Due Process

by Scott Pratt

  “Does he have another job?” I said.

  “Not yet.”

  “Well, call him and tell him to go see Leon Bates. Leon’s guys are honest. He’ll hire him.”

  “Will do,” Stony said.

  “This will blow Judge Neese’s head off,” Jack said.

  “It gets worse,” Stony said.

  “How much worse could it get?” Charlie said. “This is so blatant that Riddle should be fired at the very least. He should go to jail for this.”

  “He might,” I said. “If the judge lets me use it, he’ll commit perjury on the stand. Of course, it’ll be up to his buddy Armstrong to prosecute him and I doubt that’ll happen. But the judge could hold him in contempt and put him in jail. If she does, Gene Starring will fire him.”

  “I have a short recording of a telephone conversation you need to listen to.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Who’s doing the talking?”

  “Mike Armstrong and a woman you know.”

  She pushed another key on the laptop.

  Mike Armstrong: “Hello?”

  Erlene Barlowe: “It’s me, sugar. We need to meet.”

  Mike Armstrong: “Where?”

  Erlene Barlowe: “Usual place.”

  Mike Armstrong: “Has something gone wrong?”

  Erlene Barlowe: “Not yet, but you need to up the pressure. You need to make sure you nail these boys and do it in a hurry. We’ll talk about it when we meet.”

  They hung up. That was the extent of the conversation.

  “What is Erlene Barlowe doing encouraging the district attorney to ‘nail these boys?’” Charlie said.

  “She’s doing what she does best,” I said. “Pulling strings. I just have to find out exactly which ones and why.”

  “I can’t tell you why, but I can tell you how she’s manipulating him,” Stony said. “I have some more recordings of Armstrong that you probably don’t need to hear. I’ll hang on to them in case you really need them later, but I think all you have to do is let Armstrong know about the tapes.”

  “Are there more recordings of Armstrong and Erlene?”

  “No. He has a boyfriend, Joe. An electrician named Michael Adams. I guarantee you she knows about it. Some of the stuff I have on tape is pretty graphic. He wouldn’t want it getting out. She might have the same kind of thing.”

  “Anything else?” I said.

  “Yes, a couple of things as a matter of fact. I spoke with the officer who arrested Sheila Self. Her name is Tonya James.”

  “I’ve read her report,” I said.

  “One thing she didn’t include in that report was that she got a judge to sign an order for a Drug Facilitated Sexual Assault panel. Armstrong has the results. Has he provided them to you in discovery?”

  “No. There hasn’t been any mention of it from him.”

  “Another thing for you to go after him on. He’s withholding evidence from you that is probably exculpatory.”

  “What a surprise,” I said.

  “One last thing,” Stony said. “Some of my old friends at the FBI say they’ve been picking up chatter from various hate groups, both white and black. They’re mobilizing and they’re headed this way. Both sides are looking for an armed confrontation.”

  “At least one side is already here,” I said, “given what happened at my house.”

  “More are on the way.”

  “Great,” I said. “That’s just great. Do we need to start wearing bullet proof vests?”

  “Might not be a bad idea. Be alert.”

  I stood and started toward the door.

  “Where are you going?” Jack said.

  “To get some equipment from my office and then to Erlene’s house to see if I can put a stop to this. She won’t be at work this early. Thank you, Stony. Great job. You guys finish up without me.”

  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11

  I pulled into Erlene’s driveway a little after ten. She lived between Johnson City and Jonesborough in the Boones Creek area, not far from the chic Ridges development. Her house, which was far too large for one person, sat atop a hill on a two-acre lot surrounded by a wall of fifteen-foot-high Arborvitaes. The house itself was a Craftsman style, similar to ours. It was two story, made of stone and glass and wood with a little decorative brick thrown in. The porch was a wide wraparound and the roof was low-pitched. The grounds were perfectly manicured, and there was a large pool with a pool house and Jacuzzi in back. It was an extremely nice place.

