The Wind Blows Free
Chapter Twelve: Falling Apart
Balladeer: Is that storm over? It is? PHEW! Good, I thought a flood was goin' to come up if it kept on like that. Anyhow, seems to me that ol' Boss is gettin' kinda nervous about these counterfeiter boys he's partnered up with. They seem like more bad news than the other guys.
"Rosco," Boss said once they were safe in the office. "Rick Terry and his boys are gettin' mighty finicky 'bout them Duke boys not bein' caught yet. Do you have any clue where they might be hidin'? Any clue?"
Rosco had a pretty good feeling that if they could find Eve's sisters, they would also find the Dukes. Except that he had no idea what the girls even looked like. But then, for another reason, he just couldn't seem to make himself want to do something like that to Eve—throw her sisters in jail, that is. He had a feeling it would scramble her up something awful to see her two younger sisters behind bars. And she might think that he was just trying to use her to get some information about having sisters so that he could get the boys, or something like that.
"No, Boss, no clue at all. I've looked everywhere."
Boss put a hand up against his forehead as if he were running a fever. He was getting antsy about this operation. The Dukes knew that something was goin' down, Rick knew that the Dukes knew, and Boss didn't know where the Dukes were so he could get them out of Rick's mind. If they didn't find the boys soon, Rick was liable to do something drastic—like find the boys himself and permanently put them to rest. Or worse, come after Boss and put him to rest for not finding the Dukes himself.
"Apparently, not everywhere 'cause they have to be somewhere. Oh, this is gettin' ridiculous, where are them damned boys at!"
He slammed his fist against his desk, making Rosco jump a little bit. Boss losing his temper was never a pretty picture, but this time Boss really seemed to be upset about the Dukes not being found. He must be real worried that something bad will go down for him to be this concerned.
"Don't worry, Boss, I'll find 'em, me an' Enos will. Don't worry you're pretty lil' head over it."
"Oh, shut up, ya numb-skull," he snapped, not in the mood for Rosco trying to cheer him up. "Just get out there an' get to lookin'!"
Rosco scrambled out of there real quick, not too keen on sticking around for Boss to blow a bigger fuse than he already had. Boss threw his hat against the floor in anger and started puffing on his cigar faster than normal.
Them boys, he thought to himself. Themdamned Dukes. Why they gotta get involved in every little thing I do? What gives them a right to intrude in my business? I've had it up to here with them always screwin' up my plans. Lousy, good-for-nothin', always sneakin' about---and that idiot brother-in-law of mine, never can do anything right, screws up everythin' just as bad as them Dukes do. If his sister weren't my wife, I'd of fired him YEARS ago! I'm sick an' tired of not gettin' my way around here, I've HAD it!
He flopped down in his desk chair, rubbed both of his temples with his fingers to try and calm himself down. If this operation went down badly, he was going to make everybody involved pay for it.
Balladeer: For once, ol' Boss is startin' to scare me . . .
It was getting close to five o'clock—time for Ali and Rachel to go meet their sister at the Courthouse so that she wouldn't have a heart attack worrying where they were. They were both walking down the sidewalk when somebody came up behind them and put a hand on each one's shoulders.
"Long time, no see!" a familiar voice proclaimed. Rachel nearly jumped out of her skin, while Ali wrenched her way out of the stranger's grasp and turned to face—
"Cooter!" she growled. "What you doin' sneakin' on us like that?"
"I thought it'd be funny," he grinned, putting one arm around each one, Ali on one side and Rachel on the other. "Girls, I think y'all need to step into my office for a second."
"Now that we're alone," Cooter said once the three of them got situated in his garage. "Maybe y'all should explain what in tarnation y'all are doin' gettin' involved in some counterfeiting thing with my two best buds."
The girls gave each other horrified looks and then turned to look back at Cooter, who had his arms crossed and was giving them a serious look. "Well? I'm waitin'."
