Chapter 33
February 4, 1998 (Pacific Time) – Santa Monica
Inez threw the two small bags of groceries onto the motel bed and couldn't remember when she had been this bone-weary tired. Drained was more like it. The empty house, compounded by the guilt in her soul, threatened to shove her over the edge, and she fought hard against it. Wallowing in the guilt wouldn't bring Kate Broussard back. It wouldn't nail the son of a bitch behind it all.
And...it wouldn't make E love her the way she loved him. Not that she had ever dared to try. If he found out what she'd done, the thing that she couldn't erase, the thing that had set in motion everything that happened in the last few months - he would hate her, and she would deserve it. She had not been prepared for the unrelenting ache or how hollow her life would feel since he left.
Not being able to stand going back to her house in Baldwin Hills, she'd stayed in an efficiency motel room in Santa Monica for the last three days. It gave her moderate respite from ghosts and a vantage point from which to keep an eye on Thompson and his girlfriend. That was a pairing she never would have guessed. Downright weird.
The codicil to her will and the letter to Aaron had already been couriered to her attorney. They would be in addition to the confession to Internal Affairs she'd written nine and a half years earlier – her insurance policy, in case the bastard ever tried again to force her to do more than that one thing. And it had worked for nine years.
Even if she had begged him, her ex didn't have the backbone to come clean. Aaron would be hurt and would never forgive either of them. But if he knew how much pain had been caused by what she had done to protect him from knowing what a lowlife his father really was, he would not just be hurt – he would be devastated.
She would have to risk it. The collateral damage had to stop.
When her mobile phone rang, and she saw the number, she let it go to voicemail – again.
Hazzard, Georgia – February 5, 1998 (Eastern Time)
Bo arrived at the farm early on Thursday morning, the previous night's continuing battle with Annie still fresh on his mind. He was heartsick over the chasm his frustration over their situation had caused between them.
When he pulled into the yard, Luke was already in the barn working on the old tractor that was perpetually in need of a new part. Getting a new tractor was out of the question until they could get that last field blasted, tilled, and planted. Blowing things up was another thing Bo and Annie fought about, but he knew deep down it was just her way of hitting back whenever he started in on Kate. He tried. He really did try to give Annie's sister the benefit of the doubt. There was no telling what terrible things she was going through, but Dad-gummit! she was responsible for Annie having to live like she was hiding from the KGB.
"Hey, Luke," Bo grumbled to his cousin as he made his way to the ordnance bin, dialed the combination on the padlock, and pulled on the shackle.
"Mornin'. You're early," Luke said, still fussing over one of the sparkplug wires.
"You said be here at 5:00 am. It's 4:55."
"Then...let's go in and have some breakfast b'fore Daisy gets here."
"Not hungry."
Luke straightened up and wiped the grease off his hands. "My wife got up at 4:30 to fix breakfast. Least you can do is eat it."
"Alright. You don't need to have a hissy fit over it." Kate Broussard wasn't the only bur under Bo's saddle.
He hadn't bucked Luke's assumption as the de facto head of the family in the beginning, but the past week living under the specter of knowing the farm's phone was tapped had left a bad taste in the mouth of both of the Duke cousins, especially in Bo's. The only reason he didn't challenge Luke more was that Luke was just as pissed off at Enos as Bo was at Annie's sister.
Pollen season wasn't making the situation any less crappy. Bo sneezed for the umpteenth time while side-stepping puddles covered in the yellow dust in the yard, as he followed Luke into the house. When Bo saw the fresh-baked biscuits and steam coming from the cast iron skillet of sausage gravy, he heard his Uncle Jesse's voice say, 'It's a sin ta' let good food go ta' waste.' So, he kissed the cook on the cheek and sat down at the table.
The bed was warm, and Daisy didn't want to get out of it. She could hear Mizz Tisdale rustling around in the kitchen. Emma still rose at the crack of dawn to make coffee and sit on the porch before going into the Post Office.
With a groan, she eased herself from under the patchwork quilt. Watching Lavinia hand quilt the colorful blocks of fabric was the last best memory she had of her aunt. Considering what was on her agenda for today, she wondered if it was the warmth of more innocent times that had kept her under the covers this morning. When she appeared in the kitchen, Emma had a cup of coffee waiting for her.
"Knew you wouldn't wanna' be outdone by an eighty-nine-year-old," Emma said, reacting to Daisy's expression – the coffee was hot and fresh. "Figured you'd show your face pretty soon. You gotta' be out of here in twenty minutes if you're gonna' stop by the farm first."
