“His father’s talked to him,” I say.

“Dade swears it was consensual. For whatever reason, it sounds to me like she was trying to set him up.” I tell him also that the rape charge may have been filed prematurely and why. He clears his throat a couple of times but hears me out.

“This isn’t a cut-and-dried kind of case where you have a girl who’s been beaten up and raped. She waited until the next day to say anything and didn’t have a scratch on her.

Everything I hear about Dade is that he’s a good kid. In my opinion, he deserves at least a conversation with you before anything else happens to him.”

Carter clears his throat again and grunts, “Where can I reach you tomorrow afternoon about five?”

My mind goes blank. I can’t even think of a single motel in Fayetteville.

“I’ll call and leave a message for you.”

I think I have my foot in the door, but I have no real idea. If Carter doesn’t want to talk to Dade, I sure as hell can’t make him. I thank him and hang up. As I begin to pack, I worry that I may be jeopardizing Dade’s criminal case by having him talk to Carter. He may say something to implicate himself. By trying to save his football career, I may end up helping to convict my own client. Human greed. I can feel it working in me like a virus. After I talk to Dade, I can always change my mind. I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

It is hard to get to sleep. When I try to quit thinking about Dade’s case, my mind automatically defaults to Amy. Damn, she looked good. I’ll call her when I get back or maybe sooner. Woogie, at my feet, moans in his sleep. Do dogs dream? I will. My life hasn’t had so many possibilities in quite some time. Better not seem too eager or I’ll scare her off.

2

“Is he giving you a plane, too?” Julia, the receptionist secreta for the lawyers on the sixteenth floor of the Layman Building, asks sarcastically when I hand her Roy Cunningham’s check to deposit for me.