A DISPATCH
"Wait," Enos entered the locker room at the Police Station, coming out with a towel in his hands, "You're soaked."
"Thanks, sugar," Daisy took the towel from his hands and she wiped her hair.
Rosco looked at them, confused: there were no many times the Dukes entered the Police Station, and usually it was for a bail, for having a quarrel with Boss about his schemes, for nosing around, and… for jailbreaks. But since Enos' coming back from L.A. Daisy Duke came to the Police Station just to see Enos.
"Dipstick! Did you go to the Bank?"
Enos started as a shy smile appeared on his face, "Uh, sorry Sheriff. I forgot about it."
Rosco shook his head, "Go to the Bank, or Boss will fire you, and then, go patrolling."
"Yes sir," Enos turned to Daisy, "I have to go, now. Bye," and he nervously walked out the Police Station.
"Bye bye sugar," Daisy looked at him with a dreamy and sweet smile then she turned to Rosco, "Bye Rosco," leaving the Police Station.
"Bye bye sugar," Rosco hit off Daisy, he shrugged and he looked at Flash, taking her in his arms, "those lovebirds. And Enos doesn't understand anything when that Daisy's 'roud. That dipstick!"
Few after Enos' and Daisy's leaving, a woman entered the Police Station, and Rosco recognized she was the journalist he met that early morning.
"I think we should talk, Sheriff Coltrane, and I'd like to talk to Commissioner J.D. Hogg, too."
"What 'bout Enos?"
Resting the shopping bags on the kitchen table, some hours after she left the farm, Daisy turned to uncle Jesse answering his question, "He took TWO Vicodin's pills, and he was sleeping hard," she shook her head and she had a big sigh, "he scared me so much," she collapsed on a chair, "I really thought he was dead 'cause I wasn't able to wake him up, so I called Doc Appleby."
"And now, where's Enos?"
"He's patrolling. When he left the Police Station he seemed fine, or I hope so," Daisy stood up and she started to place part of the shopping in the fridge.
"Was he really sleeping so hard?" Bo entered the kitchen, he took the milk's bottle from the fridge, opening it and pouring the milk in a glass, then he drank it, "it's warm," his statement stressed by a disgusted look on his face.
Daisy took the bottle from Bo's hands, "It's still warm 'cause I've just placed it in the fridge," she opened the fridge and she put the bottle at its place, taking another bottle and giving it to Bo, "Drink buttermilk, it's cold. And yeah, he was still sleeping."
"I prefer milk to buttermilk. Anyway, thanks," Bo smiled and poured the buttermilk in the glass.
"And we looked for him in any pond and ravine, thinking he had an accident while patrolling," Luke reached his family in the kitchen, opening the fridge and taking the milk's bottle.
"It's still warm," Bo pointed at the glass in his hand, "drink buttermilk."
"Help me with the shopping, please," Daisy smiled at her cousins, "and thanks for this morning. I really appreciated you went out looking for Enos."
"Enos is our friend, and for sure we couldn't stay here wondering what happened to him and looking at the ceiling, just waiting for news," Bo patted gently on Daisy's shoulder, "and, beside his long sleep, was he fine?"
Daisy wondered if telling them about the scars she saw on Enos' body: they already knew about his staying in Hospital and about the operation, and those scars wouldn't have added anything to their knowing, but she felt the need to share her shock with her family.
"You know… while he was sleeping I looked at him and… I saw…"
A knock at the kitchen's door stopped Daisy's words, and Boss entered the room followed by Rosco.
"We should talk, Jesse."
There were no many times Boss entered the farm, and his visiting Jesse Duke meant just one thing: troubles on the horizon.
And Jesse Duke knew it, "What do you want, J.D.?" he looked at his old friend and foe and he got ready for the fight.
Boss' chubby fingers took his cigar out of his mouth, "It seems a journalist of The Los Angeles Time is here to interview Enos, but that dipstick doesn't want to talk to her. Now, she offered a lot of money to the Hazzard Police Department for that interview," his cigar again between his tightened lips as an act of defiance, his chin and cigar up, he looked at Jesse, "80% and 20%"
As the Dukes' patriarch realized Boss' offer, his eyes opened wide before his voice expressed that same incredulity and disgust just showed through his eyes, "J.D.! Are you asking me to convince Enos to talk to that journalist? For money?"
Exasperated, Boss waved his cigar under Jesse' nose, "I tried to convince Enos, but he's more stubborn than a mule, though I threatened him to fire him," Boss looked angrily at Daisy, Bo and Luke who were shaking their head, sharing their uncle's disgust, "and I know you're the only one who can convince that dipstick. Your word is law, for him."
Jesse Duke shook his head as his nephews and niece, "You're kidding, aren't you?"
The cigar still in his hand, his chin up, Boss raised, "70% and 30%"
"J.D. I can't believe you're…"
"I'm going to cut the mortgage on your farm, otherwise, if you refuse to help me, I'm going to increase it."
"J.D. I'm goin' to kick you outside…"
Again, Boss stopped Jesse's words, "I don't see any problem in it. The Hazzard Police Department is going to gain a lot of money," a smile appeared on Boss' face as his voice turned from bossy to gloat and amused, "in a honest way! And you're goin' to have your mortgage cut. I'm just asking you to convince Enos to do the right thing, the right thing for everybody."
"And what 'bout Enos? Don't you think he doesn't want to talk to that journalist 'cause it'd be painful to him? Should I convince him to do something that could hurt him? For my mortgage?"
Obsolete question: Daisy, Bo and Luke felt their uncle's rage in that question, getting ready to the upcoming storm.
