Chapter Three: Tables are a'turnin'
Balladeer: Y'all remember those two fellas who visited Boss in the Boar's Nest the other day? Well, I wonder what they're up to now? Seems to me somethin' they shouldn't be doin' if they were honest fellas.
The truck was nearly full of boxed car parts – from things so simple as fan belts to the more pricy parts like carburators and even a few full transmissions. And the bottom of the bluff on Ridge Road was a pile of car wrecks from at least six cars.
"Not a bad haul on this ole road," one of the strippers commented as he leaned against the trailer they had just closed the back of. "And none too soon cuse Boss wants to deliver this stuff day after tomorrow. I reckon he'll be happy to hear we're done."
Another frowned. "I just wish them boys in that orange Charger hadn't gotten away from us. Those parts sure woulda been nice to add to this here collection. Heck, I mighta kept a few for meself."
The first man laughed at that. "You really think them buyers know that Boss didn't pay a penny for all these parts? Or that they're stolen goods?"
"Knowin' Boss, I'm sure he didn't tell them and I'm sure he don't care. Course, most of the men Boss deals with are just as crooked as him an that sheriff of ours, so I guess it don't matter."
Unbeknownst to those two fellas, there were two other fellas in the bushes nearby. And they were none to happy with what they were hearing. "Stolen goods!" Casey growled. "That Hogg is selling us stolen goods and making quite a profit on it. I have half a mind to leave him in the dust with all them parts."
Randall shook his head. "But we need'em, Casey. Who cares if they're stolen. It ain't like we're sellin'em. We're puttin' them in our stock cars and they're liable to get destroyed sooner or later. Better'n payin' full price for new parts."
Casey shook his head. "I don't care about them bein' stolen, Randall. What I care about is Hogg making his profit. That fat old man don't need more money. I think it's time we took some action."
Pulling his gun, he motioned for Randall to follow suit.
"What are we doing?"
"Turnin' the tables. We steal his parts, get our deposit back, then hightail it outta here. Hogg can't afford to call the cops in, otherwise they might find it was him who stole'm in the first place."
Randall, always one for shuckin' and jivin' someone, smiled a partly toothless grin. "All right. I'm game."
Creeping along the side of Ridge Road, careful to keep under cover, the two men snuck up to the two left on guard with the truck of stolen parts and emerged from the bushes, guns drawn.
"All right, fellas, not a muscle moves, ya hear?" Randall growled.
The two strippers lifted their hands in the air and frowned. "Boss won't be happy about this," one of them muttered as they were bound hand and foot and left lying in the bushes while the truck drove away. "Not one bit."
Balladeer: Looks like Daisy's first impression of them fellas was right on.
Bo tossed the stone he'd been fiddling with as high over the barn roof as he could, but it still hit the top and tumbled back down; leaving Bo to mutter angrily and clutch his sore side.
"I can't do nuthin' like this," he grumbled. "Heck I can't even throw a rock right. How'm I gonna help Luke, Jesse and Daisy catch them crooks and make sure Luke and me don't go to jail?"
Luke, who had been approaching to let Bo know dinner was ready, pretended he hadn't heard his cousin's words. He didn't really know what to tell Bo, but he knew that the younger Duke hated being idle and this injury was getting him down in spirits.
"Hey Bo, dinnertime," Luke said, lightly touching Bo's shoulder to rouse him from his reverie. The short jerk of surprise worried Luke. Normally Bo was pretty attentive to his surroundings. After all, with Rosco or Cletus always on the lookout to arrest them, they had to be. "You all right, cuz?"
The head nod was too quick for Luke's liking, but he didn't want to argue with Bo now either. So he refrained from disagreeing and helped his cousin into a standing position. It had only been two days and if what Daisy had overheard at the Boar's Nest about the stolen parts exchange going down Sunday was true, they still had until the day after tomorrow before things hit the fan. Or so they thought.
Bo plunked down in his usual seat, but unlike usual didn't so much as glance at the food on the table, let alone have to be warned by Uncle Jesse not to eat until grace was through.
Balladeer: Somethin' is definitely wrong with that boy. He's better snap out of it or I reckon he might starve. Or maybe not, this is Bo we're talkin' about.
Jesse saw it too, but he chose to let it alone for the time being. Daisy, however, didn't feel the same way. "Bo, you ain't been this down since ya lady friend with the carnival left Hazzard," she said. "What's wrong, sugar?"
It was the last straw for Bo, he hated being pitied. "Nothin'! Why's everyone think somethin's wrong!"
Jesse cut him off. "Bo Duke, don't you yell like that! Daisy's just askin' what's wrong wit ya and there is somethin' wrong whether you admit it or not!"
The young man frowned and looked down at his plate, sighing. "I'm sorry, Uncle Jesse, Daisy. I'm just not myself right now. And I ain't hungry, so could I be excused?"
