by Dave Daren
“We need to get that itinerary too,” Vicki said. “We also need to find out what species of elephant the tusks were from, and if those species were native to the countries they visited.”
“I found the tour schedule,” I pulled up webpage and printed it out. “We’ve got several dates in South Africa, and it looks like one date in Nairobi, which is in Kenya. And then it’s like there was almost a week break, before going to Congo, and then Radio City Music Hall in New York.”
“So they spent a week in Kenya doing nothing?” Vicki clarified.
“Pretty much,” I said. “AJ, go through the band’s social media and find out what they posted on those dates.”
“Gotcha,” she said. “And James Matthews played Radio City Music Hall? I didn’t know he had been that big of a deal.”
“He was probably wasn’t,” I guessed. “He probably played like on a weekday morning to like thirty Facebook followers.”
“Yeah,” she confirmed. “That date was a Tuesday.”
I laughed. “So pretentious.”
“So it looks like there are two main types of elephants,” Vick stated as she read. “African and Asian. Then, there are also African forest elephants, which are slightly different than the other African elephants.’
“We need to find out what species of tusks we have,” I said. “Do we have photos?”
“Yes,” AJ said. “They’re in the police report.”
“Good,” I said. “AJ, you take on the elephant research. Find out what kind of elephants we’re looking at. Where they live, and if those habitats fit our tour schedule.”
“Got it, “she said.
“Also,” I said. “Come up with some kind of tagboard. I want to visually map out where these guys were and when and what they did while they were there.”
“I can go to the copy mat and get them to print up a big map of Africa,” she said.
“Perfect,” I said. “Vic, let’s get a list of people other than Irwin Montague, that James knew, or that Kelsi knows, that would have been involved. I’m sure Irwin had something to do with it, but I doubt we can get him to talk.”
“Right,” Vicki said. “Especially if the feds are still on to him about the embezzling.”
“Exactly,” I said. “So we’re going to work around him. Find out who he was aligned with first, build a net around him, and once we’ve got him backed into a corner, we’ll subpoena him.”
“What is our premise?” AJ asked. “Are we looking to prove she’s innocent?”
“Not necessarily,” I said. “Because I don’t know that she is. She’s too long winded to be innocent. I mainly want to know where those tusks came from and how they got in the Matthews garage. If we can find that, we’ll have the truth. And once we know what happened, we can craft a defense.”
“You’d defend her even if she’s guilty?” AJ asked.
“That’s our job,” I stated. “You don’t have to like your clients, especially if they are guilty as sin. But we have a duty to get them the best defense that the law allows, and sometimes that means negotiating a reduced sentence while other times it means we are able to get a guilty person off scot free.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” she replied.
“Well, now you know why lawyers have some of the lowest job satisfaction scores in those surveys,” I joked.
“OK, OK, I’ve got the map of Africa and sent it to the copy mat,” AJ said. “It should be ready soon.”
“Great,” I said. “I’m going to zero in on these band members. They were there. If James or Kelsi were smuggling, someone would have seen something.”
I was compiling a list of the band members’ names and contact information, when Phoenix walked into the office.
“Hey, Phoenix,” I said. “How’s it going?”
He raised an eyebrow and wordlessly took a seat in front of my desk.
“Hey, Henry,” he sighed and leaned back in the chair. “I want to talk to you about an idea I had. Not sure if it will work.”
“Oh, yeah?” I leaned back in my chair and toyed with a pencil. “And what idea might that be?”
“I want to start a production studio,” he stated. He crossed his ankle over his knee and leaned back with one arm over the back of the chair.
“Yeah,” I nodded with approval. “That sounds like a viable idea. You have capital?”
“Lady Sara,” he grinned.
I took a deep breath. Lady Sara was our British great grandmother that had left us her ring. She also left me, my sister, and Phoenix generous college funds.
“You want to use your college money for a production studio,” I eyed him.
“Yeah,” he said. “I think formal education is an outdated institution.”
