"I understand the emotional turmoil youre going through," Green said, "but you, being a chaplain and a deputy sheriff, should know we cannot tolerate that kind of behavior in court. Now go, but sin no more in my courtroom. Courts in recess."

Testers son a chaplain and a deputy? Any hopes I had of the district attorneys office acting reasonably were out the window.

As Green disappeared into his chambers, I scanned the courtroom. Erlene Barlowe was in the back row.

I motioned for her to meet me in the hallway. She was wearing a black pantsuit and had toned down the makeup for court. If I didnt know better, I might have mistaken her for a lawyer.

"Now that weve done the arraignment, I can get some discovery," I said. "Why dont you come down to the office around four and well take a look at what theyve got."

"Ill be there, sugar."

As we stood together, I looked down the hall and saw Testers son leaning against the wall, staring in my direction. There was no mistaking the look in his eyes. It was pure hatred.

April 30 4:00 p.m.

Erlene Barlowes granny trained her to be punctual way before everyone in Erlenes family disowned her because she ran off with Gus. Granny said tardiness was nothing but bad manners, and that people with bad manners lacked character. Erlene didnt want Mr. Dillard to think she lacked character, so she arrived at his office ten minutes early.

Joe Dillard was a big, strong, good-looking man, just like Erlenes Gus. If Erlene had been a younger woman and hadnt been so devoted to Gus, she might have thought seriously about trying to seduce Mr. Dillard. He dressed in dark suits and colored shirts, solid-colored ties, nice shoes. His hair was jet black and wavy, just flecked here and there with gray, and he had green eyes and the cutest dimples Erlene had ever seen. He was well-spoken, too"

obviously an intelligent man. Erlene thought he was a little high on the fee he charged to represent Angel, but if he got her off, itd be worth every dime. Besides, it wasnt like the fee was going to put Erlene in the poorhouse. If Mr. Dillard had known what she AN INNOCENT CLIENT 1 3.

was worth, hed have asked for twice as much. Gus made a lot of money buying and selling different things on top of what they made at the strip clubs, and he had a fortune in life insurance. When he passed, the lawyer told Erlene she was worth as much as Jed Clampett.

Mr. Dillard showed her to a seat. He had papers spread out all over the table.

"Have you talked to Angel?" he said.

"She called me a little while ago. Poor baby is scared to death. That little outburst at the courthouse didnt help any."

"Tester Juniors a scary guy. Did you see him staring at me in the hallway? He looked like he wanted to cut my throat. Thats why we took the back stairs."

He may have been scary to Mr. Dillard, but he didnt scare Erlene. She wasnt afraid of any man.

If shed learned anything in the adult entertainment business over the past thirty years, it was how to deal with men. She knew how to make them feel good, and she knew how to make them miserable.

Erlene knew how to deal with preachers, too.

When she and Gus first came to northeast Tennessee, the preachers had all ganged up and wouldnt let them go into business. They put pressure on county commissioners, organized rallies, talked on the news.

They did whatever they could to make Erlene and Gus look bad, but the couple had been through it before. They hired good lawyers. It cost them nearly thirty thousand dollars in legal fees plus another twenty in bribes and took over a year, but they finally got their business license and all their permits.

Then danged if somebody didnt burn down their 1 4 Scott Pratt building as soon as they got it up. Erlene and Gus built another one, only to see it too go up in flames.

The second time, though, Gus had hidden video surveillance cameras all around the building. Turned out the man who was burning the buildings was a preacher named Hastings. He went to jail. They left Erlene and Gus alone after that, but it didnt change her opinion of preachers. Bunch of danged hypocrites was all they were.

"Erlene," Mr. Dillard said, "Ive spent the afternoon going through this discovery material. I know pretty much everything they have now, and there are a couple of things I need to talk to you about. Do you own a red Corvette?"

Shitdammit. Why did he have to be so direct?

"I beg your pardon?"

