I've just noticed that I've been spelling Rosco's name wrong. I've fixed it going forward, and I apologize for the error….. I hope you enjoy this next chapter. It's a little short, but I needed to concentrate on what was happening inside Rosco's head for a while.
Rosco and Enos dropped Ms. Harpswell back to her house, reminding her that they would need a completed official statement from her first thing in the morning. They then returned to the courthouse. Enos stayed with Bo to book him and get him settled in his cell, while Rosco made his way over to the door of Boss Hogg's office. Rosco stopped for a moment before entering to gather up his thoughts, which could take a while. He watched Enos leading Bo down the stairwell to the cell kept down there. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out the Polaroid photo and studied it once again.
What he had before him was an open and shut case. He had an eye witness, he had hard evidence in hand, he had a suspect in custody who had no alibi during the time of the crime….yep, it was a perfect, open and shut case. Rosco's eyes narrowed a bit as he chewed on his lower lip. He thought of all the years he and Boss had tried in vain to set up the Duke boys for something, anything, to put them away behind bars for good, and here he was with all the evidence he needed, and then some, to finally do it to at least one of them.
What Rosco couldn't understand was why he had a bad feeling about this whole thing. He thought back to Bo's reactions to the accusations when presented to him. He saw the fear and confusion in his eyes, the cracking voice, the body language and of course, the pleading that he was innocent. He'd known the Duke family for years. He knew how those boys and Daisy had been taught by Jesse to always tell the truth, no matter what. He knew the odds that Bo would look Jesse right in the eyes and lie to him were pretty slim. The biggest thing was that when it came right down to it, deep down in Rosco's heart, he knew, at least he was pretty sure, that Bo was telling the truth.
He also knew that there actually was a crime committed today. The money really was stolen from Ms. Harpswell's strong box. There really was the photo, the red stain, and the torn jeans…and every single shred of evidence pointed directly at Bo. Rosco also knew that there was very little chance that Ms. Harpswell was being anything less than honest. She had no reason to create any type of story like this one, and she had no reason to implicate Bo, or any of the Dukes of such a crime. If it wasn't Bo, and it wasn't Ms. Harpswell, then there really was only one other person that Rosco could think of that would do such a thing. He again looked at Boss's office door and placed his hand on the doorknob. It had to have been Boss. There was really no other explanation for the events of today. The only questions that Rosco had left were how did Boss pull this all off so perfectly and why hadn't he been let in on the scheme? Rosco figured there was only one way to find out any of the answers, so he took a deep breath and opened Boss's door and entered with a big smile.
"Good news, good news!" He beamed. "I gotta hand it to ya, Boss, you sure did an A-Plus job this time."
Boss looked up from his desk and scowled. "I did? And what exactly was it supposed to be that I did an A-Plus job at?" He mimicked back to Rosco.
"You know, Boss….you're plan? I gotta say, you sure pulled out all the stops this time. And it all went off without a hitch, too." Walking over to Boss, Rosco elbowed him in the shoulder and winked. "Let's just say that the 'package' has been delivered and is being safely packed away in storage as we speak. Coot, coot!"
Boss frowned and shook his head pathetically at his sheriff. "Honestly, Rosco. If I am ever able to follow a single word that comes out of your mouth, I'd take it as a sure sign of insanity on my part. Now knock off the jabbering and tell me what in blazes you're babbling about. I'm very busy and have no time for your foolishness today."
Rosco's eyes narrowed and he bent down close to Boss's beady little face. If Boss was bluffing, he was doing an excellent job at it. He pointed out the door toward the stairwell. "Boss?" He stammered, "It was you, wasn't it? I mean, it had to have been you. There ain't no one else it could've been." Seeing that Boss was still staring at him blankly, with frustration mounting with every word that came out of his mouth, Rosco figured it was just time to come out with it. "The plan to frame Bo Duke for stealing twelve hundred dollars from Ms. Harpswell's strong box?"
Boss's eyes widened to the size of saucers. He stood frozen for a moment as the words sunk in. He looked at Rosco in disbelief. "Is Bo the 'package' that is downstairs being held?"
Rosco smiled and nodded. "He sure is, Boss. Plus, the evidence against him is stacked higher than a wad of your cash! There's no way he's gonna be able to wiggle his way out of this one. He's off to the State Penn for good this time!"
Boss took a big puff of his cigar and flopped back down into his chair. "Rosco?" he cooed, "Why don't you just sit right down here with me and tell me everything little detail of how it all went down today, and I don't want you to leave anything out."
Eagerly Rosco pulled a chair up close to Boss and told the whole story from start to finish. Boss sat as if in a daze; never once interrupting or asking any questions. When all was told, Rosco finished up with "And to top it all off, Ms. Harpswell got a nice Polaroid shot of Bo fleeing the scene! Coot coot!" He handed the photo over to Boss for him to see.
Boss looked the picture over in amazement. It had happened. It finally had happened. Downstairs in his jail cell sat a Duke boy waiting to be tried for a felony, a real felony! After all the years of scheming to pin a crime on them, one of them had actually gone out and committed an actual crime all on his own, and there was a substantial amount of evidence to boot. Boss continued to stare at the picture as he began to laugh. It started as a chuckle, but soon grew to be a full belly laugh. He was beaming from ear to ear, and suddenly felt the urge to jump up and do a jig! "Rosco!" He cried as he locked elbows with him and twirled him around in a circle. "Do you know what this means? Bo Duke is finally gonna be out of my hair for good! After all this time trying to frame him, he's actually gone out and done this thing on his own! How unbelievable is that?" He continued to laugh as he danced around his office.
Upon hearing his, Rosco stopped smiling and stopped dancing. His brow furrowed and he brought a finger up to his chin as he digested what Boss had just said. He gave Boss a minute to calm down, and then questioned him. "Wait just a second, Boss. Does that mean that you didn't have anything to do with this?"
"That's what I'm saying, Rosco." Boss answered. "Oh, well, it would have been a beauty of a plan, let me say that. I mean, it's perfect! Almost too perfect! Bo Duke was literally caught 'red handed'!" Again he let out a belly laugh as he wobbled his way back to his desk. "A plan like this would probably take years to perfect. I mean, I would have to come up with a look alike for Bo, at least from the back, I would have to somehow coincide all of Bo's actions for the day to make sure the stain and the tear were on both of them at the same time, then of course, I would have to have an exact replica of The General Lee and make sure Bo had no alibi at the time of the robbery….. I mean, that type of plan would have to be carried out to the letter by a team of experts in order to get it exactly right."
Rosco scratched his head and thought. "Yeah, I guess you're right, Boss. A plan like that would take an awful lot of thought and work to be pulled off without a hitch." Suddenly, the uneasy feeling in his stomach was back. He could understand Boss's enthusiasm in catching one of the Duke boys, he really could. In fact, Rosco would be the first one to celebrate with him, if he could either be assured that Bo really was guilty, or if he knew it was one of Boss's plans. Either one of those scenarios would be fine. However, if Boss didn't do it, and he was still fairly certain that Bo didn't do it, then that meant only one other thing. There was someone else out there with a mind for vengeance. Someone who apparently had it in for Bo, and now that he had been taken care of, it opened up the possibility that someone else in Hazzard could be next… and that there was the thing that was eating away at Rosco's stomach.