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Chapter 10 – Coming Thick and Fast
Now see here friends and neighbours. I don't know about you but I am getting mighty confused about this hear situation. I hope that there's some answers gonna start comin' thick and fast.
Daisy searched high and low for her Uncle but saw no sign of him anywhere. Spotting Nurse Stewart she ran over to her.
"Nurse! Did you see my uncle? I gotta find him!"
The pretty nurse turned to her with concern and shook her head.
"Last I saw him he was talking to Dr Jackson about your cousin, then this other man arrived and interrupted. They were arguing about something or other. At least there were loud voices! I had to tell them to take it somewhere else."
Daisy felt her own fear grow as she listened to her words and she bit her lip anxiously.
"What did this man look like?" she asked.
"Oh he was obnoxious! All decked out in white like he was a big something or other. He smelled of cigars."
"Boss Hogg was here? Oh my I don't know whether to be relieved or upset!" Daisy replied.
"Is there something wrong Daisy?" the nurse's expert eyes took in the worried features of the Duke girl and could not help but notice the dark shadows and the lines of anxiety etched around her eyes.
Daisy's eyes were filling with tears as she tried to think about what was the best thing to do.
"Bo needs Uncle Jesse and he's disappeared. He's in there panicking and I don't know what to do. I gotta find my Uncle! But Bo – " she looked back to the room where Doctor Jackson was just exiting, "he needs his family with him." She whispered.
She felt a hand on her arm and turned and looked into the warm features of the nurse.
"I have been watching you all since you came in. There is no doubting how much you all care for each other. Your Uncle must have a good reason for leaving. Don't fret. Go and sit with your cousin. He needs you the most right now."
"You don't understand! Its my fault he panicked cos I told him about Luke goin' after the feller that did this to him. I think he thinks he's in danger!"
"What do you think?"
Daisy turned panic stricken eyes back to the nurse. "I don't know!" she whispered. "I don't know anything anymore."
"Listen," soothed the nurse. "My shift is finishing soon. Go and sit with Bo for now, and when I am done here I will go and sit with him for a while so you can go and look for your Uncle if he hasn't turned up by then."
"Oh, that's so kind of you nurse – "
"Louise!"
"Louise. But I can't ask you to do that for me. Ain't you got yer own family to go home to?"
Louise Stewart turned round and regarded the young doctor who was making notes at the nurse's station, seemingly oblivious to their conversation.
"No my dear. I am quite happy to stay here for an hour or two until Mark gets off." And she turned back knowingly to Daisy with a twinkle in her eyes.
Understanding the loving look that the nurse had cast towards the good looking young doctor, Daisy was overwhelmed with relief and gratitude.
"Thank-you" she said and she squeezed her hand and then returned to her cousin's room.
Now who said that only southern folks is kind and neighbourly?
"Bo?" she whispered as she tentatively entered the room and drew near to the bed.
Getting no response other than the beeping of the monitors and the hiss of the oxygen supply, she realised that the sedative had done its work and that Bo was sleeping again. She drew a chair over and sat beside him, resting her hand over his. She looked him over again, drinking in the sight of her beloved little cousin, glad within her heart that it looked like he would recover; worried sick that he might still be in danger, and fretting anxiously about the whereabouts of the rest of her family.
"Oh Bo!" she breathed. "What are we gonna do?"
As if in reply to her, Bo muttered something in his sleep and shifted uncomfortably in the bed. She looked up at him, wondering if he was going to wake up again.
"What did you say honey?"
And again he said it, and this time there was no mistaking the words that he uttered.
"Hawkes Gully"
-o0o-
Jesse Duke was a silent passenger in the big white Cadillac. He loathed this car, disliking it for who owned it and what it represented. But that was not the reason for his sullen mood. No Jesse was thinking.
"You ok?" Bo had said to him
"Aint yer fault"
And he had heard what Bo had said to Luke as he and Daisy had left the room.
