At first I wasnt sure I was going to take Angels case, and later I was afraid I wouldnt be able to resist spilling the beans. I set the bottle of champagne down on the counter.

"Wheres Lilly?" I said.

Caroline looked at me slyly. "At rehearsal. Mothers going to pick her up and take her out to eat. She wont be back for a couple of hours."

"Sarah?"

"A friend of hers took her to an NA meeting."

"Good. At least shes trying."

Caroline looked over at the champagne. "Whats the occasion?"

"Lets go out to the deck. We need to talk."

"Be there in a second."

I took a couple of champagne glasses out of the cabinet, opened the bottle, and walked out onto the deck. I put the bottle and glasses on the table and stuck the gym bag underneath. The storm was moving closer and the wind had freshened, but we still had some time. It was just getting dark. The Big Dipper was creeping over the horizon to the northeast.

The moon hadnt quite cleared the large hill to the northwest, and the reflection of running lights twinkled off the lake like fireflies as pontoon and bass boats made their way up and down the channel.

I lit the two oil lamps that flanked the deck and sat down just as Caroline came out. She sat across from me. I poured the champagne and looked intently at her.

"What?" she said.

"I was just lusting," I said. "Cant help it."

"Im sure you cant." The dimple high in her right cheek showed only when she smiled a certain way.

She was smiling that way now.

"So it went okay," I said, "with Ms. Barlowe."

"I saw the girls picture on television. She sure is pretty."

"Shes also very nice. And theres a very strong possibility that shes innocent. I talked to her today."

Caroline gasped. "You talked to her? Oh, my God, is that where youve been all day? Are you going to represent her?"

"I dont think I have much choice."

Carolines eyes lit up. I knew exactly what she was thinking.

"How much?" she said.

"What do you think a first-degree murder, maybe a death penalty case, probably my last case, is worth?"

"I dont know." She took a sip of champagne and leaned forward. "How much is it worth?"

"Guess."

"Fifty?"

"Higher."

"Eeeeeh," she said. "Sixty?"

"Youre way low. Jack it on up."

"Oh, my God, Joe. Seventy-five? No, you look smug. I dont even know if I can say it. A hundred?"

"Youre almost halfway."

Her jaw dropped. "Youre not serious," she said.

I dont think she knew it, but she was bouncing in her chair like a schoolgirl.

"Dead serious."

"T-t-two twenty?"

"Almost there. Add thirty more."

"Two fifty?" She said the words as though she were dreaming.

"Bingo! And what do we have for the lady who guessed a quarter of a million dollars, Don Pardo?"

I reached down, grabbed the bag, and slammed it on the table. Champagne spewed from Carolines mouth.

"Is that what I think it ? No, it couldnt possibly . . ." She reached out and opened the bag.

"Joe! Is this real?"

"Scouts honor," I said, holding my hand across my heart.

She began jumping around the deck like a cheerleader. She ran around the table and grabbed me by the neck. She hugged me so hard I almost choked.

"Damn, Caroline. Ease up a little. Id like to live to spend it."

She stopped in her tracks, walked back to her seat, and took a deep breath.

"Im going to hyperventilate. Im going to pee my pants. Tell me how this happened."

"There isnt that much to tell. The woman came in and I talked to her for a while, and then I went down to the jail and talked to the girl for a while. I actually said the words, Caroline. I actually said, A quarter of a million dollars, cash, up front, and she didnt flinch.

I called her after I went to the jail and she paid me."

"I want to kiss your whole face right now," Caroline said. "I want to gobble you up. I want to have your babies."

"Weve got enough babies."

"Oh, Joe, this is unbelievable. This takes so much pressure off of us."

"Its a double-edged sword. You know that."

She was on me before I got the last syllable out of my mouth. She kissed my forehead, my lips, my eyebrows, my ears.

"I have to tell someone," she said when she stopped kissing my whole face. "Wheres the phone?

I have to tell my mother."

"Dont do that. Youll be on the phone for an hour.

Drink your champagne and lets just enjoy it for a minute. I have a feeling Im going to earn every dime of it."

I watched her as she sat grinning in the flickering light of the lamps. She peeked into the bag again.

"Can I touch it?"

"Knock yourself out. Its your money now."

She was as pleased as Id ever seen her, and nothing could have given me more satisfaction.

"My God, Joe, what a relief. Now what are we going to buy?"

"What are you talking about? Youre supposed to be the miser. Were not buying anything. We have everything we need."

"Lets splurge just a little. We have to buy something."

"No, we dont."

"Yes, we do." Her eyes were bright with mischief.

"Then we have to go somewhere."

"No."

"We have to go to the Caymans or something when the trials over. Youve always wanted to go there. Stop being such a killjoy."

"Why dont we worry about what were going to do with it tonight?"

"I know exactly what were going to do with it.