  I got out, walked up to the front door, and rang the bell. Erlene had a schnauzer named Benny, and he began barking. She opened the door after just a couple of minutes and was genuinely surprised to see me standing there.

  “Why, Joe Dillard, I swan. What brings you out to my humble little abode?”

  She was wearing a silk robe with a gold and black tiger print and fluffy pink slippers. Her hair was perfect, as was her make-up.

  “I need to talk to you, Erlene. It’s important.”

  “I was just having a cup of tea on the porch out back,” she said. “Would you like one?”

  “Sure, that’d be nice.”

  I followed her through the house. She had unusual tastes when it came to home décor—there were a lot of masks on the walls, a couple of Indian chief headdresses, some phallic pieces that had to have come from Africa, and several family photos. She’d told me about a couple of the photos. One was her deceased husband, Gus, who died mowing the lawn several years earlier, and another was of Gus’s daughter from his first marriage, who had died in a car accident. The walls in the house were painted in bright colors—blues and reds and garish pinks. Caroline and I had been in the house a few times when Leon and Erlene were dating. Caroline said she thought a New Orleans brothel would be decorated similarly.

  “Go on out, honey,” she said. “I’ll be right along.”

  I walked out onto the back porch. It had a beautiful view of the mountains that surrounded the area, and they were starting to come alive with the bright reds and oranges of fall. It was a serene setting, which made me feel a bit guilty because I was there to stir some things up.

  Erlene walked out holding a cup of tea. Hers was on the table. I noticed her fingernails were painted the same tiger stripe design as her robe when she handed me the cup and saucer. The woman was nothing if not eccentric.

  “What’s on your mind this beautiful fall morning?” Erlene said. “And I have to say you look wonderfully handsome, just like always.”

  “Thank you, Erlene. I’m here, I think, to try to keep you out of jail.”

  Her mouth dropped open and her eyebrows raised in a perfect Erlene expression of surprise and bewilderment.

  “Whatever could you possibly be talking about, sugar? I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  “We both know that isn’t true,” I said. “You pimp your girls on occasion, you sell drugs out of the club, and you’re not above blackmailing a customer here and there if he has enough money and you have enough goods on him. You’ve had people killed. I don’t judge you for any of those things. Don’t really care, to tell you the truth. But you’re doing something with Mike Armstrong that is going to get you in deeper than you know. I might not be able to dig you out if you don’t let me help you.”

  “How could I possibly help you? I don’t even know Mike Armstrong other than what I’ve seen of him on television. Ugly little man. I’ll say that much.”

  “I have a recording of you talking to him on the phone, Erlene.”

  She set her tea cup very slowly into the saucer, looked at me, smiled, and said, “I just don’t see how that’s possible, sweetie pie. I’ve never talked to the man.”

  “Yes, you have. I heard it just before I came over here. If you hear it, it’ll be in court, you’ll be under oath, and it won’t be good for you.”

  “My goodness,” she said. “I never thought I’d see the day when my wonderful friend Joe Dillard, who I paid half a million dollars in cash a few years ago, would threaten me.” />
  “I earned the money,” I said. “You and Angel Christian both walked on murder charges. And you were both as guilty as sin. You know it and I know it. But that’s not why I’m here. I’m not here to threaten you. I’m here to ask you to help me understand what in the hell is going on with these three football players from ETSU.”

  “The ones who raped my Sheila?”

  “They didn’t rape her. I’m about to blow that case out of the water, Erlene. But it’s already gotten out of hand. Do you know that somebody burned a cross in front of my house last night and shot up my garage, my truck, Caroline’s car and another car? There has been so much racial tension created by this case that it’s about to turn into something that will be extremely ugly and extremely violent. People could die. I’d like to know why, and I think you can tell me. If you don’t, I’m afraid our relationship going forward is going to change dramatically. And when I take the tape I have and play it for Leon, I think his attitude toward you is going to change, too. You’ll start having some serious problems with Leon and his deputies at your club.”

