GUNSHOTS
GILMER COUNTY, BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS
Daisy grabbed Enos' shirt, she buried her face against Enos' chest and closed her eyes, praying for help.
Enos gently rested his right hand on Daisy's nape, "Please, Mr Russell. I have never had a love affair with your wife Josephine. Believe me."
Nick Russell laughed, a cold laugh, "You are a liar, Enos Strate."
Enos hold Daisy's tight.
FLASHBACK
Josephine sobbed and rubbed her face against his chest, her tears dampening his shirt, and through his shirt, also his skin.
Enos felt uncomfortable. He hated to see women crying, no matter the reason of their crying.
He rested his hands on Josephine's elbows and he gently parted from her, "Are you OK, Mrs Russell?"
Finally away from her, he sighed in relief, looking at her wiping her tears and talking about her wallet and the last picture of her mother, his heart moved by that grief and pain. He was going to find that wallet, if it was so important for that woman. He smiled at her, trying to cheer her up, ""I'll do my best in order to find it. Do you remember the last time you used your wallet?"
Josephine Russell shook her head, wrapping her arms around her waist, "I don't remember."
Bruises on her arms, Enos caught it before she rolled her shirt's sleeves down.
"It's because I lifted some heavy pots up."
Unrequested explanation. His past experience as cop in a big and violent city as LA taught him what that kind of unrequested explanation meant: it wasn't because of some heavy pots.
Enos looked carefully at Josephine Russell, her defensive attitude recalling him another woman from his past. He recalled uncle James slapping aunt Iris. He recalled Nick Russell laughing of Josephine Russell and her painful biting her lips and looking away: brief scene he caught while he crossed Hazzard's square and glanced at The Florist Shop, some months before, now surfacing to his mind with a new meaning.
He wondered what was going on at The Florist Shop, away from the public eye.
His heart raced in his chest, "I guess your job can be really hard." Brief pause, "Is it just because of your job?"
"Yeah, it's just because of my job. Thanks Enos. Hope you are going to find my wallet, or maybe I am going to find it by myself, if I recall the last time I used it." Josephine turned round and walked away, leaving the Police Department.
His eyes on her while she walked away, Enos wondered if he was guessing it right: was Josephine trying to talk to him about her hell with Nick Russell? Did he really see the real face of Nick Russell, that day, through The Florist Shop's window?
When he was a child, he decided to become a cop in order to protect women like his aunt Iris, and now he had the chance to fulfill that purpose.
SOMEWHERE FROM HAZZARD COUNTY TO GILMER COUNTY
Luke scratched his head in frustration, his blue eyes on the road blocked because of a car wreck, "I can't believe it!"
Bo glanced at Luke, "It seems nobody is injured, fortunately."
"Yeah, nobody is injured but the road is blocked!"
Bo smiled, "Don't forget The General is The General, cousin."
The General Lee's horn and Bo and Luke's "YEEHAH!" filled the mountain air while the orange car jumped over the wrecked cars blocking the road.
GILMER COUNTY, BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS
"I reckon you convinced Josephine to leave me!"
Facing Nick Russell's anger, Enos tried to stay calm, "I have no influence on your wife, Mr Russell. I am honest when I say nothing happened between your wife and me. I can't love your wife 'cause I have always loved just one woman, and this woman is Daisy Duke." His hand on Daisy's nape gently trembled, "Please. Now, let Daisy go. I'll stay here with you and we'll talk, man to man talking. OK?"
Nick Russell's voice turned colder and colder, "Don't try to foolish me, Enos. If I let Daisy go, she'll ask for help. Besides, I have already said I don't want witnesses. Both of you are goin' to die."
Enos swallowed against the lump in his throat, "Nick. For sure the Dukes are goin' to find out what you have done, or maybe they have already found it out, witnesses or not. You have a score to settle with me, haven't you? OK, let Daisy go, kill me and run away. I guess the Dukes are already after you, so there's no need to kill Daisy too. Kill me and let Daisy go."
Daisy parted from Enos, terrified, "Enos! Stop it!"
Nick pointed his gun at Enos, "You are right. I have a score to settle with you. Your girlfriend is goin' to cry over your dead body."
Enos looked at the gun, and he recalled the night he got injured, last piece of the puzzle.
FLASHBACK
Josephine Russell left Hazzard the week before. People said it was because of her mother; Josephine was going to stay by her mother's side like she did years before.
Enos rolled on his side, unable to sleep.
Did he guess it right about Nick and Josephine? He felt he guessed it right, his system shouted him he was right, but he couldn't answer all the questions floating into his mind: did Josephine use the loss of her wallet and her last picture of her mother as an excuse to talk to him? Why did she tell him her mother was dead if not true, otherwise? Was he misunderstanding everything?
No, he wasn't misunderstanding what's going on. When he entered The Florist Shop, two weeks before (it was Daisy's birthday), Josephine was wiping her tears, no doubt about it. Was it because of her mother? Was it because of her husband? His system shouted him he was because of Nick Russell, he trusted his guts but he couldn't be totally sure about it if Josephine didn't talk to him.
"Mrs Russell, everybody deserves to be loved and honored. Everybody deserves to be valued and cherished. Your feelings are valid; you have the right to your own opinions and beliefs, to not have to make excuses to anyone else."
Did the words he told her that evening mean something to her? Did he manage to let her understand he knew what's going on? Did he manage to let her understand the sense of staying with someone?
Since Josephine Russell was gone, he couldn't have any answer.
Was Josephine Russell safe?
He stood up and walked to the fridge. He opened it, he filled a glass with buttermilk and sat at the table, sighing. Sipping the buttermilk, he looked at the moonlight entering the room.
Full-moon night: a perfect night for reaching Yellow Creek and think of everything, just the starry sky above him.
Enos recalled his leaving the Boarding House in that full-moon night.
He recalled the road to Yellow Creek.
His memories suddenly faded into a strong headache and smell of roses: he didn't remember Nick hitting him (he remembered just the headache because of that blow), knocking him unconscious and bringing him to Rockdale County with the van usually used for deliveries (he remembered just the smell of roses during that journey).
Finally, the figure of a masked man, a gun and then a sudden bellyache surfaced to Enos' mind.
Every piece of the puzzle was at its place, late and pointless memories.
That gun was still pointed at him, not in Rockdale County but in Gilmer County, not a masked man in front of him but Nick Russell.
"Daisy Duke, move away from him."
Daisy turned to Nick, her fierce eyes on him, "No! If you want to kill Enos, you have to kill me too!"
Screeching of tires stopping on the ground in front of the cabin diverted Nick's attention from Enos and Daisy.
Just a brief distraction, and Enos jumped from the couch to Nick, grabbing Nick's arms and trying to disarm him, "Daisy! Go out and ask for help!"
Daisy rushed to the door, she opened it and ran down the porch's stairs, her heart bursting of joy when she saw Bo and Luke coming out The General. They were there, and they were going to stop Nick Russell.
"Bo! Luke! Nick Russell is inside the cabin, and he wants to kill Enos!"
In the glade, she waited for Bo and Luke reaching her, then she turned round, ready to run back to the cabin with her cousins, their running suddenly stopped by two gunshot filling the air; brief stop while they looked at each other, just terror on their face, before to dash inside the cabin.
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