The old swimmin' hole that Luke had referred to sat adjacent to the Davenport property. It was simply a deep spot in the Coosawattee River that marked the end of Cooter's 20 acres. It was because of this special place that Bo had briefly considered presenting the adjoining property to the Frothy Brewing Company when he was trying to convince them to establish a camp there. But as they had sat there the night before that presentation, Bo, Luke and Cooter, tugging on the rotting rope that still hung from an old oak tree over the rock that served as a diving board, they decided it was their special place, and it should stay that way.
At the instructed time, exactly 10 minutes later, Cooter arrived at the swimmin' hole to find Luke blowing a small campfire to life on the old diving rock. As he neared his friend, he could make out lines of worry against his chiseled features.
As a twig snapped under Cooter's shoe, Luke instinctively jumped. He quickly looked up and saw Cooter before he relaxed again.
"Ya know, Lukas." Cooter began as he settled on the ground near the campfire. "It just didn't make sense to me before, you trying to sell the General or…..or taking Miz Tizdale's mail. None of it made sense at all. But now that I know about Bo's disappearance, and I saw your reaction to it, I can kinda put two and two together. You need a lot of money, and you need it bad. Bad enough to even…………. take it from Boss Hogg's bank as well."
Luke didn't respond but simply nodded, telling Cooter that his assumption was right.
"Luke, I hafa admit, the whole thing's starting to scare the heck outta me."
"Crazy C,…." Luke began as he picked up a branch and stirred the fire. "Do you remember Charlie and Horace Mantooth?"
"Mantooth, Mantooth……..name rings a bell."
"It was the two guys who robbed Boss Hogg's bank last year, the ones who managed to have the whole thing pinned on me an' Bo."
"That's why it rings a bell." Cooter nodded.
"Well…." Luke began as he dropped the stick into the fire. "They're the ones that got Bo."
Cooter bit his lower lip. "Luke, I got a little grasp on what's goin' on here, but maybe you should start from the beginning so we can ride aboard the same train of thought."
Luke sighed. "When Horace and Charlie robbed Boss Hogg's bank, they got away with $50000.00 more or less. Whether or not they would have gotten away Scot free had Bo and I not caught up to them, no one will ever know. However, in their minds, that's exactly what would have happened. So a few days ago they busted outta jail, and they came to collect their money. They started out by kidnapping Bo, then they got ahold of me, demanding the money. Either I had to come up with it, or they would kill Bo."
Cooter felt fear grow in the pit of his stomach, a fear not only of the situation as it was presented, but a fear that there was more to be revealed.
Cooter shook his head. "You know where they are?"
"Yeah. They're holed up over at Carly's place."
"Carly's place!" Cooter exclaimed. "Luke, why didn't you say nothin'? Ya gotta know all you had to do was call me and I'da been right there with ya when you went and whooped up on those boys."
Luke sighed as he picked up some rotted acorns and began tossing them in the fire one by one. "It's a bit more complicated than that. Horace and Charlie are there. Bo's not."
"Oh." Cooter replied, his forehead creasing with worry. "Then where is Bo?"
Luke let out a shallow grunt as he shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."
Cooter thought for a minute and shook his head. "Okay, so that's not bad, right? He's not with them. Then maybe he can get away, you know, or…or we can figure out where he is….."
"No…." Luke interrupted. "He can't get away, not by himself."
"But you just said…."
"He's buried, Cooter."
"You know Bo, he won't just stay put he…." Cooter let his voice trail off as what Luke had said sunk in. "He's WHAT?"
Luke swallowed, not knowing if he could say it again.
"In the ground?" Cooter asked, not waiting for the response as he stood and clinched his fists in anger.
"That's usually how it's done." Luke replied.
Cooter began pacing back and forth, removing his greasy hat to run his hand through equally greasy hair. "For how long?"
"Two days now, at least."
"Two days!" Cooter exclaimed, dropping to the ground on his knees and leaning toward Luke. "I admit I slept through most of science class, but I didn't miss the lesson on carbon monoxide. They gotta be shuckin' and jivin' ya Luke, they gotta be!
"There not." Luke replied dreadfully "They had pictures. Took pictures of the whole thing, puttin' him in, coverin' him up, everything."
Cooter sat again, putting a fist to his forehead as he propped his elbow on his knee. "Then there's no way, Luke, no way he can be…."
"HE IS!" Luke insisted. "Don't eventhink that! They set up the grave with an oxygen supply, so he is alive, for now. But if I don't get another three-thousand dollars to them by tomorrow, they're gonna shut it off."
Cooter thought for a moment. "If they do that, there's no way enough air can get down there to keep Bo alive. No way at all. He'd be dead in 10 minutes."
"That's what I figured." Luke nodded.
Cooter looked at his friend. "Good Lord, Luke, why didn't you tell us? Why on earth have you been carrying this all by yourself? For heaven's sake we could have been looking for the grave this whole time! Me, Daisy, Jesse, Rosco, Enos, Cletus, heck I even bet ole' Boss Hogg would have that chauffer of his workin' overtime driving him around!"
"Because." Luke replied. "They planted a bug, or bugs, somewhere, and said if I ever told anybody what I's doin' or what was goin' on, they'd kill Bo right away. I had my doubts about the bugs at first, but I was talkin' to the McCamey boys in town yesterday, and Charlie heard the whole thing. The only thing that was near me at the time was the General, and he was a good twenty feet away, not close enough to pick up a conversation, least I don't think so . But if they were able to pick that up, away from everything, then what should I assume other than no matter where I am, they could somehow hear me?" Luke sighed. "But I figured we's pretty safe back here. Hardly anybody knows about this place, let alone some out of town bank robbers."
