“Said his new lawyer punched all kinds of holes in the case and insisted they submit blood and semen for DNA testing. No match on any of it, so they had to let him go.”

“He was a very lucky man finding someone who’d go to bat for him.”

“Yeah, right. Want my take on it?”

“Sure.”

“Just because they let him out doesn’t mean he was innocent.”

I blinked. The statement was the last thing in the world I expected to hear from him. “That’s an odd point of view.”

“Why? You think guilty people don’t get away with murder?”

“On occasion, of course they do, but he was exonerated. There wasn’t any evidence that tied him to the crime.”

“Except Cates, the other guy.”

“Herman Cates knew he was dying and he admitted he’d implicated your father just because he could. His accomplice was someone else altogether.”

“So I heard,” he said in that tone that screamed of disbelief. “At any rate, I appreciate your going to so much trouble for someone you never met.”

“I thought it was the least I could do . . .” I was going to add “under the circumstances” but I stopped where I was. Ethan must have picked up on the missing words.

“How so?”

“I understand the two of you quarreled.”

“Says who?”

“A friend of his in Santa Teresa.”

“I wouldn’t call it a quarrel. More like a tiff.”

“He told his friend there was an ugly scene.”

“What was I supposed to do? The guy was drunk. So what else is new? Things might have got nasty, but you know how it is. Everybody calms down and life goes on.”

“You weren’t in touch with him afterward?”

“Wasn’t possible. The man lives on the street and he doesn’t have a phone. We didn’t even know for sure where he was headed when he left.”

“Were you aware he’d come into money?”

“Well, yeah. That’s what he said. We didn’t talk about it, but I got the gist. He said he filed a lawsuit.”

“He sued the state . . .”

“Right, right. Because his name was cleared. I remember now.” There was a pause while he plucked the D string and adjusted the tuning. He addressed his next question to the machine heads. “He die with a will or without?”

“With.”

“What happened to the money? I hope you’re not going to tell me he blew it.”

“No, no. It’s still in the bank.”

He smiled briefly. “That’s a relief. Man’s a bum. Never did anything right in his life. So what’s the process in a situation like this?”

“Process?”

“What happens next? Are there forms to fill out?”