"Into the trees, past meadow grounds,
and further away from my home;
Baying behind me, I hear the hounds -
flock's chasing to find me alone..."
-Opeth, Harlequin Forest
At ten minutes after two in the morning, the report of a missing prisoner was called into the Georgia Department of Corrections from a little town in Northeast Georgia. Fifteen minutes later (after Cooter Davenport had sprayed the steps to his loft and adjoining sidewalk with bleach) a Tactical Squad and Correctional Emergency Response Team was dispatched to the area under the supervision of GBI's Regional Director, Special Agent Jack Warren. By 3:30 am, Hazzard Square had lit up like a Christmas tree.
The senior members of the GBI's Atlanta field office, including Special Agents Robert WIlburn and Tim Stewart had set up their base of operations in the booking station of the Hazzard County Sheriff's Department, the bulletin board behind them re-purposed for tracking down Death Row inmate, former Hazzard County Deputy Benjamin Strate. A current photograph of him, from his intake at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, as well as an enlarged head-shot from his Driver's License, were tacked to the board.
Jack Warren was a no-nonsense guy. A hard-nosed cop who had grown up in the hard-knock community of College Park in the suburbs of Atlanta, he had little sympathy for criminals and even less for rotten ex-cops. He scanned over the information they had concerning the fugitive.
"Dammit, Bob, why in God's name didn't they take him back to Jackson after sentencing? Lazy-as$ son's of b*tches! Isn't this the town you and Tim had such a hard time finding someone to say anything against him?"
"He's pretty popular with the locals, Jack," said Agent Wilburn.
"Alright, well, let's review what we've got going right now."
Agent Wilburn ticked off their investigation thus far. "The cell keys were found in the cell beside the bunk along with a set of hand-cuffs," he said. "No sign of the shackles, yet. The gun in the adjacent cell was empty. We printed it and found both Mr. Strate and Deputy Duke's on it, it was registered to the Sheriff, Rosco Purvis Coltrane."
"Speaking of him... Tim, have you heard from the guys down in Greene County, yet?"
Agent Tim Steward laid a piece of paper with hand-scribbled notes down on the desk. "I just got off the phone with Sheriff Yates. Apparently it's all on the up and up with Sheriff Coltrane being at Lake Oconee. He checked in yesterday evening, but his sister, brother in law, and Deputy Hogg all checked in at their hotel early Thursday morning. He said there was no one qualified to work except for Daisy Duke. That checks out, too, she spent some time about five years ago as a Deputy and records show that she was re-hired in February. Doesn't sound like there's too much love lost between him and any of the Duke family, though. I don't think he'd protect her."
"Wasn't she Strate's girlfriend?"
"You ain't gotta lot of choices around here, I suppose," said Stewart, "He said he wasn't worried about putting her on since all the State guys were around, but we're pretty sure she was the one who sprung him. We've got an APB out on her vehicle; a white, 1980, Jeep CJ-7."
"What about Strate's family?"
Agent Wilburn shook his head. "Just his mother, and she wouldn't care if he rotted in prison, just so nobody took her TV and cigarettes. The State Police have a chopper doing some preliminary fly-overs. Hopefully they'll pick up on something now that it's getting light outside, but if starts raining, we may have to call them in."
"Has anyone gone out to the girl's place, yet?"
"We were just about to head out," said Agent Wilburn.
Jack handed them a copy of the search warrant. "Take some officers with you, just in case."
The sound became louder, closer, and Enos grabbed Daisy's hand and fled with her down the mine. She caught up and led the way, past a tunnel where the weak light of early morning filtered in from an entrance to the mine. Then the shaft began to tilt downward again, going deeper underground until finally they could no longer feel the vibration from the helicopter.
They stopped to catch their breath.
"You think they came in?" she asked.
"Probably not, but we'd better keep going. Most likely they're just scouting with the helicopter. What time is it?"
Daisy glanced at her watch. "Just after five."
"It's still too dark for them to see much. Daisy, be straight with me...how far away are we gonna be once we get out?"
"We'll come out up at Black Snake Quarry, by Lake Choocha-Cooble. There's a truck there."
He looked surprised. "A truck? Daisy, please tell me it ain't Uncle Jesse's."
"No," she assured him, "nothing I'm doing goes back to Bo, Luke, or Uncle Jesse."
"Then who's is it?"
She bit her lip and looked away from him. "Look, Enos, there's...there's people that I promised wouldn't..."
"Wouldn't be implicated if we got caught?"
"I...I'm sorry... Enos, wait - "
He started to walk away from her, but forgot she was connected to him. His flight arrested, he opted for fight instead. "I know how to keep my mouth shut, Daisy. Dont'cha think maybe it's my business?"
"Please, Sugar, just let it go."
"Fine," he said. "Come on. We ain't getting anywhere standing around in one spot."
The sun had not yet risen when the black sedan of Agents Wilburn and Stewart and two State Police squad cars pulled up in front of the Duke farmhouse. The yard was bathed in the quiet, uniform grayness of early morning, and a light rain was beginning to fall as the two GBI agents walked up onto the porch and knocked on the door. Three State troopers fell in behind them.
Uncle Jesse had just woken and was already dressed when he heard the knock. He went to the kitchen and glanced out the window, alarmed at what he saw.
"Bo, Luke, Daisy," he shouted, "y'all better get up. We've got company." He opened the door.
"Morning, Mr. Duke," said Agent Stewart, "May I come in?"