  “Shitdammit,” Erlene said. She crossed and re-crossed her legs. “Shitdammit! Why did you have to get involved in this case? Why couldn’t it have been some dimwitted lawyer like ninety percent of them are?”

  “Please, just tell me what’s going on and I’ll do everything in my power to make sure everything turns out all right.”

  She stood up and started pacing back and forth in front of me, her massive bosom bouncing up and down with each step like waves rolling onto a beach. Constant motion.

  “It’ll ruin everything,” she said. “All my plans. It’ll ruin them.”

  “They’re already ruined. You just don’t know it,” I said.

  “No they aren’t. If you could just hold off another couple of weeks, we’ll have it done and you can go ahead and get your boys off the hook.”

  “Have what done, Erlene?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “You’d better tell me. I’m not messing around here, Erlene. Three young men’s lives are at stake. Even if I get them released, they’re still going to be in danger. You set it all in motion somehow. I want to know why.”

  She looked at me and spat the words like a spitting cobra: “Because those miserable fools at the university deserved it, that’s why.”

  “Deserved what?”

  “They deserved to be humiliated, they deserved to be embarrassed, and they deserve to pay through the nose.”

  “Why? What did they do to you?”

  She composed herself, at least somewhat, and sat back down.

  “I’ve been planning this for two years,” she said. “Just waiting for the right girl, the right opportunity. Do you remember when it was announced that the hospital was renaming its new heart hospital from The Sloan-Miller Heart Hospital to just the Sloan Heart Hospital?”

  “No,” I said. “I don’t remember that at all.”

  “That’s because they didn’t want anyone to think it was that big of a deal. They just quietly took Dr. Albert Miller’s name off of the hospital. Dr. Miller was extremely wealthy—old money wealthy—and just happened to be a regular visitor to my club for a while. He taught at ETSU’s medical school in the cardiology department, and he’d donated a bunch of money to the school to have his name put on the heart hospital. He was in his fifties, he was filthy rich, and he was divorced, so I guess he was lonely. He called one day and asked to speak with me. He’d found out that I owned the club and he wanted to visit, but he wanted complete privacy. He didn’t want anyone knowing he was there, and he was willing to pay top dollar to make sure nobody saw him come and go. So I had one of my employees pick him up and drop him off at the back entrance to the VIP lounge at least a couple of times a week for two years. He’d come in, have his fun, and my employee would drive him home.

  “During that time, there were three girls he really took a shine to. I won’t tell you their names because it really doesn’t matter, but what he did was, he offered to help them. He offered to help them get into college, pay their tuition, and give them enough money every month so they didn’t have to work for me anymore. I was skeptical about it at first. I mean, who’s that nice? Nobody, right? But he seemed sincere, and before I knew it, three of my girls were gone and so was he.”

  “I didn’t hear anything from any of the girls for almost two months, so one day I drove by one of the girls’ trailer just to see how she was doing. She was a mess. A mess. This doctor had been good to them for a little while. He never got them into school. He just kept making excuses. But he did send them money, and it was quite a bit of money for them. But then they found out the catch. There’s always a catch, isn’t there, sugar? I mean, nobody in this world is pure-hearted. You’re the closest person I’ve met to having a pure heart, but you’re human, aren’t you sweetie? You have your moments of weakness, don’t you?”

  “I suppose I do, Erlene. Keep going.”

  She took a deep breath and said, “Well, they found out the catch was that they had to have sex with him. Whenever he wanted, wherever he wanted, all of them at the same time sometimes. And he did unspeakable things to them. I’ve run across some perverted men in my day, as you can imagine, but this man was at the top of the class. I don’t even want to go into all the things he was making them do. It was just disgusting.”

  “Why didn’t they come back to you, report him to the police? Maybe go to the university and tell them what he was doing?” I said.

