"Uncle Jesse, you're sick," Daisy insisted.
"I ain't been sick in years!" Uncle Jesse scoffed. He was on the couch, his face an unbecoming shade of red, and he was shivering slightly. "Ain't thrown up since I was knee-high to a grasshopper—"
Luke was busy carrying out the bucket that showed the break in that particular record. "Smells like it, too," he grumbled.
Bo came into the room, a bowl of soup cupped in his hands. "Uncle Jesse, you gotta eat something," he insisted.
"I ain't hungry," Uncle Jesse mumbled.
"Get the crackers, Bo," Daisy said. "He can't handle soup right now."
"I don't want crackers neither!" But the words were cut off by a short bout of coughing, followed by a miserable groan. "Oh, I gotta lie down," he muttered.
Daisy let her uncle lie down on the couch. Bo carried the soup back to the stove and heard the faint sound of the hose splattering against the metal bucket, just outside. The humid Georgia summer bubbled up around them, making all the windows and doors stay wide open to let the occasional breeze come through. It was a very strange time for Jesse to get sick, he had to admit.
There was a soft set of crunching footsteps approaching the house and a familiar voice greeted Luke. Within a few seconds the door was swinging open and Gabrielle Stone was in their living room, looking remarkably formal even though she had lost the formal-looking suit jacket and was down to her short-sleeved white blouse and dress pants. Bo couldn't help but notice that her arms were powerful – not thick, but muscular and wiry. He imagined she kept herself in pretty good shape.
"Hello, Duke clan," she greeted cheerfully as she came deeper into the house. "I hope I'm not disturbing you."
Daisy laid a blanket over Uncle Jesse, who was already dozing lightly. "No, Uncle Jesse is just feeling a bit under the weather," she said.
"Lovely weather to be under," Gabrielle said, casting a concerned look at the older man. "Well, I was hoping to speak to the three of you." She glanced over her shoulder at Luke coming back inside. "Could we talk in the kitchen?"
The cousins nodded and went to their kitchen table, offering Gabrielle a seat, which she took without a fuss.
"The real reason I came by," she said, tapping the end of her pen on the old worn wooden surface, "is because I want your help."
Balladeer: Now this was rather typical, the Dukes getting stuck in the middle of whatever mess had landed on Hazzard that week.
"You guys may think that we don't pay much attention to the small counties, but we do. Your Mr. Hogg dipped his fingers into the wrong pot and got our attention. A lot of the reports filed always seem to mention you in some way, as either being the catalysts to clear things up or patsies for whatever scheme the man attempts to pull. Yet he always wiggles out of it and you never bring him up on charges. Can I ask why?"
All of this came out so regulated, transitioning easily from casual conversation into a rather intense question, that the cousins just stared at her blankly for a moment.
"You think we're covering for Boss Hogg?" Luke finally asked.
She shook her head, smiling. "No, everyone I've ever talked to about your relationship with Hogg is quick to say how much Hogg hates you. Says he and your uncle ran moonshine together ages ago, but that there was some kind of bad blood. Any idea what that was?"
"Us," Bo quipped.
Gabrielle raised an eyebrow, waiting for more.
"What I think Bo means," Daisy said, "is that the boys have a tendency to stick their noses into Boss' business. They have a thing for fighting the system. Any system," she stressed. "On top of that, ever since they were busted for moonshine running a few years back, Uncle Jesse swore to the U.S. government that he was out of the moonshine business. I don't think Boss ever forgave him for that."
"Yes, I was privy to the probation arrangement," Gabrielle said, chewing the end of her pen cap. "But why haven't you pressed charges? I mean, none of the piddly things he's ever tried to stick on you could have held in a court of law. You know you can sue for false charges, don't you? Clean him out?"
"That's not really our way," Bo said.
"It's hard to explain, Agent Stone," Luke said, taking the forefront.
"Could you try?" Gabrielle asked.
"Well," Bo said, ignoring Luke's attempt to control the conversation, "it's like all of us here in Hazzard are like a big family. And families, well, they fight, they get mad at each other, but in the end they all make up and things go back to the way they were."
"So if Hogg wasn't around to bother you anymore, you'd miss him?" Gabrielle asked.
"Better the devil you know than the devil you don't," Luke said.
She nodded. "I can understand that. But what confuses me is why you've protected him."
"Protected him?" Bo echoed, a bit shocked.