"Coot, how'd ya find out 'bout this?" Ali demanded to know. "Did Bo an' Luke—"
"No, their cousin Daisy told me," Cooter answered her before she got the question out. "Have y'all lost your minds? Them guys, whoever they are, are bad news. What if y'all were to get killed by those guys?"
"Bo an' Luke ain't gonna let that happen," Rachel insisted.
"No, they ain't, because you two are forbidden from gettin' further involved! As y'alls older cousin—"
"You're only three years older than me," Ali argued, glaring at him. "Besides, it's none of your business what we do with who. We're old enough to consider consequences."
"That's not the point. The point is that you two are in somethin' y'all don't need to be in. As long as I've known Bo an' Luke, I should know that things usually don't work out right with them—even if things turn out to be that way in the end—but anyhow, I'm pretty derned sure that whatever y'all have planned . . . something's gonna go wrong and someone's gonna get hurt. Furthermore, have y'all considered what Eve's gonna do if she finds out? She'll have twincows if she does!"
"And she won't," Ali pressed. "An' don't think you're gonna tell her either!"
"Ali, I'm not entirely comfortable keepin' secrets from Eve, especially about her own sisters. If I had a sister, and shewas gettin' into trouble, I'dwanna know. But seein' how I just got you cousins, I'm tryin' my best to keep y'all safe."
"Coot, look, we appreciate that you're worried, but honestly!"
"Cooter," Rachel started. "Please don't tell her. She wouldn't understand. She'd think that we were turnin' into delinquents or criminals or what-have-you."
The mechanic, frustrated now, pressed his hands on both sides of his head and lightly squeezed as if to relieve pressure building up in his brain. "Okay, here's what I'll do. I won't tell Eve, ifand only ifyou two don't bring too much attention to yourselves from the bad guys and wind up gettin' into some kind of trouble. If something does happen, I'll no choice but to tell her. Got it?"
"Got it," Ali groaned, rolling her eyes.
Ring ring!
Cooter jogged to his desk to answer the phone. "Cooter's Garage—oh, hi, Evie!"
Rachel and Ali exchanged looks again.
"The girls? Yeah, they're right here with me. Oh, they were supposed to meet you at the courthouse? I'm sorry, I drug 'em off the streets to talk with me, but don't worry they're fine. Okay, they'll be around when you get here. Bye-bye."
"Thank you, Cooter," Rachel said quietly.
"I still got a bad feelin', though, y'all . . ."
Rosco was on his last nerve. He was so tired of looking pointlessly through the county for the Dukes. He had searched every inch of Hazzard that it was almost ridiculous. The swamp, the lake, the ponds, abandoned buildings, everybody in town's houses, even his own backyard even though he knew they wouldn't be there. It seemed to him that Boss had gone a little overboard this time. He had gone looking for the boys before, but never like this. Never to the point of extreme exertion and to where it was getting to be real chore. Rosco usually had a little fun looking for Bo and Luke, since car chases were generally involved amongst other things. But the boys were nowhere to be found, and that took the fun out of the whole thing.
Enos drove up beside Rosco's car to where the driver's windows would be next to each other and allow each other to talk.
"Howdy, Sheriff," he said in a less chipper voice than he usually spoke in. "Any luck?"
"I don't understand it, Enos," Rosco told him, shaking his head in a confused manner. "I've looked everywhere. I've looked all over this derned county and I still haven't found them. It's like they just----disappeared!"
Enos shot his eyes down towards the ground. Of course he knew where Bo an' Luke were, but he couldn't betray their trust or the friendship he had with them. Yet at the same time, he also felt guilty for "harboring criminals" and letting Rosco continue on with this extremely tiring search.
"Don't worry, Sheriff, we'll find 'em soon enough," he tried to assure him.
"I hope so. Boss'll have my head on a silver platter if we don't," Rosco sighed, scratching Flash behind her ears. He shifted the gears on the car from "park" to "drive" and let up on the brake. "Guess I'll check the swamp one last time before I go home. Come on, Flash."
well, that's chappie twelves, hope y'all liked and please review!