"Please, sugar, call me Erlene. I suppose I should start by telling you that I own the Mouses Tail Gentlemens Club. My husband and I owned it together, but he passed away last year and now Im running it. I dont believe Ive ever seen you out there."

I laughed. "Havent had the pleasure. Ive heard a lot about it, though."

"Doesnt surprise me. Weve 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 didnt want to know. Screw them. Before long, Id 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 everybodys heard."

"She didnt do it, Mr. Dillard. Id swear it on a stack of Bibles. I want to hire you to represent her."

"How do you know she didnt 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 couldnt have done it. And besides that, shes the sweetest, kindest little thing youll ever meet. She wouldnt 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 shed 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 husbands beautiful young daughter, whod been killed in a car accident. I got the distinct impression shed 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 Angels hands.

I was more than a little concerned about a few things. Erlene told me that shed initially lied to a TBI agent I knew named Phil Landers. She said Angel Christian wasnt the girls 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 wouldnt 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 girls innocence, and if she was telling the truth, it certainly didnt 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 didnt want to waste any more of her time, and I didnt want to just flat-out refuse her, so I decided to set the bar so high shed 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 itll most likely go to trial."

"Mr. Dillard, my husband provided well for me, both while he was alive and after he passed. Money isnt something Im concerned about."

She shouldnt have said that. The price I had in mind immediately doubled.

"Im going to be honest with you, maam," I said.

"Im planning to get out of this business sometime in the next year. If I took on this case, it would mean I might have to stay a lot longer than I want to."

"Please, Mr. Dillard. Ill pay you whatever you want. Youre the best lawyer around here. Ive been hearing about you and reading about you for years.

Youve even represented some of my girls"just piddly stuff years ago"but they all spoke so highly of you. I wouldnt want anyone else to defend my sweet little Angel. Why dont you look at it as your last hurrah? You can go out with a great big bang."

I took a deep breath. "Youve only known this girl a month. Are you telling me youd be willing to put up a quarter of a million dollars for her defense?"

She didnt bat an eye. "Angel didnt kill anybody, Mr. Dillard. I swear it. Ill do whatever I have to do."

"Thats the only way Ill do it. Two hundred fifty thousand, cash, up front, nonrefundable. And thats just for me. Youll also have to pay the expenses.

Well need an investigator, and we may need experts.

Theyre not cheap."

"Tell you what, sweetie," she said, "why dont you go down to the jail and meet Angel. When you get finished, you give me a call and Ill have your money."

April 26 3:00 p.m.

On the way to the jail, I seriously considered not taking the case. Id made up my mind to get out, and the time had come. Lilly would be graduating in a month, and I had only a couple cases left. But the money my God! A quarter of a million?

Would she really pay it? That kind of money would go a long way towards giving Caroline and me some peace of mind, especially with the extra expense of Ma being in the nursing home. Her care was costing me more than a thousand dollars a month. I decided to wait and make up my mind after I talked to the girl.

As soon as the door to the attorneys room opened, I realized Erlene Barlowe had been telling the truth about at least one thing. The girl was beautiful. I stood up while two guards held her elbow as she shuffled into the room, shackled at the ankles. They helped her into the chair as though they were seating her for a gourmet dinner and then backed out the door. For a second, I thought they might bow. The door closed, and I sat back down.

"Well, Ive never seen that before," I said.

She smiled absently.

"Guards arent polite to inmates, male or female.

Ive never seen a guard help an inmate with a chair."

Her hair was the color of polished mahogany and flowed like a mountain waterfall from her head to just beneath her shoulders. Her nose was small and thin and turned up slightly. She had almond-shaped eyes that were a rich brown. Her left eyebrow was slightly higher than her right, giving the impression that she was perpetually interested, or maybe perpetually perplexed. Her lips were full and protruded ever so slightly, and even in the standard-issue orange jumpsuit, her body was magnificent.

"My name is Joe Dillard," I said. "Im a lawyer.

Erlene Barlowe asked me to come and talk to you."

"Im Angel," she said. "Angel Christian." Her voice was a gentle soprano.

"Do you understand why youre here, Miss Christian?"

"Yes." There was a slight pause. "Murder."

She put her elbows on the table and began to cry softly. Id seen hundreds of clients cry, male and female. Id grown hardened to tears and the accompanying sounds, but the crying of this beautiful young girl touched me. I stood up and knocked on the door.

A guard opened it immediately.

"Do you guys have any tissue around here?" I said.

The guard glanced over my shoulder at Angel and then scowled at me. "Whatd you do to her?"

"Nothing. Do you have any tissue or not?"

"Hang on. Ill find something."

He disappeared briefly, returned with a roll of toilet paper, and gave it to me with another scowl. I closed the door and handed the roll to Angel.

"Best we can do, Im afraid."

"Thank you," she said. "Im sorry Im crying."

"Dont worry about it. I see it a lot."

"I cant believe this," she said through a sob. "Do I have to stay here? Cant I go home to Miss Erlenes house?"

"Im sorry; Im afraid youre going to be here for a while. Do you want to talk about what happened?"

"Nothing happened." She sniffled and blew her nose.

"Are you telling me you didnt have anything to do with Reverend Testers murder?"