“Is that right?” I smirked.
“I mean,” he gestured back at me. “No offense. In your case it was important because you wanted to go in a highly specialized field. But, aside from that, it’s useless. College was invented by a bunch of rich kids in the Renaissance, who got a bunch of guys who spoke Latin and Greek to interpret and explain Greek and Roman writing. They rented out community halls, and paid the smart guy to teach them what they knew. And, that’s basically what it still is, even though the economy has morphed exponentially.”
I listened to his rant and snickered the whole time. The old Phoenix had largely returned. Well, except for the fact that he had just used the words, “exponentially,” and “morphed,” and correctly too. His favorite word used to be “like.”
“So,” Phoenix continued, “I talked to mom and dad, and they’re totally cool with it. I’m working on a business plan now, but what do we need to do to draw up all the business paperwork and licensing and whatever else we need?”
I nodded as he got to his point. “You want to start a small business?”
“Yeah,” he stated.
“Well,” I said. “In your case, I am not certain that Lady Sara’s money can be used that way.”
“No,” he said. “Mom and dad are the trustees.”
I snickered at his use of the legal phrase. He puffed his chest out when he said it, as if he were relating to me in my field.
“Yeah,” I said. “That doesn’t mean that they can just spend the money how they please. That trust is handled through a law firm in London, but they have a branch in New York, and there’s a lawyer there we typically deal with.”
“Okay,” his voice had a hint of resignation in it. “How do I get money from them?”
I sighed. “I’ve never seen the agreement, so I’m not sure what the stipulations are, but I do know that I would send them my tuition bills, and they would pay the school directly. I never saw the checks. Which leads me to believe you’re not going to get the money without…”
His face fell further and further the longer I went on. Then the door opened and Jim Hurley, our architect, walked in. I watched briefly as Vicki greeted him.
“I tell you what,” I turned to Phoenix. “You work on drawing up a business plan, and get me a copy of the trust. I’ll look it over and see what we’re looking at.”
“Thanks,” he said as he rose. “First day on this project, and I’m already screwed. This is going to be fun.”
“Fortune favors the brave,” I said.
“Since when have you taken to quoting useless platitudes?” he smirked at me.
I laughed. “You may have a point there.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Don’t make it a habit. You’re better than that,” he said.
As he turned to leave, he winked at me, in an uncharacteristic way. Eh, I found his arrogance amusing. Adulthood was going to kick his ass soon enough. He could have his delusions of grandeur for the moment.
“Damn,” AJ cleared her throat after he left. “Phoenix got hot.”
Vicki laughed and I rolled my eyes.
”Why does every woman in my life feel it necessary to impart this information to me?” I muttered.
Vicki and AJ both laughed and I rolled my eyes
and turned to Jim. He shook his head and smiled, and had blueprints rolled out onto Vicki’s desk.
“What do we got here?” I asked.
“We’ve added the saltwater pool,” Vicki’s voice rang with delight.
“Uh-huh,” I said. “I see we got the enlarged deck in, with the outdoor kitchen.”
I pointed to a figure on the document.
“The deck,” Vicki smirked. “He wants to pretend he’s going to have these elaborate backyard parties.”
“Hey, I might,” I protested.
“Right,” she giggled. “As long as we get it catered, sure.”
Jim laughed as Vicki and I ping ponged back and forth.
“Oh, what’s that?” I teased Vicki. “I’m sorry, I forgot who made the scrambled eggs slash science experiment the other day. Oh, wait...now I remember that was you.”
“Well, I’m not trying to put in a massive second kitchen,” Vicki snickered.
“They do this all day,” AJ piped in from across the room. “You’ll get used to it.”
“I know,” Jim laughed. “I’m used to it already.”
“I’m sorry,” I teased AJ. “Do you like getting paid?”
She laughed heartily.
“Yeah, right,” she shook her head. “You couldn’t survive without me.”
