Chapter 29

I sucked air across my teeth once or twice. “I think so. I will be. He clocked me, but I think I’ll be okay.”

“Looks like he got you good. Come on with me, let’s see what I’ve got in this here first aid kit,” Lurch said, offering me his arm and leading the way back around to the front of the store. Thumper followed chastely.

“We’re pretty much out of money,” Thumper lamented eventually, while Lurch dabbed at my face with a variety of wipes he unfolded from within the depths of the gas station’s first aid kit. “What we did have was in that wallet.”

“We’ll call the cops,” Lurch offered.

“The guy’s long gone,” I said.

“Still,” Lurch insisted. “They might as well be looking for him. Tennessee’s a big state and this is a lonely stretch of highway. Only so many places he can go.”