But Boss didn't feel it coming, his greed preventing him to realize what's going on in Jesse Duke's mind, "Well, Enos is goin' to heal, a quick healing with some money in his pocket. An interview can't kill him," he kept on talking with his gloat voice, "And, whatever happened to him, that journalist said an interview could be a sort of cure, for him. I'm worried for him the same way than you, you know."
Stomach in chest out, his chin up, Jesse Duke walked in front of Boss, standing in all his height and overlooking the shorter and rounded Boss, "J.D. If you have the notion to ask me to do something that could hurt Enos just for my convenience, just forget about it!" his right forefinger pointing at Boss' face, "Dukes don't sell their friends for money, for mortgage or…. whatever you want. Dukes don't sell their friends! And if you want to increase the mortgage, well, we're goin' to find another way to save our farm, and, for sure, this way isn't selling Enos to your greed! Dukes do the right thing, and for the right reason! And don't try to convince me the best thing for Enos is talking with that journalist if he doesn't want to."
The storm: Daisy, Bo and Luke folded their arms, nodding, in their gestures their agreement to their uncle's words. Dukes' law: they don't sell their friends, no matter what.
"Jesse Duke, you are the most stubborn man I've ever met" Boss pointed his finger, and cigar, against his friend and foe, then he turned to the door, "Rosco, come on. It's pointless to stay here."
As Boss and Rosco left the farm, Daisy came closer her uncle, hugging him, "Well told, uncle Jesse."
It wasn't the first time her uncle took Enos' defense that way: Daisy remembered pretty well uncle Jesse standing between Boss and Enos when Boss fired Enos because of Scanlon's escape, and she remembered uncle Jesse's words, voicing all folks' voices in Hazzard, when Boss "promoted" Enos in order to give his job to a crooked new deputy, Billy Joe Coogan. She sighed recalling Scanlon: it seemed L.A. brought just troubles to Enos and Hazzard.
His arms still folded, Luke shook his head in disbelief, "I can't believe Boss asked US to help him for money!"
"I can't believe Boss asked US to betray Enos for money," Bo completed Luke's statement, sharing the same disgust and disbelief.
"And I can't believe Boss threatened Enos to fire him," Daisy pointed out another important point, "and I bet Boss is goin' to threaten Enos using our mortgage."
"And, if Enos can accept to lose his job to follow his idea, he wouldn't be so sure to deny that interview if the price to pay was our mortgage. He thinks of other people before than himself."
Uncle Jesse was right, and everybody pondered on those words.
"We aren't goin' to let Enos sacrifice himself for us. He's already suffered too much," Bo nodded, "We're able to take care of us, and of our mortgage. If he doesn't want to talk to that journalist, he can't be obliged to do it. We won't let Boss use our mortgage against him, and we won't let Boss fire him."
Luke, Daisy and uncle Jesse nodded after Bo's words, chorusing a sure and prideful "Oh yeah!"
When Enos parked his patrol car in front of the Hazzard Police Department the sun was setting.
Walking to the building he thought of Boss' words, shaking his head: he didn't want to talk with that journalist, he didn't want to be used for an attack against LAPD, and he wouldn't have given any interview, though it would have cost him his job.
As soon as he entered the room, Rosco handed him out a paper, "Look at this," and Enos noticed a serious look on his face.
"What?" Taking the paper from Rosco's hand, Enos at the same time read and listened to the Sheriff, Rosco's voice echoing what Enos was reading.
"A dispatch. From the Marion County Sheriff. A bomb exploded in his County, and it seems the bomber is from L.A., same hand. Do you remember a case about a bomber, in L.A.?"
Enos gave the dispatch back to Rosco as his mouth was becoming dry, a pesky presentiment mixed with a pesky memory facing to his mind, "Yeah… but not so much. I was… in Hospital when that bomber started his action. I know it by newspapers, nothing more."
"Marion County Sheriff sent this dispatch to any Sheriff, in Georgia, just in case…," a silence full of meaning and dense like a dark cloud remained suspended in the room before Rosco kept on talking, "… anyway, LAPD's detectives are helping to stop the bomber."
"LAPD's detectives? Helping? Does it mean they're here, in Georgia?" Enos' voice softened, becoming more a whisper to himself than a real question to Rosco.
"They're out jurisdiction, it's true, but that bomber is from L.A., they're catching him, and they're goin' to help Georgia's Sheriffs."
"Uh, yeah, I understand," Enos tried to smile, "We have just to hope this bomber isn't goin' to come to Hazzard." The idea of collaborating with LAPD's detectives was strange, to him: he didn't want those detectives recalled him his time in L.A., but at the same time he wanted to dispel those memories thanks to new good memories about LAPD's cops.
Detectives. His mind went back to the two who questioned him about the beating, when he was in Hospital. He remembered their eyes, cold eyes, but he barely remembered their names: Malice? Malone? Something starting with M for the one with dark eyes. And the ones with blue eyes… what's his name? Something about guns, his name recalled him guns, but he was confused about the meaning of that recall.
Thousands of icy ants walked from the bottom of his spine up to his nape, and his hair stood up in fear.
"May I read again that dispatch, Sheriff?" He reached out his arm to take that paper from Rosco's hand, two names written at the end of that dispatch hitched on in his subconscious along his previous quick read, and now they were worming in order to have his attention, facing from his subconscious to his full conscience.
At the end of the dispatch the names of the two detectives to call… "just in case…"
Rick MOLISE (not Malice or Malone): the one with dark eyes.
James COLT (Colt… a gun… it was the referring to guns he was trying to recall): the one with blue eyes.
An abyss of terrific possibilities opened up under Enos' feet.