Yeah, Jud's got himself in another mess. See? I told you it would be eventually be obvious who was in trouble. ;) (Yep, you called it, Jackie!) I started writing this story when I was still finishing up "Lights"…I'd seen the episode with Jud, but it had been a while. But it just recently aired again on CMT within the last few weeks—now I remember what he looks and talks like! Quite convenient, no? :)
- Flynne
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- Chapter Five -
"Not exactly Sherlock Holmes"
"Luke, I'll have you know this here's the biggest favor you've asked of me," Cooter complained good-naturedly. "It's one thing to ask me to tag along while you raise hell—you know you can count me in. But it's a whole other ball game to ask me to wear a suit while I'm doin' it."
Luke smirked and rolled his eyes. "Cooter…I'm breakin' probation right now. Do you have any idea what Boss is gonna say if he finds out I'm gone? If I can put up with threats of a striped uniform and my next ten years behind bars, you can handle a few hours when you ain't covered in grease. Besides, you look awful pretty when you get cleaned up."
Cooter scowled and leaned forward to the front seat to slug him in the arm. "And you just look plain awful." Luke and Jud laughed. The three men were riding in Jud's car—with the license plate from Daisy' Jeep, since the police would be on the lookout for Jud's plate. Jud had suggested that the three of them wear business clothes—at least until they were through at Clayton's office—so as not to draw too much attention to themselves.
"Hey, do Jesse and Daisy know where you're goin'?" the mechanic asked from the backseat.
Luke nodded. "They woke up when we were gettin' ready to leave. Weren't too happy that we were leavin', but they know there ain't much else we can do. Daisy threatened to scalp me if I didn't call the minute we found Bo."
"Hm." Cooter rubbed his freshly-shaved chin, unconsciously feeling for stubble that wasn't there. "She'd do it, too."
"Our exit's coming up, boys," Jud put in, glancing over his shoulder as he started to change lanes. He drove downtown and found Clayton's office building from memory. He parked a couple blocks away and put enough change in the parking meter for half an hour.
"I'm going in the front door," he said. "You boys will have to find your own way in. If things get hairy and we've gotta run for it, head for the car. Oh, and skip the tenth floor. That's where Clayton has his office. Let me look around up there."
Cooter cleared his throat. "If I can make a suggestion…you fellas need to stay away from each other. Clayton may think that he's got Luke, but once he gets a look at the two of you, he'll know he got the wrong guy. Ain't no question that you're related. Y'all look too much alike."
Luke nodded. "Point taken."
Jud exhaled heavily. "Here goes nothing."
Luke and Cooter stayed behind while Jud headed down the street towards Clayton's building. After five minutes they started off, veering a block or two west so they could come in behind the building. A narrow alley lined with dumpsters ran between Clayton's building and the office behind it.
"Hey, check it out." Cooter tagged Luke with the back of his hand, pointing up with the other. "Fire escape."
Luke smiled grimly. "Too easy. You think they'd have someone watchin' it?"
Cooter shrugged. "Only way to find out is to try." He tipped his head back. "I'm guessin' you need a boost?" The rusty iron ladder hovered a good ten feet off the ground.
"If you can handle it."
"'If I can handle it,' he says," Cooter scoffed. He braced himself and formed a stirrup with his hands. Luke stepped onto his palms and jumped up as Cooter pushed up against his feet. His fingers closed around the cold black iron, pulling it down with him as he fell back to the ground. Both men winced at the metallic screech the rarely-used stairway made as the ladder extended, looking anxiously up at the second-floor windows. When several minutes had passed and they saw no sign that they had been noticed, they decided to climb on up.
"After you, Lucas." Cooter waited until Luke had reached the first landing before he climbed up and carefully pulled the ladder up behind him. He looked up to the roof of the building. "We startin' at the top?"