“Alright,” Vicki said. “So we’re good on the amended plan?”
“As long as we don’t have the bathroom on the roof,” I replied.
“Oh God,” Vicki rolled her eyes at my reference to another ‘designer’ we had looked at.
“A bathroom on the roof?” Jim asked.
“Alfred,” I shook my head. “The Count.”
“The Count,” Jim smiled. “How is he these days?”
“He went backpacking through Europe,” Vicki told him. “I don’t think he has plans to ever come back. You know after the whole thing with Jerry…”
A shadow crossed Jim’s face. We had originally met Jim because he was married to Claire, Jerry Steele’s ex-wife and the mother of his son Thad. When Jerry Steele had shown up dead at a rehearsal, all leads pointed directly to Alfred. Claire was high on our suspect list for a while. Once the real truth came out--that it was neither Aflred, nor Claire or Jim, we hired Jim to design our house.
“Sorry we missed the memorial,” I shrugged. “We had to get out of town.”
“No, I get it,” Jim sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets. “It was a shock to us all. Claire and Thad have had quite the time with it themselves.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I heard the studio has officially been shuttered.”
He nodded. “Leila Jaxson is taking what’s left of it, and going her own direction.”
He pointed to AJ. “Aren’t you working with her?”
“I am,” she replied. “We’ve got our first screenplay, and she’s moving forward with it.”
Jim nodded a faraway look in his eyes.
“You know that Claire’s not on board with it,” he eyed her.
“I realize that,” AJ shrugged. “But she doesn’t understand what Leila is trying to do. She’s trying to recreate Jerry’s legacy in some way.”
Jim chortled. “Yeah. I’m a neutral party, really. I’m Switzerland. But, she sees it as trying to make money off Jerry and the business he had built.”
“We’re not,” AJ answered. “Honestly, you said it yourself. Steele Productions was full of debt, and it’s a fresh start on what he had left.”
He sighed. “She doesn’t see it that way.”
I raised an eyebrow. I’d about had enough of my architect badgering my paralegal.
“Alright, Jim,” I said. “These look great. We love the new changes, let’s start moving on these changes.”
He rolled up the blueprints. “Great. Glad to hear. I’ll get the permits filed, and we should be breaking ground soon.”
Vicki squealed, and I smiled.
“Love it,” I said.
He raised the blueprint roll in affirmation, and shot AJ one more smile before he walked out the door.
“Whoa,” AJ said once he had left. “I had no idea Claire and Jim were so against the new studio.”
“Do you even have a name?” Vicki asked as she sipped her coffee.
“Right now she’s calling it,” AJ scrawled on a notepad and held it up, “Pair o’Dime Change Productions. It’s kind of a lighteheard play on like on the phrase ‘paradigm change.’”
“Has she filed for a business license?” Vicki asked.
“No,” AJ said. “It’s all so new. She’s up to her neck in calls and meetings.”
As Vicki and AJ continued to talk about Leila’s studio, I found all the JMB band members on Facebook. There was a drummer named Steve, the guitarist and dulcimer player Gary, Charlie played bass, Tim on the keyboard, and Roy the manager.
With James and Kelsi, there would have been at least eight people, depending on if the other guys brought a significant other. That was a lot of airfare for a small town local band.
With some luck, I secured contact information on all the guys, and started making calls. If these guys were all in Africa with James and Kelsi, they would have had to have seen something. Not that they would necessarily admit to anything. I started with Steve.
“Steve Borroughs?” I asked when the call was answered.
“Yeah?” he said. “Who’s this?”
His voice was gruff and he sounded like he’d been asleep. I clicked on his photo and found out I was talking to a tall, broad shouldered man in his early forties. In the photo he had wavy brown hair, long enough to show he had the hint of an edge, but short enough to show he was gainfully employed.
“My name is Henry Irving,” I said. “I’m an attorney with--”
The line suddenly went dead.
“Well,” I said. “I’m off to a good start.”