"Do you own a red Corvette?"

"Why, no, honey, I sure dont."

"Let me rephrase the question. On the day Tester was killed, did you own a red Corvette?"

Erlene had a feeling that before this was over, she and Mr. Dillard were going to get along like two peas in a pod, but right then she thought it best to keep a few things to herself.

"Why?" she said.

"Because the police have a witness who told them you owned a red Corvette and that it disappeared the day after Tester was murdered. That same witness also told them you and Angel left the club right after Tester left that night and neither of you came back. And they have another witness who saw a woman get out of a Corvette around midnight at Testers motel."

AN INNOCENT CLIENT.

1 5.

"Well, I swan, honey pot. Who would say a thing like that?" She knew exactly who it had to be. Little Miss Julie.

"Is there any truth to it?"

"Is this conversation just between the two of us, sugar?"

"Youre not my client, Erlene. The privilege doesnt apply, so be careful what you say."

Erlene sat back and took a deep breath, like she was nervous. "Can you tell me who the witnesses are?" she said.

"One is a night clerk at the motel named Sheila Hunt. She says she saw a Corvette pull in behind Tester around midnight and saw a woman get out of the passenger side and go up the steps with him.

It was raining pretty hard and the woman was apparently wearing some kind of hooded poncho or cape, so she didnt get a good look at her. And she didnt see her leave. She didnt get a tag number and couldnt tell the cops anything about the driver."

"That doesnt sound like much to me."

"It isnt, unless the Corvette shows up somewhere down the road. Will it?"

"Who told them I owned a Corvette?" Erlene said.

"One of your employees. The night they raided your place. She said youd been driving a red Corvette prior to Testers murder and that it disappeared the day after he was killed."

"It was Julie Hayes, wasnt it?"

Mr. Dillard nodded.

"Did anybody else at the club tell the police anything like that?" Erlene said.

"No, maam. She was the only one."

1 6.

Scott Pratt "What does that tell you, sugar?"

"It tells me that either shes lying or everyone else is lying."

"And what do you think?"

"I think I want to hear you tell me shes lying."

Erlene smiled. Mr. Dillard was so handsome and she could just feel goodness oozing out of him.

"Shes the one whos lying, baby doll."

Erlene told him about Julie and her drug problem and her crush on Gus. She told him how Julie came back on a bus from Texas with Angel after theyd met in the bus station down there. Julie noticed that Angel didnt have any luggage, not even a purse, so Julie knew right off that Angel was probably a runaway. Since Angel was so pretty, Julie asked her if shed like to tag along and maybe work in the club.

When Erlene picked Julie up at the station, Angel was with her.

"So you think Julies setting you and Angel up for a murder because shes jealous?" Mr. Dillard said.

"I wouldnt put anything past her. Shes a troubled girl. Ive heard her talk about her arrest record. She bragged about it. She used to tell Gus she had a record as long as his terwilliger."

"As long as his what?"

"Terwilliger. Its what I call a mans thingy. You know ." Erlene pointed between her legs, and Mr.

Dillards face turned red as her lipstick.

"What else do you know about Julie?"

"Just what shes told me. She said her mothers boyfriend tried to rape her when she was sixteen.

When she told her mother about it, her mother accused her of lying and beat her up pretty bad. She AN INNOCENT CLIENT 1 7.

took off and has been on the road ever since. I think her life has been pretty much nothing but drugs and prostitution. Thats one of the reasons she likes to work here. The moneys good enough that the girls dont have to sell themselves. But Julie just cant seem to stay away from the drugs. She has to know Im about to fire her again."

"Okay," Mr. Dillard said. "That helps. It looks like we can impeach Julie if she testifies. But you still havent answered my question."

"What question is that?"

"Is a red Corvette going to jump up and bite us on the backside sometime between now and the trial?"

"I just dont see how it could, sugar."

"Good. Ill put an investigator on Julie Hayes and gather all the background information we can on her.

