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

I want you to look at. Do you mind?”
    ”Are you doing real police work?”
    ”I am.”
    ”Hey, Lottie,” Patti called towards the kitchen.
    ”Special Agent Phillip Landers here is doing real police work in my little old bar. He wants me to help him. What should I do?”
    ”Deny everything,” a voice called back. ”Ask for a lawyer.”
    ”She doesn’t like you,” Patti said. ”She says you have a small penis.”
    ”You know better than that,” Landers said with a wink.
    ”I was drunk, dickhead. I don’t remember your penis.”
    Landers slid the photo of Tester onto the bar. ”Any chance this guy was in here yesterday evening?”
    Patti nodded. ”Came in about six, sat right over there in that booth.” She pointed behind Landers. ”I waited on him. Ordered a cheeseburger and fries.
    Drank two Blue Ribbons. Nobody drinks Blue Ribbon anymore. I remember thinking he wouldn’t have looked too bad if he lost some weight and shaved those goofy sideburns.”
    ”I don’t think he’ll be shaving anytime soon.
    He’s dead.”
    Patti gasped. ”You shitting me?”
    ”Dead as dirt. Got himself killed last night. Any chance he hooked up with somebody in here? Did you see him leave?”
    ”Sonny was working the register when he left. He didn’t leave with anybody, but he asked Sonny about the Mouse’s Tail.”
    ”Really? Tell me more.”
    ”He was a little creepy, you know? A little too cocky for his own good with that big belly and that cheap suit. When he paid his bill he asked Sonny where he could find some adult entertainment, a place where they showed it all. Sonny told me about it after he left. He thought it was funny. He said the only way that dude would get any was to pay for it.”
    ”Mouse’s Tail, huh? Thanks, Patti. After all these years, I’m finally gonna put you on my Christmas card list.”
    ”Whoa, now, wait just one minute,” Patti said. ”I need details. Tell me something juicy.”
    ”Sorry, can’t do it right now. I’m sure you’ll hear all about it on the news.”
    ”Just like a man. Always wanting something for nothing.”
    Landers turned to leave without offering to pay.
    ”Thanks for the Pepsi,” he said, ”and thanks for the information. I’ll come back and tell you about it later.”
    ”I’m holding you to that,” she said. Landers looked in the mirror as he started out the door and saw Patti blow him a kiss. ”That man has a fine ass, Lottie,”
    he heard her say.
    ”Screw him,” Lottie said. ”He’s a fag.”
    Lottie was pretty good, but once Landers did her a few times, he dumped her. He had to. There were a lot of other women out there who wanted to be with him. He figured he owed it to them to stay unattached.

    April 12
    11:45 a.m.
    A horny preacher. A man after Landers’s own heart.
    Landers called Jimmy Brown, told him about the lead and that he was going out to the Mouse’s Tail.
    Brown said they’d found one witness, the night clerk at the motel, who said she thought she saw a woman go up towards Tester’s room around midnight. The forensics van had showed up. Maybe they’d find something.
    Brown said Tester was an evangelist, a traveling preacher from Newport, which was located in Cocke County about sixty miles to the southwest of Johnson City. Newport was infamous in the law enforcement community for three things: chop shops, marijuana production, and especially cock fighting. Landers had also heard some of the preachers down there were snake handlers, religious extremists who proved their faith by waving copperheads and rattlesnakes around while they delivered their sermons. He wondered whether the dead rev liked to play with slimy serpents.
    He pulled into the parking lot at the Mouse’s Tail just before noon and circled the building. There was only one vehicle in the back, a black BMW convertible. A redheaded woman was just getting out. She was wearing black leather pants and a tight cheetah-print top and was having a hard time walking