"Well ya gotta tell Jesse, he has the right to know!"
"Cooter!" Luke exclaimed, getting into his face. "You can't utter a word past this rock! I don't know where any of them bugs are and if Charlie even gets a hint that I've told anyone, then that's it for Bo! Besides…" he continued, settling back. "Jesse's gettin' old. I don't know if he could handle anything like that."
"I think he could. "He's handled himself pretty well today considering what he thinks is going on." Cooter replied. "But I see your point. Soon as we leave, I'll start searching all the cemeteries I can think of, and I won't say a word out loud. But we shouldn't take any chances, shouldn't waste any time If we can help it.That means the first order of business is to get you the three thousand dollars."
"Well, actually, all I need is twenty-five hundred." Luke admitted sheepishly, showing him the cash he had found in the mail when he had steamed open envelopes. Cooter smiled to spy the piece of paper tucked within the stack that held the addresses and amounts of money that Luke had taken from each envelope, so Luke could one day pay the recipients back.
Cooter arose and went to the right of the diving rock. He felt around for a few minutes before he found what he was looking for. Luke was a bit surprised to hear the sound of a chain as Cooter slowly pulled something from the water. Moments later, a grinning Cooter brought what was on the other end of that chain to the fire-a wet moonshine jug.
"Uh, no thanks C." Luke said, holding up his hands as Cooter popped the cork on the jug. "While I could really use a drink right now, I gotta keep my wits about me."
Cooter looked up at him. "I don't know any faster way to lose your wits or your mind than worrying about how to come up with a big wad of cash in a little amount of time."
With that, Cooter raised the jug and smashed it against the diving rock.
Luke jumped a bit as some broken bits of jug sailed past his head. He then peered at the smashed jug.
Amidst the jagged chunks of ceramic lay several hundred dollar bills.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
"Who in the h….." Charlie began as he jerked awake from his sleep, instinctively grabbing his gun. There was a loud banging on the door of Carly's house. He lit a flashlight and looked at his watch. It was just past midnight.
"Go see if it's the Duke boy, Horace." He commanded.
When he got no response, he looked over toward his brother. Horace was sitting in a chair, asleep, his head resting on the table.
In anger, Charlie went over and forcefully kicked at the legs of the chair. The chair was tipped easily, spilling Horace on the floor, his head cracking against it.
"Ya dang fool, whattaya doin'? You's supposed to be standin' watch! Can't I rest two minutes around here without you foulin' up?"
Horace grabbed at his head before looking toward the door when the banging commenced once again.
"Go see who it is!" Charlie commanded.
Horace shot himan evil stare before going to the door. Charlie stood in the background, gun poised in his direction.
Horace opened the door to find Luke standing there.
"Git in here!" Charlie commanded as Horace pulled Luke inside and slammed the door.
Luke almost tripped but regained his composure as he came toward the table Horace had just been resting on. Charlie picked up the chair from the floor and set it upright before taking a seat, facing Luke.
"Alright." Luke began, taking the fat wad of folded bills from his front pocket and placing it on the table. "There it is, three-thousand dollars. Now tell me where my cousin is."
"Not so fast, hayseed, you know I gotta count it first." Charlie argued with a sneer. He took the cash and passed it to Horace. Horace then took it to a counter behind the table, where he dug a gym bag from a cabinet underneath. Luke watched as he unzipped the gym bag and began dropping the money inside as he counted, covering up the photos of Bo and the rest of the money.
"Ya know." Charlie began. "You're the perfect example of why nobody has to be poor if they really don't want to. I mean look at you. Two days ago you'd claimed that you didn't have two dollars to fold against each other, yet when the right circumstance presented itself, suddenly you come up with more money than most folks earn in a year. Feels kinda good, don't it?"
"It don't feel good gettin money that was earned by the sweat of someone else's brow." Luke replied.
"I hafta disagree." Charlie replied. "Look how hard you sweated and I have to admit I feel real good right now." He laughed a hearty laugh and was joined by his brother.
"He done good Charlie." Horace confirmed a few moments later as he dropped the last hundred in the bag and zipped it up. "Three thousand on the nose!"
"Okay you heard him. Now where's my cousin?"
"Not so fast hayseed." Charlie replied, scratching his cheek with the revolver. "Part of the deal for you to find your cousin was to keep your mouth shut. I'm afraid you didn't keep up your end of the deal."
"What?" Luke almost laughed. "I didn't tell anybody what was goin' on! Don't you think there would be cops all over the place if I had?"
Horace laughed again. "Such a pity. I thought you told me once that Uncle Jesse of yours taught you it wasn't nice to lie."
Luke shook his head in confusion. The only person he had said a word to was Cooter, but he wasn't about to admit that to Charlie!
"Show him, Horace." Charlie commanded motioning for Luke to hold his hands up.
Luke did that as Horace walked behind him. Luke was surprised, but then felt a feeling of dread as Horace tugged on the back of his belt. He then came around front and held up the bug that had been attached to it!
"So you see, Hayseed." Charlie began. "Not only did you not hold up your end of the bargain, you gave out names as well. So you know what that means."
"But you have to tell me where Bo is! You've got your money, and they know you broke out of jail! Do you honestly think they're not going to hunt you down?"
"That means." Charlie continued as if Luke hadn't even spoke. "That if it's any compensation to you, when your cousin finally suffocates to death in that box of his, you'll already be on the other side to meet him."
With that, Charlie raised his gun, pointed it at Luke, and pulled the trigger."
Ya'll tell me when it's over. Better yet, don't. If it turns out the way it's lookin', I don't wanna know.