“But her son just killed a man,” I told him.
“That’s what I believe anyway,” he said. “Maybe it’s not true. Maybe it’s just coincidence.”
I didn’t think so.
“Thank you, Tony,” I said and Vicki and I both rose from the couch. “You’ve been a real help in this case.”
His expression was dubious.
“You saved a woman’s life today,” Vicki told him softly. “A woman, with two little boys. She’s free now. And those little boys will grow up without a father. But, because of what you did today, they’ll get some sort of justice.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I should see it like that. Thank you.”
He rose and shook our hands, and I noticed AJ relax. It had to have been hard putting her in the middle like this, and splitting her loyalties, to us, her conscience and her family.
“Thanks AJ,” I smiled.
AJ rose from the couch and stuck her hands hands in the pockets of her jean shorts.
“Yeah,” Vicki said. “We couldn’t have done this without you.”
Vicki hugged her, and they both laughed as they wrapped their arms around each other.
“Now without this case,” Vicki told her as they released. “We can start planning that wedding.”
“Yes,” AJ stated definitively, with a grin on her face. “I don’t know if any of your fancy California friends will do this, but I want to throw you a good and proper shower.”
“Ohh,” Vicki gushed and clasped her hands to her lips. “That is so sweet, AJ.”
“Thanks, AJ,” I winked at her. “No one has said anything about that yet.”
“That’s because no one knows, goofy,” AJ laughed. “You’ve got to get the word out about the wedding. Everyone in Sedona’s talking about that ring, and no one knows anything about the wedding.”
“We did just come from the wedding planner’s office,” Vicki said. “She wants to do a wedding website.”
“Totally,” AJ said. “Mandatory. I’ll get Landon to help you with it. We’ll link it to all your social media accounts, and yes, Henry, I know you hate Facebook.”
I laughed. “That is true.”
“But people have to know,” she said. “All those people you went to law school with, and...oooh...you could invite Jasmine Stone.”
We both laughed. Jasmine Stone was a Sedona native who had signed on with us shortly before she went on tour with Lady GaGa. She now battled with Katy Perry neck and neck for queen of the pop airwaves.
But, her interest in us representing her, I always suspected had less to do with our firm, and more to do with...me.
Nothing was ever said to that effect, but I secretly wondered that once I was officially off the singles market, if we would lose her as a client. In any event, I wasn’t sure if inviting her to our wedding would be the best idea.
“We’ll see,” I said.
“You don’t want Jasmine Stone at the wedding?” Vicki asked me.
“It’s your day,” I said. “Do you really want to be upstaged by the reigning queen of pop?”
Vicki snorted. “Please. I can take her skinny ass on auto-tune any day.”
Everyone laughed and whistled, even Tony and Ana. We said our goodbyes, and left the Castillo house. I took Vicki’s hand, and smiled as we walked out to my car. For the first time, I was excited about the wedding.
“We have phone calls to make,” Vicki said as we settled into the car.
“Yes we do,” I said. “Many of them. You take Kelsi, I’ll take Durant.”
“Gotcha,” she said and pulled out her phone.
I navigated through the city streets of Sedona with my palm while I pulled up the police chief’s cell phone number.
“Hal Durant,” his tone was flat.
“Officer Durant,” I said. “Henry Irving. Sorry to bother you on a Saturday.”
“Well, you got the Feds to start packing up,” he said. “Fingers crossed, I’ll get my station back by the end of the week. So we’re even.”
I laughed. “Well, there’s more to that story.”
“There always is,” he said.
I heard Vicki on the phone with Kelsi, speaking in a soft consoling voice. I was so glad she was around to make calls like this. I tried, but soft and sweet just wasn’t my style.
“We’ve got a lead on the Matthews murder case,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said. “We looked at the coroner’s report, and there’s definitely something fishy about that.”
“I’ve got an anonymous witness,” I said, “says he’s got reason to believe the mouthpiece of the trumpet was poisoned with the borrachero plant.”
Durant gasped. “Is that Devil’s Breath, that turns people into zombies?”
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “You know about that?”
“I just saw a documentary on it yesterday,” he said.
“This witness was approached by Gary Zimmerman,” he said, “who also plays in the band, to get the plant. The witness didn’t comply. The witness also said the trumpet mouthpiece was found to be missing the day of the taping, and noticed that the death coincided with the insertion of the trumpet in the mouth.”
“Zimmerman, huh?” Durant whistled. “I never have liked those people. I’ve been wanting to bust them for years, can’t get anything on them.”
“They would be hard to pin down,” I said. “Considering they don’t believe in birth certificates or social security cards.”
He snorted. “I don’t even know if they’re considered citizens without those.”
“Eh,” I said. “I think they still are.”
“Well,” he said. “If I bust these people, I’m making them all get in the system. Every last one of them. We’re talking birth certificates, social security cards, driver’s licenses, public school, immunizations, the works. And how are these
