After Enos left the burned out farm house Luke headed over to the main farm to talk to his uncle and Jebb and fill them in on what he'd learned.
"The best that they can figure, there were two points if origin for the fire."
"Two?" Jesse asked in confusion. "Where did it start?"
"According to the investigator there was a fire started at the center of each of the stair wells. That drew the flames and the smoke on up to the second floor."
Jebb listened intently as he inferred what his cousin was implying with a hard look on his face. "Someone set that fire on purpose, knowing that the kids were up there."
Jo had joined the rest of the Dukes after she'd dropped Faith off at school. Once she'd gotten back out to the farm she learned that Jesse had sent Kim and Bo to get some rest since they had yet to get any rest since the fire broke out. When she heard that someone tried to kill the young Duke Children she was both terrified at the idea and angry. "Why would anyone want to do that to the kids? What kind of evil person would want to harm children? Much less kill them in their sleep?"
Luke put his hand on his wife's hand while they sat next to one another at the kitchen table. "Enos told me that he contacted Shawn Kyle's parole officer. He is supposed to be bringing him in for a sit down and chat to see if he can explain where he's been for the last twenty-four hours."
"You think that he's behind the fire?" Jo asked.
Luke nodded. "I can't think of anyone else who would be evil enough to want to kill the kids."
Jebb lowered his head as he thought about what could have happened the night before. "So how do we find him?"
Jesse's brow raised. He tried to sound stern but secretly he was glad to see this side of Jebb sneaking back. "We? I hate to tell you this but according to Kim you're goin' to be in that chair for over a week, maybe two, until the burns on your feet heal up."
"Besides," Luke added, "He lives all the way in Atlanta. He likely headed back there right after setting the fire. We'll have to let the Atlanta police department deal with him there. Right now, what we have to concentrate on is-" Luke was interrupted by the sound of the General pulling up and braking hard right in front of the house. It was quickly followed by Bo running inside at high speed, all out of breath. Luke had seen that look in Bo's eyes before. "Bo, what's wrong?"
"I think that Kira's in a junkyard! Come on, we've got to go looking for her," Bo shouted as he tugged on his cousin's arm.
"What makes you think that she's in a junkyard?" Luke asked since Bo's declaration seemed to come out of nowhere. "Did you talk to Kira?"
"Not exactly. I had this dream and well-"
"Whoa! Hold up?" Jebb asked as he tried to get both of his cousins' attention while Kim entered the kitchen after having gotten out of the General Lee at a more sedate fashion than her husband. "Luke, why would you ask Bo if he's talked to Kira if we don't know where she is?"
The Dukes all exchanged looks with one another. While Jebb was healing up they had purposefully neglected to fill him in in the unusual trait of some of the twins in the Duke Family possess. They had felt that, at the time, Jebb had enough on his plate while trying to trigger his past memories. Then as time wore on, it had just been forgotten that he was no longer privy to that detail regarding Kira and Bo as well as Jay and Mikey.
Jesse decided that he'd take it upon himself to answer his nephew's question. "It all started with my brothers, Michael and Jeremiah. They were twins, just like Bo and Kira; just like Mikey and Jay." Jesse raised his hand to stop Jebb's question in his eyes from making it to his lips since he knew that Jebb couldn't see the connection between them as of yet. "They were born with an uncanny connection. One might even say supernatural. I've heard of other twins who seemed to know when their twin was hurt, or even had died, from miles away since ;but growing up, my brothers were the only ones whom I knew of first hand. They had a connection that allowed them to know when the other was hurt or sad; even allowed them to carry on whole conversations without having to utter a single word." Jesse motioned toward Bo before he continued. "Do you remember when you and Bo were younger? Do you remember that Bo had, what we thought was, an imaginary friend?"
Jebb looked confused as he replied, "Yes. Luke and I used to tease him that he'd invented a friend who was girl."
"Do you remember what her name was?" Jesse prodded.
"That was a long time ago... Let's see... I think it was-" Jebb looked sharply between his cousin and uncle as he recalled that Bo's imaginary friend's name had been Kira. "Wait a minute! You're not sayin'-"
Jesse nodded. "The same Kira that we later found to be his long-lost sister."
Bo watched as his cousin took in what he'd just been told. He figured that Jebb might as well learn the rest of it, too. "It seems to be passed down from one twin with the ability to another set. Mikey and Jay have it, as well. It's one reason why Kira had the boy's placed into separate classes this year. The temptation to help one another out on tests seemed to be a bit too much for them."
"Prove it." Jebb couldn't believe what he was being told about not only his wife and cousin but his children as well.
"We can do that later," Luke interjected. "Now, Bo, what's this about a dream? What did you see? What makes you think that she's in a junkyard?"
Bo pulled out the slip of paper that he'd jotted down what he could remember when he woke up from his dream. He hadn't wanted to miss any detail. "It's dark and cramped, like a trunk. I clearly heard the sound of mechanical gears grinding and the sound of metal crunching. The kind of sound that a car crusher makes. I smelled oil, grease, and gasoline. What other place would fit?"
Luke thought hard on what his cousin was telling him. "Even if you're right, there's three junkyards in and around Hazzard alone. And we have no idea if Kira is even in Hazzard, any longer. And if she's in a trunk, do you know how many cars could be in a single junkyard? It could take days just going through all the cars in one of them."
