by Dave Daren
Under the table Harmony grabbed my right hand as Judge Rose continued. “In all my years, never have I seen such a lack of basic competency at multiple levels of our criminal and legal system. My worry is that Harmony isn’t the first victim of your carelessness, but only the last. I would ask Mr. Levinson how many innocent people are in jail because of overzealous prosecution, but I fear the answer would frighten me to death.” Chet’s skin tone was practically green, and he was staring down at the table.
“So, not only have I called this hearing to dismiss the charges against Harmony Irving,” she added, “but also to recommend that the United States Department of Justice begin a full civil rights investigation into Coconino County and the Sedona Police Department in order to see how deep this rabbit hole goes. Case dismissed.” She smashed her gavel, rose, and quickly exited the chamber.
The courtroom erupted into cheers. Vicki and I hugged Harmony, and I gave her a kiss on the cheek, and then I embraced Vicki and gave her a kiss. “Thank you so much,” I whispered to her.
“Henry Irving wins again,” she said back.
As we exited the courthouse, we left through the front and I motioned for Harmony and the family to leave while I talked to the press. I decided to give a quick speech.
“As Judge Rose made quite clear,” I began to a staccato of camera shutter clicks, “there was a violation of justice of the highest order in this county. Harmony Irving, my sister, was framed for a murder that she did not commit by forces of organized crime who had completely penetrated the criminal justice system in Coconino County. And not only that, many of the justice system figures should have provided oversight and solved this long ago, but they also failed to do so either through apathy or incompetence. But the good news is, justice prevailed in the end thanks to the hard work of our whole legal team as well as the FBI and Judge Rose. There is a lot of work to do to clean up the justice system in Sedona now, but I am confident that this community will step up to the challenge.”
“Do you intend to file a suit against the county and state for wrongful arrest and prosecution?” A reporter asked me.
“We haven’t made any decision about that, but we are committed to pursuing justice for Harmony,” I replied and with that AJ, Vicki and I pushed past the assembled crowd and went back to our car.
“It’s finally over,” I said as we climbed into the sedan.
“You did it,” AJ answered.
“No,” I corrected her, “we did it. Without all three of us working together this wouldn’t and couldn’t have happened. My family and I will be forever in your debt.”
“Pfffft,” Vicki raspberried. “Just follow through on that ice cream rain check now and we’re even.”
We all laughed and then drove the hour trip back to Sedona. Once we got into town, we picked up some artisanal organic grass fed ice cream sundaes and went to the gallery.
“So that’s it?” AJ asked as soon as we walked into our former base of operations.
“Let’s get all of our personal stuff out of here,” I said, and the other two women nodded as we all began to pick our things up from the cutting table.
“This was my favorite hair tie!” AJ declared triumphantly as she pulled a small black band out from under the cutting board.
“I’ve never seen you put your hair up,” I noted.
“Well, how could she without her favorite hair tie,” Vicki explained. “Obviously. Henry, you are just so dense all of the time, if only you could put two and two together.”
Vicki took in the nearly barren walls of the gallery. Much of Harmony’s art had been sold off, but I reckoned it wouldn’t be long until my sister was back in business, either here or at some new gallery.
“So, Henry,” Vicki got my attention as she scanned the walls. “Are you going back to California?”
“Yeah, sometime soon,” I confirmed. “I’ll probably stay home for a few more days to help find her an ace civil attorney to sort out whatever wrongful prosecution or civil rights case she has. After that, though, I think I’ll return to our firm.”
“Our firm,” Vicki echoed thoughtfully. “It wasn’t really our firm. We just worked there.”
“I suppose that’s true,” I nodded.
“And I’m not allowed to practice law there,” she pointed out. “I’d have to go back to being a paralegal.”
“Well, you managed to pass the bar once already,” I replied. I wasn’t worried about Vicki’s qualifications. “I’m confident you could pass the California bar exam if you really set your mind to it.”
“But I already passed it here,” Vicki said as she continued to examine the empty walls.
“What would you have me do?” I asked.
Vicki sauntered up to the entryway facing the sidewalk. We could see through the glass doors and windows onto the street.