He hated to do it, but Jesse nodded and Bo pushed back from the table.
Luke watched his cousin leave and then turned to Jesse. "It's gotta be all this idleness, Uncle Jesse," he said. "We all know Bo hates feeling useless and with them stitches in his side, he feels like he ain't gonna be able to help with catchin' those thieves."
Jesse grimaced. "I know that, Luke. It's what I figured too. Cept, what kin we do to bust him outta this rut o' his?" Luke smiled. "What are you thinkin', Luke?"
"Oh, nothin', Uncle Jesse, I'll take care of it. Bo'll be as good as new in no time." He jumped up from the table and hurried off in the direction his cousin had taken, while Jesse glanced at Daisy.
"I sure hope he don't plan on doing anything stupid," the old man mumbled as he took a bite of Daisy's fried chicken. "Lord knows I hate seein' my boys in pain and upset."
He leaned down and fiddled with the carborator under the General's hood, trying not to pay attention to the pain in his side, but knowing that would become futile the longer he leaned like this. There wasn't any need of course to look under the hood. The General had just come back from Cooter's that day, nearly good as new except some obvious dents in the body work.
Another head ducked under the car's hood beside him and Bo closed his eyes momentarily, waiting for Luke to ask him what was wrong or to chide him for jumping down Daisy's throat.
He did neither.
"You wanna take'im for a spin," Luke asked, not looking up from the engine, though he could tell Bo was taken aback by the question. "I mean, we haven't been back up to that road since them guys tried to thieve us. I'm ready to get to the bottom of this."
Bo frowned. "I ain't gonna be no use in a fight, Luke."
The other young man shook his head and risked a look at Bo. "Don't matter. We ain't gonna be stoppin' for no strangers in the road this time, Bo. I reckon you'll be all right. And we'll give Cooter a call and see if he wants to come, just in case."
For a moment, it looked like it wouldn't work and Bo would refuse. But the blonde let a small smile creep across his face and he nodded. "All right, but I wanna drive, if you let me."
Luke grinned. "Course, cousin. After all, you gotta get back in the saddle after a fall like that one."
That hit Bo hard. He hadn't thought about the accident since he'd been home and suddenly, with only a few joking words, the feeling of being trapped and bleeding, not to mention practically alone, hit Bo full force. His eyes widened and darted toward the drivers side of the car.
Luke could have hit himself in the forehead for that one. He hadn't thought that perhaps Bo was leery of getting back in the General after the accident, he had thought that the chance for a ride would cheer his cousin up.
"Bo, we don't have to you know, we could always just stay here and find something else to do," Luke started, knowing it sounded lame the moment it came out of his mouth. Bo glared at him.
"No Luke I'm going. I have to. Have a little faith in me, cuz, I ain't never let something like this get me down before and I'm not about to start now. I'm done feelin' sorry for meself."
Not another word was need as Bo backed out of the hood and Luke slammed it down tight. Bo hesitated a moment at the door to the General, idly wondering how bad it was going to hurt getting in, but deciding he could do it.
Swinging his long legs into the window, Bo clutched the top of the General and held his breath as he slid into the driver's seat. It pulled and brought him to the verge of wanting to let out a wince, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. A small smile spread across his face.
Instead of immediately starting the engine and flooring the gas, Bo took a moment to just sit in the driver's seat and clutch the steering wheel. It doesn't seem so bad. The roof's fixed, I got plenty of room, and most of all, Luke's right beside me. Nothin' to it!
It only took him a moment to start the engine and through it into first before Bo was peeling away from the farm house with his trademark yeehaw and a broad grin on his face.
Luke smiled to himself. Knew it would work.
"Do you reckon them fellas are still up on Ridge Road? I mean it would be mighty weird if'n everyone reported the thefts and they still kept happening on the same road," Bo wondered aloud.
His cousin shook his head. "You know as well as I do, Bo, that Boss Hogg and Rosco must be in on it. You heard ole Mr. Linton, they didn't investigate his case. And Cooter told us it happened a few times even before that. No…I think the kept shop up there."
The boys were nearing Ridge Road rapidly, seeing as Bo didn't seem to know the meaning of going the speed limit today, and they were both itching to solve this crime and clear their names.
But nothing ever goes according to plan, nor is anything ever easy, in Hazzard.
"WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRR"
"Oh for the love of…" Bo smacked the steering wheel. "It's Rosco! He came outta no where! There ain't no way he's gonna just let us drive on up Ridge Road now, Luke!"
Bo wretched the steering wheel to the left and took the turn in the rough road at a fast clip, wincing as his side smarted with the effort of keeping the car under control at such high speeds.
He knew it was only a matter of time before Luke would notice his pain.
Luke peered back toward Rosco and sighed. "He ain't gonna let us, that's for sure. I'll bet he's been hidin' here to make sure no one with the last name Duke or Davenport goes near Ridge Road. Try to shake'im."
