The Innocents Read Online Free PDF

mistake,” Coach Bud Mills said, smiling, wanting the woman to know the ways of the world. “He’s a hard worker, tough-minded, and a good Christian. His momma is a pastor out in Blackjack.”
    “Besides the weed and pills,” Lillie said, “you do know we got aloaded Smith & Wesson .357. We traced the gun back to Clarksdale, where it was stolen last year. We also have good reason to believe he’s running with a crew here called the North Side Boys. Heard of them?”
    “What’s that, some kind of rap group?”
    “It’s a gang,” Lillie said. “They’ve been known to work with some pretty rough folks up in Memphis.”
    “It’s hard for my boys,” Mills said. “They come out of high school with everyone patting their back. But when they don’t get recruited or can’t get a scholarship, they’re nothing. They get chewed up and spit out. If Ordeen gets put in the system, he can’t get out. I prayed with him this morning. He’s learned his lesson. Y’all scared the hell out of him. Keep the gun. Let him move on.”
    “We intend to keep the gun,” Lillie said. “It’s stolen property.”
    “It wasn’t his.”
    “Then where’d he get it?”
    Mills shook his head. He reached for a Styrofoam cup at the edge of her desk and spit out a little Skoal. He leaned back and folded his arms over his hard, round stomach.
    “It’s not easy in that culture,” he said. “You know? Most of them don’t have no good role models, with Daddy knocking up Momma and then shagging ass. Ordeen is different. His momma is a preacher. Good family, knows right from wrong. He’s just restless, is all. Can’t find his way. Can’t find any work . . . Thanks again for that cup of coffee. It’s real early for me.”
    “Nice of you to bail him out.”
    “Ordeen is special,” Mills said. “If he’d had better grades or could run just a little faster, he’d be up at Ole Miss right now instead of cleaning out toilets at the Rebel Truck Stop.”
    “Is that what he’s doing?”
    “That was the job I got him,” Mills said. “Before all that business happened to Johnny Stagg.”
    Lillie nodded. She never thought of Johnny Stagg as anyone’s victim. Hard to feel bad for a man who’d been sucking off the county’s tit for more than two decades without anyone questioning him.
    “All I ask is for you to consider the situation.”
    “You want me to drop the charges?”
    “Now, Lillie,” Mills said. “How long have you known me? You forget how close I was to your momma. We all miss her. She was the best damn secretary the school ever had. Every Christmas, she baked me a tin of sugar cookies.”
    “We all miss her.”
    “I know, Lillie,” he said. “How’s that daughter? She’s named Rose, too, isn’t she?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    Mills spit some more in the cup. He had on a mesh ball cap with the Wildcats logo on it, red coach’s shorts, and a gray T-shirt. Didn’t look like he’d had time to change from the season opener last night. Even if you’d never met Bud Mills in your life, you’d peg him for a coach. Ruddy cheeks, weak chin, and small, clear blue eyes. He was bald on top and graying on the sides. The way she remembered it, her mother always thought he was an asshole.
    “Yeah,” Lillie said. “Y’all were friends.”
    “I’m so sorry, Lil.”
    “It’s been six years.”
    “Your momma had a big heart,” Mills said. “Especially when it came to kids from poor homes. She knew some children just weren’t loved. They didn’t serve no purpose in their homes and got treated worse than dogs.”
    Mary Alice walked up to her glass door, held up her hand holding a callback slip, and Lillie waved her away. She leaned into the desk that had once been her mentor’s, Hamp Beckett, and then had been her friend Quinn’s for a few years. The top of the desk was battered, still scarred with cigar burns from Quinn. It needed a good resurfacing.
    “You keep up with most of your former players?”
    “Those