“Irving and Park, Attorneys at Law,” she recited while she dragged her finger across the window, indicating that’s what could be printed there. “I’d rather it be Park and Irving, obviously, but I understand that you have seniority here.”
“Vicki…” I frowned.
“Just think about it,” she implored as she returned to where I stood. “We’ve already won a case. We have a winning streak.”
“One case is not a winning streak,” I retorted.
“It’s the start of one,” she fired back. “We have a really great setup here. We even have a paralegal at the ready.”
Vicki gestured at AJ, who was struggling to put her thick sheets of hair into a ponytail.
“Huh?” she blinked.
“She’s a kid,” I reminded her.
“I could take the classes to become a certified paralegal at the community college,” AJ added happily.
“Good, because I’m certainly not going to be Henry’s paralegal,” Vicki crossed her arms over her chest. “Come on, this whole thing is just laid out in front of us, like it was meant to happen. This could be some otherworldly force pushing you to where you’re supposed to be.”
“I think you’ve been in Sedona a little too long,” I teased as I brushed past her.
Vicki turned to keep speaking with me and was not willing to let this go.
“I think I’m going to be here a lot longer,” she said, and I turned back to her.
“What do you mean?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
“Come on, Henry,” Vicki whispered as she stepped closer to me. “Don’t you feel the magic of this place? The sights, the smells, the sounds--”
“There aren’t really any sou--”
“Exactly,” she laughed. “I thought I would miss the hustle and bustle of LA, but I don’t. You walk outside in Sedona and you hear either nature, or people laughing because they are having a great time in one of the most beautiful places in the world.”
“You love this place,” I sighed.
“Don’t you?” she asked. “Really. Take your past out of it. Pretend you didn’t leave because your parents and you argued about your acting career. Wouldn’t you still be here?”
“Maybe.” I shrugged, but the feeling in my chest told me that she was probably right.
“How many good lawyers are in town?” Vicki asked as she wiggled her eyebrows.
“Uhh, just us two,” I said with a laugh.
“I think that between Sedona, Flagstaff, and Prescott, we’ll have more than enough work. Think about all the people that need our help.”
I didn’t say anything for a few moments. Instead I just looked at one of the last remaining pictures up on the gallery wall. Unlike most of Harmony’s works, this was a landscape scene of one of the many red cliffs around the city. It was really a beautiful piece, and I kind of wondered why it hadn’t sold yet.
Maybe it was waiting for me.
“Maybe we can stay here a bit longer,” I finally said. “I don’t want to burn the bridge with Sanchez, and I’ll still have to manage some of my clients, but I can probably do both while I’m here.”
“Really?” Vicki gasped.
“Wait,” I laughed. “You sound like you didn’t expect me to agree with you.”
“I totally didn’t,” she laughed with me, “but I’m glad it worked.”
Then she wrapped her arms around my stomach and leaned into my chest.
“Thank you, Henry. We’ll make this work.”
“I know we will,” I said, and then I pulled her mouth up to mine so that I could kiss her.
“Get a room you guys,” AJ called out from the other side of the room, and we turned to see the young woman rolling her eyes. “I guess you have a treehouse, but maybe get a real room this time.”
“We’ll have to find a house, or an apartment, or something.”
“Wait, does that mean you are staying?” AJ asked as her eyes opened wide.
“Yep,” I said.
“Woooooooooo!” AJ yelled, and then the door burst open right in front of us.
“Hey, pal, there’s not really much to see in the gallery right now,” I told the newcomer.
The arrival was a stranger I hadn’t met yet. He looked worried, maybe even fearful, and he spoke as if I hadn’t just told him the gallery was closed.
“I need your help,” he begged.
“We don’t actually work at the gallery,” Vicki explained. “Most of Ms. Irving’s art is gone, but she will re-exhibit soon.”
“I’m not talking about art,” he cried.
“Then why did you come here?” I asked.
Vicki seemed to perk up as if she anticipated an interesting response.
“I need the best lawyer in Sedona,” he finally said.
“Well, you’ve come to the right place,” Vicki told him.
End of book 1
Author Notes
Thank you for reading my novel! If you enjoyed it, and you’d like to read another story about Henry in Sedona, please leave a review by clicking on this link.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 by Dave Daren
