Page 16 of Rocky Ride

We came across Ted on the way to the station, and he had the first accident under control. Me and Virge stopped to help him hook up the lady’s little Ford SUV so he could tow it to the garage. She rear-ended a pickup and when the vehicles pulled apart, her front bumper jerked right off.

We stamped the snow off our boots on the mat in the sally port but still made a helluva mess of the tile floors in the rest of the station. Not much we could do. We’d be in and out all day and the weather was shit.

Molly had picked up breakfast containers at the diner across the road and delivered the food to the women in the run, but she didn’t seem happy about it.

“They didn’t insult you, did they, Molly?” asked Billy. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“I’m not repeating what they said to me. Just that they’re a rude bunch of women.”

“Which one had the most to say?” asked Virge.

He was still looking for the leader of the stripper-haters and he made me laugh.

“Lila Gordon,” said Molly.

That made Virgie smile. “Nailed it, Molly. She’s the leader of the bitches.”

Molly giggled. “You sure, Virgil?”

“Pretty sure. I’ll test her.”

Billy unlocked the run, waltzed in with his hand hovering near his holster, and gave the bitches a shout out. “If any of you women have something to say, say it to me and not to thedispatcher. Say one more word to Molly while she’s bringing your meals to you, and the food stops. Are we clear?”

A couple of them nodded their heads and Billy locked them up in the dark and left them to ponder his words.

Two of the women in the club had called lawyers, and the legal beagles arrived later in the morning to talk to their clients.

Billy didn’t know the attorneys, but he provided them with the information he had and said all six women belonged to a protest group who’d committed arson in Ethridge.

It wasn’t long after the lawyers showed up that one of the husbands blasted in the front door of the station hollering and yelling about his wife.

Jerry Paige stomped across the squad room yelling curses at all of us and making threats—what he’d do to every one of us if we didn’t release his wife.

Billy pointed to the bench inside the front door of the station, but Jerry wouldn’t sit down. “You can see your wife tomorrow, Mister Paige, when she appears in court at her arraignment.”

“What the fuck is my wife charged with, Sheriff?”

“Arson, sir.”

“Bullshit. My wife is no arsonist. I want to see her now. I mean now.”

Billy stood his ground and shook his head. “Not possible. We have no visitation facilities here at this station.”

Jerry tried to push past Billy to head for the run at the back of the building. That’s when me and Virge had to block the hallway and turn Jerry around.

“You have to leave, sir, or we’ll be forced to lock you up with your wife and all her buddies.”

“My wife doesn’t have any buddies, and you can’t make me leave.”

Virge was quick with the stick. He whipped it off his belt and whacked Jerry a huge stroke across the back of his knees.

Jerry did a face plant on the tiles and grunted a bit. When he picked himself up, he headed for the door with no more fuss. Guess he figured Virge wasn’t kidding around.

Molly smiled and passed the donuts to Virgie.

Louisiana Bayou. Near the Gulf.

Clyde’s long bloodhound ears flapped in the wind as the boat raced forward. The spray from the river hitting him in the face and making the big dog squint his eyes closed. Nothing Clyde loved more than riding the river in the Jon boat.

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