Daisy leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "I want to grow up to be you, Miss Emma."
"Stop butterin' me up, missy, and you be careful goin' to Atlanta."
When Daisy arrived at the Duke farm at 7:00 am, she expected to see Luke out on the tractor, but it was still sitting in the barn, and Uncle Jesse's truck was in the yard. She parked the Harley in the back of the house and used the kitchen door. Right behind her, Sophie came in carrying a basket of fresh eggs, which she set down on the counter beside the stove.
Annie was already at work at the library, and Caleb and Emily had been picked up by the bus half an hour earlier, so it was just the four of them in the house – Sophie, Daisy, and two dead-serious looking cousins.
"Hey, fellas, what's up? Did they declare a farmer's holiday?" she asked, trying to keep it light, as she set her helmet on a side table next to the back door and a small gym bag on the floor beside it.
"Sit down, Daisy," Luke said. "We need to talk."
Daisy knew what was coming and steeled herself for a come to Jesus meeting. If it had been Uncle Jesse asking, she would have obeyed without question. But, since it was Luke asking, she stood her ground. "I think I'll be just fine right here."
"Have it your way," Luke said, noticing that Sophie had chosen to remain standing as well. Over the last hour of non-stop ranting and raving between him and Bo, she'd made it clear to both of them where she stood on the subject.
Bo being Bo, blurted out, "We don't think you should go to Atlanta alone. One of us is goin' with you."
"I thought we settled this a long time ago, when you and Luke came back from the racing circuit."
"That was different, and you know it, Daisy," Luke insisted. "And we were right about Darcy Kincaid, weren't we?" He leaned back in his chair and folded his arms across his chest, prepared for battle.
Daisy ignored the reminder about how phenomenally clueless she had been about Darcy.
"Even though we know there's no bugs in the house, somebody's still listening in on our phone calls," he said.
Luke hadn't needed any outside guidance on looking for listening devices, and, having done some lineman work back in the day, he'd verified the tap on the line.
"I still say we should rip out all the phone wires comin' into the house..." Bo insisted.
"Turk said that might be the worst thing you could do. At least, until he can meet with the GBI."
"Daisy, it's been a week," Bo insisted. "And Turk's not the one that's havin' to walk on eggshells around here."
"Since when did a Duke back down from a scrap or go runnin' for cover with our tails between our legs?" Daisy asked.
"Since we're not the only ones we have to worry about," Luke said, looking straight at Sophie. "In case you hadn't noticed, cousin, I have a wife and kids to think about. So, I'm goin' with you to hear what Turk has to say myself."
Sophie had to get up from the table and busy herself with putting the eggs in cartons so she wouldn't be tempted to put in her two cents, the coinage of which would just put her and Luke at odds.
"I still got no idea why you need to go into Atlanta to see Turk," Luke continued. "He said he didn't think your cell phone was tapped. Why can't he just say what he has to say that way. Or why can't he come here?"
"Because he doesn't want to stick out like a sore thumb."
Luke stood suddenly, sending his chair scooting back across the wood floor. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Daisy put her fists on her hips and a stern look on her face.
"I mean...he's a police officer from Los Angeles. He's Enos's best friend out there and used to be his partner...and everybody in town knows it. Captain Broggi wasn't in Hazzard twenty minutes before everybody in town knew who he was."
"Alright, Daisy. You can put your claws away. We get the picture." Luke held his hands up in mock surrender.
"We don't know who's out there watchin.' I have a legitimate reason to be at the university. If I go into Atlanta, it won't be unusual. Turk's got no obvious reason to be in Hazzard if Enos isn't here – other than official police business. Him comin' to Hazzard would shine a light on us...and Annie."
"You call the farm's phone bein' tapped not havin' a light shined on us? And he doesn't know about Annie...does he?" Bo asked, a worried tone evident in his voice. His concern had nothing to do with whether or not he trusted Turk Adams - too many people already knew about her.
"No, I'm pretty sure he doesn't. But Enos told him he had to talk to me before he goes to the GBI, or anywhere else, askin' a lot of questions."
Turk had told her that Enos's exact words were that he needed to talk to her 'before you do somethin' that might let the genie out of the bottle.' So, she suspected that Enos wanted Turk to know about Annie. Somewhere in the pit of her roiling stomach, she knew she would feel a little safer if he did.
"Then, I'm goin' with you," Luke said, quelling the temptation to tell Daisy what he thought Enos could go do with himself at the moment.
"No. Annie's my responsibility. It's me who should go," Bo demanded.
