His teeth and jaws slammed together with a loud clack, and I felt the shock of the blow I had thrown course the length of my body. For a split second nothing happened, then I heard the ball bat hit the pavement behind my feet. Leon went limp, the air hissed from his lungs, and he toppled over on top of me. He hung there momentarily, until I gave the inert body a shove, pushed the heavy arm off my shoulder, and watched the behemoth crash to the ground like a side of beef.

Just as I stooped to check his pulse the place was lit by a flash of blue lights, and from behind me came the whoop-whoop-whoop of a siren. I stood up again, lifted my hands above my head, and slowly turned to face the witness of my most recent antisocial act.

A lean, broad-shouldered constable of the law got out of the car and stood silently as he straightened his hat and looked the area over. Shooting me a glance, he then looked at the body on the ground.

“Officer,” I said in a calm and even voice—one that I—in spite of the evidence lying on the ground before us—hoped sounded like that of a good citizen, “I think you should call for an ambulance.”

“I seen it all, Sheriff,” Sandy said as she came around the back of my truck. “This man was defending hisself. Leon went crazy. He was smashing the man’s truck with a baseball bat, and when this feller tried to get him to stop, he went after him.”

The sheriff gave Sandy a glance, then looked at me again for a second before he reached to his shoulder, keyed the mike of his radio, and said a few words.

Releasing the mike, he stepped forward to take a look at the man on the ground, and as he leaned over he said to me, “You can put your hands down, Mr. Tanner. I saw everything that happened from the time you came out of those doors.”

The sheriff checked the carotid pulse of the man on the ground and then stood and looked me over, a wry smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

“When Bob Martin called to say you might be coming up this way, I had no idea you were going to make such a dynamic entrance. I just hope for all the rest of the good citizens here in Effingham County that you take it easy the remainder of the day. And as for Leon Wren here, why I’ve been looking high and low for that boy for the last several months. So it appears like you’ve done us a favor.”