by Dave Daren
“Does the school have resources for him?” I asked.
“They have some,” Julie replied with a shrug before she eyed me. “Ms. Irving is your sister, right?”
“Right.” I nodded.
“Ms. Irving has been helping a lot,” Julie sighed. “Art seems to be getting to him in a place where his therapists aren’t. And she is kind and patient, and lets him learn at his own pace.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” I told her honestly.
“Just between you and me,” Julie said as she leaned in closer to me and lowered her voice, “this school seems a little … how do you say … fluffy, maybe?”
I laughed. “I understand what you mean.”
“I believe school should be at a desk with teachers,” she continued with a slight frown, “and the students should learn math, history, science, and all of those things. But, right now, I look at the difference Mr. Irving, and a couple of the other ‘playleaders,’ have made in Paul’s life, at this very difficult time in our family, and I am grateful.”
“That is a unique perspective,” I commented.
“If he was in a traditional school right now,” she went on, “he would be so full of homework and teachers and rules and studying and lessons, it would be too much for him, I think. But, here, he can choose to learn at his own pace. He spends much time in Ms. Irving’s group, and a couple of the other teachers, and it has been truly helpful.”
I sat in silence and watched all the kids play in the playground as I took it all in.
Jerry was a shoddy filmmaker who took borrowed millions from a dangerous man. He couldn’t pay it back, and it was going to cost him his life. Ollie Morales, a construction worker with a dark past, fell off some scaffolding, and so Jerry found an opportunity. He blackmailed Ollie to sue the construction company and bankrupted the shit out of them. Then Ollie wallowed in guilt, until eventually he took his own life.
But what about Jerry? Who took Jerry’s life?
“Well,” I told Julie as I came out of my thoughts, “thank you for your time. I appreciate it. If you need anything, let me know.”
“I will do,” she replied with a nod.
I left the playland and peered into Playroom C to say goodbye to Harmony. She was busy, sitting on the floor with a little girl who looked to be about five. They fingerpainted, and the girl giggled at something Harmony said.
I shook my head and dug my hands in my pockets as I left the school. For the first time in my life, I was proud to be part of my family. We were weird, and quirky, and certainly not traditional. But, damn, we were an integral part of this town.
And that was something.
Chapter 17
I arrived back at the office to find a circus scene. Vicki and AJ were in the main room on their phones, but in the conference room, the media listening stations were in full effect. Ten guys with headphones were camped out taking notes like it was a World War II decryption mission. Steve was gone, but my dad was still around.
“It’s nice to hear quiet in there,” I told Vicki as soon as she got off the phone.
“Yeah,” she chuckled and glanced at the conference room, “at least we don’t have to hear it. We should pay them something, though, you know.”
“Yeah, we should,” I agreed. “How many guys we got in there? Ten?”
“Yeah,” she replied, “so … fifty a piece?”
“And dinner,” AJ piped up.
I nodded and checked my phone. It was getting late on a Friday afternoon, and the banks were probably closed.
“I’ll handle it,” I promised before I switched gears. “Where are we on the investigation? Anything?”
“Nothing so far,” Vicki sighed. “Just a whole lot of the same.”
“I’ve standardized a form and a process,” AJ said. “So, that’s the gist of what they’re doing. After they fill up a form, they turn it in.”
She handed me a stack of paper forms, and I flipped through them. It was a bunch of handwritten scrawl stating the tapes were all Hindu techno and occasionally some rants about--Barack Obama? That was a new one.
As I skimmed through all the work these guys had done, I tossed AJ the firm’s bank card.
“Run to the ATM and get out the cash we need,” I instructed, “and Vic, see what we can feed these guys, and let’s do a coffee run for everyone too.”
“Got it,” Vicki said with a nod.
“I would love some fresh air,” AJ sighed as she rose and popped her back.
“I’ll place the coffee orders online,” Vicki told AJ. “Just pick them up, and we’ll have dinner delivered.”