"Haven't you been listening to me, either of you? If you go with me, it's not routine anymore. Besides, are ya'll just gonna' leave Annie or Sophie and the kids here alone?"
Luke couldn't argue with that reasoning, even though he really wanted to. But her argument didn't hold the same weight with Bo.
"NO!" Daisy said, pointing a finger at Bo before he could get the words out of his mouth. "I'm a big girl, in case you hadn't noticed. I dress myself and everything. I'm going into Atlanta...by myself...and that's final! So, Luke. Can I still borrow your truck?" She held out her hand.
Luke's lifelong experience with Daisy was that if she was going to back down, she'd have done it already. With a frustrated groan, he got up from the table and retrieved his keys from the hook in the foyer, depositing them in her outstretched palm.
She took the keys, grabbed her bag, and went into the bathroom to change out of the jeans and sweatshirt she had worn for the motorcycle ride to the farm and into a skirt, blouse, and pumps more fitting for a visit to Emory University.
February 5, 1998 (Eastern Time) – Atlanta, Emory University
Daisy parked, pulled on a light sweater that matched the peach in her blouse, and made her way into the café past a bevy of students. Turk, seated at a table away from the queue at the ordering counter, stood up to get her attention. He was wearing a three-piece grey suit and no service weapon on his hip. She absentmindedly wondered if he was wearing a shoulder holster and then silently admitted her ignorance on the subject of service weapon protocol.
In his letters, Enos had talked much about Turk. He wrote that it wasn't so much street smarts that made Turk perfect for undercover work, although that was a definite plus. He was like one of those chameleon lizards – he could blend in 'without hardly even trying.' He could pull off high powered executive and flamboyant pimp with equal measure, and that he sometimes wondered why Turk had ever bothered with a green, wet-behind-the-ears, screw-up like him way back when.
"Sorry, Turk," she said when she reached the table and gave him a quick hug, "I had no idea this place would be so busy at this time of day."
"Better busy. No one will pay any attention to us," he said, pulling out her chair. "I already ordered. Should be ready in a few minutes."
He pointed to her skirt. "You didn't ride your Harley to Atlanta wearing that, did you?"
"Of course not. I borrowed Luke's truck."
"Ah. How is the rest of the Duke family?"
"Bo wants to rip out all the telephone wires, and Luke and Bo both insisted on coming into the city with me this morning. I talked them out of it. Other than that, I think they're taking their frustration out on Enos and Kate."
"Can't say that I blame them. I doubt that Enos or Kate would blame them either. But that won't change anything. And, I never said you had to come alone. The tap on your phone is one of the things I intend to take up with the GBI when I meet with them later this morning. They can trace it and find out the source – can't imagine they don't have the equipment that can do that. But they'll need your permission, or Luke's, or whoever's."
"I'll talk to Luke."
"Daisy, I'm only here for the day; I have to be back in LA tomorrow morning for a task force meeting. My flight leaves at eight. Can you have an early dinner with me near the airport? Say about four? That way, you can be back in Hazzard before it gets too dark."
"Yeah, I can do that."
"There may be some things I find out that you and your cousins need to know, and I don't want to delay getting you the information. Besides, it will give you time to talk to Luke."
"Sure, no problem," she said, scrutinizing him. She had spoken to Turk only once more from the payphone out on Drexel Road since he sent the text about the farm phone. Even though they had discussed where to meet that morning, he hadn't mentioned anything about a dinner date.
"So, other than intrigue, what have you been up to?" Turk asked, interrupting her ruminations.
"Just trying to keep it all together and get ready for my move to Atlanta."
"Have you found an apartment yet?"
"Not yet. I suppose I could spend the time while you're at the GBI. How long do you think you'll be there?"
Turk smiled. "A couple of hours, at least."
"So how's the girlfriend?" she asked, for lack of any better small talk.
"Ummm...Shawnee and I aren't together anymore. She moved out nearly two months ago, before Christmas."
"Turk...I'm sorry to hear about that. Soonie told me Enos thought she might be the one."
More than once, he wished he'd been a fly on the wall for Daisy and Soonie's conversation after he left that Sunday.
"Yeah, well, maybe I did too, for a while," he said, ignoring his curiosity. "Work takes up most of my time now, anyway."
Before he could elaborate, a tall man with reddish hair and a tweed jacket approached the table.
"Uh-oh. So much for not drawing attention. That's the director of my research project," Daisy said in a low voice.
"Doctor Duke," said the man, who looked to Turk to be about forty, maybe forty-five. "I didn't expect to see you here today?" While he said it, his eyes darted from Daisy to Turk.