  “We did all of those things, sugar. I did all of those things. I would have called you but you were off in Nashville doing a big murder case down there with some record company executive. But I went to the Johnson City police. They laughed me out the door. Just refused to take the word of a few strippers over the word of a rich doctor whose name was on a heart hospital. When I went to the university, they said they didn’t believe a word of it, and even if they did, it was between the doctor and the girls. The university had absolutely no responsibility whatsoever. So the next thing I did was, I went to a reporter at the Johnson City newspaper. He was nice, a real sweetie pie. He listened. He talked to the girls and he even went and talked to the doctor. It must have rattled the doctor pretty badly because he said some things he shouldn’t have said and the reporter wound up writing a story about these terrible accusations my girls were making against this rich doctor. But you know what? The gutless owner of the newspaper wouldn’t publish the story. He said he was afraid of being sued.

  “So nothing happened to that doctor, other than they very quietly removed his name from the hospital. They placated him by naming a chair of excellence after him, though. The Dr. Albert Miller Chair of Excellence in cardiology. It’s still there today and it disgusts me. He’s still there. Can you believe that?”

  I folded my arms and rocked back and forth in my chair. Erlene was as angry as I’d ever seen her, and I’d seen her angry enough to have someone killed.

  “Why didn’t you kill him?” I said. “Why didn’t you have Ronnie pay him a visit?”

  “I did have Ronnie pay him a visit,” she said. “He put on a ski mask and performed a little surgery. The doctor no longer has all of his equipment.”

  “Ronnie castrated him?”

  “No. He removed his terwilliger with a scalpel. And he didn’t leave it there so the man could have it reattached. He put it in the burn barrel out back of the club.”

  “Terwilliger” was Erlene’s pet name for a man’s penis. She’d removed one herself from a preacher who had raped one of her girls not long before I first met her.

  “No problems with the police?” I said.

  “They came around, but Ronnie’s a pro. He didn’t leave anything behind for them to make any connections to us.”

  “And that wasn’t enough for you?” I said.

  “Not near enough, sugar. Not as far as I was concerned. But I had to wait for the right time, and it had to be the right girl. I thought Sheila Self was the right girl
, but she turned out to be ...how should I put this? Less reliable than I thought she’d be. Poor thing. She’s been through so much I should have known better, but she was a student at the university, and that was the key to this whole thing.”

  “How? What difference did it make that she was a student?”

  “I’m not the brightest bulb, but I’m not the dullest, either,” Erlene said. “I figured the best way to get back at the university was by doing two things. Embarrassing them in front of God and everybody and suing the pants off of them, no pun intended. I started researching suing universities and I learned about this Title IX. Do you know what Title IX is, sweetie?”

  “I do. It protects women from discrimination on college campuses. It also protects them from sexual assault, or at least it’s supposed to.”

  “That’s right, so when a call came into the escort service looking for a girl to dance at a party for football players on campus, I immediately thought of Sheila and I thought we could pull this off.”

  “What, exactly, did you tell her to do?”

  “I told her to go to the party, to be friendly, and to go into the bathroom and take just a little GHB. GHB loosens a person up, you know what I mean, sweetie? It lowers people’s inhibitions. Then I told her to come out, start her show, and to make sure she touched several of them. I told her to scratch a few of them lightly and get some DNA under her fingernails. I told her to give free lap dances if she had to, to run her fingers through their hair. And then I told her to leave, wait an hour, and call the police and tell them she’d been raped. But she drank beer and took ecstasy and had sex with her worthless boyfriend before she went to the party, and then she took too much GHB. Apparently, she was barely able to do anything at all. She wound up leaving, but she doesn’t remember any of it. She wound up getting picked up by a cop later and told the cop she’d been raped.”

  “Gang raped?” I said.

  “I didn’t say anything about gang raped, and I didn’t say anything about black players. She and the investigator cooked up every bit of that later. I had no way of knowing he’d do something so stupid and hateful, but in a way, it’s helped our case because the university is about to pay out a bunch of money. They’re terrified those boys might get convicted and if they wait, they may have to pay a bunch more.”