Sedona Law 4: A Legal thriller Read online

  “Oh, yeah?” I said. “What’s that?”

  He sighed long and deep. “Well, Judith Klein has confessed to the murder.”

  I was silent for a moment. “Judith confessed?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “But like I said, we’re not sure what to make of it. We’re going to have to get the prosecutor to listen to the confession, before he drops the charges.”

  “So what’s the problem?” I asked.

  “Well,” he said. “The confession seems a bit unlikely. Even her attorney was unaware that she intended to make the confession.”

  “You think it was false?” I asked.

  “That’s just it,” the officer said. “I don’t think it’s false. I’m certain it’s false.”

  “Why would she falsely confess to a murder?” I asked.

  “That’s what we intend to find out,” he said. “I just thought you and your client should know.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  I ended the call and tapped my phone against my chin as I thought. Vicki had overheard enough of the conversation that I didn’t have to fill her in.

  “Why would she falsely confess to a murder?” she asked. “And the day before the arraignment.”

  “And the day we question John Malone,” the answer came to me before I finished the sentence. “She’s being paid. Blackmailed or paid off.”

  “Being a dominatrix is not illegal,” she said. “He’s got to have something else on her.”

  “Shit,” I said as it all suddenly came to me. “We’ve been looking in the wrong places. The connection is not Iakova, Malone, and the censorship bill. The connection is Kat Studios.”

  “What connection could a bunch of New York dancers have to a small time Sedona... what do they even call those things?”

  “Dungeons, I think,” I said as I threw a bill on the table and rose to leave. “But we’ve got so much research on these people, we may know everything we need to know.”

  We left Jitters and went back to the office, where AJ was working on our discovery requests for tomorrow. She narrated it for Landon and the camera.

  “So at the arraignment tomorrow,” she said. “They’ll need to submit these to the judge, and the judge will set a date for the prosecution to submit the evidence to us and vice versa.”

  She looked relieved to see us. “Hey, guys.”

  Vicki and I looked at each other, and Vicki wordlessly picked up the phone to call Julianna.

  “Well,” I told Landon and AJ. “There’s been a development.”

  “What kind of development?” AJ asked.

  “Judith has just confessed to the murder,” I said.

  “What?” both AJ and Landon said in unison.

  “So that’s it, then?” Landon was disappointed. “The case is over?”

  “Not at all,” I said. “The cops think she’s lying.”

  “Why would she lie about that?” AJ asked.

  “That’s what I’m hoping you can find out,” I said.

  “What do we know about Judith?” I asked as I took a perch on the side of my desk. “Other than that she works at Kat Studios. Does she own that, or does she just work there?”

  AJ flipped through her notes. “She owns it. She founded it about five years ago, at that time she actually had a photographer to cover for her.”

  “What did she do before she opened the studio?” I asked.

  “There’s nothing on her before then,” she said. “I ran a background check, and there was an address in Tucson, but that’s all I could find.”

  “So, she’s from Tucson,” I clarified and then followed a hunch. “Who was the photographer?”

  “His name was Jack Winslow,” she said. “He was a photography student at the University of Arizona.”

  I sighed. “Do we have a picture of this Jack?”

  “Yes,” she handed me a printout, and I didn’t want to look at it. When I did, my suspicions were confirmed. It was Harmony’s Jack. I tossed the paper on my desk.

  “Keep digging into Judith,” I sighed. “I’ll be back.”

  I grabbed my phone, and Vicki curiously picked up the paper. She caught my eye and sighed

  “It doesn’t mean--” she started. “It just means…”

  “I know,” I said. “But what kind of a scumbag fronts that kind of a business?”

  She raised her eyebrows, and I headed out the door. I got Jack after one ring. I guessed he thought I was calling about a record deal.

  “Hey,” I said, “Would you be up for meeting for a drink?”

  “Sure,” he said. “When?”

  “Right now,” I said. “It’s urgent.”

  I met him at a French Bohemian style bar on the outskirts of town. The place was a little gimmicky and tried too much to cater to the whole Les Miserable motif. I had been here once before, and they had a performance artist. But, now the red velvet curtains were closed, and in the mid-morning light, the place was nearly deserted.

  Jack didn’t take long to meet me and seemed confused and a bit concerned as to why I wanted to meet him so urgently. He entered the dimly lit room with a motorcycle helmet in his hand and joined me at a table. He sat down, and I got to my point quickly. Maybe a bit too quickly.

  “Look,” he played with his fingers. “I didn’t know what she was doing back then. I swear to you. That’s why I got out.”

  “What did you think she was doing?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “She said she wanted to open a photography studio in Sedona. It’s a great place to open one. This place is beautiful.”

  “So you’re not from here?” I asked.

  “No,” he said. “I’m from Atlanta, which is home, and I love it. But, I’m from downtown, you know the inner city, concrete jungle. I went to the University of Arizona, because they had a good photography program at that time. And, that’s when I met Judith.”

  “How did you meet her?” I asked.