"I thought of that. But if I get close enough, hopefully I can sense her a bit. Kira and I have worked on this some over the last few years. Then if we don't find her here in Hazzard then we just head toward Atlanta and try the junkyards between here and there. Not to mention, we can ask the operators of the junkyards if anything is out of place."
That comment caught Jo by surprise and had to ask, "How would anyone know if something is out of place in a junkyard?"
Luke took it upon himself to explain to his wife, not being able to hold back a smirk. "Junkyards have an order to the chaos. Otherwise they wouldn't be useful for folks when they need to buy a part for their car. So scrapped bodies with decent parts won't be in the same sections as cars that are good shells but have had anything worthwhile stripped already. That way when you go in and look for a decent chassis you'd go to one area while if you need a transmission, you'd go to another section. If someone took a car to a junkyard with the intent to hide it, they wouldn't know the system of that particular junkyard. They'd hide it not realizing that there are indicators that it shouldn't be there."
Jo took in the explanation and nodded. Her husband and cousins have practically grown up around junkyards, tinkering with cars and car parts for most of their lives.
"One thing that we need to do, first," Jebb spoke up from where he'd been mulling over the fact that it seemed that the kids were nearly in as much danger as Kira was from this man who appears to have kidnapped her. "We have to get the kids out of Hazzard. Just in case this Shawn Kyle guy comes back. If he planned to kill them last night, he might come back when he hears that he didn't succeed. Uncle Jesse, I think that you should take them to my parents'."
"But if he is close enough to know that the kids survived he'd be close enough to find out where we might take them," Kim spoke up instead from where she'd started to change Jebb's bandages.
"Do you have any other suggestions?" Jebb asked from his chair as he winced as the wraps were pulled away from his raw flesh.
"I think I do. A good place to hide that no one who hadn't grown up in Hazzard would think of."
Luke's eyes lit up at what he felt Kim was suggesting. "The old Indian caves."
Kim nodded, "There are hundreds of them and if someone didn't know exactly which one the kids were in, they could search for weeks and never find them."
"The cave that I gave birth to Faith in," Jo piped in as she recalled the cave that Kim had taken her to in an effort to escape a tornado when she was in labor. I can stay out there with the kids until it's safe to bring them back out to the house. I'll just make sure that I get my gun to keep on me just on the off chance that he shows up."
Luke knew that his wife would be very capable of protecting the kids; being a former Marine, herself. "I'll go out with you to set up some old shiner's early warning systems to let you know if anyone is getting close and get you and the kids settled in. Daisy can pick Faith up when she get's Jimmy. Don't be surprised if she decides to join you with them. We'll go ahead and get everything together and prepare for them to join these three, as well. Just in case." Luke turned toward Bo and directed, "You head out to town and pick up Cooter. He knows about you and Kira and he'd be able to help you with the junkyard that he and his cousins run. I'll catch up to you when I get the kids and Jo settled in."
Bo wanted his cousin to join him but he understood that at the moment he was needed to help secure the children. Especially since they didn't know where Shawn Kyle was at the moment. And since Cooter had been a part of the search for Kira during her kidnapping nearly nine years ago he would be able to help in this search without asking any questions about why Bo would want to search some areas and discount others.
"Alright. Take your time. Make sure that the boys and Crystal are safe. I'll report in if we find anything." With that Bo turned and headed out to the General and raced to town.
Once Bo was gone Luke and Jesse started to get some supplies together that Jo and the children would need. While they were busy doing that Jo went to her and Luke's house to gather a few things as well while Jebb pulled the kids aside to talk to them. Once he did he realized that Jay had been eavesdropping and had heard the adults discuss their plans while his older brother had been keeping Crystal occupied.
"Is momma goin' to be alright?" Jay asked as Jebb pulled Crystal into his lap.
Jebb saw the look of concern on the young boy's face. He wanted to tell them anything other than the fact that he just didn't know. "She will be if your uncles have any say in it. Now, the three of you are goin' to go camping with your Aunt Jo. When you come back, all of this will be settled and-"
"Why would someone want to burn our house down?" Jay asked since he'd heard his Uncle Luke tell the rest that the fire hadn't been an accident. "Is that why we're goin' campin'? So the man doesn't burn this house, too?"
Jebb closed his eyes momentarily as he tried to figure out how to explain this very complicated situation to the children since all three of them were now looking to him for answers. Somehow, those eyes boring into him made him feel more helpless than sitting in the wheelchair with burned feet.
"You heard all that, huh?"
Jay nodded before tilting his head to listen as his uncles quickly gathered together some of their clothes that had been kept at the house for sleepovers or accidents as well as food from the kitchen. All of it was being taken out to their Uncle Jesse's pickup truck to take it and them out toward the Indian caves. His parents have taken them out to some before. At that time it had been for some fun, but he and the other children had been told to never go in them without their parents so that they wouldn't get lost in them.
"Jaybird, I don't know what would make a person do such bad things. But since there's someone like that around, we're goin' to make sure that you and the others are safe until he can't do anymore bad things. Your Aunt Jo will watch over you while your uncles find your mother and make sure she's safe, too. For now, just think of your campin' trip as an adventure. And, hey, you are going to get to stay out of school during this, too. So there's that, right?"
The boys exchanged looks with one another. Somehow, their father didn't sound so convinced that everything would turn out alright. That in turn meant that they weren't convinced. But for their sister's sake, they didn't say anything else.