"-don't let Uncle Jesse beat himself up over this. Please Luke this'll kill him."
Jesse wondered if while he was in his drug hazed pain, Bo had been trying to tell them something all this time. Here he had been sitting there feeling guilty and sorry for himself about leaving his youngest in jail whilst he fumed over some minor misunderstanding, when all the time it had been part of some greater plan to get at him. And whether intentional or not, they had gotten to him through one of his kids, and it seemed that Luke was hurtling headlong into danger too.
Jesse Duke was angrier than he had ever been in his life.
He looked over at JD Hogg, who was behind the wheel silent for once in his life, and he knew that he too was thinking back to thirty five years ago. To the time at Hawke's Gully that they both swore they would never speak about again. And to this day they had kept that oath. The thing about JD, for all he was trickier than a rattle snake and the most money grabbing selfish individual, he knew how to keep a secret if it was in his interest to do so. And it weren't in no ones best interest to drag up this past. Even though it had been foremost in his mind lately what with the news he had received about Cale Jessup.
They were speeding towards Hawke's Gully, determined to get to the cave before Sharp did. For there was no doubt in either of their minds that that was the killer's goal all along. Any other explanation was too much like coincidence.
He wondered if Daisy knew that he had left the hospital yet. He wondered if Bo had woken up. He felt tears pricking behind his eyes as he thought of the youngsters and what they had gone through so far, and the trials that may be ahead of them. Torn with indecision as he had been when he stood in the corridor with JD, desperate to see his youngest, he knew that his eldest needed him the most. He also knew that Bo would have approved of his decision, for if anything happened to Luke while he was at Bo's bedside, knowing that he could have prevented it by being at Hawke's Gully, then Bo would never forgive him. Likely as not he would never forgive himself neither.
He thought back to his confrontation with his white clad nemesis. A man who used to be his friend back in those days. How time and the bitterness of experience could change a man. He had been concentrating on what the young doctor had been telling him about Bo. Poor Bo. As innocent a victim in all this than anyone could possibly be. Yet there he was trying to protect a foolish old man. Then he had cringed as the door slammed and he heard the dulcet tones of the Hazzard County Commissioner.
"Jesse! Jessse! Ya gotta help me! Jesse! I know. I plumb know!"
"Now hold on JD. What in the sam hill are you goin' on about? Can't you see I've enough to deal with right now?"
"Ne'er you mind about that Jesse Duke, we is both in trouble. Real trouble."
"Waddya mean? I ain't got time for this JD. Bo needs me in that room and I'll be darned if you're gonna distract me from what's important. Whatever scheme yer cookin' up to save yer sorry hide you can save it for when I actually give a hoot or two ye hear me?"
"Gentlemen! Please! This is a hospital. Please keep it down or take it outside." Nurse Stewart might be petite, but there was no doubting her authority over the two old timers. They both bowed their heads to her in apology and then Jesse turned away from the distressed figure and started towards his nephew's room. Whatever Boss Hogg had to say could wait at least until he had seen Bo with his own eyes and spoken with him. There was nothing that man could say would make him turn from his path.
"Hawke's Gully"
Except that.
Jesse stopped dead in his tracks and turned and regarded the rotund man.
"What about Hawke's Gully?"
"That's were that feller Sharp was headin' when Rosco caught 'im."
"So?" Jesse did not anticipate liking where this was heading.
"Luke figures he's headin' back there."
"Still not with ya JD. Yer not makin' much sense, but then when did you ever?"
"Sharp was in the same jail as Jessup, he broke out less than a week after Jessup passed away."
And that was the bombshell. That was what he had feared all along. The secret did not die with Jessup after all. Someone knew about what they had buried all those years ago in that cave and was fixin' to get it.
"You think he knows what's hidden there and he's after it!" Jesse's heart sank like a stone.
"What other explanation could there be? Jesse, if he finds it then we are done fer."
"And Luke's headed out there ya say?"