Were sleeping with it. It doesnt leave my sight until I get it in the safety deposit box tomorrow morning.

Then Ill figure out what to do from there. Tell me about the girl. Whats she like?"

"Shes sweet," I said. "She seems like a really sweet kid."

"Is she as pretty as me?"

"Not even close."

"Good answer."

She held out her empty champagne glass, and I refilled it. She raised the glass.

"Heres to pretty girls with rich friends."

"Cheers." I took a big swallow of the champagne.

"Whens the arraignment?"

"Monday. Nine oclock in Jonesborough. Lets talk about something else. Its a beautiful evening. Im sitting on a candlelit deck overlooking the water with a beautiful, slightly intoxicated woman. Ive just made more money in one day than most people make in five years. Law and disorder and murder do not seem to be appropriate topics of conversation."

"Youre right." Caroline rose from the table and reached for my hand. "Come with me."

She led me inside to the bedroom.

"This is heavy," she said, nodding toward the bag in her hand. "Delightfully heavy."

She tossed the bag of money into a corner, pushed me onto the bed, and began to slowly unbutton her blouse. Caroline is the only woman Ive ever slept with. Weve been together for so long that when it comes to making love, she knows exactly which buttons to push.

And for the next hour, she pushed every one of them.

April 27 6:00 p.m.

Agent Landers ran three miles a day, at least five days a week. It kept his body tight and helped with the hangovers. The day after he arrested the girl, he was running along Watauga Avenue in Johnson City, thinking he wouldve much rather fucked that kid than arrested her. Damn, she was hot.

She was also smart enough not to talk. Landers spent an hour in the interrogation room with her after he arrested her. All shed say was that she wanted to talk to a lawyer.

Deacon Baker, the district attorney, had called Landers down to his office a couple of days before the arrest. Baker was nothing but a fat, stupid little prude, but hed somehow managed to get himself elected, so he was calling the shots. Deacon told Landers he was getting a lot of pressure to make an arrest. The victims son was a chaplain and deputy sheriff in another county and hed been calling three times a day. The victim also had a cousin who lived in Carter County and was active in the Republican womens group over there, and shed been calling.

Big fucking deal, Landers told Deacon. Let them call.

Landers didnt have much evidence. The night they raided the Mouses Tail, theyd interviewed forty people. Nine of them were employees; the rest were customers. Only one person said she recognized Tester, a stripper named Julie Hayes. She said Tester came in around nine, stayed until almost midnight, and got shit-faced in between. She said he was quoting Scripture one minute and getting lap dances the next, and that he took a special interest in a waitress named Angel Christian. Hayes said the preacher and Erlene Barlowe had about a five-minute conversation around eleven thirty. As soon as they were done talking, she said the preacher went out the front door and Barlowe and Angel went out the back. Neither of them came back to the club that night. She also said that up until the day the preacher was murdered, Barlowe drove a red Corvette. The next day, she was driving the black BMW.

Nobody else in the place gave them anything they could use, which made Landers wonder whether Julie Hayes was telling the truth. Maybe she had some kind of grudge against Barlowe, or the girl, or both. But Landers wrote out her statement and she signed it. She said she was willing to testify.

The forensics team found some hair on Testers shirt, so Landers took the Hayes girls statement and parlayed it into a search warrant for Erlene Barlowes house the next day. He also persuaded the judge to sign an order saying that both Erlene Barlowe and Angel Christian had to give him hair samples. They hadnt found a goddamned thing in Barlowes house, not even so much as a porn video. Landers took a photograph of the girl, though. She had a nasty bruise on her face.

There was no sign of a red Corvette. Landers ran Erlene Barlowes name through every database the TBI had. No Corvette registered to her anywhere.

He got a call from the lab a few days later. Two hairs that were found on Testers shirt matched the girl. That was the best evidence they had, and as far as Landers was concerned, it wasnt much. The lab also said the preacher had a date rape drug in his system"GHB, otherwise known as Georgia Home Boy. Whoever killed him drugged him. Everybody knows you can get drugs at a strip bar, but Landers couldnt prove the drug in the preachers body came from the Mouses Tail.

So when he went down to the DAs office, Landers laid the case out for Deacon Baker. Two witnesses: the stripper who might have a grudge, and a clerk from the motel who saw a Corvette pull in behind Tester around midnight and thought she saw a woman go up the stairs towards Testers room. All the other employees at the club denied Tester was there, or at least said they didnt notice him, but hed definitely withdrawn money from an ATM at the bar just after eleven thirty. Erlene Barlowe had lied"

Landers was sure about that"and the others were probably lying. He had a DNA match from the Christian girl, a nasty bruise on her face, a shriveled penis (the medical examiner said it had been removed postmortem), no murder weapon, and a missing car. That was it. Oh, yeah, they also had a gem of a victim.