Trust in Me

Chapter 4: Deception

"Well, well, well and well. What do we have here? Boss asked Roscoe as he led Bo into his office in cuffs.

Gook, gook, gook Roscoe laughed. "What we have here little fat buddy is a naughty Duke boy. Done cuffed 'em gonna stuff 'em."

"Oh? Why what on earth could this fine boy have done?"

"I didn't do nothin'. " Bo told him.

Roscoe frowned at the boy. "Bo."

"Yeah?"

"Hush."

"But…"

"I said hush and I mean hush. Don't make me add resistin' arrest and bein' disrespectful to an officer to everythin' else." Roscoe said shaking his finger at Bo.

"Now Roscoe just what are the charges?" Boss asked smiling at his brother-in-law.

"Possession of mara-guana and illegal liquor."

"Ahhh." Boss gasped. Frowning at Bo he said. "Bo Duke, Ida never a thought it of you."

"Yeah, that's a definite no-no. Naughty, naughty." Roscoe added.

"It wasn't me, Boss. I swear it."

"It was in ya locker." Roscoe reminded him.

"His locker? At the school?" Boss gasped again.

"That's right my little chrome dome." Roscoe snickered sitting the items on the desk in front of him.

Boss looked across at the nervous young man. "So you claim it ain't yours?" he asked opening the shine.

"No sir, it ain't."

Smelling the contents he frowned. "Well boy, I thought Jesse done taught ya not to lie."

"I ain't lyin'."

"This here is Jesse's shine, and we all know that no one can get their hands on Jesse's shine but a Duke. So if it ain't yours tell me how it got in ya locker."

Silence

"Well guess there's nothin' else for me to do but call Jesse and have him come down here." Boss stated.

"Want me to stuff'em til Jesse gets here?"

"After the call. I'm sure Bo wants to hear what I'm gonna tell his uncle." Boss said picking up the phone and dialing the number.

'If ya thought things were bad before, just look at it now. Ole Bo just can win fer losin'. I got a feelin' it's only gonna get worse… for all the Dukes.'

Daisy rushed to the phone and grabbed it. "Duke farm, this is Daisy."

This is J.D. Hogg callin'. I need to talk to Jesse."

"Boss, Uncle Jesse and Luke are out workin' on the tractor right now. Is this important?"

"I'm sure Jesse'll think so."

"Alright hold on." Daisy laid the phone down and opened the back door. "UNCLE JESSE… PHONE!"

"Who is it Daisy?" Jesse asked as he and Luke entered the kitchen.

"It's Boss. He says it's important."

Picking up the phone Jesse said. "What is it J.D.? It ain't time for the mortgage yet."

"Jesse, this ain't got nothin' to do with ya mortgage. I need ya to come on down to my office here in town. We got somethin' to discuss."

"What could we possibly have to talk about, J.D.? I got things to do here. I ain't got time for none of ya nonsense." Jesse stated.

"Well, now if ya ain't got the time right now, I guess I can just let Roscoe put Bo in one of the cells here til ya do."

"WHAT! J.D. you'd better start to talkin' and ya better start it now. What ya mean, put Bo in one of the cells?" Jesse yelled, which brought Luke and Daisy to his side.

"Calm down Jesse. I ain't the one that deserves ya anger, Bo is. We got a call last night that the boy was messin' around with drugs, so Roscoe searched his locker this mornin' and found not only drugs but some shine too."

"That's bull… malarkey and ya know it J.D. Bo wouldn't…"

"Believe what ya wanna, but we got the stuff right here on my desk. And Jesse… it's your shine." Boss said, wishing he could see the man's face.

"I'm on my way." Jesse said hanging up the phone.

Luke noticed that Jesse looked as though someone had hit him. "Uncle Jesse. What is it?"

His back still to Luke and Daisy, he sighed. "Looks like we coulda been wrong yesterday. Roscoe found some more marijuana in Bo's locker this mornin'."

"Any one could have put it there." Daisy said looking at Luke for help.

"That wasn't all. They found some shine in it too."

"So?" Luke asked.

