It had been a minute since Lillie Virgil had been in Vienna’s Place, but stepping into the dim light and neon, tired girls half-ass dancing on stage and Midnight Man looming behind the bar, she realized not much had changed at all. She walked in with Reggie as Midnight Man polished a tray of shot glasses, his big eyes shifting up to the spiral staircase and the glass office at the end of the catwalk where Fannie did business. Lillie nodded back toward the big man, taking the lead, Reggie trailing her but getting stopped by two working girls who couldn’t help but run their hands over his broad chest, one saying how much she liked his dimples. Overhead, the speakers played “Salt Shaker” by the Ying Yang Twins.

Upstairs, Fannie’s door was open, Lillie spotting the woman herself sitting in a grouping of low-slung leather chairs, looking to be having a counseling session with a skinny Asian girl with hair the color of cotton candy. She had on white go-go boots and a pink lingerie getup.

“Well, damn,” Fannie said. “You finally coming in for that free lap dance and tequila shot I offered you when you were sheriff?”

“I’ll wait on you to improve your talent,” Lillie said. “I think I saw a few pregnant gals working the pole. I was just waiting for a little hand to reach down out of her pussy and pick up a dollar bill.”

Fannie didn’t answer as Reggie followed Lillie into the glass office. The Asian woman with the pink hair excused herself, passing Reggie on the way out and giving him a bright smile and a wink. She recalled giving Quinn hell once about how working girls just loved a man in uniform.

He stepped up past Lillie and set a folded piece of paper on the black coffee table. A cigarillo smoldered in a nearby ashtray.

“What’s this shit?” Fannie said.

“Board of supervisors met last night,” Reggie said. “They’re outlawing all nude dancing and liquor sales along the Highway 45 corridor and within the county.”

“Bullshit.”

“Nope,” Lillie said. “It’s time to pack up the G-string and your Traveling Cooter Salvation Show. You’re gonna just have to make a hard living running all that cooze and dope throughout the Deep South. Tough break, Fannie. I know how much you love this place. Naming it after your dead grandmomma and all. Real class with a capital K. I’m sure she’s sending you kisses from heaven.”