“What happened?” Vicki asked.
“He hung on me,” I protested.
“Who?” AJ asked.
“His name is Steve Burroughs,” I said. “He’s the drummer for the James Matthews band.”
“Oohhh,” AJ made a face.
“What?” I asked.
“I know Steve a little,” she said. “Or I know of him. He’s up to his neck in debt. And so, he thinks you’re trying to collect.”
“Debt?” I asked. “For what?”
“You name it,” she said. “I went to high school with his daughter. She was always wearing high end designers and had like Coach and Louis Vuitton bags. Then, their house got foreclosed on, and she just fell off the social radar. Sad.”
“Hmmm,” I said. “I might need to try a different approach with Steve, then.”
I moved to my next call, the guitarist Gary. He answered on the first ring.
“Gary,” I said. “I’m calling in regards to Kelsi Matthews--”
“I don’t have the bail money,” he interrupted me. “She already hit me up.”
“Did she?” I repeated. “Well, I’m not trying to find her bail money, I’m her lawyer.”
“Oh, yeah?” he responded. “Look, I know she’s in some pretty deep shit. She’s a nice lady, good person. I don’t want to say anything to screw things up for her. Not that there’s anything to screw up for her, but you gotta be careful when you talk to lawyers, cause you could say the sky is blue, and the next thing you know, they’ve got you admitting to a bank robbery. No offense.”
“None taken,” I laughed. “I understand the system all too well. But, in this case, the system is working for her.”
“And no, I did not rob a bank,” he interrupted. “Let the record show. That was just an example.”
“I understand, Gary,” I frowned and rubbed my forehead. “I didn’t think you robbed a bank.”
“Aww, shit,” he said. “I really suck at this. Can we start over?”
“Please,” I said.
I was batting zero for two, I needed to figure out a different approach with these guys.
“I’ll te
ll you what,” I said. “It’s not just you I need to speak with, I want to talk to the whole band. I want to find out what you guys know that could help Kelsi.”
“She didn’t smuggle anything,” he said. “That’s ridiculous.”
“I think so too,” I said. “But the Feds don’t. So, I need to find out what you guys know. I’d like to meet up with the whole band for drinks.”
“That sounds reasonable,” he said. “I don’t know what the guys would think.”
“Maybe you could talk to them for me?” I asked. “Arrange it with everyone, let me know? I think they’d rather hear from you than from me. It’s for Kesli. And drinks on me.”
“Well,” he said slowly. “We’ve had this show at Slingers booked for weeks, and they told us we could do a tribute set to James.”
“Slingers, huh?” I replied.
Slingers was an outlaw country western bar, not exactly the dulcimer playing vegan crowd.
“It pays good,” he countered my unspoken objection. “And we usually edge up some old Merle Haggard or Willie Nelson, and it goes over pretty well.”
“Ah,” I said. “That makes more sense.”
“We’re playing tonight, at seven thirty,” he said. “After the show, if you wanted to talk, I could get the guys together for you.”
Considering that Steve wouldn’t take my calls, and Gary stepped all over his words, this was about as good as I was going to get.
“Sounds good,” I said. “I’ll see you tonight.”
“See you tonight,” he said.
We said our goodbyes and ended the call. Vicki was on the phone with what sounded like an old lover of Irwin Montague, and AJ was watching some kind of YouTube video on the elephant tusk trade.
Now that they were busy, I needed to switch gears and find out about Lady Sara’s trust. I was fairly certain that Phoenix couldn’t use his college money to start a studio, but I wanted to see if I could find a loophole. I knew my mom had a copy of it in the safe, so I texted her.
While I waited, I searched my brother’s name online. A full website came up, and I clicked on it. I was shocked at what I found.
“Check this out,” I told Vicki.
“What?” she and AJ gathered around my screen.
I played a clip on Phoenix’s website. It was a documentary on Columbian poverty, which I knew global income inequality was a passion of his. But, I didn’t expect this.
