Locals who were his regulars, living near his office in Sedona, admired him for not only his normal dental duties but also for his creativity in giving so many of them smiles which they were never able to imagine before. He also charged them substantially less because they returned regularly for their scheduled check-ups and cleanings. Upward mobility was the way to go.
Four
Detective Jason Sommerville, at forty-five, had his career goals outlined and he had the ambition to have attained most of them. He was five-foot-ten with blondish-brown hair. When he began his career as a police officer in Flagstaff, Arizona, he wore his uniform as directed: navy-blue shirt, black tie, dark blue trousers, and a brimmed hat similar to a cowboy hat but with a shorter flat brim shadowing his ears. He polished his badge every morning before pinning it on his shirt. So shiny that he was able see his face in it. His trousers had a permanent crease on the front of each leg. The night before his next day’s work, he washed, dried, starched and ironed his shirt and tie. Jason had been a police officer for twelve years and then was promoted to his current position as plain-clothes detective, which he had held for five years. His next goal was to become a captain of some police department, regardless of how long a drive he may have to get to his new office.
Sommerville had a wife, Mary, and two middle-teen daughters. His job was to feed and protect his family; her job was to raise their daughters and get them into college. They had agreed that once his daughters were in college, Mary would return to her previous job as a Flagstaff police dispatcher, if there was an opening. If nothing was available at that time, she was willing to take a similar job at any of the nearest towns, even if she needed to travel to Sedona. The couple and their girls lived in Kochina Village near the famous Route 66.
Jason knew Johnny Pratt very well through semi-annual meetings that the surrounding area detectives from different towns had with each other to exchange information on their various unsolved cases. Even though Pratt worked for the Sedona P.D., he was involved in this crime even though it didn’t take place in Flagstaff. He asked to work on the case with Jason in Flagstaff, because it involved a prominent Sedona Rabbi, who was also a Flagstaff citizen, and a similar shooting of a Sedona citizen. On occasion, both detectives had a few beers together and Pratt had been invited to Somerville’s home for dinner a few times. Shoptalk between the two men consisted of reiterating their commitment to share information and, when needed, assist each other in investigating a crime. They also agreed that when a crime was committed in either one’s town, the detective who resides in the town would take the lead in directing the operation.
Flagstaff had the highest elevation on Route 66 and tourists often drove as far up as they could to park at an ‘overlook,’ where they enjoyed the spacious vistas and stared at the Grand Canyon, just eighty miles away.
The Flagstaff area was well known for the largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest in the state, interspersed with white birch, oak, and elm trees. The Lowell Laboratory, also located in Flagstaff, was the observatory that discovered the planet Pluto. The average sunshine surpassed 250 days per year. The hub of the town was Resort Boulevard, which resembled parts of New Orleans and Nashville during the nighttime activities. Daytime activities available for visitors included horseback riding, canoeing on the Rio de Flag, hiking, frequent rodeos, the Native American Museum, and over a dozen restaurants, in addition to numerous locally owned gift shops, galleries, sports bars and buffets. A visit to the Petrified Forest National Park was another major attraction.
On Wednesdays of each week Flagstaff hosted a social walk/run, poetry readings at one of the local cafes on Humphrey Street, museum touring, and for aspiring artists, there was a “painting” night in the heart of downtown Flagstaff’s YMCA. All residents and visitors were invited to attend and create a painting of their own, provided it was on canvass and not on the walls, tables, or floor. Winter sports were especially popular in the surrounding mountains.
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Neil Robert Bloom had been Beth Israel’s Rabbi for twenty-two years. It was a Reformed Synagogue, or temple, as some of the congregants referred to it. It was considered the most exclusive synagogue in Sedona since most of the congregants were wealthier than synagogues in other towns. The term reformed refers to the most modern sect of Judaism, quite unlike older traditions such as the Conservative or Orthodox Jewish sects.
In reformed synagogues, the service was done in English. It often had musicians or a cantor singing nigunim (songs of joy or bitterness), in addition to hymns for the congregation to sing along. This broke with the typical Conservative or Orthodox synagogues that only prayed in Hebrew and didn’t permit musicians. The Sabbath services, known as Shabbat, began on Friday at sundown and ended on Saturday evening.
An important part of Sabbath services was the opportunity to pray, sing, meditate, learn, and develop comradeship. These services ended with a havdalah, which officially closed the services. Many congregations had a cantor, who usually had an exceptional singing voice. A cantor could be a soloist or the leader of a chorus, but they must have been ordained after having received extensive Hebrew education. The cantor—male or female—was required to sing all the Hebrew prayers, while some congregations had a
