Southern Discomfort

The skirt was full enough to let me briefly consider turning it around.

'Right,' said the pragmatist who could remember every humiliation of junior high. 'That's all we need—Colleton County's first female judge walking around with blood-stains on the back of her white skirt.'

'Only dirty minds think dirty thoughts,' the preacher said primly.

I left my skirt where it was, slashed on fresh lipstick and went on down to the waiting room.

And stopped short.

There stood Nadine with tearstained, anxious face and beside her stood Dwight Bryant. Both of them stared back at me.

'What are you doing here?' we asked each other. 'Herman's had a heart attack,' Nadine said tremulously.

Dwight cocked a professional eye at my white skirt and frowned. 'Is that blood?'

CHAPTER 10

DEAD LOAD

'The total dead load is the total weight of the structure, which gradually increases as the structure rises and remains constant once it is completed. The total live load is the total weight of movable objects (such as people, furniture, bridge traffic or the like) which the structure happens to be supporting at a particular instant.'

I looked down at my white skirt and Dwight's question triggered a memory of how I'd wiped my hand across it before I reached for Annie Sue tonight.

'The hammer,' I said.

'Hammer?' he asked, but I brushed him aside.

'Herman had a heart attack? When? How bad is it?'

'They don't know yet,' said Nadine. 'They found him collapsed behind the steering wheel of his truck. Just a few minutes ago.' She glanced at the clock on the wall above us and shook her head in bewilderment over how much time had passed. An hour ago.'

Dwight took her by the arm and led her over to a dark purple couch. 'Come sit down, Nadine.'

It seemed to be a quiet night. Except for an elderly man half-dozing in an easy chair near the door and a nurse absorbed in paperwork, we were the only ones here in the waiting room as I followed Dwight across the polished vinyl tile and took an adjacent armchair. All the chairs and couches were harmonizing shades of plums and grays that simulated soft leather but were really wipe-down vinyl.

'I heard the Dobbs dispatcher and recognized the description of Herman's truck,' Dwight told me. 'Soon as they identified him and said they were going to bring him here, I went and got Nadine.'

'Annie Sue!' Nadine exclaimed. 'I didn't leave her a note or anything. She'll be worried to death. And I should call Reese and Haywood, too.'

'I just did that,' Dwight reminded her.

'But how's Herman?' I insisted.

'They're still trying to get him stabilized,' said Dwight.

'Dr. Worley's in there with him. And another doctor. I tried to make him come. For over a week. Didn't I? I told Dr. Worley I tried to make him come. You know I did, Deb'rah!'

I patted her arm sympathetically. 'You did everything you could.'

'You saw him drop that hymn book in church Sunday?'

I nodded.

'He said the ends of his fingers just went numb on him all of a sudden. Like they went to sleep or something. And his toes keep feeling sort of numb, too.'

It didn't sound good. Numbness in the extremities—didn't that mean serious blockage in the veins? I remembered when I went to call him for dinner Sunday and found him stretched full length on the couch in front of a televised news program. His eyes were closed, his face was a putty gray, his breathing labored.

'You should have just picked him up and hauled him to a doctor right then,' scolded the I-told- you-so voice of the preacher.

'You and whose army?' the pragmatist asked sarcastically. Nadine was struggling to her feet again. 'Annie Sue,' she murmured.

I took a deep breath and caught her hand. 'Wait, Nadine. She's not at home. She's here.'

She and Dwight both looked around blankly, then Dwight's eyes searched mine and immediately dropped to the ghastly stains on my skirt.

'She's okay. At least, she's going to be okay.' There was no gentle way to put it. 'She's been raped.'

Nadine lost color. Her legs buckled and she sank back onto the couch.

Before I could say more, Bambi came down the hall, followed by a tired-looking intern in a rumpled blue lab coat. They crossed the large room and paused discreetly until I motioned them over.

'This is my niece's mother,' I said. 'Nadine, this is Bambi Cobb. She's been taking care of Annie Sue.'