Luke shrugged. "May as well. We can work our way back down." He led the way up the fire escape. They went slowly, pausing as they passed each window, careful not to make too much noise on the metal stairs. When they reached the top floor, Luke carefully and silently slid the window open. He climbed nimbly inside and surveyed the room as Cooter followed him.
"Well. Looks like you had some good luck for once," Cooter observed. "Empty room."
"Yeah. One down, about a million to go," Luke exaggerated. "Let's get started. And whatever you do, don't look sneaky. If you look like you belong, nobody'll bug you."
"You hope," Cooter amended.
Luke nodded nervously. "I hope."
xxxxx
"Well, Jud, I must say I never expected you to be so stubborn about contract negotiations. Particularly since you don't have much choice in the matter," Clayton observed critically.
Jud refused to be intimidated. "I'm going along with you to save my brother's life. Anything past that is to save my own. I'm not gonna be one of your pawns."
Clayton narrowed his eyes. "Anyone who works for me works for me, on my terms. Don't make me bring Luke here and have him cut apart bit by bit until you sign on the dotted line. I will do it, Jud. How long can you hold out when he starts begging you to give in?" Jud flinched, and Clayton knew he had struck a nerve. The young man knew him too well to doubt that he would carry out his threat, and the businessman could hear the faint note of desperation that crept into his voice.
"Listen, all you want is the money, right? Just give me a little more time!—a month, a week, anything. I'll sell everything I can get rid of…just wait a little longer. I've been trying to pay you back, remember? You're not hurting for cash—what's wrong with you?"
"It's too late for that. I don't want your money anymore. You missed your deadline; someone is going to pay for it. Decide now. Will it be you or your brother?"
Jud was trapped, and he knew it. The idea of being indentured to a crook like Clayton sickened him, but the threat of torture hovering over Bo's head was too much for him to take. He let out a defeated sigh. "Okay," he said dully. "Push that contract over here. I'll sign."
The gleam of triumph lit in Clayton's eyes as he opened his desk drawer to reach for the paper, but he was interrupted by the intercom. He shut the drawer and reached out to press the button on his desk. "Yes?"
Hacker's voice came over the speaker. "We've got a situation, Mr. Clayton. Strangers in the building. Security tried to take them down, but they ran."
It took Clayton a handful of seconds to come to the conclusion that Jud was somehow connected, and a split second later his hand was inside his jacket, reaching for his gun.
Jud didn't wait around for Clayton to shoot him. He was on his feet before Clayton had completed the movement and bolted from the room, bowling over the two men standing guard in the hallway in a mad dash for the exit.
xxxxx
Luke and Cooter had made it down to the eighth floor without suspicion. They had thoroughly searched the top two floors of the building, both of which were used for storage and echoed silently as they walked through the corridors. The next few floors were offices. Most doors had glass panels, and they could see the employees working inside.
When they got to the eighth floor, it was quiet again. Many of the lights were off, and much of the floor was taken up by glassed-in conference rooms.
"Don't look like we'll find him here," Cooter observed quietly. Luke made a shushing gesture with his hand. The smell of coffee and the faint rumble of voices had reached him at the same instant. He could see a light shining from an open doorway and could hear men talking on their break.
"Ain't nobody workin' on this floor," Luke whispered. "Must be those security guards Jud warned us about. Come on, just walk past and maybe they won't notice us." They walked quickly but casually past the open doorway. They had nearly reached the end of the long hallway and Luke was beginning to think they had succeeded when he heard a voice behind him.
"Hey, just a minute…where do you think you're going?" One of the guards had stepped out of the break room and was staring down the hallway after them.
Luke gulped just a bit and turned around, casually jerking his thumb toward the stairwell. "Just on our way downstairs," he said conversationally.
The security guard looked him up and down. "Where's your ID badge?"
"We forgot 'em," Cooter put in. Immediately the guard drew his gun. "Whoa, now!" the mechanic remarked, putting up his hands. "Awful testy about a couple of nametags, ain't ya?"
The guard took a step forward. "You'll both have to come with me."
