by Dave Daren
“I must chase my muse, my good, my evil,” I announced. “If I leave you in stunned silence for a stretch of minutes, then that is what must be. Sometimes it is in the quietude that we hear the answers we have been seeking, the true essence of purity.”
“And what is the essence of purity, truly?” she struggled. “Is it even within my power to embody it? Or is it the responsibility-- nay! The privilege of lesser men is to pursue it in whatever form they mistakenly believe it to take.”
I puffed out my chest and projected my voice through the audience.
“And who is it that I mistakenly believe you are?” I challenged.
The crowd turned to regard me with wonder and admiration, clearly buying into whatever long-winded metaphor Linda and I had ended up creating here.
“You have always known me, Barry McGoodGuy,” she told me.
“McGoodGuy might be the name that my father, and my father’s father passed down to me, but I did nothing to deserve it.” Out of my peripheral, I saw Vicki dramatically mouthing the lines as I recited them. “Nowadays, I think my name ought to be…” I paused just as Vicki had during rehearsal. “...Very McBadGuy.”
A smattering of Oohs and Ahhs echoed through the audience, and they were helpful in covering up Vicki’s snort.
I think I died at the end of the play. Linda stabbed me, but her dagger was truth, or love, or something to that effect. Maybe my old self, Very McBadGuy, I could only assume he was called, was dead, and my new, more innocent form took its place. I left it up to audience interpretation as I twitched on the floor of the stage with Linda sobbing over me for what felt like several minutes. There were no curtains attached to these planks of wood posing at the stage, so the crowd wasn’t entirely sure whether to applaud as I twitched on the ground for an uncomfortable length of time.
Eventually, I took matters into my own hands and hopped onto my feet. Then I grabbed Linda’s hand, and we bent into a bow together.
The crowd erupted into a thunderous applause, and many of them rose to their feet to show their appreciation. My parents and Vicki were among them. As much as I never wanted to do anything like this ever again, it was nice to have my parent’s approval.
Horace stepped onto the stage beside us, trying nobly to hold back his tears. He thanked the crowd emphatically for coming to see his work, and Linda and I for representing it with such emotion.
He dismissed the crowd, and I stepped offstage to join my family. Several Sedona locals stopped me to comment on what a great job I had done, and admittedly, I kind of enjoyed that, too.
“You did a wonderful job, Henry!” my mother complimented.
“The vibrations were perfect, Henry,” my dad added. “I told you all that time in the meditation room would benefit you.”
“Thanks, dad, I think it helped me open my third eye a bit and channel the character,” I responded and my dad nodded knowingly in return. Next, Phoenix came up, fist bumped me, and then gave me a hug.
“It was pretty sweet,” Phoenix smiled. “I loved the part where the metaphors all alluded to a withering critique of the capitalist system, fighting the man, and tearing all the constructs of our society apart so that we could be real to each other.”
“You got all that from the performance?” I asked.
“Oh, yeah, bro,” he said as he gave me a respectful nod. “You were great.”
“It sure was something,” Vicki agreed. “Was that what the actress was supposed to actually symbolize?”
I shrugged.
“I think what you think it symbolizes says more about you, the viewer, than the work itself,” I replied. “At least, that’s how Horace explained it when I asked him.”
“Let’s celebrate a successful opening!” my dad exclaimed. “Let’s have a nice dinner. Vicki, would you like to join us?”
“Of course!” Vicki accepted.
As we all walked back to the Eyesore, Vicki pulled me to the side and spoke under her breath, just low enough for me to hear.
“Did you see who else was in the audience?” She asked.
“I presume you’re talking about AJ,” I answered. “We should invite her to dinner with us.”
“No, I meant Justin, why do you think he showed up?” She asked. “He obviously couldn’t have been happy about being served papers this afternoon.”
“He’s getting scared,” I informed her. “He knows we’re onto him and he knows that when we depose him, the truth will come out. I don’t think his appearance here is that important though, he probably would have come to this even if I wasn’t involved.”
“I forgot everybody who lives here is an artist, or at least appreciates a fine theatrical production,” she stated teasingly and pinched my side.
“Oh, most definitely,” I nodded.
“I can’t wait to see him crumble under deposition in two days,” she purred with cat-like menace. “Do you have your questions prepared?”
“I have to talk with the FBI agent, because ideally we want him there to offer Justin a deal to talk, but we can work on all that tomorrow,” I responded. “For now, I’m focusing on having a family dinner for the first time in six years.”
As we walked to the rental car, we saw AJ waiting nearby with a smile on her face. When she saw us approaching, she perked up and waved at us.
“Hey AJ, how’d you like that?” I asked.
“You were great!” she gushed, and then she looked around to see if anyone was nearby and whispered, “I’d love to see what you could do with… ummm… good material.”
“He could win a Tony,” Vicki stated confidently.
“I doubt that, but tonight was surprisingly fun, and it was nice to get kudos from my family for something I did for a change,” I replied and then turned to AJ, “Any interest in coming to dinner at the house and meeting the fam?”
“Do I get to see the treehouse finally?” the young-woman asked excitedly.