  “She was in graduate school,” he said. “And I forget how our paths originally crossed. But, word had it she was a VC investor, and so I pitched her my work. I wanted to do a series on alt-culture, and I was hoping she would underwrite me. She listened politely, and I thought she was going to pass. Then, three months later, she calls me out of the blue. She says she has moved to Sedona and was interested in opening a photography studio, and she wanted to know if I would be the head photographer. I was so excited, I didn’t ask as many questions as I should have. I pretty much just packed up and moved to Sedona.”

  “What was it like with her once you got here?” I asked.

  “It was weird,” he said. “Really weird.”

  “How so?” I asked.

  “So, I moved in with these guys I found on Facebook, they were really cool, so that wasn’t a problem,” he said. “But, she had already chosen this run down old building out in the country. It had once been a massage place, but it needed a lot of work, like basic work, like the plumbing was shot.”

  “There was no plumbing in the building?” I asked.

  “There was…” he qualified. “It was just iffy. I just made sure not to use the restroom there. But, she was paying me, so I didn’t care a whole lot. But, then she didn’t want to give me much space to display my work. We had a lobby, and she told me I could do whatever I wanted with it, but she said we could only be open like ten hours a week.”

  “She paid you for ten hours a week?”

  “I was salaried,” he said. “It was wild. She said I could explore my artistic side. So, I totally dug into the whole alt-culture of Sedona for my series, and I would drive to Phoenix, whatever. That’s how I got in my band.”

  He gestured toward me, as he referred to our previous conversation about his band.

  “So, one day,” he said. “I was in the studio by myself, and we didn’t use the old massage rooms, they were usually locked. But, I just decided to snoop around, and found one of them unlocked. The room was empty, but I saw enough to know what was going on. And everything ma
de sense, then. I asked her about it, and she was super open, once I knew, and she offered to cut me in on the profits.”

  He scoffed and rolled his eyes. “I couldn’t stomach it after that. I mean, you know, get your kicks and all, that’s cool, whatever gets you off. Consenting adults and all. And maybe if she’d been open with me in the beginning, I’d have been cool with it. Maybe, I don’t know. But, the whole thing felt so icky, and the way I was lied to, I didn’t trust her anymore. So, I left pretty much after that.”

  “Did you ever meet any of her clients?” I asked.

  “A few times,” he said. “She was always very discreet about it, it was done during our ‘off’ hours. So, I always kind of thought they were fellow investors, or some other business associates.”

  “What about Senator John Malone?” I asked.

  “What about him?” he replied.

  “Did you ever meet him?” I asked.

  “Yeah, dozens of times,” he said nonchalantly.

  I stopped for a beat, and he realized what he had said and smiled sheepishly.

  “Would you say he was a client of Judith Klein?” I asked.

  He shifted uncomfortably. “I... look... I... I don’t want to get dragged into a big high profile court thing.”

  “Let me lay this down for you, Jack,” I said. “Judith Klein, Senator Malone, and Marvin Iakova were all in the same building on the same night, and then there was a dead body found backstage. Now, there’s an innocent woman being charged for that murder. I need to know what you know about the relationships between those people. Someone’s life depends on it.”

  He sighed and played with his fingers. “Judith and Senator Malone had a very twisted relationship. All I know is that he... fuck it. I know a lot, actually. He had a secret apartment in Tucson, where he had this girl live.”

  “A mistress?” I asked.

  “Uh,” he said. “I think that’s more like an affair. This, from what I gathered, was a business arrangement. Judith arranged the whole thing and got a regular ‘finder’s fee.’ But, then his wife found out and threatened to ruin his career.”

  “Geez,” I said. “These people are scumbags.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Tell me about it. So, from what I have gathered from coded comments, is that he stopped seeing the girl and behaved himself for a while. But, Judith missed the extra cash. So, that’s when she decided to open her studio. But she needed an investor, so she called the richest guy she knew, and offered to cut him in. But, since his permanent address is in Flagstaff, she chose Sedona to be close to him, but far enough from his wife. She picked photography, because it seemed probable in Sedona, and she called me because she knew a young, naïve college student would jump at the chance.”

  “Do you have any idea why Judith and Malone would want to conspire to kill a dancer from New York?”

  “No clue,” he said.

  “And what happened to the girl?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything about her. Never met her, don’t even know her name.”

  I nodded slowly and thoughtfully.

  “If I were you,” Jack said. “I would find that girl.”

  “Something tells me that I already have,” I said.

  Chapter 12

  I arrived back to our office to find it a boiler room of activity. Julianna and Gabriel were in the conference room, with Vicki prepping them for the arraignment tomorrow. AJ was bringing them up to speed on everything we had uncovered in the past couple of weeks.

  “But,” Julianna was in mid-sentence. “If Judith confessed, doesn’t that mean we’re off the hook?”

  “Not necessarily,” I said as I entered the room. I stood at the table and tapped my fingertips on the surface in thought. Everyone got silent and turned to me.

  “Not if the prosecutor doesn’t accept the confession,” I said. “The police are convinced the confession is false, and they’re going to persuade him to throw it out. Now, we have a very good relationship with the prosecutor and with the police. They’ll listen to us if we can prove otherwise, and they’re going to want to settle this out of court if they can.”