"I am trying," Bo gritted, throwing the car into a 90 degree turn and hightailing it up a side road he'd seen. The General groaned under the beating it was taking as it smashed up and down over deep ruts and rocks in the road. "Not much of a shortcut, I guess."
Luke, holding onto whatever he could, didn't answer. He was staring fixedly at Bo's right side where a small patch of red was beginning to bleed through and appear on Bo's yellow shirt.
"Cuz, you're bleedin'," Luke said, his heart skipping a beat. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea."
Bo didn't answer, but he took a deep breath and held in the wince as he hit a particularly nasty bump. It took all his concentration not to let go of the steering wheel and clutch at his side.
Rosco, meanwhile, was full of high spirits. "Oh I'm gonna get them Duke boys now! I caught'em returning to the scene o' their crime, yes sir, I did! That's grand theft auto, straight to the state pen with them!"
His eyes widened when Bo threw the General into a 180 and came barreling back toward him. Rosco just barely got out of the way before being clobbered and he tried hard to recover, but found he couldn't and the patrol car careened down an embankment and smashed front bumper first into the ground at the bottom.
"Dang it!" He shouted, shaking a little from the car's sudden impact. "Them…I…oh…I'm gonna get them Dukes one of these days. Oh, this is a terrible accident. Horrendous…they done scuffed my car good this time."
He climbed out and glared at the crumpled front end of his patrol car. It wasn't going anywhere on its own legs, anytime soon. He reached back into the front seat and grabbed the CB.
"Boss, this is Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane, you got your ears on?"
Boss' voice came back over the CB with an affirmative.
"Uh, Boss…about them Duke boys. Well, they done and scuffed my car again and I … well … I lost'em."
"Lost'em? Lost'em? Rosco, you couldn't even catch yourself! If them Dukes get up Ridge Road they could ruin everything. Where's that dipstick cousin of mine, your deputy, get him after those Dukes!"
Cletus, being who he was, didn't hear the transmissions, but Bo and Luke did. "Uh-oh, if he gets Cletus on our tail, it's gonna be another bumpy car chase," Luke commented, glancing at Bo who was breathing hard but appeared to be all right for the moment.
The bleeding hadn't progressed any further and Luke surmised it was one loosened or possibly undone stitch that had caused the splotch of red. He imagined it still hurt though. "You wanna head back?" He asked the blonde.
Bo shook his head. "We came this far and went to all this trouble, Boss obviously wants to hide somethin' up there and I reckon we oughta find it b'fore he moves it."
Luke had to agree on that one. He grabbed the CB. "Lost sheep callin' shepherd, lost sheep to shepherd, you read?" Uncle Jesse came back with a ten-four and Luke continued. "We just shook Rosco, but they're sendin' in Cletus. Could you and Daisy join Cooter and run interference for us while we check things out?"
"We can do that lost sheep," Jesse chuckled. "Shepherd out."
Bo nodded at Luke's decision to call in reinforcements as he took the General up onto Ridge Road. As the car lurched along, both boys kept their eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary.
And they weren't disappointed.
"Look!" Luke shouted, pointing toward some bushes on Bo's side of the road. Sure enough, there was someone in there moving around! "Let's see what's happening."
Bo was hesitant, not wanting to be suckered into another trap, but he trusted Luke and he pulled the General Lee over. Easing themselves out of the car, Bo and Luke hurried over to the bushes and found two men tied hand and foot.
Removing the gag from the men, Bo said, "You're them car thieves! Whatcha doin' all trussed up like that?"
One of the men grimaced. "We've been double-crossed. The Boss' buyer done and stole the parts we was supposed to sell'im," he said before his companion could shush him. "Uh-oh."
"Yeah, uh-oh is right," Luke said. "You two don't look too worse for the wear, I reckon we can leave y'all here until Rosco and Boss come and find ya. Wouldn't want them to lose no hired help, would we?"
Bo chuckled and cast aside the gag, but let the man tied up.
"C'mon Bo. We got ourselves a crook to chase. I'm sure they've got a head start, but maybe we'll catch'em before they leave town for good and it's our word against Boss'."
Climbing back into the General Lee, Bo turned him around and headed back down Ridge Road while Luke radioed Jesse, Daisy and Cooter to set them on the lookout for a large truck that could be hauling the parts.
A/N: Well, that's it for now. I have to work late tonight so I had better be getting to sleep. I'm sort of winging this story as I go, so forgive me if I don't update as fast as you might like. I have to make stuff up. I didn't really plan on posting til I was finished, but I got excited!
Thank you to all those who reviewed and I hope to hear from you again. If you have any requests, something you'd like to see, drop me a review and I'll see if maybe I can incorporate it into this story…or keep it in mind for another!
-Gwen