JD Hogg nodded hopefully at the bearded man standing in the corridor wearing his dungarees and working shirt. Despite appearances, despite everything that they had gone through in life together and at odds with one another, there was one thing that was fact. JD Hogg had the utmost respect for Jesse Duke and he knew that he could be counted upon to get them out of this particular mess.
Jesse though stood wracked with indecision. His heart pleaded with him to go and fix things with Bo before it was too late. Yet his head shouted loudest at him and it said that he needed to get to Hawke's Gully and sort this out. During those few seconds of hesitation, certain things became clear to him. If JD was right then Luke was in danger and he might need his Uncle Jesse to get him out of this one. Bo at least had Daisy with him and was safe here in the hospital. Some of the things that Bo had said before the surgery suddenly took on a new meaning. Besides Bo would never forgive him if something happened to his cousin and he could have prevented it and didn't.
Decision made Jesse cast one last wistful glance towards the room where his youngest lay and sighed.
"OK JD, lets go." He said and they both left the hospital.
Well ain't that a turn up. If they had stayed for thirty seconds more they would have seen the flurry of activity in Bo's room and the chances are they would not have left and perhaps they would've learned more about what was going on.
Jesse was oblivious to the going's on in Bo's hospital room and unaware that his niece was frantically searching for him as he unwittingly sat in the passenger seat of the garish white Cadillac and watched the countryside swish by.
"Hang on Luke. I'm comin'" he muttered.
-o0o-
"Ya know I don't think somehow that them there State Police should be conspiring with low down crooks like Sharp." whispered Cooter Davenport to his buddy as they met up as planned.
"Ya got that right!" hissed Luke in response, still angry at the sight of Pete Sharp bein' so close to him and not bein' able to do anything about it. "I couldn't hear everything that was bein' said, but the way I figure it, Rosco must've made some sort of deal with those State Police fellers regardin' Sharp and that its all fallen through for 'im. I'm guessin' its to do with that reward money." Luke was referring to the wanted poster that he had grabbed outta Sharp's car back at Cooter's garage.
"Well fifty thousand bucks is life changin' Luke. Ya reckon Rosco was in for a cut or somethin'?"
"Yeah – but it must be more complicated 'n that else why capture 'im? And they seem to be in cahoots with Sharp anyhow. It just don't make sense to me. I reckon the sooner we get Rosco outta there the sooner we can get some answers.
Cooter nodded in agreement.
"So waddya wanna do Luke?"
"I need a distraction Coot, so's I can get in that there cave and get Rosco out. You get back to the General, rev 'im up and make as much noise as you can. Then hightail it outta here. Once you lose 'em head for Dawson's Ridge and me 'n Rosco'll be waiting there. "
The bearded stubble bristled as Cooter's trademark grin made itself known.
"I'm on it and I'm gone!"
"Be careful!"
"You too!" and with that he was gone, scouting back to the waiting General Lee to go and rev up some dust.
Ya know, I reckon that Luke's plan's got more holes in it than Lulu Hoggs colander that she uses for draining Boss's pickled pig's feet.
It wasn't long before the General Lee's engine fired into life and Cooter revved up to past six thousand rpm. Luke positioned himself behind some sparse shrubs just above where the entrance to the cave was and waited. Very soon two men in uniform burst into view, guns held at the ready and he ducked down, cursing the scant cover that he had. But luckily they were not looking in his direction and he breathed a sigh of relief as they ran towards the sound of the car, which was blaring Dixie and roaring fit to burst. Cooter was having a great time!
Very soon Luke heard the gearbox engage and he figured Cooter was on the move, followed swiftly by another car which had started up somewhere down the hill. Obviously not Rosco's car because that had been stashed beside the General Lee.
Satisfied that it was all clear Luke prepared to sneak down into the cave and get a look at what was going on. Half way up he heard the click of a pistol safety catch being released and he froze. Just in his peripheral vision he could make out the gun barrel pointing at his ear.
"Get up! Nice and slow!" hissed a voice.
See what I mean?