"Well," Gabrielle said, flipping through her notepad, "if I were to list all the accounts of attempted robbery and fraud, I would be here all night. Into the next morning if I were to go on with all the phony schemes that have been busted up this way, which have all pointed to Hogg. But somehow, evidence is either lost or no one presses any charges. Now, you're about to tell me that Hogg owns just about everything in his county, everyone's job depends on him, and all of that…but it doesn't quite gel for me. You've had more than one opportunity to get rid of him for good, and you haven't."
The cousins looked at her suspiciously. It didn't sound like an accusation, the way she said it, but it lingered around her, in those strange blue-violet eyes.
"Are you asking us if he's paid us off?" Luke said finally.
"It would put my mind at ease if you'd say he hasn't."
Bo gazed at her, perplexed. "How would you know that we weren't lying?" he couldn't help but ask.
She shifted those eyes to him, and Bo felt like something much bigger than he could ever imagine in his life was staring him down. Accompanied by a grin and a little wink. "I'd know. I'm very good at spotting a lie."
"No, ma'am, he hasn't paid us off," Luke said. "Dynamite couldn't get money loose from Boss Hogg's hands. And as for no charges every coming up against Boss, well, his last name ain't Hogg out of coincidence. He's slicker than a greased pig."
"But he has given you money."
"Reward money, sure," Bo said. "And any other money we've gotten from him has been pried from his fat little fingers with a crowbar."
"And he's got a really tight grip," Daisy quipped.
Gabrielle nodded. She seemed, oddly enough, satisfied with this. "All right," she said, "so, since you seem to know him pretty well, are you aware of anything he might be doing now?"
"You never know what Boss is doing," Luke said.
"Could you find out?" Her look was deadpan, very serious.
"You want us to spy on Hogg for you?" Bo asked.
"I would do it myself," Gabrielle said with a sigh. "Problem being, he thinks Agent Farrell and I are here investigating some felons who passed through here a month ago. And he's near impossible for either one of us to approach – the man's eyes go three hundred and sixty degrees, like a lizard. He'd see us coming, but you…well, you seem to have a way about you."
"So it's Hogg that you're investigating?" Daisy asked.
"That a problem?" Gabrielle asked, brow furrowed as if in genuine concern.
"Well, we want to cooperate with the law," Luke said, "but…well…"
"What if I told you that he's recently hired a person with a criminal record as a member of his Sheriff's department?"
All three sets of cornflower-blue eyes swiveled on her. "You mean," Bo said, "you're talking about…"
"Henrietta Mae Locke," Gabrielle said, switching back to her pad. "Arrested four years ago for grand theft. Spent two years in a New York penitentiary." She raised her eyes to Bo, a new light there. "How well do you know her?"
Daisy and Luke twisted slightly, uncomfortable. Bo drew a breath. It really wasn't any of this woman's business, but…"We dated in high school," he said.
Gabrielle blinked, waiting for him to go on. When he didn't, she said, "It ended badly?"
"That's one way to put it," Luke muttered. Bo shot him a look but it didn't really matter.
"So why did she come back to Hazzard?" Gabrielle inquired, folding her arms casually.
"Don't you know?" Luke asked, catching on to the routine.
She gave him a slight nod and a grin tugged at the corner of her lips, but didn't bloom. "I wanted to know if you did," she said.
"Her father died," Bo said. "Several months ago. She came back here to take care of her father's farm."
"And she just…stuck around?" Gabrielle frowned. "And decided to work for the same man whose personal mission statement seems to be to drive you people out of Hazzard? That hasn't been a cause of concern for you?"
Luke shrugged. "We're used to the members of the sheriff's department not liking us too much. One more or less doesn't seem to matter."
"I suppose not," Gabrielle said slowly, considering them with a casual air, but those odd eyes seemed to glimmer with something none of them could place. "I suppose Boss Hogg has tried just about everything there is to try."
"A couple of times over," Daisy said. "And he never fails to come up with some new dirty trick. We've beaten him every time before and we will again. We don't worry about it."
With a nod, the agent flipped through her pad again. "Did you know about Deputy Locke's criminal record?"
"No, but I'm sure Boss Hogg does," Bo added, a bite in his words.
Luke shot him a disapproving glance. Gossip was something Uncle Jesse really frowned on. "We don't know for sure, Agent Stone," he said, "but with Boss Hogg's reputation, I can guess."
