"He's dead, isn't he?"
"It sure looks that way."
"It's such a shame, you know, him being so young and all."
"Well it's his own fault. If he'd just kept his nose outta other people's business, he would be safe right now."
"That's true, but still, think about all those lost years. The wife he never married, the kids he never had….."
"Kids? They would've been troublemakers, just like their old man. You can put money on that."
"And what about Jesse there? It's gonna be hard for him to take up the boy's slack on that farm."
"Well, look who's gotten sentimental all of a sudden. You sure didn't think about wives and kids and elderly uncles when you was disconnectin' that oxygen, Horace!"
"I wasn't goin' to jail for murder then, Charlie."
"Well it sure looks like that's where we're headin' now." Charlie replied, as he watched the events unfold at the gravesite from the backseat of Cletus's car.
XXXXXXX
As Daisy buried her face in Jesse's overalls, Luke offered a brief glance into the coffin before he stood up as quickly as his injured leg would allow, unintentionally causing the lid to slam shut again.
He slowly backed away from the coffin before he turned and hobbled across the graveyard. Had he been uninjured, he would have gladly ran away from there, exerting anger and frustration in every step of his sprint. Instead, he went to a tombstone just a few feet away and collapsed against it as the rest of the group looked at each other in disbelief.
Luke grabbed on to the tombstone, squeezing away his anger as he squeezed his eyes shut against the tears that wanted to fall.
"Don't worry, Luke."
Luke almost jumped out of his skin, not expecting the hand that was placed on his shoulder.
"Them dang, Mantooths, Cooter." Luke began, sniffing loudly. "What have they done to him?"
"Now Luke, try to calm down….."
"Calm down?" Luke asked, bewildered. "After all I've been through, after all I've done for the chance to get Bo back! And here I thought, just maybe, that chance had come. And it didn't, Cooter!"
Luke's statement ended in a yell, which brought the attention of everyone there. When he stood and began walking to Cletus's patrol car, Cooter, nor anyone else for that matter, dared to stop him.
Luke reached the car and grabbed at the door handle that led to the backseat, where the Mantooths sat. Finding it locked, as was standard, he raced around for the other side, finding the same result. In frustration, he simply began beating on the windows.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HIM?" Luke yelled. He continued to alternate between beating on the windows and rocking the car. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HIM?" He repeated the question again, the Mantooths looking at him with amazed expressions.
Pushing against the car once more, Luke then turned and raced across the graveyard, straight to the coffin. Reaching down, he tore open the lid and dug out what was inside.
"WHERE IS HE?" Luke yelled back toward Cletus's car, holding a moonshine jug up in the air. He hurled the moonshine jug, smashing it against a tombstone a few feet away, the clear liquid running all over the place. He then collapsed on the ground near the coffin, turning to look at the 11 remaining jugs that lined the inside before pressing his forehead to his knees.
"Uncle Jesse, he's goin' crazy." Daisy said, wiping away her tears of relief that Bo had not been in the coffin to make room for new ones over worry for her eldest cousin.
"Naw, he's just tired and hurt and aggravated like the rest of us, only he's been dealing with it longer than we have."
"This is a sick joke." Luke stated, kicking at the coffin. "No, it's not a joke….just sick and cruel. How can we be sure he was even in there?"
"Don't nobody worry." Rosco suggested. "Me and my inferior officers here will go and question that Mantooth gang and get to the bottom of all this!"
"And I'm going to get that money bag back!" Boss announced, plucking a cigar from his pocket and jamming it into his mouth.
"Hang on just a minute, everybody." Cooter announced, holding up his hand.
"How come?" Boss asked as Rosco, Cletus, and Enos stopped in their tracks.
"'Cause them flowers on that grave over there, they're turned over." Cooter replied nodding his head in the direction of a grave."
Doc Appleby looked and shrugged his shoulders. "What's the big deal?"
"Well normally, it wouldn't be that big of a deal, 'cept the flowers on the next grave are turned over, too."
"Could've been the wind." Enos offered.
Cooter nodded. "It coulda been. But I don't think the wind had anything to do with these." He replied, getting in a squatting position near the ground.
As the group gathered around him, Cooter pointed to a couple of jagged lines that ran haphazardly from the grave they had just dug up toward the two with the misplaced flowers. Even Luke arose from where he sat to look in on the situation.
"Now if I were a betting man…" Cooter looked at the group and smiled. "….and I am." He then looked back at the lines. "….I'd say these lines look an awful lot like the kind of lines made by somebody's boots. The kind of lines that would be made if that somebody was bein' dragged away."
"And if that's the case, then those flowers would be turned over because that person would have knocked them over while he was being dragged away!" Daisy added, catching on fast.
"And if they're goin' in that direction." Luke pointed toward the other end of the graveyard. "That must mean that they moved Bo over there!"
"But why would they do that?" Cletus asked.
"And why would they put jugs in this grave?" Boss wondered.
"Save the questions for after we've found him!" Uncle Jesse demanded, following Cooter with renewed hope.
The group grabbed some shovels again and followed Cooter like a train as his eyes followed the trail.
They were a little surprised to reach the edge of the cemetery and discover that the trail continued on into the forest.
Suddenly, Cooter felt uncomfortable. He knew what the Mantooths were capable of, and imagined exactly what they might find in the woods.
With that in mind, he turned to Uncle Jesse and Daisy. "Uh, ya'll might wanna stay here while the rest of us go and investigate."
"We ain't stayin' nowhere so just shut ya trap and take me to my nephew." Uncle Jesse ordered.
"Yes sir." Cooter reluctantly replied, nodding at Rosco. In response, Rosco got out his gun, preparing for whatever lay ahead, most of them realizing that friends of the Mantooths could very well be helping them behind the scenes.
Enos noted Luke's painful steps. Taking Luke's arm, he wound it around his own shoulders and stepped forward, assisting him.
As the exhausted group continued into the forest, nothing but the crunch of leaves under their feet and a faraway woodpecker to offer them company, they noted the low, broken branches and disturbed ground that marked the trail where Bo had been taken.
Suddenly, Cooter stopped and put up a hand. "What's that up ahead?" He whispered.
Jesse peered around him and saw what he was talking about.
"Looks like it could be another grave!" He exclaimed.
They all rushed forward and looked at the mound of freshly turned earth, debating on what they saw. Jesse then shook his head.
"Naw, it couldn't be. Ain't wide enough."
Relocating the tracks they had originally followed, they continued deeper into the woods. As they walked, they could eventually make out a faint form in the foggy conditions.
"Looks like a cabin ahead." Daisy pointed out, noting a steady line of smoke that crawled into the sky from the chimney.
"Why I ain't never heard of a cabin bein' way out here." Rosco announced.
"Reckon they're friendly?" Boss asked.
Before anyone could answer, a shot rang out in their direction!
Well Boss, does that answer your question?