“I don’t see why you shouldn’t be given a grand tour of the HAV Law Firm’s luxurious executive suites,” I said and caused the other two to erupt into laughter. Then we got into the car and made the short drive back to the house.
Harmony was there to greet us as the six of us reentered the Irving house. The house was full of the aroma of garlic cooking, and the smell made me instantly hungry.
“Henry!” she yelled as she ran up to hug me. “I’m sure you did amazing. I’m sorry I couldn’t be there.”
“You didn’t miss much,” I reassured her. “No Freddie for dinner?”
“He’s got a shift at the recycling center but he’ll--”
“The play was fantastic!” my dad cut in. “He was a natural up there!”
“It’s like it was what he was born to do!” my mother gushed. “His aura shifted from an angry orange color to a delightful baby blue by the end.”
“Who’s this?” Harmony asked happily as she gestured to AJ.
“Everyone, this is AJ,” I explained, “she has been helping Vicki and I do research for Harmony’s case. She has been a huge help.”
“It’s nice meeting all of you who Henry has told me so much about,” she managed to squeak out as her face turned red. “I feel like I know some of your backgrounds so well already that I could write a book on you.”
“That’s not the only good news,” I told them. “Let’s get dinner started, and then I’ll let you know about another big development.”
Harmony finished preparing dinner for the family, plus Vicki, and AJ. It was some sort of vegetarian equivalent of lasagna from the looks of it, but looked, smelled, and tasted delicious. We gathered around the small, rectangular wooden table that could barely hold all seven of us. I took up the head of the table as the man of the hour, and Vicki pulled up a chair at the corner to my right, AJ seated to my left. Harmony sat on the right side of the table with dad and Phoenix across from her. My mother took her place at the other end of the table.
“That was quite the show you put on today, Henry,” my mothe
r commented as we dug into the lasagna and garlic bread. “It reminded me of your high school days.
“Thank you, mom,” I accepted. “It was kind of fun to step back into the acting thing for a night.”
“It doesn’t have to be just one night, you know,” my dad pointed out. “That little theater puts on all sorts of shows. If you stuck around in town, after that performance you gave today, I’m sure they’d offer you plenty of parts.”
“That’s very nice, dad,” I acknowledged.
“You’ll consider it?” my mom asked hopefully.
“Well, I have to go back to LA, but there is a very thriving scene for actors there too,” I reminded them.
“So you won’t be staying in Sedona?” my mother asked, not even attempting to mask her disappointment.
“I’ll definitely stay until this craziness with Harmony’s trial is over,” I said. “After that, though, I definitely want to go back to California and take my place back at my old firm. I worked really hard to get to the position I was in.”
“Right, of course,” my mother’s lips pressed into a line. She picked lazily at her food. My mom can’t have been surprised by this, but I was used to her stance on this issue. What I wasn’t prepared for was Vicki trying her best to hide the look of disappointment on her face. I couldn’t imagine she would really want to stay here, but then again, in Arizona she was a lawyer and in LA she was a paralegal.
“Can somebody pass the salt?” Harmony tried to ease the tension, so I passed her the salt and decided to speak up.
“Speaking of passing things, Vicki and I passed the bar in Arizona,” I broke the silence with what was supposed to be an exciting reveal. “As of this morning we officially became Harmony’s defense team.”
Harmony was the only one to visibly react to the news.
“Really?” she gasped. She started to ramble, hoping to ease the family back into conversation. “Henry, thank you. That’s amazing. Toby has been kind of a nightmare, and I know you’ll actually care about what’s happening to me, and… just… thanks. I feel a lot better with you defending me.”
“While I still think Henry’s soul is aligned to the stage, I’m grateful that he will be able to put his skills to use to save Harmony,” my mom added. That was about the biggest ringing endorsement of my legal career that I’d ever received from my mom.
After that we all broke into smaller conversations among ourselves. Phoenix and AJ really seemed to connect over music, and I tried to keep up. Despite being an entertainment lawyer and being well connected to the music industry there really is no substitute for youth when it comes to being up on the latest trends. Harmony and Vicki discussed parts of the case and the bar exam while my parents discussed the play and some volunteer work they were going to be doing this weekend at the Sedona food bank.
I sat back a bit and took it all in. It felt great to be surrounded by friends and family, and I did have to admit I had a blast at the play. As relaxing as this was, I knew tomorrow would be quite a bit different.
Meeting with the FBI always is.
Chapter 16
Vicki and I drove separately to the gallery the next morning since I’d be making a trip to the FBI field office in Flagstaff to meet with special agent Blume regarding the Udinova connection to this case. I hoped that the Bureau would agree to open an investigation into the transactions we had discovered between Gerard and Danila Udinova. Then we could leverage the info to offer Justin a plea deal so he could testify against Gerard, and in turn, the FBI could use Gerard to get to Udinova.
AJ’s mission for the day was to contact the lawyers for the people we’d subpoenaed and make sure they would be at the library at their appointed time. We expected that Detective Leonard and Justin would have a lawyer provided by the police union, but we weren’t sure who Gerard would hire. If he was being backed by the Russian mob, they could certainly afford to hire a big gun from out of town, but if anything, that would play into our hands by creating even more of a link between the two.
