“What about Julianna?” I asked.
“He said that he would make sure to get Julianna off,” she said, “But that I couldn’t tell anyone the truth. He begged me to think of his kids, and what it would do to them, for the scandal of our relationship to become public.”
“How was he going to get Julianna off?” I chuckled as I considered that would have required actually coordinating with me.
“Well,” she said, “He told me that Judith was going to take the blame for it.”
“Ah…” I said. “He paid Judith to confess, so that you don’t go to jail and name him. And Judith took the bargain because of her son. He never took into account that she’s a terrible actress. Did Judith know that you did it?” I asked.
“I don’t think so,” she said. “John said he wouldn’t tell her.”
“That’s why he hired a mysterious man,” I pieced together.
“Right,” she said.
I paused for a moment to let all the pieces sit with gathered parties and then turned to Chet.
“Anything else?” I asked.
He was shocked and shook his head. “I think that’s enough for now.”
Officer Durant stood and adjusted his waistline. “Well, that about does it for you, little lady. I’m going to have to take you in.”
She took it gracefully, I had to give her that.
“I understand,” she said softly.
She rose from the table, and Durant politely motioned for her to follow him out of the room, which she did quietly, with a shocked Neville scrambling behind her like a little mouse. Once they were gone, the remaining three of us, along with Landon, let out a collective sigh.
“Wow,” Chet said. “That was something else.”
We all laughed to release the tension.
“Who knew?” I said. “In this quiet little town.”
“Well,” he said. “They’re not from here. They’re all from Tucson, and those people are nuts out there.”
“Do you need this tape?” Landon asked Chet as he switched off the camera.
“Yeah,” he said. “We’re gonna need it. You’ll need to give it to Officer Durant, and it will find its way back to me through the channels.”
“Make sure to give Durant the other recording of Judith, too,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said. “I gave it to him yesterday. That doesn’t violate our contract, right?”
I shook my head. “No. If a non-client confessed to a crime, and we got it on tape, we need to get it to the cops.”
“That’s what I thought,” he said. “I’ll get this all uploaded and onto a flash drive.”
He left the room with the camera.
“Well,” Chet said. “I’ll get all the paperwork sorted out in the next few days, but for all intents and purposes, we’re dropping all the charges against your clients, with our sincerest apologies.”
“I’ll take it, Chet,” I said.
“Good work, Irving,” he said as he rose. “You got a future in politics in this town. It will be interesting to see how you do it.”
“Thanks, Chet,” I said.
“But take a lesson from today,” he said. “Malone used to be a good man, and earnest. Earnest as American apple pie. I’ve been around long enough to remember that.”
“What happened to him?” I asked.
“Power,” he said. “Power and greed. It’s a shame. Well, see you around.”
“See you,” I said.
Chet left the office, I heard Durant finally getting around to the Miranda’s with Olivia in the other room. I turned to Vicki who sat down at the table with me.
“Well,” I said. “To winning.”
“To winning,” she said. “You were great, as always.”
I laughed. “Thanks, and I still feel bad about missing your hearing. I’m going to find a way to make it up to you.”
“Hmmm…” she snickered. “Remember back in the treehouse days, what we did right after our winning deposition?”
I laughed as I very much remembered. “That was before we had a real office and a roomful of people on the other side of the wall.”
“Damn success,” she said.
“Damn success,” I agreed.
“You should watch the tape, though,” she said. “You were impressive. I thought you were going to bust out into song at one point.”
“I thought about it,” I said. “But I figured I made my point.”
Landon came back in with AJ behind him.
“Damn success,” I mumbled to Vicki who laughed.
“Dude,” Landon gushed. “You were nuts. Totally straight up nuts. We’ve all got to watch the tape together. Like popcorn and movie night and shit.”
I laughed. “Thanks, Landon.”
“Dude,” he turned to AJ. “He was all like, ‘You’re right, Senator Malone didn’t kill Beyo, you did!’”
Vicki and AJ burst into laughter at Landon’s impression of me--dramatic and cocky.
“You do a great Henry impression,” AJ said through her laughter.
“What?” I asked. “I’m not that bad.”
“When you’re on a roll you are,” Vicki said, and she licked her lips. “But it is sexy as hell.
Landon and AJ whistled and laughed.
“Are they always like this?” Landon asked AJ.
“No, most of the time they’re so chill,” AJ said. “It’s only lately.”
“You know, now that this case is bigger...” I told Landon in a subject change. “It’s grown out of my hands. You’re not going to be able to do that documentary, especially with Malone involved.”
Landon shrugged. “I figured as much. It’s cool. I didn’t get the angle I wanted, and it was turning into a migraine of a project. I think I’ll change to a simpler topic. But, I got a ton of good practice. I learned a lot.”
“Glad to hear that,” I said.
I pulled an envelope out of my padfolio and slid it across the