“Cool.” AJ grabbed her purse and left.
Vicki popped into the conference room and took coffee orders, and I went to my desk and typed up the conversations I’d just had with Eva and Julie. I still couldn’t find any real answers. Eva had implied Jerry was guilty of sexual assault, and Julie said Jerry blackmailed Ollie for money for Allen.
We needed to talk to Allen.
“Did we ever get contact information on Allen Wagenshutz?” I asked Vicki.
She’d returned to her computer and was entering coffee orders. Poor Jitters was about to be overwhelmed.
“The loan shark?” she asked without glancing up. “I don’t think we ever got to that lead.”
“Well, I think I’m there,” I mused.
“Really?” she asked and finally lifted her head from the computer. “How did it go with Morales?”
I sighed. “It goes deep. She’s saying Ollie killed himself.”
“What?” Vicki blinked in surprise. “Suicide?”
I glanced back at the conference room and lowered my voice. “Careful. Alex is the guy’s brother in law, remember?”
“Oh, right,” she whispered and cringed. “But why does Julie say that?”
“Apparently,” I said, “Ollie was a pretty savage criminal back in the day. It’s what led him to prison in the first place.”
“Right,” Vicki nodded, “Wright Way hired those kind of guys.”
“Exactly,” I replied. “So, Ollie gets into the men’s center, cleans up. Paul gives him a job, everything’s hunky dory. In the meantime, Jerry borrows a couple mill from Allen for a really shitty film.”
“That’s what the e-mails were about,” she realized as she snapped her fingers.
“Yep,” I said. “So, surprise, surprise, Jerry can’t pay the money back. Meanwhile, Ollie falls off the scaffolding, and Jerry, ever the muckracking reporter, sees an opportunity.”
“Holy shit,” Vicki breathed, and her eyes widened. “But why would Ollie’s lawsuit affect Jerry?”
“Because,” I explained, “apparently, Allen told Jerry some savory secrets about Ollie’s past. And it’s enough to scare the man and his whole family shitless. From what Julie said, he was involved with those real criminals who go after your family.”
“Blackmail,” Vicki gasped.
I shook my head in shock. “The depravity of this guy. But here’s where the trail ends. The Wrights were cleaned out, and Jerry got enough money to pay Allen back. But Ollie runs away to Phoenix and lives out his final days in guilt, consumed with misery, until he takes his own life.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” she remarked with a frown. “What would be the catalyst to take his life?”
“Julie didn’t say,” I shrugged, “but we need Allen for that.”
Vicki clicked around on her computer, and I continued to peruse the listening room notes to find any connections. There was nothing on these tapes so far, though.
So, I called Officer Durant.
“Officer Durant,” he answered with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
I silently snickered. I went over his head, just like he’d said, and I won.
“Durant, Henry Irving,” I told him.
“Uh-huh,” he grunted but didn’t say anything more.
“I just wanted to find out how we’re doing on your end with those tapes,” I replied cordially.
“We’re finding a whole lotta nothing,” he snarled, “but we’re on it, boss.”
“Officer, I don’t want to be adversaries here,” I said simply. “My investigation is showing Jerry Steele was the most hated man in Sedona, and we’ve got a laundry list of people who could have taken out a hit on him. I’m only asking for a good, honest investigation. I know the last thing you want is another false murder charge on your watch, and we got a lot of years ahead of us working together in this city. Let’s be on the same team here.”
The police chief was quiet for a moment and then said, “I’ll let you know if I find anything else.”
“Thanks,” I responded.
Durant and I said our goodbyes and ended the call.
“We never did find Allen,” Vicki said from where she was hunched over her computer, “but I’ve been looking into the Clare angle.”
“I think we’ve played that one out, haven’t we?” I asked with a frown.
“For the most part,” she replied, “but I just spent the last several hours finding out anything we can about Jim Hurley.”
