from court.
”The guards are searching my cell block,” she said.
”I’m still in holding. I guess they weren’t expecting me back so soon.”
”Strange day, huh?” I said.
”What’s going on?”
”It’s good and it’s bad. The TBI found a red Corvette in a barn out in Unicoi County this morning.
The barn belongs to Erlene, and apparently so does the car.”
Angel gasped, and I watched her closely. Her face turned pink and her bottom lip was trembling. She sat there, shaking and saying nothing. I reached into my briefcase and brought out some tissue. I’d been carrying it ever since that first visit at the jail. I handed some to her just in case, reached across the table, and put my hand over hers.
”Angel,” I said, ”the district attorney now thinks Erlene killed Reverend Tester. He wants to dismiss the case against you, but there’s a catch. He wants you to tell him what you know about Tester’s murder.”
A faraway look came into her eyes, as though she wasn’t really taking in what I was saying.
”Angel? Did you understand me? He wants to dismiss the case against you. They’re probably going to arrest Erlene for Reverend Tester’s murder.”
”They can’t do that!” she burst out, and then laid her head on the table and started crying. I moved to the chair next to her, put my hand on her shoulders, and began to rub.
”Take it easy,” I said. The door was two inches of steel and the walls were concrete block, but her sobs were loud. I didn’t want the guards coming in and asking questions. ”Talk to me,” I said. ”It’s all right.
Talk to me. Whatever it is that’s bothering you, you can tell me. I’m on your side no matter what.”
She suddenly sat up, wiped her eyes, and became very still. She looked at me pitifully.
”Can I trust you?” she said in a small voice.
”Of course you can. You know you can.”
”Can I
”I’ve been here for you all along. Whatever you tell me, I promise I won’t tell a soul. I’ve already explained attorney-client privilege to you.”
I could see her make the decision. And having made it, she sat up straight and squared her shoulders, as if a great burden had been lifted.
”I did it, Mr. Dillard. I killed him. I can’t let them blame Miss Erlene.”
I’d mildly suspected it since the day I talked to Tom Short, but I hadn’t wanted to believe it. Even AN INNOCENT CLIENT
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now, even though the words had passed her lips, I didn’t want to believe it. I took her hand, knowing that if I continued, if I asked her about the details, everything about our relationship, and my entire strategy if the trial continued, would change.
”Think about what you’re saying,” I said. ”We’re winning this trial. If you tell me you killed him, it changes a lot of things.”
”You want to know the truth, don’t you?”
”I’m not sure.”
I looked at her smooth young face and my heart went out to her. Something told me that if she’d killed Tester, the circumstances might justify it.
”I’m sorry, Angel. Yes, I want to know the truth.
What happened?”
She bit her lip and shuddered.
”Can you tell me about it?”
She nodded slowly.
”Okay, but I don’t want you to get hysterical. I don’t want anyone else to hear, so you have to keep control of yourself. Can you do that?”
”I think so.”
”Go ahead.”
She took a deep breath and squeezed my hand so hard that her fingernails dug into my skin.
”Everything I told you before was the truth except for the last part. Miss Erlene didn’t just ask him to leave when he got so drunk and was bothering me and making a fool of himself. She asked me if I’d help her with something. She said she wanted to teach the preacher a lesson. She said all I’d have to do is ride with her to the man’s hotel room and she’d take care of the rest. I told her I’d do it.”
”What happened next?”
”Miss Erlene went over to talk to him, and he went out into the lobby for a couple of minutes. When he came back, she told me to get my coat. Miss Erlene went back into her office for a couple of minutes, and then we went out and got in her car. We followed him out of the parking lot to the hotel. Along the way, she told me the man thought I was coming to his room to have sex with him. Then she handed me a small bottle of scotch. She told me when we got to the motel, I was supposed to go into his room and offer him a drink first thing. Miss Erlene said she put something in the scotch so when he drank it, it would knock him out. As soon as he was passed out, I was supposed to run back to the car and get her. I think she was planning to take his money.”
”Something obviously went wrong,” I said.
She put a fist to her mouth and whispered, ”Yes.”
Her eyes looked distant. It was the same expression I’d seen when she told me about the oatmeal incident.
”We got to the motel and I got out of the car and went up the steps with him. Miss Erlene waited in the parking lot. I walked into the room and he closed the door behind me. I took the bottle of scotch out of my purse and asked him if he’d like a drink. He took the bottle out of my hand, set it on a table, and when he turned back around he said he didn’t bring me there to drink. He had this awful look on his face, like he was possessed or something. Then, before I knew what was happening, he hit me in the face. He hit me so hard it knocked me onto the bed. It almost knocked me out.
”I remember him taking off all his clothes, then he pulled off my panties. .” She paused and took a deep breath. ”He rolled me over on my stomach and he put his thing in my, in my. .” She pointed to her bottom.
”He
”What?” She didn’t know what the word meant.
”Never mind. Can you keep going?”
”It was like it was happening to someone else,”
she said. ”Like I floated to the ceiling, and I watched him do it from there. It was the same thing that used to happen when Father Thomas did things to me. I remember he was cursing and preaching at the same time, calling me names, and then he took his thing out of me and went over and grabbed the bottle of scotch and took a long drink. He started to stagger and he sat down on the bed. It was like he didn’t even know I was there anymore.
”There was a knife on the table. I guess it was his.
I remember watching myself walk over and pick it up. It was one of those folding knives. He was already snoring. I opened the knife and walked back to the bed and I just started stabbing him. I stabbed him until I couldn’t stab him anymore, until I couldn’t lift the knife. And then I think I just walked out the door. I didn’t even put my panties on.”
”Do you remember what Erlene did?”
”I think so,” she said. ”I remember she came running up to me on the stairs and she put her coat around me and took the knife out of my hand. She put me in the car and asked me what happened, and I tried to tell her. I saw her go back up to the room, but I don’t know what she did in there. She took me home and took me into the backyard and washed all of the blood off of me with a hose. She said she didn’t want any blood in her shower. Then she took me inside and said she had to leave for a little while.
She was gone for a long time.”
”Did you and Erlene talk about it afterwards?”
”Not much,” she said. ”She just told me she was sorry about everything but at least he wouldn’t ever hurt another girl, and she told me never to mention what happened-any of it-to anybody. Then when the police started
