Joe Dillard - 01 - An Innocent Client Read Online Free PDF Page A

and took his time searching the pages.
    ”I can smell you through the window,” he said.
    ”You smell good.”
    ”I’ll be sure to tell your boss you like the way I smell.” Caroline looked at the name stitched opposite his badge. ”Officer Cagle? The sheriff comes to our house every year for a Christmas party. He and I have gotten to be pretty good friends.” It was a lie.
    The sheriff had never set foot in Caroline’s home, but her words seemed to have the desired effect.
    Officer Cagle looked down and slid the ID back through the window.
    ”You know the way to the attorneys’ room, ma’am?”
    Caroline nodded and smiled.
    ”I’ll buzz you through.”
    Caroline quickly made her way through the maze of gates and steel doors. She was a little anxious about the visit, because she never knew what kind of mood the inmate she was about to see would be in. The woman had been in jail for nine months, by far the longest stretch she’d ever done. She’d lifted her own mother’s checkbook, forged a check, and used the money to buy cocaine. Caroline’s husband, Joe, had represented her. He’d talked the prosecutor into reducing the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor, but because of the woman’s long history of problems with the law, in exchange for the reduction the prosecutor had insisted that she forgo probation and agree to serve her sentence in the county jail.
    Five minutes after Caroline sat down in the attorneys’ room, a female guard opened the door and stepped back to let the inmate inside. There were no handcuffs, waist chains, or shackles. The inmate wasn’t dangerous. There was no risk of escape, because she was getting out in a few hours. She smiled slightly and nodded when she saw Caroline.
    Caroline rose from her seat and opened her arms.
    ”How are you?” she said.
    ”I’m fine,” the woman said, guardedly returning the hug.
    ”You look great.”
    ”You look pretty goddamned pretty yourself.”
    They both sat down and Caroline smiled at her sister-in-law, Sarah Dillard.
    Caroline was always struck by the features her husband and his older sister shared. Both of them had thick dark hair, green eyes, pristine white teeth, and lean, sturdy bodies. Sarah’s only visible flaw was a tiny pink scar that cut like a lightning bolt through her left eyebrow, the result of a punch from a drug dealer the last time she was on the street. She had high cheekbones, a strong jaw, and a cleft chin. Joe had told Caroline that he and Sarah were often mistaken for twins when they were kids. The comparisons stopped when Joe began to grow to six-footthree and over two hundred pounds. Caroline also marveled at the resilience of Sarah’s appearance. She had a fresh beauty that made it hard to believe she’d been abusing herself with drugs and alcohol for years.
    ”I was wondering if you’d made a decision on what we talked about last week,” Caroline said.
    Sarah looked down at the table. ”I’m not too hot on it if you want to know the truth.”
    ”Why not?”
    ”I’m too old to live with my brother, Caroline. I’m too old to be living with you. I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but I think I’d be better off making my own way.”
    Caroline looked hard into the green eyes for a long moment. Finally she spoke.
    ”So you’re going to make your own way. Like you have for the past twenty years?”
    ”Oh, now, that hurt. Please tell me you didn’t come all the way down here just to fuck with me.”
    ”I came all the way down here to try to talk some sense into that thick head of yours. If you don’t come stay with us, where are you going to go? What are you going to do?”
    ”I have friends.”
    ”What kind of friends? Dealers and users? You need to stay away from those people.”
    ”Yeah?” The green eyes flashed, but Caroline held her gaze. ”What I don’t need is a lecture from my brother’s wife. Why are you doing this, anyway?
    Why isn’t Joe here?”
    Caroline leaned forward on