"I didnt kill him. I didnt do a thing to him."

"Did you know him?"

"I never saw him before he came into the club that night. I was waiting tables. I waited on him."

"Tell me about it."

She bit her lower lip and gathered herself. "He ordered a double scotch on the rocks. He started flirting with me right away. A couple of times he yelled all the way across the bar at me, you know, making a scene. Then, as he got drunker, he started quoting the Bible and acting really strange. Every time I got near him, he would try to rub up against me. He finally tried to kiss me and asked me to leave with him. Thats when Miss Erlene and Ronnie came over and asked him to leave."

"So thats it? You didnt see him again after he left, and he was alive and well when he walked out the door?"

"Thats it, I swear. They told him to leave. I didnt see him again. Then a couple of days later, a bunch of policemen came to Miss Erlenes house. She told me not to talk to any of them, so I didnt, but one of them had a piece of paper that said I had to give him some of my hair. They tore Miss Erlenes house all to pieces. Then they came back this morning and put me in the car and brought me down here."

As she spoke, something kept nagging at me. It took me a few minutes to realize what it was, and when I did, I could only wonder. Sitting in front of me was one of the most beautiful young women Id ever seen, with a body so sexy that under normal circumstances Id have been either aroused or, at the very least, distracted. But despite the incredible packaging, Angel didnt emit even a whiff of sexuality.

Talking to her was very much like talking to a child.

"Did the police officer ask you any questions when he arrested you?" I said.

"He tried after we got here. He took me into a room like this. But Miss Erlene told me not to say a word to him, so I didnt. I think that policeman is pretty mad at me."

Either Angel and Erlene were two of the best liars Id ever met, or the police had made a monumental blunder. I had no love for Agent Landers"he was a dishonest, womanizing sleaze with the biggest ego Id ever encountered"but the TBI was known as a top-flight investigative agency. I found it hard to believe theyd arrest someone for first-degree murder unless they had a solid case.

"Have you ever been in any kind of trouble with the law, Miss Christian? Ever been arrested for anything?"

"No."

"Not even a traffic ticket?"

"I dont even know how to drive."

She started sobbing again. She seemed so helpless, so utterly incapable of violence. My heart went out to her, and I kept asking myself why. Why would she murder some stranger? What could possibly have happened that would have turned this young girl into a killer?

As I sat there wondering, she looked over the tissue at me, her eyes shining with tears, and she said, "Help me, Mr. Dillard. Please, help me."

Suddenly, the voice I was hearing wasnt hers. It was a voice from the past, the voice of a defenseless little girl . "Get him off of me, Joey. Hes hurting me."

I looked at her and nodded my head.

"Okay, Miss Christian," I said. "Ill help you.

Youve got yourself a lawyer."

PART II.

April 26.

5:05 p.m.

When I called Erlene Barlowe and told her I was in, she asked me to meet her in the parking lot behind her club. Id never been in the place, but Id driven by it dozens of times. I got there a little after five and backed into a spot next to a black BMW. It had been a beautiful afternoon, clear and in the low seventies. The sun was starting to drop in the western sky, but as I looked to the northeast, I could see a massive dark thundercloud rolling across the tops of the mountains. I put the window down and could smell rain.

About five minutes later, I saw Erlene come out of the back door of the club carrying a gym bag. She had changed into a zebra-striped jumpsuit that was so tight I could see every crevice in her body. She walked carefully in her heels across the gravel lot, glancing from left to right, and stopped at the window. She leaned over and dropped the gym bag in my lap.

"Everything all right?" I said. "You look a little nervous."

"Those TBI men have been following me around for a week. Makes me kind of jumpy. Your moneys in the bag, sugar. Hows Angel?"

"Scared."

"Poor thing. I hate the thought of her being locked up in that terrible place. You have to promise me youll get her out of this."

"Ill do everything I can."

"It would probably be best if you leave now. You need to get that money someplace safe. Well talk more later."

She blew me a kiss and I pulled out. As I drove down the road, I started thinking about what I was carrying. Id taken some big cash fees from people accused of dealing drugs in the past, but never anything near a quarter of a million. I kept looking in the rearview mirror to make sure nobody was following me. If Landers had any idea what was going on, it would be just like him to make up a reason to stop me, search my truck, and seize the money.

About a mile from my house, I pulled into the parking lot of a small shopping strip, locked up the truck, and went into a liquor store to buy a bottle of good champagne. I didnt take my eyes off of the truck the entire time I was in the store. After I finished I drove towards home and pulled onto a dirt road that led into the woods just across the street from my house. I wanted to count the money, and I knew if I pulled in the driveway Rio would make such a racket that Caroline was likely to come out.

With the light just beginning to fade, I started to count"fifty bundles of hundred-dollar bills, fifty in each bundle. It took me almost an hour, and it was all there. I couldnt believe it. I stuffed the cash in my own gym bag and headed for the house.

I found Caroline in the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher. I walked up behind her and kissed her on the ear.

"Hi, baby," she said. "Did Rio pee on your shoe?"

"I was too quick for him today."

"I havent heard from you all afternoon. How did it go with Ms. Barlowe?"

Caroline had called, but I hadnt returned the call.