“You’re fired, too, honey. You gonna need to get your job back at the Piggly Wiggly.”
“Aw, Daddy!” She stomped off sobbing into her respirator.
Sheriff Harmon turned to Hank and said, “We did genuinely try to get Miss Woodworth to shower with the carbolic soap and tomater juice back behind the station but she wouldn’t hear nothin’ of it. I’m sorry for that. I hope we can let bygones be bygones.” He put his hand out to shake and Hank held up the DVD.
“If she so chooses, Miss Woodworth’s lawyer may be in touch with your department, and I’d count on hearing from her insurance company when they investigate your son’s part in covering up Georgina Harmon’s lapse of insurance. I’ll expect your help in sorting that out. I will personally take a dim view to any visit by Dicky Bob or any member of your force to Miss Woodworth in Divine.”
“No worries there, Sheriff. We’ll comply with all requests.” The man was literally sweating bullets by this point.
“You’ll be hearing from me. Soon.” Hank looked over at Leah and said, “Anything you’d like to say, Miss Woodworth?”
By this point she was practically bobbing up and down. “Where’s the ladies’ room?” Sheriff Harmon pointed and she said, “Thank you.”
As she passed near Dicky Bob, she reared back with her balled up fist and popped him right in the nose and promptly howled, but not as loudly as Dicky Bob.
“Ow! Daddy! Arrest her! She just struck an officer of the law.”
“Shut the hell up. She just struck an out-of-work imbecile who deserved it.” Turning to them, he said, “I’ll have Mizz Woodworth belongin’s waiting for her up front. Dicky Bob go clean out your locker.”
Leah streaked down the hall and James and Vincent both suppressed chuckles when the restroom door slammed and seconds later she moaned loudly in relief.
Hank laughed silently and turned to the two of them. “I talked to Evelyn and she’s already arranged for a tow truck for Leah’s vehicle. She can ride home with us.”
“Sorry about your SUV, Hank.”
“That’s all right. I’ll get it detailed and it’ll be okay in a few days. We might be able to get our hands on everything she needs to neutralize the odor and she can shower at that big truck stop we passed on the way here, if she wants to, that is.”
Leah exited the tiny bathroom shaking her hand and glowered at Dicky Bob as he inched around them, flinching and steering clear of her as he wiped his bloody nose.
“How’s the hand, slugger?” James asked as he lifted it and looked at her swollen knuckles and kissed them. He asked her to make a fist. “Honey, don’t tuck your thumb in. You could break a bone doing that.”
As they headed to the front, Hank said, “Leah, I want you to start coming to the self-defense classes I’m holding at the community center. James and Vincent are even volunteering to help us. We can teach you safe self-defense tactics. You seem okay with going on the offensive already.”
“Sorry, Sheriff, I know it was wrong but he deserved it.”
“He did. Let’s get your luggage and belongings from your car, and your personal effects from Harmon, and blow this joint.”
* * * *
It was a mark of pure desperation that Leah decided to use one of the ladies’ showers at the large truck stop on their way home. The skunk smell was horrendous. She knew the guys were being nice about it but if she was making herself gag, she knew they had to be struggling, too, even with the SUV’s windows all down.
“Just act like you don’t see them, honey,” James said when Leah noticed people were staring at her when they walked into the side doors nearest the showers. They hurried around in the grocery section and found her shower shoes, a bar of Lava soap, little bottles of Wool-lite and Fast Orange hand cleaner, and a couple of bottles of tomato juice.
“Rinse between each step honey, and please don’t rub yourself raw with the lava soap. This may just take time to fade away,” James said, sympathy in his sweet green eyes. She lifted up on tiptoes and kissed the cleft in his chin that was covered with his neatly trimmed beard and hurried into the ladies’ showers, blissfully relieved that there was one immediately available to her.
The men were seated in the snack bar when she exited a while later, with the skunk odor moderately better. She smelled strongly of the orange cleaner and her skin felt taut and dry but at least she no longer made herself want to heave. The break from the nausea made her realize how hungry she was and they shared a pizza with her while they sat and talked. She kept catching James and Vincent peering at her with concern.