJ, and Landon, the word’s out about the wedding. I’m getting all sorts of texts and messages from old friends.”
“Did we nix the paper invitations?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “But this is faster.”
“So what do you want to do today?”
“We’ve got that party this afternoon,” I said.
She laughed. “I’m so proud of you. You actually remembered something we had to do.”
I laughed. “I did, mainly because I’m curious what the construction crew on our house wants to give us.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Sedona people are weird. Who knows.”
Her phone beeped with a text.
“Ugh,” she said. “AJ. She says she ran into Jim at Jitters this morning, and he asked if ee were still coming to that party.”
“Yes, yes, we’re coming,” I sighed.
I shot Jim a text, and Vicki texted AJ back.
We spent the rest of the day hanging around the house, on a rare day off. Working on a big case is always exhausting, and we don’t typically get our weekends. But, now that things have slowed, we have a day off. Well, at least until someone gets murdered again in Sedona.
That afternoon we drove out to the build site to see them break ground on our new house.
I got another text from Jim, once we were about halfway down the road. You guys still coming?
Yeah, I replied. Ten minutes.
“Jesus,” Vicki said as we navigated through the buttes. “Your mom just texted me.”
“What does she want?” I asked.
“She said she heard about the groundbreaking,” she said, “and she said they’re all coming.”
“That’s nice of her, I guess,” I said.
“You know,” Vicki shook her head. “If we live here for the rest of our lives, I still don’t I’ll ever get tired of this view.”
“Right?” I said. “This is it. You and me, forever.”
“This is it,” she smiled and took my hand over the console.
“The traffic is heavier than usual,” I noticed.
“Yeah,” she said. “Usually there’s only one or two other vehicles down this way. Now there’s tons of them.”
“A Mercedes, with a California plate,” I noticed.
“Holy shit,” Vicki said. “You don’t think…”
“No,” I said. “Surely not. How would they have….”
When we arrived at the build site, on our land, though, our suspicions were confirmed. The place was packed with vehicles.
“Oh my God,” Vicki said as we pulled up. “Half of these are from California.”
“AJ,” we both said in unison.
We exited the vehicle, and there was no one to be found. We navigated through the miles of luxury vehicles and finally got to a clearing. As soon as we rounded a corner past a tree, we heard the yell,
“Surprise!”
There must have been two or three hundred people standing on our land cheering for us. I wrapped my arm around Vicki, who was just as shocked as I was. I noticed then, the tiki lights, and the banner hung on two bamboo poles.
Congratulations, Henry and Vicki.
After the cheering died down AJ, Phoenix, Leila, Jagger and Landon all approached us.
“So,” AJ had a microphone in her hand. “The Paradigm Productions Group is so grateful for everything you’ve done, we’ve decided to throw you guys an engagement party.”
“Yeah,” Phoenix took the microphone. “Your L.A. friends are all a bunch of assholes, but we got them all here.”
The whole crowd roared in laughter, and I saw a few raised glasses from faces I hadn’t seen in a year.
“Oh, my God,” I shook my head. “Thank you guys.”
Vicki was crying. “Oh my god. You guys are so sweet.”
Out of the crowd, about six women, dressed to the nines in high end designer dresses emerged and embraced Vicki so tightly they nearly knocked her over.
“So,” Phoenix continued. “Everybody eat, and drink up, and let’s get this party started!”
Everyone cheered, and Vicki completely disappeared in a whiff of perfume and gushing women and heels. We had never met each other’s L.A friends, and she had mentioned a few times missing them. I had been trying to think of a way we could have gone back for a visit, but I guess AJ took care of that for us.
I moved through the party, and found drinks and food and everywhere we stepped, someone congratulated me. I found River pretty quickly.
“Good to see you, bud,” he slapped me on the back.
“Uh-huh,” I said. “You only saw AJ in Facebook photos, huh?”
He laughed. “I talk too much. I realized I gave myself away. Hot chick though. Really. Who’s she with?”
Jim approached me before I could answer. “I was worried you weren’t going to come.”
“Well,” I said. “It did occur to me it might not be a good idea to piss off the guys that are building our house.”
He laughed and then Kelsi Matthews showed up.
“Hey, Kelsi,” I said and gave her a quick side hug.
“Sorry I couldn’t tell you,” she laughed. “I was biting my tongue so hard yesterday when Jim came into the office to invite you.”
I laughed. “You knew then?”
Jim laughed. “Yeah, I couldn’t even look at you. You were sitting there and your face was beet red and I just had to look away.”
They both laughed.
“Where are those sentimental construction workers?” I asked. “And a gift?”
“Uh, yeah,” Jim said. “About that..”
I just laughed. Jim and Kelsi disappeared, and that’s when I sp
otted a face I thought I’d never seen again.
“Mr. Sanchez,” I gasped.
My old boss stood regal in a high end suit on Teddy’s Roosevelt’s land. He held a plastic champagne flute gingerly in his hand. I smiled. I hadn’t seen those yet at the party, and I knew my old friends would snub them. But AJ and the Paradigm Group had probably deeply agonized over what kind of champagne to serve our sophisticated L.A. friends. If they couldn’t appreciate that, then fuck them.
“Good to see you, Henry,” he said. Despite it nothing having been so long since I’d last seen him, Sanchez looked a fair bit older than I remembered, but he had aged in a way that made him appear more distinguished than infirm. His hair was salt and pepper rather than the black with flecks of grey, but he appeared to be a few pounds lighter. His suit was, as always, bespoke in whatever the latest Italian style was, and the watch-geek in me noticed that he had upgraded his wristwatch to the new Rolex that all the Arabian sheiks were going ga-ga over.
“I’m glad you could make it out,” I said.
“I’m really impressed with what you and Vicki are doing,” he said. “I thought you were throwing away your career. But, I think you two got a hell of a good thing going on here.”
“I appreciate that,” I said.
“I’m glad I could play a small part in bringing you two together,” he said. “I always thought you two would make a great couple. I always wondered why you never went for it.”
I laughed. “I guess I wanted to make sure it was real first.”
His face sobered. “Then you’re smarter than half the men on my payroll. Find yourself a good woman, and never let her go, son. Never let her go.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“I won’t be able to make it to the wedding,” he said. “And neither will a lot of people. It’s Grammy Week. What the hell are you doing setting your wedding during Grammy Week?”
I laughed. It hadn’t even occurred to me.
“Well,” I said. “I understand. I’m just glad everyone came out for this.”
“So I heard about the way you brought down Levinson,” he nodded with approval. “Ballsy move.”
“Thanks,” I said. “He was a real dick, and had been screwing people over for years.”
“Oh, I agree,” he said. “No one’s ever been able to pin anything on him.”
“But apparently everyone knew,” I said.
