“I’m sorry, is all I have to say about that,” I said.
“So,” she said. “I wasn’t one to be defeated. Now that I knew the Great Henry Irving was single and on the hunt, I decided to go to war. The next day, I wore my sexiest work skirt, a tight red Marc Jacobs number, and waited all day for the best opportunity to talk to him. Finally, I saw him on his way to the coffee room, and I beat him there, and there was mysteriously no sugar. And that was how it all began.”
“Aww, that’s a great story,” Matt said.
“And you guys have such chemistry.” Josh said. “Is it hard to work together and live together?”
Vicki and I glanced at each other for a beat.
“Surprisingly no,” I said. “We get along really well, I think.”
“Yeah,” she said. “Except his bad breath in the morning.”
Everyone laughed, and I just shook my head.
“No,” she said. “I tease him, but we do have a great connection. I think it helps to build a relationship on a really great friendship, which is what we had in California. We didn’t get together until we came out here.”
“This is great stuff,” Matt said. “So, we want to keep it going. Let’s get you on the set.”
There was whistling and applause as everyone thought this was a great idea.
Matt took us down a hall to a large converted office. Lighting and video equipment washed a seating area that looked like it came straight out of a Target catalog. Brown leather couches surrounded a coffee table with staged knick knacks. On the wall was an art piece made of cherry wood slats, and the word ‘Dream’ was spelled out in black decal letters.
We crowded in with Matt, while Josh and the rest of the group brought the camera and lighting equipment to life.
“The series is called ‘Spotlight,’” Matt told us, “and it’s about people that are leaders in the community. We want to let their personalities, their stories shine. We created this set for the series, and we try to do one every month, the last one was Perry and Kristen McGrath, who run Cococono Brew.”
“Ah, yes,” I said. “We know about them.”
“Right,” Matt said. “You’re part of their story, I forgot.”
“Yes,” I said. “Definitely part of that story.”
“The interview itself will last about ten minutes,” he said. “But that’s because we leave a lot of room for mistakes or nerves. The clip will only be about three minutes. We have a great editing team that will clip it down to a good solid piece.”
“Sounds good,” I said.
“Are we ready?” Matt asked.
“Pretty much,” Josh gave Matt a thumbs up.
“Go ahead and have a seat on the set, they’ll get you lit,” Matt directed.
Vicki and I stepped through the lighting equipment and the mazes of wires duct taped to the ground. I blinked under the harsh light as we walked onto the set.
One of the girls came onto the set with us.
“Hi,” she said, “I’m Chelsea. I’ll be doing the interview.”
Chelsea was a tall, blonde woman, she looked to be about twenty one, with long dreadlocks pulled back into a headwrap. She wore leggings and a tunic and long dangly earrings. She sat down opposite us and smiled as they adjusted the lighting and audio levels.
I looked at Vicki, who smiled at me, and I thought about the inevitable question Chelsea would ask me. What do you love about being an attorney in Sedona? I still didn’t have an answer, but a handful of PR friendly soundbites rolled around in my head.
There was the gushing:
“The people in this town are so warm and inviting, it’s easy to serve them.”
“I love helping people, and Sedona is one beautiful place to do it.”
Or the quippy:
“Wait, I’m an attorney? When did that happen?”
“It pays better than McDonald’s, which is the only other thing I’m qualified to do.”
Or I could go with the back-handedly pompous:
“We’ve got a great legal community in this town, some really great minds. Chet Levinson, and Toby Lithgoe, among others are some solidly great people. I’m honored to be part of the industry in my hometown, and I really feel like I bring a lot to the table, so we’ll see where it leads from here.”
I could also borrow from national politics and be inflammatory. It would get Matt some page views:
“Drain the swamp! That’s what I’m here to do! The legal system in this town is full of corruption and laziness, and I’m here to shake it all up and bring justice where justice is due.”
Then suddenly the moment was upon me. The interview had started while I was in my reverie, and then Chelsea shot me a winning smile,
“So, Henry, we’ve heard from Vicki, how about you?” she asked. “What do you love about being an attorney in Sedona?”
I looked at Chelsea, and she looked at me expectantly. Under the bright lights, and blinking cameras, the only words that came out of my mouth were, “I love Vicki.”
The rest of the interview was a blur in my head. Not because I was embarrassed at what I had said, but because I realized for the first time how true it was.
For a split second Vicki looked surprised, but she recovered nicely and professionally, and I think I bullshitted through some decent answers for the rest of the questions. I think. But Vicki didn’t say anything much afterward.
Chapter 16
I spent most of the next morning in the conference room going over video footage with Landon in search of clues. Cups from Jitters littered the table, and I had notes and