"Come on," Luke said. "We're just cutting through."
The flash from the muzzle and a soft thud were the only indication that the gun had been fired. The glass of the office window behind Cooter's head shattered, spattering the area with razor-sharp shards. Cooter let out a yelp and ducked, grabbing Luke by the shoulder and hauling him away. A second bullet buried itself in the wall in a cloud of drywall dust as the two men fled toward the stairs.
"The gun's got a silencer!" Luke hissed. "Come on!" The hallway light fixture exploded in a shower of sparks as a third bullet went wide. Luke barreled through the fire door to the stairs and pounded down the steps.
"Luke, down there!" Cooter warned. The door two landings below flew open and two armed men charged up the stairs toward them. Luke just kept going. The two men were going to hit the next landing at the same time he was—so he grabbed the railing with one hand and vaulted over, both feet striking the first man in the chest as he landed. The man fell back and slammed his partner against the wall, guns clattering to the ground. Cooter was right behind him. He kicked the dropped weapons down the stairs as Luke dispatched the stunned security guards with a clean punch to the jaw.
Footsteps were clattering down the stairs above them, mingled with shouts of alarm. Hearts pounding, Luke and Cooter raced down the steps two at a time. When the reached the landing to the second floor, Cooter suddenly snagged Luke's arm and pulled him out of the stairwell. They careened into the hallway and ducked into the first door they came to, slamming it shut.
"Well, how 'bout your Davenport luck?" Cooter said, pleased with himself. "Better'n Duke luck this time around, I'd say; another empty room."
"Talk about luck—you're lucky that trigger-happy yahoo upstairs is a lousy shot!" Luke said. "But where does this get us? We gotta get outta here."
"Use your noodle," the mechanic replied. "They know we was in the stairwell. So all they gotta do is wait for us to come bustin' out on the first floor and they've got us. We've gotta get back out the way we came in."
"Good thinking. Know where that is?"
"I think we're on the same side of the building, but the fire escape ain't by this window." Cooter crossed the room and pressed his face against the glass. "There's the alley, though."
The sudden pounding of footsteps in the hallway made them look up in alarm. "Only a couple minutes before they find us," Luke said, glancing at the door.
"Well, come on, then." Cooter slid the window open. "There ain't no stairs, but there's a dumpster down there. We'll have to jump it."
The door behind them banged open.
"Go!" Luke yelled. Cooter flung himself out the window with Luke just behind. They landed with a crunch in the full dumpster below, struggling to climb out of the rusty green bin as bullets ricocheted off the metal sides with a clangthat echoed down the alley. As soon as Luke's feet hit the ground, he grabbed Cooter's hand and hauled his friend the rest of the way out, leading a headlong sprint to the street. They collided with someone running the other way, and Luke instinctively grabbed the man's collar and drew back for a blow.
"Whoa, Luke, it's me!" Luke recognized his brother just in time to pull his punch. Jud gave Luke and Cooter a shove back the way they had come. "Go on, head that way," he said breathlessly. "Too many people on my tail back there."
The three men sprinted out of the alley and into the street, disregarding the curious stares that followed as they ran. They didn't see the pair of hard gray eyes staring shrewdly after them from the second-storey window.
xxxxx
Robert Clayton paced around his office, forcing his movements to remain slow and deliberate in spite of the anger and anxiety pulsing through his veins. Jud had tricked him, he was certain of that—but he wasn't sure how, and the thought infuriated him. He stopped in his tracks and folded his hands behind his back when he heard a sharp knock at the door.
"Come," he said crisply. The wooden door swung silently open and Morgan stepped into the room. "Well?" he demanded impatiently.
"They got away," Morgan reported.
Clayton's mouth thinned in irritation. "Did you get a good look at them?"
"Yes, I did." Morgan's cold gray eyes narrowed. "Mr. Clayton, I think we should go back to your home and have a talk with the man who calls himself Luke Duke."