“Architect turned insurance-fraud-accomplice,” I snorted. “I think we’ve got him pegged pretty well.”
“I just wondered if there was any more to the story,” she shrugged, “anything he’s not telling us.”
“I doubt it,” I mutter. “What he told us was bad enough.”
“Well, you know he designed Harmony’s school?” Vicki asked.
“Horizons?” I questioned in surprise. “It’s a decent building. Good layout, it seemed. Sensible.”
“Check out this other stuff he did,” Vicki instructed as she turned her laptop toward me. “He did Jitters, too.”
“Wait?” I leaned forward. “Clare Clearmont’s insurance fraud husband designed Jitters?”
“Yup,” Vicki nodded, “and he did a good job. It’s modern and chic, but not too kooky. A lot of light, and it seems like it’s techno friendly. Although, I don’t know if he built that in or not.”
“Right,” I muttered absentmindedly as I searched Jim’s name and pulled up his website. Then I clicked on his portfolio and looked at his stuff.
“He’s perfect,” Vicki commented as she glanced over my shoulder.
She was right. Everything he designed was traditional enough to be normal, but modern enough to be … us.
“Too bad he’s a felon,” I sighed.
“He’s not a felon yet,” she argued. “And besides, he was only an accomplice.”
“Right,” I chuckled as I clicked through the photos again. Sleek clean lines, white, airy layouts, glass, light, ample outdoor spaces, modern shapes.
Then I clicked on one photo, and my heart lurched. It looked just like the “perfect house” I’d picked out one year in L.A. Glass walled second story patio, sliding glass doors, indoor metal staircase … it went on and on.
“I like his work,” I admitted. “I like it a lot.”
“He’s got that perfect flavor,” Vicki added. “So-Cal, but not.”
“Exactly,” I agreed as I looked over at her. “You think we’ll always be glancing back at L.A. in the rearview?”
“In some ways,” she sighed. “It defined us and made us who we are. It’s our foundation, and we’ll grow from that. In a lot of ways we already have.”
“That’s true,” I realized.
“We wouldn’t fit in at Sanchez now,” she chuckled as she referred to the entertainment firm where we met.
“No, we wouldn’t,” I replied.
“Sometimes,” she began, “I think about my office out there, and my day to day life, and I know I don’t belong there. It doesn’t fit anymore. I do miss some of my friends, though.”
“I never met any of them,” I told her with a frown.
“We weren’t close enough then,” she replied with a wave of her hand. “Once we get this place built, we’ll have a big housewarming party. Invite all of our L.A. friends out for the weekend. Take them out to the Red Rocks. They’ll love it.”
“Yeah,” I said as I thought about the handful of guys I used to go to bars with.
Some of them I’d gone to law school with at UCLA, and others I met later along the way. Most had become pretentious douchebags who spent their lives in an endless stream of casual sex, one upping each other on the ladder to success, and bragging about how much money we were all making.
And yes, we were raking in quite a bit of cash in those days.
There’s not as much coming in anymore. There’s definitely money in Sedona, and we’ve certainly cornered our share of the market, but it’s different here. I doubted most of those guys would understand my life now.
Just then, AJ came back in, and her arms were full with two takeout cartons of coffee cups.
“Let me help you.” Vicki jumped in and took one carton.
“Thanks,” AJ sighed.
“You could have called us to help bring them in,” I suggested.
“I got it,” AJ chuckled, “I knew you guys were working hard.”
I laughed. “Not as hard as we should have been.”
Vicki took the coffee cups back to the conference room, and the guys cheered. I heard her asking about their progress, and AJ handed me an envelope with cash and my bank card.
“I even found the rare ATM with tens so it will be even,” she said.
“Thanks,” I replied with a smile. “I didn’t want to deal with writing checks for all of these guys. Quick cash contract labor is easier for the books.”
“So, what did you guys find when I was out?” she asked as she sat down beside me.
“Jerry blackmailed Ollie with some dirty secrets,” I told her.
