Chapter 4

To all my readers, this story may be interrupted for a few weeks. If the next chapter isn't out before May 30, don't expect any more chapters untill after June 10. I'm going to be on a vacation far from any computers. Enjoy chapter 4!

Spitfire0

Brooke looked at the others, her eyebrows raised. "Go on, honey. We'll see you later." Cooter said. Brooke gave him the money to buy everyone drinks then gave him a kiss on the cheek and drove off.

"Can I ride with Daddy?" Alicia asked Daisy.

"Only if he swears to go the speed limit." Daisy said, giving Xavier a piercing look.

"Come on, mom."

"No, your mother's right." Xavier said. "But until we find you a helmet your size you can't ride it."

"Part two of you anniversary gift, Xavier." Luke said with a smile, pulling a small helmet out of the back seat of the General and handing it to Xavier.

"We thought Alicia would ask to ride with you, so here's her helmet."

"Thank you, Uncle Luke." Alicia said, delighted.

"I'm not really your uncle, Alicia. Daisy ain't my sister."

"She might as well call you that. I call Uncle Jesse Uncle Jesse and I'm not even part of the family." Cooter said, grinning at Jesse, who rolled his eyes.

"Well, come on everyone. Boar's Nest." Jesse said, climbing into his pickup truck.

At the Boar's Nest, they all sat down with a beer, except Alicia who was drinking milk. Bo and Luke told the story of Hughie's previous visits. "So Daisy was right, he is worse then Boss Hogg." Xavier said.

"Way worse. He's the pride of the Hogg family, I know Brooke was frightened by the prospect of him bein' back, no matter what she looked like." Bo added.

"Speakin' of Brooke where is she? We've been here two hours and she's not back. What on earth is she and Rosco talking about?" Cooter asked.

Brooke sat in her patrol car at Rosco's favorite speed trap. She knew if he wanted to meet her at a speed trap it was this one, mainly because it led from the Duke farm to town.

"Where is he?" she said into thin air. Upon arriving she had noticed Rosco wasn't there. She had been waiting for a long time now. She grabbed the CB. "Sheriff, this is Brooke. Where are you? I've been waiting for at least an hour." She waited but there was no answer.

Irritated, Brooke started her patrol car and headed for the Boar's Nest. She had barely gone half a mile when Hughie Hogg's Beetle started following her. She noticed Hughie was driving. Where's his henchmen at? she wondered. She pulled up and spun her car sideways, then got out and stood next to her car. Hughie pulled up to her and stopped. "Is there a problem deputy?" He asked.

Brooke looked into Hughie's eyes, something was really wrong. He looked as though he'd had a mental breakdown. Maybe his men didn't want to work for someone crazy. Brooke pushed the thought away and drew her service revolver. "Yes. Hughie Hogg, step out of the car."

"Speak of the devil." Luke said as Rosco emerged from Boss's office.

"All right Rosco. Where's Brooke?" Bo said, barring Rosco from leaving.

"How should I know?" Rosco asked sounded irritated.

"You talked with her."

"Of course I talked with her! She's my deputy!"

"We'll where'd she go after you talked with her?"

"How should I know? I hope she's chasing Hughie Hogg! Bo Duke, would you get out of my way?"

"What did you to talk about?"

"Hughie, of course!"

"You had to meet her to tell her what you could have said over the CB?"

"I did talk to her over the CB you riff-raf!" he shouldered past Bo, who looked like he'd seen a ghost.

Bo and Luke tore outside and dived into the General. "Polaris this is Lost Sheep, come in." There was no response. "Lost Sheep to Polaris please come in." Luke called into the CB as they backed out of the Boar's Nest parking lot and raced for Rosco's favorite speed trap.

Ya'll don' think somethin's happened to Brooke do ya?

Brooke's car sat on the road a little ways beyond the speed trap, engine off. There was no sign of Brooke or of a struggle. "Her car's fine, but where is she? If someone attacked her she'd have put up a fight, or at least have left us somethin'." Bo said worriedly.

"Breaker one, breaker one, might be crazy but, I ain't dumb this is Craaaaaazy Cooter calling Bo or Luke Duke." The General's CB called.

"Yeah we're here, what's up Cooter?" Luke replied.

"You found Brooke yet? Don' know why you're so worried. Rosco's probably just angry at Hughie being back."

"I hate to tell you this, but Brooke ain't here and her car is."

There was a pause. "Say again." Cooter said with an unfamiliar note in his voice.

"Brooke's gone."

"No, she can't be."

"Cooter, she's probably fine." Luke said, startled by the crack in Cooter's composure.

"Yeah, sure. You…you find her…ok." Luke had never heard Cooter talk like that. It was worse then the time he had sold his garage to Boss Hogg, and the garage had been his life back then.

"Cooter, could you get everyone else over here, we need to formulate a plan."

"Yeah….ok…. be there soon."

Brooke's eye's never felt heavier. She forced them open and tried to rub them when she noticed she was handcuffed to a wooden post. The last thing she remembered was telling Hughie Hogg to step out of his car. She looked around, she was in a barn. She struggled, but knew the handcuffs wouldn't release her.

"Now, now, none of that." said a voice. Brooke looked at the source and sucked in her breath. Hughie Hogg was leaning against a nearby post wearing a smug smile. "I beat you this time. Last time was your score, but it was a small victory in a war that can't be won."

"Hughie, what are you doing?" Brooke said, keeping her face impassive, though fear bloomed in her. She barley knew Hughie, but from what she did know, he wasn't acting normal and looked a little demented, there was something in his eye's that bespoke madness.

"Hazzard is mine. You're number one on the list of what's holding me back. With you and a few other choice targets' out of the way, nothin' can stop me."

"What are you going to do once you do? The second you let me go, the FBI will have you locked up." She said smugly.

To her surprise, Hughie didn't look even slightly fazed by this. "That won't be a problem. Don't you want to know what happened? You were supposed to meet Rosco, weren't you?"

"How do you-" Brooke shook her head, it couldn't be.

Hughie smiled. "Brooklyn this is you're superior officer, Rosco. Do you read me?" he said, sounding almost exactly like Rosco. "You see now? My men where hidin' nearby. Didn't you wonder why I was driving?" he leered at her, his voice returning to normal, only softer then before.

"But, how can the FBI not be a problem?"

Hughie started pacing in front of her. "All these year's I come so close to takin' Hazzard, I always fail. I always knew there was something I was missing, the key to takin' it for keeps. Well, now I know. The FBI ain't never going to arrest me, because you're not getting' out." Brooke struggled to keep a straight face as a bucketful of ice cascaded into her stomach. "If you're dead, who will tell the FBI anythin'?"

Hughie is bad, but not like this. He's lost his mind. Unfortunately, that only makes Brooke's case worse. Don' go nowhere, ya hear?