Vicki was going to spend the day preparing the questions. We needed to ensure that the questions were technically precise, and that we had documentation that would backup our conclusions so that if one of them lied, we would have them trapped. Vicki had protested that I got to go on a “super-secret spy mission” to the FBI while she had to stay and do paperwork. I told her that promotion from paralegal to a junior associate didn’t mean less paperwork, it just meant harder paperwork. I don’t think that she was entirely satisfied by that answer.
I spent most of the drive up to Flagstaff reviewing all the connections between the different parties. I made a mental Rolodex of all the documentary evidence I had with me in my briefcase and how it applied to each claim. The last thing I wanted to do was look like a clown in front of the G-men.
When I arrived at the FBI field office, I noticed how much cooler it was up in Flagstaff during the day than in Sedona this time of year. It was only a forty-five minute drive, but the temperature dropped fifteen degrees as the elevation went up. I took a last look in the mirror to check my appearance, made sure I had everything in my briefcase, silenced my phone, and popped an Altoid.
I walked into the reception area and was greeted by a young black woman whose name tag said “C. Vallun.” She was on the short side, had her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail, and her dress was a by-the-book nondescript government professional attire. She looked about Phoenix’ age, no doubt an intern or recent college graduate.
“Hello, Mr. Irving, a pleasure to have you here today.” She knew who I was without any introductions, and I guessed when Vicki had called to set up this meeting they did a thorough amount of research on me to make sure I wasn’t a nutcase.
“Thank you, Ms. Vallun. I suppose by the fact you know who I am that I don’t need to explain why I’m here.” I gave her a dashing smile as I shook her hand.
Despite her dark skin tone, she couldn’t hide her blush, and I noticed her steal a look at my Prada dress shoes and Rolex Datejust watch. One thing I learned from Sanchez when I was an intern with his firm, girls judge a guy on the details, the watch, the shoes, the cuff links, and the glasses. You can wear a mediocre suit as long as it fits properly and so long as you have a nice watch and shoes you can impress anybody. I had certainly impressed Ms. Vallun, but I was sure special agent Blume wouldn’t be as taken with my smile.
“You’re right,” she agreed, “special agent Blume is waiting for you in the conference room down the hall to the left with his team. He asked me to send you back when you arrived, can I bring you a coffee?”
“No thanks, I don’t need any caffeine to pep me up before a meeting with the Feds,” I joked. “Thanks again, though, Ms. Vallun.” And with that I walked down the hallway to the conference room.
“You’re welcome Mr. Irving,” she called out from behind me. “And please call me Cynthia.”
The front of the building had been brick and glass and had that sturdy permanence look that all government buildings tended to have. The hallway I was now walking down had a tile floor with unlabeled doors on either side, and I noted that it looked more like a hospital than anything else. The conference room was at the end of the hallway and as I approached the door, I took one last breath, exhaled, and then walked in.
The conference room was a windowless rectangular office room with a long table down the middle and dry erase boards on all four walls. The lighting was the bright antiseptic white fluorescent lighting that employers install to save money as well as to increase the soul crushing depression of their employees. Seated at the table were three men, on either side were men in their twenties or early thirties in white shirts with black ties who looked like they could have been extras from the Matrix movies, FBI agents straight from central casting.
In the middle was a slightly older gentleman in a dark navy suit. His hair was slicked back and jet black, receding a bit in the front and greying a tad on the temples. I could tell from his posture and the intell
igence in his eyes he was a sharp guy who had sized me up as quickly as I had him. As I walked in they all stood to greet me.
“Mr. Irving,” the man in the middle said, “this is agent Fitzgerald and agent Palko, and my name is agent Matthew Blume.”
“Henry Irving,” I responded and shook each of their hands in turn.
“So tell me, Henry, how does an entertainment lawyer from Hollywood come upon a conspiracy involving a crime family from New York while in Arizona?” He asked as we took our seats.
“I’m sure you’re aware that I’m in Arizona to defend my sister who has been falsely accused of murder,” I responded. “In the course of discovery I found several links between the owner of the gallery she exhibits in, the police forensic examiner, and Danila Udinova.”
“And you believe that those three framed her for the murder of…” he trailed off as he looked down to his notes. “...an art critic who gave her a negative review.”
“I believe they did, and I believe I can prove that.” I affirmed.
Agent Blume leaned back in his chair as if in deep thought. After a lengthy pause he said, “Okay, go on and explain.”
I started off by showing the police forensics report and then showed the forensics report by my specialist who had revealed it to be totally invalid in no uncertain terms. Then I demonstrated that Justin Pell, the forensics examiner, had a gambling issue by showing the various liens, loans, and debts he had accumulated and then finished that by showing that the most sizeable debt was to the Udinova Loan Processing Company.
“This is very interesting so far Mr. Irving,” agent Blume told me. “The connection to Udinova is indirect based on the evidence you have, but being indebted to a gangster and then filing a report so… contrary to the truth is cause for concern.”
“I presume that with your investigative power you’d be able to establish a greater link between Pell and Udinova,” I added. “I believe once you look into it, you’ll see that there was a direct predatory loan from the Udinova organization to Pell.”