"I came in to check on a few administrative things. Then I'm going to look for an apartment. Haven't had much time until now."
"The time to do that is in December or May when all the students have vacated their digs."
"I had a lot going on in December, and I can't wait 'til May. I'm sure I'll find something. Professor Duncan," she indicated Turk, "this is–"
Turk stood up and thrust out his hand to the professor. "J. Bertrand Adams. USC. Pleasure to meet you. I'm here in Atlanta to do a little scouting. USC has a well-respected Environmental Science department and can always use talent of Doctor Duke's caliber."
"Yes, indeed," the professor said, warily, and shook Turk's hand. "Doctor Duke has a commitment to Emory for the next year Mr. Adams. Is it ethical to be recruiting before she has even started her research project?"
"Only unethical if I spirit her away, which I don't plan to do, just yet. I believe your project is safe for this year's commitment."
"I certainly hope so," he said. "Well, I will leave you both to talk." He turned to Daisy. "I will expect to see you in May, Doctor Duke."
"Yes, Sir. I'll definitely be here."
After the professor disappeared into the crowd, Daisy couldn't suppress a smile and asked, "What the hell was that?!"
"Just giving him something to think about. I didn't lie. Enos and I both got our degrees from USC in Criminal Justice – I never said I was working for the university. And I am here in Atlanta on a scouting mission, just not the kind he assumed."
She narrowed her eyes and gave him a look.
"You want me to track him down and tell him I'm a drug enforcement officer from LA meeting with you in connection with an investigation into international kidnapping, an attack on a police officer, a triple homicide, drug and human trafficking, and underage sex crimes ring?"
"Don't be an idiot. Of course not."
When Turk heard someone from the counter call 'Jay', he excused himself and went to pick up their brunch order. When he returned to the table with two orders of French toast and coffee, Daisy had taken some photos and a phone bill out of her pocket and placed them in front of him. He took a look at the pictures of the wiring in the farm's outside phone box in-line. The phone bill and the photos only verified what he already knew.
"Can I keep these?" he asked, handing her one of the containers.
"Sure."
"Enough small talk, Daisy. We need to cut to the chase. When I told Enos that I planned to go to New Orleans and Lafayette to look deeper into Kate's background, he was adamant that I talk to you first. So, what is it I need to know? But, we should eat first."
At least now she knew why she had to tell Turk about Annie. If he went snooping around in Kate Broussard's background, he would find out about her sister and start asking questions that might make the wrong people start connecting up dots.
After getting about halfway through the sticky bread, Daisy explained to Turk about Mignon Broussard, a.k.a. Annie Poe. Finishing off his own toast, he didn't show even a hint of surprise. He'd been uncharacteristically quiet, at least the character with which Daisy had been acquainted.
Of course, that had been limited to the week she spent in Los Angeles in 1980, the week he had spent in Hazzard in 1987 (a month before Enos returned to LA), and the one hour she had spent with him at Soonie's apartment that Sunday after Enos's attack. Wasn't much to build a character profile on. Today was her first real glimpse of the serious Turk Adams – Police Lieutenant Turk Adams. At least with Turk, she didn't have any long-term, preconceived, and continuously reinforced ideas about him.
The image was banished when he snorted a quick mischievous laugh. "Explains a lot," he mused.
"I'm glad you think so. About the time I think I have Enos figured out, a new bomb drops out of the sky that I think I should've known all along."
"Don't beat yourself up so much, Daisy," he said, sympathetically. "Not sure if any of us will ever know what really goes on in that brain of his...except maybe Soonie. Man plays things tight to the vest, even with his best friends. How he's made I guess." He snickered, "Drives Thompson nuts."
Daisy looked incredulous. Detective Thompson had seemed to be a close friend from her vantage point. She assumed they were partners, and no one ever said anything to make her think otherwise.
"Oh, don't get me wrong. I think the guy would take a bullet for Enos, and vice versa. And I love Enos like a brother. When we both go to my Mom's house for dinner, she tells the neighbors that her 'kids' are coming for supper." He snickered again. "But he still can drive me nuts sometimes."
"I'd like to meet your mom."
"Maybe someday you can. You know, I wasn't kidding when I told that nosy professor that they have a pretty good Environmental Science department at USC."
"That nosy professor will be paying my salary for the next year."
"Granted. But...You have to do something after that, don't you?"
Before she had time to contemplate her future after the Emory study, Turk started strategizing what to do now and told her, "I think Enos may have an alternate plan."
"Why do you say that?"
"Remember, I know him. Also, something he said. 'There's always more than one way to get somethin' done that needs doin', Buddy-roe.'"