She shouldn’t have said that. The price I had in mind immediately doubled.
”I’m going to be honest with you, ma’am,” I said.
”I’m 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. I’ll pay you whatever you want. You’re the best lawyer around here. I’ve been hearing about you and reading about you for years.
You’ve even represented some of my girls-just piddly stuff years ago-but they all spoke so highly of you. I wouldn’t want anyone else to defend my sweet little Angel. Why don’t you look at it as your last hurrah? You can go out with a great big bang.”
I took a deep breath. ”You’ve only known this girl a month. Are you telling me you’d be willing to put up a quarter of a million dollars for her defense?”
She didn’t bat an eye. ”Angel didn’t kill anybody, Mr. Dillard. I swear it. I’ll do whatever I have to do.”
”That’s the only way I’ll do it. Two hundred fifty thousand, cash, up front, nonrefundable. And that’s just for me. You’ll also have to pay the expenses.
We’ll need an investigator, and we may need experts.
They’re not cheap.”
”Tell you what, sweetie,” she said, ”why don’t you go down to the jail and meet Angel. When you get finished, you give me a call and I’ll have your money.”
April 26
3:00 p.m.
On the way to the jail, I seriously considered not taking the case. I’d 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, I’ve never seen that before,” I said.
She smiled absently.
”Guards aren’t polite to inmates, male or female.
I’ve 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. ”I’m a lawyer.
Erlene Barlowe asked me to come and talk to you.”
”I’m Angel,” she said. ”Angel Christian.” Her voice was a gentle soprano.
”Do you understand why you’re here, Miss Christian?”
”Yes.” There was a slight pause. ”Murder.”
She put her elbows on the table and began to cry softly. I’d seen hundreds of clients cry, male and female. I’d 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. ”What’d you do to her?”
”Nothing. Do you have any tissue or not?”
”Hang on. I’ll 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, I’m afraid.”
”Thank you,” she said. ”I’m sorry I’m crying.”
”Don’t worry about it. I see it a lot.”
”I can’t believe this,” she said through a sob. ”Do I have to stay here? Can’t I go home to Miss Erlene’s house?”
”I’m sorry; I’m afraid you’re 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 didn’t have anything to do with Reverend Tester’s murder?”
”I didn’t kill him. I didn’t 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. That’s when Miss Erlene and Ronnie came over and asked him to leave.”
”So that’s it? You didn’t see him again after he left, and he was alive and well when he walked out the door?”
”That’s it, I swear. They told him to leave. I didn’t see him again. Then a couple of days later, a bunch of policemen came to Miss Erlene’s house. She told me not to talk to any of them, so I didn’t, but one of them had a piece of paper that said I had to give him some of my hair. They tore Miss Erlene’s 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 I’d ever seen, with a body so sexy that under normal circumstances I’d have been either aroused or, at the very least, distracted. But despite the incredible packaging, Angel didn’t 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 didn’t. I think that policeman is pretty mad at me.”
Either Angel and Erlene were two of the best liars I’d 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 I’d ever encountered-but the TBI was known as a top-flight investigative agency. I found it hard to believe they’d 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 don’t 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 wasn’t hers. It was a voice from the past, the voice of a defenseless little girl…. ”Get him off of me, Joey. He’s hurting me.”
I looked at her and nodded my head.
”Okay, Miss Christian,” I said. ”I’ll help you.