“I think me and you have always been civil to each other even if we didn’t see eye to eye,” Skinner said. “We had some colorful exchanges of words at the supervisors’ meetings. But that’s how it had to be. No different than that old cartoon with the sheepdog and the wolf, knowing things between them are different when they punch the clock.”

“You’re a lot older than me,” Fannie said. “I haven’t a goddamn clue what you’re talking about.”

“I’m going to kind of miss this in a small way,” Skinner said. “It sure has been an education.”

“Come again?” Fannie asked, feeling a cold prick against the back of her neck. She stared at the tall, potbellied son of a bitch as he continued to take inventory of her bar, smiling at himself in the mirror from beyond her shoulder. Son of a goddamn bitch.

“I’m going to make the motion to outlaw nekkid dancing, or whatever you call it, to the supervisors next week,” Skinner said. “Oh, don’t you worry. We’ll have to hold some meetings, maybe do a study or two, but you know how it will all shake out. The kind of business you’re offering off Highway 45 ain’t welcome here no more. Ole Johnny Stagg wanted to give those truckers a real show a long time back. But this is the dawning of a new age, back to old family values. This kind of thing wouldn’t have been considered back in my day. They would’ve taken a woman of your ilk out to the town square and burned her at the stake.”

Fannie blew out some smoke, ashing her cigarillo and thumping it with her thumb and middle finger. She waited until the smoke dissipated before she spoke, carefully thinking, choosing her words as direct and hard as she meant them.

“That won’t sit well with some people.”

Skinner laughed, sucking at a tooth, a remnant from his fat-daddy lunch over at the El Dorado Mexican restaurant, where he held court most days. He patted his stomach, busting and prominent.

“They’ll cut you into a million pieces if you go against them.”

“Oh, I don’t think so, Miss Fannie. I think you need to talk to your wrangler and understand the new terms of this here lease. I’m on solid authority your time here is finished, and it couldn’t come soon enough. Have you stepped outside these darkened doors lately and looked out to what we’re building on the hill?”

“The cross?” she said. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Skinner closed his eyes as if someone had squirted lemon into his pale blue eyes. “Why must you say things like that? Like nails on a chalkboard.”