An Innocent Client

”Julie Hayes?” Landers said. ”How?”

”They found her at her place yesterday afternoon.

She didn’t show up for work, so Erlene Barlowe sent one of her gofers over to check on her. She was dead on the kitchen floor. The Washington County investigator who worked the scene said it looked like she might have been poisoned, so I asked the medical examiner to rush the preliminary autopsy. ME says she was full of cocaine and strychnine.”

Landers had heard of lacing cocaine with strychnine at a DEA seminar. It was a relatively simple process that produced an agonizing death.

”Any ideas on who might have done it?” Landers said.

”I certainly have a candidate in mind.”

”You think it was Erlene Barlowe?”

”Damned right I do. Who else would kill her?”

”You think she killed her to keep her from testifying against Angel? I think you’re reaching, Frankie.

Why would she risk murdering somebody to help Angel out? The kid had only been around a couple of months when we arrested her. Barlowe barely knows her.”

”At this point, I think Barlowe probably murdered the preacher, too.”

”Then why would she kill a witness who was about to help us convict someone else? Doesn’t make any sense. And in case you haven’t looked close, we have less on Barlowe than we do on Angel.” Landers hated working with kid lawyers. They were too fucking dumb to live.

”Deacon told me this morning about the witness who saw Barlowe on the bridge,” Martin said.

”Do you know what Deacon told me about that witness? He said the guy was unreliable. He said there was no way he could have made an ID like that in the dark. He said for me to fucking ignore him.”

”What are we going to do, Phil? This case was weak enough with Hayes. Without her, I might as well dismiss it.”

”I wasn’t hot to take it to the grand jury in the first place. You can thank your boss for that. He said he wanted to shake the tree.”

”Him and his goddamned tree. Dillard’s going to kick my ass. I’m going to be a laughingstock. Every newspaper and television station within fifty miles is covering this case, and everybody around is going to be watching while I go down. There’s an election coming up, and in case you guys over there at the TBI don’t pay attention to stuff like that, losing a high-profile murder case a week before an election is not good politics. Baker will fire me over this.”

”It’s not going to help my career either, Frankie.”

”Why didn’t we have her tucked away as a material witness?”

”Because she never gave me any indication she was going anywhere.”

”Did you know she was a cokehead?”

”I had my suspicions.” Landers felt a hand running up his leg and pushed it away. It returned, and he pushed it away again. He was thinking about how much he hated lawyers, prosecutors included. Every time something went wrong with a case, they blamed it on the police. He also hated aging bleached blondes like the one next to him. He wished the bitch would just get up and leave.

”We need to try to make the best of this,” Frankie said. ”I talked to Deacon a little while ago, and we’ve come up with a plan. We’re going to make Dillard an offer he can’t refuse on the Christian case, but if it doesn’t work, we’re going to need your help.”

”I have the rest of the week off, Frankie. Call me on Monday.”

Landers hung up and turned to the woman, who was peeking out over the sheet. Her left eyelash was twice as long as her right one, which must have come off during the sexcapades last night. No doubt he’d find it in the bed later. Ugh. The roots of her blond hair were dark, and so was the mole just above her left nostril. Landers had absolutely no clue what her name might be.

”Get up,” he said. ”Time to go.”

”Don’t you want to play some more?”

”Get up and get out.”

The woman began to collect her clothing, which was spread out across the floor between the bed and the door. She was naked, and as Landers watched her, he wished she’d cover herself. The backs of her thighs were layered with cellulite, and her ass sagged and jiggled. When she straightened to look at Landers, he decided she had to be well into her forties.

Landers liked younger women, much younger

women. Jesus, how much did he drink? He pulled the sheet over his head and leaned back.

”You can dress downstairs, on your way out,”

Landers said. He was beginning to feel sick.

He heard her walking towards the bedroom door and pulled the sheet back down so he could take one last look at her and remind himself why he shouldn’t drink so goddamned much. As she opened the door, she turned to face him.

”You’re a lousy lay,” she said, and then she was gone.

Lousy lay, my ass. Landers needed to take a shower.

He threw back the sheet, and there it was. The false eyelash, about an inch from his thigh. It looked like a fucking centipede. Landers felt his stomach heave.

He made it to the bathroom just in time.

July 11

7:00 a.m.

We’d brought furniture up from Ma’s house when we moved her into the nursing home: a dresser, a couple of small tables, a lamp, and a chair, thinking it might help ease the transition and make her more comfortable. I spent an entire afternoon hanging and arranging photographs. One of my dad in his high school football uniform was hanging just to the right of the television. She’d asked me to place it there so she could look at it from the bed. Now she didn’t even know who he was.

I arrived at seven a.m. to find her lying on her back staring at nothing. She hadn’t spoken in weeks, and she’d wet herself and was drooling. Saliva had run out the corner of her mouth and soaked her pillowcase. I dug a fresh one out of the closet and then went and found a nurse’s aide. I waited in the hallway while she changed Ma’s diaper. I couldn’t bear to do it myself.

When she was finished, I walked back into the room and sat down. Ever since the day I told her about Raymond, I’d gotten into the habit of talking to her, even though she was oblivious to everything I said. I’d turned my visits into mini-therapy sessions without the shrink. Mostly, I talked about my cases and the constant state of conflict in which I found myself.

”Just my luck, huh, Ma?” I said. ”I get a case with a client who’s innocent, and the victim’s son turns out to be a psychopath. Everybody in the family’s scared to death. We check to make sure the doors and windows are locked every night, I’ve got guns spread out all over the house, and we all spend half our time looking in rearview mirrors and over our shoulders. It’s crazy.

”But you know what? The whole system is crazy.

For over ten years, I’ve been traveling every day to this bizarre world of lies and deceit. There’s no honor in it anywhere. It’s all just a sick game, and the people who win the most are the ones who lie the best. They call it the criminal justice system.

What a crock. Defendants lie and cheat, police officers lie and cheat, prosecutors lie and cheat, defense lawyers lie and cheat, and judges-Jesus, don’t get me started. The American legal system would do itself a great service if it could somehow execute half the sitting judges in this country and start all over again-”

My cell phone rang. It was Caroline.

”Deacon Baker just called. They found Julie Hayes dead at her house yesterday. He wants you to come down there. He wants to talk about a deal.”

I leaned over and kissed my mother on the forehead, something I never did when she was conscious.

”Love you, Ma. I have to go, but I’m glad we had this little talk. Next time I’ll tell you about Maynard