An Innocent Client (Joe Dillard, #1)

by Scott Pratt

downtown where I met clients, but it cost me only two hundred a month. “What’s up?” I said when she answered the phone. “Could be good, could be bad,” she said. “A woman named Erlene Barlowe called early this morning. She was frantic. She said the police barged into her house and arrested a young friend of hers for murder and that she needed to hire a lawyer. She kept saying the girl couldn’t have done it.” Right. “She wants to meet with you. It’s been a long time since you’ve been hired privately on a murder case.” “Billy Dockery’s mother hired me.” I’d never told anyone about Billy’s confession. Not even Caroline. “You made a lot of money on that case, didn’t you?” “Fifty thousand.” “We could use it.” “I thought we were in good shape.” “We are, but a murder case? And this one could be big money, babe. It’s the case where the preacher was murdered. The one who was found in the motel room.” “I don’t want to take on a murder case, high profile or not, Caroline. It could go on for years.” “That’s why I didn’t make her an appointment.” She sounded disappointed. I thought about it for a minute, weighing the pros and the cons. Curiosity finally got the best of me. “Ah, what the heck, it won’t hurt to talk to her. Call her back and have her meet me downtown at one.” It took me an hour to drive back to Johnson City. I ate a quick lunch at a café about two blocks from my conference room and walked in the door about ten minutes before one. There was a woman sitting at the table wai...