I hadn’t noticed the show was late, but the audience was late, too, so it all worked out, I guess. I did remember encountering green paint a couple of times backstage.
“Was she dressed like a cheetah?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “She was.”
Cheetah lady. I had known that woman was bad news.
“I take it you have somewhere to stay in Sedona, then, since you were planning to move here?” I asked.
“My place,” Gabriel said. “I have a condo.”
“Alright,” I said. “We can get you released on bail, and you’ll be out in less than twenty-four hours. But then we’re going to have to go to work to find out who really killed Beyo. Or at least enough to show that you might not have killed him.”
“Then you’ll take our case?” she asked.
I smiled. “Yeah. You need me to call anybody? Get you anything?”
They looked at each other and shrugged.
“I think we’ve called everyone,” Julianna said.
“Alright,” I said. “We’ll have you out soon.” I left the visitor’s room and went to sign out. The receptionist was gone, and the lobby was empty, but I knew the drill well enough. That’s when Leonard found me.
“They’re sticking with their story, huh?” he asked as he leaned against the desk and sipped a cup of coffee. “Not guilty?”
“Yeah,” I said. “We’ll have to prove reasonable doubt.”
“I don’t see how,” he said. “The murder weapon was clearly hers, she made a big show of buying it, and she was seen in a heated argument with him, and then she flees the scene.”
“Most of that’s circumstantial,” I said.
“So you’re buying the whole, ‘he stole my knapsack’ routine,” he said.
“I think the story deserves a fair chance,” I said.
Leonard gave me a once over. “Are you sure you’re giving this an objective viewpoint?”
I felt my blood run hot at the question. “What do you mean by that?”
“You know what I mean,” he said.
“No, I don’t,” I said. “If there’s something you have to say, say it.”
He shrugged and sighed long and deep. “Look, I know you and Vicki got something real good going on. Everybody knows it, and when it comes to her, there’s not a man in Sedona that wouldn’t give up everything they have to be you for just one day.”
“What are you trying to say, Leonard?” I asked.
“I’m just saying, you and Julianna go way back,” he said. “Don’t fuck up what you’ve got going on because of some unfinished business that needs to stay in the past.”
“No, Leonard,” I said. “I don’t have unfinished business with Julianna. You do.”
He swallowed hard, and I could tell I hit home. His eyes flashed hard, and he shook his head. “I don’t get you, Henry. I don’t have what you have. The good looks, the charm, the smarts. And you just give it all up.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked incredulously.
“You should have stayed in L.A.,” he said, and then he turned to leave.
I made a conscious choice not to take offense at the statement. Instead, I decided to address the jealousy angle of the whole conversation. Leonard was Kermit green with envy that all those years ago, I could have gotten with Julianna and didn’t. But, for the last several months, he had been dating a charmingly moody poet named Julie, and they seemed happier every time I saw them.
“Leonard,” I said before he could go, “Don’t fuck up what you have going with Julie, because of unfinished business with Julianna. You’re happy with her. Julianna may be the one that got away. But I see the way you and Julie look at each other. You fit. Don’t let some old business from the past confuse you.”
He shrugged sheepishly but didn’t smile. “Yeah, well, it’s not my business anyway. Point taken.”
That wasn’t my point, but I’d settle for it.
He nodded, “Yeah, see you around.”
I tried to shake the encounter as I headed out to my car. I knew he was just projecting his jealousy onto his opinions about my career decisions. But it still bothered me.
People in town are saying I’m selling myself short? Was I? I thought about it on the drive back out to the office. Maybe if I were just going around trying murder cases and the like. But, I had just spent the evening with Marvin Iakova. I had met the mayor--in a group conversation at a party--but I had met her. The estate I managed has a board of six trustees, some of the most powerful men in the city and state. No, I decided. I wasn’t selling myself short at all. I was climbing city politics. In L.A., I’d just be another suit. Leonard needed to go home to his girlfriend and get over his high school crush. That was all this was.
I arrived back at the office to find AJ in the kitchenette pulling cookies out of the microwave.
“Cookies?” I raised my eyebrows at her quizzically.
“It’s dough roll,” she held up the package. “It creates ambiance and adds a welcoming smell.”
I turned to Vicki who barely looked up from her laptop. “Where’s the remote for the Stepford Wife over there?”
She laughed. “Landon.”
I smirked. Landon comes to town, and my investigator turns into Suzy Homemaker. This is as good a case as any for the abolition of summer break.
She brought me a small paper plate with hot chocolate chip cookies.
“They’re good. Try them.”
I picked one up, took a bite, and had to admit she was right.
“They are good,” I said. “Hard to imagine they came from a roll.”
Vicki had a plate of her own, and she asked me around bites, “How did it go with Julianna?”
“Oh, yeah,” AJ said. “Vicki’s
