Free Joe Dillard - 01 - An Innocent Client by Scott Pratt Page B

commit.”
    ”Close friend?”
    ”More like a daughter. I sort of took her in about a month ago.”
    ”Start from the beginning, Ms. Barlowe. Tell me everything you want me to know.”
    ”Please, sugar, call me Erlene. I suppose I should start by telling you that I own the Mouse’s Tail Gentlemen’s Club. My husband and I owned it together, but he passed away last year and now I’m running it. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen you out there.”
    I laughed. ”Haven’t had the pleasure. I’ve heard a lot about it, though.”
    ”Doesn’t surprise me. We’ve had several lawyers come and go over the years. A couple of judges, too.”
    Which judges? I considered asking her, but then I decided I didn’t want to know. Screw them. Before long, I’d be moving on.
    ”Tell me about your friend.”
    ”Have you heard they made an arrest in the murder of that pastor from Newport? The one who was stabbed?”
    ”I think everybody’s heard.”
    ”She didn’t do it, Mr. Dillard. I’d swear it on a stack of Bibles. I want to hire you to represent her.”
    ”How do you know she didn’t do it?”
    ”Because I was with her all night. I drove her home from the club after her shift ended. She lives at my place and she never went out. She couldn’t have done it. And besides that, she’s the sweetest, kindest little thing you’ll ever meet. She wouldn’t so much as step on a bug, let alone kill a human being.”
    Erlene Barlowe had an almost mesmerizing southern drawl and a sweet kind of charm about her. The fact that she was easy to look at, even in those wild clothes, made the conversation even more pleasant. I got the sense a few times that there might be more to Erlene than she wanted me to see, but there was something about her—maybe danger—that held my interest.
    After a half hour, I glanced back over my notes.
    She said she’d taken Angel Christian, the girl who was arrested, into her home after Angel showed up here on a bus with another girl, a dancer named Julie Hayes, a little over a month ago. She said Angel reminded her of her dead husband’s beautiful young daughter, who’d been killed in a car accident. I got the distinct impression she’d convinced herself that Angel was the reincarnation of the daughter. She said Angel had suffered some serious abuse at home and was a runaway. She mentioned something about Angel’s hands.
    I was more than a little concerned about a few things. Erlene told me that she’d initially lied to a TBI agent I knew named Phil Landers. She said Angel Christian wasn’t the girl’s real name. She said the police had obtained a warrant to take a hair sample from Angel, or whatever her name was, and one from Erlene. That meant DNA evidence would probably be involved, and DNA almost always proved to be devastating to defendants. The police obviously had witnesses or some other evidence or they wouldn’t have been able to get the warrants. And she said something about the police searching for a missing Corvette.
    But Erlene was adamant about the girl’s innocence, and if she was telling the truth, it certainly didn’t sound like Angel had either the motive or the opportunity to commit a murder. I was tempted, but not so tempted that I was willing to take on a murder case that would probably wind up going to trial. I didn’t want to waste any more of her time, and I didn’t want to just flat-out refuse her, so I decided to set the bar so high she’d either be unable or unwilling to jump it.
    ”Erlene, do you have any idea how much it would cost you to hire me on a case like this? A first-degree murder. I heard something about the death penalty on the radio, you know. And it’ll most likely go to trial.”
    ”Mr. Dillard, my husband provided well for me, both while he was alive and after he passed. Money isn’t something I’m concerned about.”
    She shouldn’t have said that. The price I had in mind immediately doubled.
    ”I’m going to be honest with you,