Turning to face them Jesse finished. "It was my shine. No one coulda got to it but one of us. I better go and get the boy."

"Come on, I'll drive ya. I wanna see this so called proof they got." Luke said following his uncle out the door.

Jesse and Luke walked into Boss' office looking around to see if Bo was there. "Where's my nephew, J.D.?" Jesse asked.

"Have a seat Jesse." Boss said smiling.

"I don't wanna sit down. I just wanna see this stuff ya say ya found and take Bo home."

Sitting down behind his desk, Boss pushed the intercom button. "Roscoe, bring Bo Duke in here." Opening his desk drawer, Boss pulled out the bag containing the marijuana and the pint jar of shine. "Here they are."

Jesse picked up the jar and opened it. Taking a sniff, he sighed. He was closing it as the door opened and Roscoe walked in leading Bo. Jesse noticed that the boy was doing all he could to hold himself together. He looked so young and scared and Jesse's heart broke at the site of him. Luke walked over to stand beside his uncle. He too could see how upset his young cousin was.

"Get on over here Bo." Jesse said.

Bo walked over and stood in front of his uncle. "Yes sir?" he said just above a whisper.

"Did Roscoe find this here stuff in ya locker?"

"Yes sir."

"Is it yours, boy?" Jesse asked.

"No sir. I promise ya it ain't, Uncle Jesse. I don't know how it got there."

"His locker was locked, Jesse." Roscoe offered.

"Hush up Roscoe. I didn't ask ya nothin'." Jesse snapped. Turning back to his nephew, he continued. "I wanna believe ya boy, but I'm havin' trouble with it. This here's my shine, and I don't see as how anyone else coulda got their hands on it. Now, I'm gonna ask ya one more time, and I want the truth. Is this here stuff yours?"

Bo looked up at his uncle seeing the disappointment in his eyes. "I swear it ain't Uncle Jesse."

Jesse sighed. He would believe the boy fully if it wasn't for the shine. He had hoped that Bo would just own up to it and they could put it behind them. "Well J.D. what now?" Jesse asked.

"Jesse, I'm sure you don't want this out, so we can just handle it between us if ya want." Boss offered, thinking of how his plan was coming together.

"Alright. How?"

"We won't press charges and you won't haveta pay anythin' if Bo here works for me. You know to pay back the community he was endangerin'."

Jesse knew what could happen to the boy should Boss take it further. Nodding his head, he agreed. "Alright. How long?"

"But Uncle Jesse…" Bo started to protest.

"Hush up boy." Jesse told him.

"A hundred hours, right here with me and Roscoe."

"That's kinda steep ain't it, Boss?" Luke asked

"It's that or…"

"He'll do it, J.D. Now can I take the boy on home?" Jesse asked.

"Yes you can, Jesse. I'm sure you have your own talkin' to do with the boy. I just couldn't believe he'd do a thing like this." Boss said shaking his head.

"Let's go boys." Jesse said as he walked over to the door. "When's he need to start?"

"Friday after school will be fine." Boss said as he watched them leaving.

"We did it, we did it, Roscoe." Boss laughed.

Gook, gook. "We did it alright. Ahhh… ahhh… Just what exactly did we do?" Roscoe asked.

"Startin' Friday, Bo Duke will be drivin' my shine into Chickasaw county."

"How ya plannin' on gettin' the boy to do it, Boss?"

"He'll think he's takin' a load of fertilizer over to a customer, but it'll be shine he's ahaulin'."

"Ohhh… Ohhh… I love it, I love it. But what if he gets caught?"

"Ain't likely to happen. What with his baby face, ain't no one gonna suspect him of runnin' shine. It's perfect. I'm gonna be rich."

"We're gonna be rich." Roscoe corrected him.

"Yes, yes, we're gonna be rich. I'm gonna split this with ya just like always."

"50-50?" Roscoe smiled. Seeing the frown on Boss' face he said. "60-40?" Still nothing. "90-10?"

Smiling, Boss nodded his head. "90-10."

'Well guess we know what the plan is now, just wonder the Dukes will figure it out before it's too late? Ya'll stick around to find out.'