From what youve told me, we shouldnt have much trouble helping her make herself look bad in front of a jury."

Mr. Dillard didnt know it and Erlene wasnt about to tell him, but Julie Hayes wouldnt be going in front of any jury.

"We have another problem," he said. "Two hairs they found on Testers shirt match Angels DNA."

"Is that bad, sugar?"

"Its a problem, but I dont think its insurmountable. Im going to suggest a couple of Angels hairs could have passed to Tester while he was at the club."

"Why, he was all over her," Erlene said.

"Thats not what you told the TBI."

Shitdammit again. "That TBI man scared me to death, honey. I didnt know what to say to him."

1 8.

Scott Pratt "From now on, Erlene, Id suggest you just stick to the truth. In this case, it looks like the truth may set Angel free."

He was so cute and noble. Erlene just wanted to pinch his cheeks.

June 6 5:45 a.m.

I liked to watch the sun rise on Sunday mornings.

The Sunday after they arraigned Angel Christian, I got up around five thirty, made a pot of coffee, and wandered up the driveway in the semidarkness in my bare feet and boxers to get the newspaper. As I got to the end of the driveway, I noticed a silver pickup truck, one of those macho Dodges with tinted windows, backed into the dirt road that led into the woods across the street from the mailbox. It was the same place where Id counted Erlenes money. The lights werent on and I couldnt hear the engine running.

The property where the truck was sitting belonged to me. It wasnt hunting season, and no one had asked me about camping, so I decided to check it out.

I got the paper out of the box and started walking towards the truck. Just as I got to within ten feet, the engine roared to life and the lights came on. I thought it was probably one of Jacks friends, so I started to wave and say hello, but the thing started coming right for me. I jumped out of the way before it hit me, but it couldnt have missed by more than a couple of feet. When I landed, my foot caught on a small bush and I ended up flat on my back. The truck came off of the dirt road and squealed off into the dawn. I didnt get a look at the driver over the headlights, and my clumsy leap kept me from seeing the license plate.

I cursed and picked myself up off the ground and walked back down the driveway towards the house, wondering who in the hell could have been in the truck. I thought about the look Testers son had given me and made a mental note to call Diane Frye, a retired state trooper who was now a private investigator. Id already talked to her about working the Angel Christian case for me, but now I needed to know whether Testers son had a silver Dodge truck registered in his name, and if he did, I needed to know anything and everything she could find out about him.

Thats when I noticed Lillys car was gone. We had room for only two cars in the garage, so Lillys was always parked just outside, off to the side of the driveway. I knew it had been there the night before, because Lilly had driven it to Knoxville and hadnt gotten home until midnight. Id waited up for her.

I went back into the house and upstairs to Lillys room. She wasnt the kind of kid to sneak out, but I was hoping against hope that she had. I found her sleeping the dead-zone sleep of a teenager.

As I walked towards Sarahs room, I was hoping the car had been stolen by some stranger, knowing it hadnt. Sarahs bed was unmade and empty.

Shed been doing relatively well under the circumstances. Caroline and Lilly had taken her to town to buy her some clothes a couple of days after she showed up, and Id brought her a catalogue from Northeast State Community College. Shed talked about enrolling in the fall and studying computer graphics. She spent a lot of time wandering through the woods down by the lake and watching television, and shed been attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings four days a week.

But then I made a mistake. I took her up to see Ma on Saturday. Ma didnt recognize either one of us and was unusually belligerent. She told us to get out of her room and never come back. She made such a fuss that one of the nurses suggested we leave and come back another time. The visit obviously upset Sarah, who was hoping to make some kind of peace before Ma died. Sarah hadnt given any indication on Saturday night that she was about to do something stupid, but she was more quiet than usual and went to bed early.

I walked back through the house to our bedroom and touched Caroline on the shoulder. She came out of sleep slowly.

"Mmm what? Is something wrong?"