  “That’s what we want, right?” Julianna said. Her expression was haggard and worn.

  “That’s the best scenario,” I said, “because it will be months at best before we can get in for a trial. And, if the jury comes back with a guilty verdict, you’ll get the book thrown at you after rejecting the plea deal.”

  Gabriel sat sideways facing Julianna and rested his elbows on his knees and rubbed his palms together.

  “So,” he said, “if we reject the plea deal tomorrow, we could get more time?”

  “If the jury comes back with a guilty verdict, yes,” I said. “But in that case, we could appeal.”

  His dark eyes looked troubled, and he looked at Julianna. “What if we just lie and say we did it?”

  “Gabriel!” she said. “I’m not going to admit to a felony I didn’t commit. That will follow me for the rest of my life.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t know what I was thinking. It just seems easier somehow. So what happens when we plead not guilty?”

  “The judge will set a trial date,” I answered. “And between then and there, we go to work like crazy gathering evidence.”

  “Well, what about this Judith lady?” Gabriel asked. “Will they take that into account tomorrow?”

  “Likely not,” I said. “Because of the timing, the prosecutor is probably talking to her now, and we will know by the end of the day whether he’s going to accept the confession. But even if they don’t accept it, she will be a valuable witness for us.”

  With the conference call looming in about an hour, I sat down with the clients and decided to find out what they knew about Malone.

  “I know AJ has briefed you on our people of interest,” I said. “One in particular is a state senator named John Malone. Do either of you two know anything about this man?”

  To my surprise, Julianna and Gabriel exchanged uncomfortable glances.

  “Ooooh,” Julianna said long and drawn out.

  “What?” I asked.

  “John is involved?” she asked. “How so?”

  “What we know is that he had business dealings with both Judith Klein and Marvin Iakova,” I said, “and that he was there the night of the murder.”

  She glanced at Gabriel again and sighed.

  “It’s your call, babe,” he told her with a shrug.

  “So,” she said. “He was kind of this unspoken figure for…” Her voice trailed off, and she played with her fingers.

  “Julianna,” Vicki said gently, “whoever you are protecting, isn’t protecting you. It’s you and the state of Arizona in the ring right now, and if we’re going to help you, we need you to be honest.”

  She started to cry. “I know. It’s just--” her voice got lost in her tears.

  AJ handed her a tissue, and she calmed down a bit and then just looked deeply sad.

  “I need... I need a minute,” she said. “Gabe, just…”

  Then she left the room. Gabriel sighed and looked us over as he stood.

  “John Malone,” he said, “was the secret ‘sugar daddy,’ if you will, for one of the other girls. And the fact that he was involved, shows she was involved, and she left us out to dry.”

  He shook his head in disgust and followed Julianna into the other room. I turned to Vicki and AJ who had their mouths wide open in shock.

  “Well, that was an unexpected development,” I said.

  “Yeah,” Vicki said. “We need to know which girl.”

  “Olivia,” was Julianna’s tearful response from the doorway.

  “Olivia?” I was shocked.

  “Julianna,” Vicki said, “we are not certain that she, or Malone, were involved in the murder.”

  “I am,” she said resolutely. “John hated Beowulf and has wanted him out of the picture for years. John thought that Beowulf took advantage of all o
f us, and there was a lot of stuff about money that John didn’t understand. We had a lot of agreements, and ways of looking at money, and our earnings, that made sense to all of us. But, to an outsider, that would seem shady. He thought that Beowulf brainwashed all of us, and that’s why Olivia needed so much money from him.”

  “So,” I said, “you think Malone killed Beowulf?”

  “If he was there, and Beowulf turns up dead, yeah,” Gabriel said. “The feeling between those two was mutual. I’ve heard Beyo rant on and on about John.”

  “How did Olivia know John?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Julianna said. “I just know she’s always been in contact with him, as long as I’ve known her.”

  “Do you know anything about Marvin Iakova?” I asked.

  Julianna shook her head. “Marvin Iakova? The TV station guy? No, just what you know growing up around here, and that he promoted our event, which was really cool of him, by the way. I wish I could have enjoyed it.”

  “Malone is connected pretty deeply to Iakova,” I said. “So, from what you know personally of Malone, do you know anything about Marvin Iakova?”

  She shook her head again. “No. I’ve never heard anything about him.”

  My phone alarm beeped. The conference call with the devil himself was upon us.

  “Alright,” I turned to Vicki, “can you wrap this up here? I gotta…”

  “Yeah,” she said. “So the arraignment tomorrow is at ten a.m.”

  I stepped out of the room as Vicki took over with details for our court appearance in the morning. I settled into my desk just minutes before the call and glanced over my notes. This new development changed a lot about my line of questioning, and with Malone’s lawyer on the other line, I would have to tread lightly. I penciled in a few changes and dialed the number to his direct line.

  “Senator Malone,” he answered curtly.

  “Hi, Senator,” I said. “It’s Henry Irving.”

  “Yes, Mr. Irving,” he said. “Go ahead. I have my attorney Evan Williams on the other line.”

  “Hi, Mr. Irving,” Evan introduced himself.

  “Hello, Mr. Williams,” I said.