it higher. "You still haven't taken back what you said about my sister. It's a blatant lie, and you know it!"

"They...they both admitted it, Shirley."

Shirley shouted, "A damn lie!" whirled like a javelin thrower and hurled the chair. It smashed into the wall, a foot below the ceiling, a foot above Sheriff Bledsoe's head.

He yelped and ran.

A second or two, Shirley stood there, her entire body shaking...then crumbled to the floor. "It's not true!" she sobbed. "It's not true...it's not true...it's not true...it's not true..." She lay there a long time, sobbing.

"I'm sorry, Shirley," Sheriff Bledsoe said.

She had to collect herself somehow; she didn't want to give Fat Ass the satisfaction of seeing her like this. She tried to get up but couldn't get her limbs to cooperate.foot up her rancid ass. I mean that! So don't forget to tell her."

"Okay, Shirley. I'll make sure I tell her."

Ruth Ann watched the sandals saunter out the door and disappear down the hallway. Seconds later she heard them click-clocking on the sidewalk out front.

Would Lester stand by and watch Shirley make good on her threat? Did Lester cultivate a seed of doubt what Shirley had told him. She hoped he did, prayed he did, but knew deep down he didn't. Somehow she had to plant a seed of doubt in his mind.

How?

How about this: she and Eric confessed to an affair because...because...because Sheriff Bledsoe, for some idiotic reason, thought he, Lester, had something to do with her daddy's murder, and she, his beloved wife, couldn't stomach the