“Ollie … run-off-to-Phoenix-and-bankrupt-the-company Ollie?” she asked and furrowed her brow.
“That’s the one.” I nodded. “Jerry apparently borrowed a lot of money from Allen Wagenshutz--”
“To pay for that Krishna’s Curse film,” she interrupted.“It’s a piece of crap. Did you watch that?”
“No,” I said, “Leila told me I should.”
“She told me that, too,” AJ replied before her face scrunched up in disgust. “God, it was awful. It had to do with this couple who searched for a hidden treasure in the Himalayas, and all kinds of tragedy befalls them along the way. The film was two and a half hours.”
“Jesus,” I whistled. “After two and a half hours, do they find the treasure?”
“Yeah,” AJ groaned, “but the treasure’s not what they think. It’s actually a backward curse. It gives them eternal life, but it makes them wooden figurines. So, they spend all eternity as these wooden knick knacks on the mantle, watching their loved ones.”
“That’s horrible,” I remarked. “Who would want to watch that?”
“And the story’s the better part of the movie,” she added. “The production is horrible. Jerry tried to pass off the Red Rocks as the Himalayas. Just terrible.”
“Well,” I chuckled, “that’s why it didn’t make any money. So, Jerry couldn’t pay it back, and Allen threatened to kill him over it.”
“That sounds about right,” AJ mused as she tilted her head. “Leila said the budget for the movie was two and a half million. She said he had a mysterious benefactor for a lot of the films he kept quiet.”
“Really?” I replied. “So, Allen Wagenshutz was bankrolling Steele Productions, and then Jerry got in over his head.”
“So, he started treading water,” AJ concluded, “and things got worse and worse.”
“Then Ollie comes along,” I continued, “and Jerry’s desperate and blackmails him, and that buys him some time. So, Ollie bankrupts the Wrights, and then kills himself over the guilt.”
“But this still doesn’t explain who murdered Jerry, though,” AJ pointed out.
“And that’s really the only question we’re after,” I sighed. “There won’t be any secrets left in this town after we’re done.”
Just then, dinner delivery from down th
e street arrived, and Vicki signed for it. Then I went into the conference room and signaled for a break.
“How are we doing guys?” I asked as they all took off their headphones. “Are we finding anything?”
“Not much,” my dad grumbled. “This stuff is shit.”
I laughed. “I don’t know how many times I’ve heard that in regards to Jerry Steele this week.”
Everyone laughed, and Vicki brought in the food.
“So,” I went on, “we’re going to take a break. I know it’s getting late and we appreciate all your help. We’ve got a little something for your trouble. So, get some food, and then we’re going to call it a night.”
Everyone broke, and we laid out the food, and people dug in. Then I started to get the verbal report of what was in those tapes.
“He was telling alien stories,” one guy said. “It was entertaining.”
“Alien stories?” I repeated with a frown. “Did he say he was kidnapped by aliens?”
“No,” the man shook his head, “he was just telling this story like it was a movie or something.”
“Huh,” I mumbled as I took a bite of my food.
“I’ve never heard so much boring music in my life,” another person grumbled.
“I second that motion,” someone else muttered.
“I think it was good,” another guy said. “I think it inspired me to start working on my synthesizer.”
There was a loud groan, and several napkins were hurled in that guy’s direction.
“No, Jack,” someone said. “Do not, and I repeat, do not, bring out your synthesizer.”
As the conversation derailed, Vicki flitted around handing out cash, and the mood lifted. The guys’ stayed around for another half hour, and then started to clear out. Fortunately, it was decided they would leave their equipment for tomorrow’s volunteers.
Once everyone was gone, except Vicki and AJ, I slumped in a chair in the conference room and looked over the wreckage. It had been quite a day.
“These are the ‘done’ tapes?” I asked as I cleared out the clutter all over the table.
“Yeah,” Vicki replied. “Our system went to hell, just so you know.”