Jesse looked past him to the troopers and the older Agent who he didn't recognize. "Uh...sure. Come on in." He held the door open for them. "Is there something I can help you with, Agent Stewart? Can I get y'all some coffee?"
"No, that won't be necessary. Mr. Duke, have you seen your niece this morning?"
"Well, now, I just woke up. She worked late, I reckon she's still in bed."
"If you don't mind, I need you to wake her up. There's some questions I need to ask her."
Jesse nodded. "I'll go check on her." He walked back through the kitchen and living room and stopped outside her room, a host of misgivings tugging at him. He knocked softly on the door. "Daisy? Daisy, honey?"
He waited a moment, but there was no answer. He turned the knob and opened her door a crack, and then all the way. Her bed was made, not slept in. Daisy wasn't here and the GBI and State police wanted to speak to her? He leaned heavily upon the door-frame, breaking out in a cold sweat, and knowing that something was very wrong.
"What's this all about, Uncle Jesse?" asked Bo. He and Luke stood in the middle of the living room, trading suspicious stares with the State Troopers.
Agent Stewart stepped into the doorway of Daisy's room. "Mr. Duke, we have a warrant to search the premises. I'm going to ask you and your nephews to go into the kitchen and wait for us there if you would."
Uncle Jesse turned towards him. "What's she done?" he asked, quietly.
"We believe she's harboring a fugitive, sir."
Two hours later, Daisy and Enos stood at the exit to the mine, looking out on a gray, overcast day. It had rained sometime earlier, the ground was wet with standing puddles, but it was doing nothing now. Still, Enos was reluctant to leave the safety of the mines until it was closer to dusk when the State Patrol would have to bring their choppers in for the day.
"It's just too dangerous," he told Daisy, "even if they aren't looking this far north yet, there's a chance someone might be. If they're flying low enough, they'd still see us. And I reckon we're both tired. It just makes sense to stay here for now and try to sleep if we can."
Daisy, who had put on a brave face for the last hour, was exhausted and knew Enos must be as well. "I think you're right. We can back-track far enough to keep safe and use the lantern if we need it."
And so it was settled. They retraced their steps for ten minutes and made camp in the old mine. Daisy shared out the beef-jerky she'd stuffed in her pack and, helping each other, they unrolled her makeshift sleeping bags.
The chain between them meant Enos couldn't take his own bedroll and disappear somewhere away from her in the shadows. He'd been obliged to arrange his beside hers, though he left a good two feet of space between them. Daisy placed the lantern a few feet beyond them and turned it down to where there was enough light to see and scare away any creepy crawlies, but it would save fuel for the return trip out to the quarry.
They lay on their sides, facing each other, their hands stretched across the distance between them, but not touching. She smiled sleepily at him.
"I'm sorry, Sugar. I know you ain't happy about me breaking you out...but...I had to." The last few words tumbled out softly as she closed her eyes, "I've missed you..." She was asleep before he could even answer her.
He watched her body rise and fall with her breathing, and tried to turn his thoughts back to planning how to get away from her instead of how incredibly beautiful she looked. Ever since she'd changed clothes, his exhausted mind had been taking off on daydreamy tangents. Of all the clothes she could have brought, why did she have to wear his blue flannel shirt?
After he'd lost his trial, he'd given up trying to keep her out of his head. His fantasies of her had been the only reprieve from his ongoing and never ending Hell, and he'd spent a great many hours dreaming up how to get her out of that shirt...
He groaned and rubbed his weary eyes. He needed to try and get the key. Her hair was still pulled back in a ponytail and he could see a piece of the blue ribbon showing above her collar. If he could manage to pull it out and unlock himself, he was close enough to the quarry that he could make it there with just her flashlight.
When he was sure that she must be deeply asleep, he scooted closer to her, propping himself up on one elbow. With his right hand, he took hold of the ribbon and pulled it slowly from beneath her shirt. It was nearly out when it caught on something. He tugged a little harder, and the key slipped out from around her neck – along with a gold chain it had been tangled with. His hand stopped, frozen in place, for on the chain hung their wedding rings.
Their gold shone richly in the dim light from the lantern. Confused, Enos dropped the ribbon and backed away from her.
The day she'd given her ring back to him was forever etched in his memory. "For safe keeping," she'd said. He had asked her no questions, just acted like he believed her. It had confirmed all his suspicions – that she'd only wanted to marry him to spare him from going to jail, and then to spare herself from the embarrassment of having to admit as much to him.
When he'd kissed her in the courtroom, he had imagined that she'd felt something for him. But afterwards, in the long, lonely months in solitude, he became convinced that the love in her eyes had been only his mind playing tricks on him.
He thought that she'd rescued him out of pity...but...
"She cares about you a lot more than you think she does," Rosco had told him.
Enos thought back over all the visits and all the time she'd spent on him over many months; bringing him pictures, reading the paper, just talking - anything she could think of to make him feel better. Gary said that she'd visited every prison in the state searching for him after he'd left Fulton and that she'd never given up hope of finding him alive somewhere. (He hadn't known that everyone thought he was dead.)
Then there was this escape, which was no half-ditch effort. He knew she'd spent every waking moment planning it for the last several weeks. She wasn't stupid. She had to know what she would be giving up. But... for what?
None of what she had given up was worth his freedom, and if she was operating under the mistaken belief that it was, it made his plan of getting away from her and turning himself in even harder. It meant that he would have to change her mind first - to make her see that he wasn't worth saving so that she would never attempt it again. It was the best protection he could offer.