That hint of a smile curled into a grin. She knew a lot of things that they didn't, and that was something the Dukes expected from someone in a high ranking law enforcement position. It was, however, the way she knew these things, the depth and width and breadth of them that played across her face and taunted from behind her words that kept their eyes on her -- not just the striking beauty that she seemed to be quite aware of and not the least bit interested in having.
And it didn't help that the country folk had met their share of idiots in their day. People who underestimated them time and again. Gabrielle Stone…she seemed to know everything and anything at a moment's notice, and nothing fazed her, no matter how out-of-normal it seemed.
"All right," she said slowly, the words rolling about her mouth, "let's recap, make sure I have everything straight. Locke and Bo dated, it ended badly…what happened then? Why did she leave Hazzard?"
The discomfort in the room dropped to a nearly unbearable level.
Balladeer: Now can't you just see both Daisy and Luke turning to Bo? Poor guy's gotta be embarrassed enough as it is by all of this.
"Part of the bad ending?" Gabrielle suggested, weighing everything perfectly. "She was reported to missing persons on the same day her year commenced graduation. She's reported on file as having graduated but there aren't any records of her enrolling in a college anywhere. What was she like, if I could impose on you?" She shot Bo a look. "I'm not asking for details about your relationship, you understand, I just want to know about her."
"A troublemaker," Luke said. "Was in and out of private schools because she kept getting expelled."
"Her mother left when she was ten," Bo said softly. "She had a lot of anger, but she didn't talk about it much."
"Not even to you?" Gabrielle asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Occasionally," Bo said. "Rarely."
"So she wound up in Hazzard Public because no one else could take her…sounds like her family had money. I take it farming was a good business, or was her father a moonshiner like the rest?"
"Her father was never a moonshiner," Bo said. "He was one of the few who wasn't. He and Uncle Jesse were good friends…if he gets better while you're still here you can ask him about it."
"Well, we all know farmers don't make that much money, so it had to come from somewhere outside. Her mother maybe?" Gabrielle asked.
"None of us knew her mother, ma'am," Luke said, "except Uncle Jesse."
"Might Boss Hogg have known her mother?" Gabrielle asked.
The cousins exchanged glances yet again. "What are you implying?" Luke asked suspiciously.
"Nothing," Gabrielle said with a feckless smile. "Just trying to put all the pieces together. Anyway, she leaves Hazzard after this break-up, spends time in New York, somewhere along the line gets arrested for grand theft and spends two years in prison." She paused, that look on her face again, but she didn't direct it at any of the Dukes -- her thoughts were entirely private. "Then she comes back here because of her father, sells her farm to Boss Hogg and gets a job in the sheriff's department."
"Have you asked Henri-Mae anything about this?" Daisy suddenly asked. "I mean, questioned her directly?"
"If I did, she'd certainly think I was investigating her," Gabrielle said in a completely non-condescending sort of way. "I can't have that, because I'm not. But I am concerned that she might be being manipulated by Boss Hogg, or else she might be manipulating him. It takes a considerable amount of balls, if you'll pardon the word, for a man to hire someone with a criminal record to work for a law enforcement agency. This indicates that either Boss Hogg is behaving in an uncharacteristically naïve way, he has a particular scheme in mind, or he himself is being manipulated."
"Wouldn't be the first time," Luke said.
"You think Henri-Mae would do that?" Daisy said, turning to Bo.
Bo just looked thoroughly miserable. He had seemed so bright before, but a lot of bad memories came back. He hadn't ever thought that Henri-Mae would seduce him and then make it look to the whole town like he had taken advantage of her, but she had. And he was seriously fighting off the urge to shoulder his burden of guilt yet again.
"I'm not sure," Gabrielle said. "But there is a way to find out. What would it take for Boss Hogg to start up one of his scams again?"
Luke chuckled bitterly. "The wind to blow," he said. "The man's always cooking up something foul."
"Think you boys could find out what it was?" Gabrielle asked. She drummed her fingers against the table as they hesitated. "Not that I'm asking you to do anything illegal," she added, "and if you were caught, of course I'd deny any involvement…"
"We usually wind up getting wind of any scheme Boss is up to," Luke said with a smirk. "We'll let you know."
"What about Henri-Mae?" Bo asked softly.
Gabrielle gave him a very straight look. "Leave her to me," she said. "I promise to be gentle."