“...It was then that our County Commissioner, J.D. Hogg, valiantly fought off one of the gunmen and then escaped to return with help...” Rosco paused as he was reading. “Hey Boss, if’n you fought off one of them there crooks, how come you didn’t get scuffed none?”

“Because you pea-brain, I was too fast for ‘em,” Boss did an imitation of a boxer getting ready for the ring as he spoke.

“Oh, that makes sense.” Then he added a little bit uncertain, “I guess.” Just then, there was a knock on the door to Boss’s office here in the courthouse. Turning, Rosco saw a man of about forty years old that was extremely well dressed.

“I’m looking for a Mr. J.D. Hogg.”

“That’s me. What can I do for you?”

“I’d like to speak with you.” Then looking at Rosco, “Alone.”

Boss eyed Rosco and then the man. He looked like he wanted to conduct business without having the local Sheriff around. Well he could accommodate that. “Rosco, shouldn’t you be out on patrol?”

“I’ve got the Dipsticks out on patrol.”

“Go ON patrol!”

“Gjit! Alright, alright. I’m gone,” Rosco mumbled as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

“Now, I assume that you have some sort of business that you wanted to discuss.”

“Actually, it’s this article that I wanted to speak about with you.” The man pointed to the paper on the desk where Rosco had left it. “It’s about this Mrs. Duke.”

“What about her. She ain’t nothin’ but a Duke like the rest of them. A bit of a rabble raiser.”

“Oh believe me; I know that she’s a bit rough around the edges. Has been ever since my father adopted her. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Shawn Kyle.”

“Adopted?”

“Yes, and you see, my father had wanted to see to it that my Little Sister was well looked after.” Shawn did his best not to sneer at the term. “When she up and left Atlanta a few months back, she didn’t tell the rest of us where she was going.”

“She didn’t huh?” Boss began to wonder just what this had to do with him.

“No she didn’t. She believes that there are no longer any ties between us since my father had died. But I can’t help but feel an obligation to keep a close eye on her. And I’d be very grateful if I could enlist your help in doing so.”

“HOW grateful?”

“Oh, I’m sure that if you were to pass along anything that you notice or hear about, that a certain MONETARY amount could be arranged as a compensation for your time.” Shawn pulled out a roll of bills and dropped them onto the table and watched as Boss’s eyes glistened with greed. “I’d be much obliged if you would pass along any news of travel, perhaps, or changes that would seem to be the kind that a woman may want to tell her family about. Anything of any interest.”

“Why are you so interested in Mrs. Duke’s personal life?” Hogg glanced up from where he was counting out the money in the roll.

“I’m just wanting to keep an eye on my Little Sister. Surely there’s nothing wrong with that. I’ll leave you my business card, call if you hear anything that might fit the bill. I’ll be sure to make it worth your while.”

With that, Shawn put his card on the desk and left the office. Boss hadn’t been given such easy money in a long time. Glancing over at the paper, he thought who would have thought that a robbery that he wasn’t behind could be so profitable.




Kira shook her head in disgust as she listened to the CB that she and Jebb had gotten to put into their kitchen. It sounded as if Hogg had been at it again. He had set the guys up. He’d given them permission to head over to Chickasaw County to pick up a part for the tractor and wouldn’t you know it, he accidentally put the wrong date on the paper work. It had last year’s date on it instead. Kira would have figured that at least LUKE would have checked that out before leaving Hazzard. Now, Sheriff Ed Little (AKA: Big Ed) was in hot pursuit of the Duke Boys. All three of them since Jebb rode along. That gave Kira an idea.

‘Bo.’

‘Little busy right now, Kira.’

‘Has the Sheriff seen YOU or has he just seen The General?’

‘Why?’

‘If he’s only seen the car, with a blond driver, you only have to ditch Little long enough for you and Luke to get out of the car. Then Jebb can let Little catch him and he’ll assume that Hogg gave him some wrong info about who was coming to his county.’

There was a long pause, Kira assumed that Bo was getting the others’ opinion on the plan before Bo came back, ‘That might work.’ Kira eyed the CB (as she continued to listen in on the chatter) through the opened door to the kitchen from the small room that had long been added to the house that she had turned into an office at home. Jebb had even put in some new shelves for her law books. It was also the only room in the house that she was a stickler for keeping it locked. Already, word had gotten around that there was a lawyer in town that was a Duke.

The Duke name held a lot of weight with the people in Hazzard and surrounding counties. Everyone knew that when you needed help, you couldn’t get any better than from a Duke. Kira had been surprised when locals had started to seek her out, based solely on her name alone even before the office was completed. Granted, not all of the business sent her way was her specialty, but it was work that kept her busy none the less. Not everyone could really afford to pay much either but that was okay since she really didn’t need the money anyway. Already her desk was cluttered with various files ranging from contracts, a few minor criminal offenses, land disputes, to wills. She hadn’t had her hands in so many pots of law in a long time. She had to say, she liked the variety.

‘Kira, your plan backfired.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Little arrested Jebb on “the suspicion of everything”.’

Kira rolled her eyes. ‘Where are you at? I’ll send Jesse to get you and Luke while I go get Jebb.’

‘Out on Coyote Crossin’. Near the bridge.’ Kira got up and locked both doors to her office and grabbed her helmet and jacket. Looks like she’ll finally get to meet this ornery Sheriff from Chickasaw County.




Jebb hung up the phone. Kira and Jesse both hadn’t been home so he’d called Daisy at the Boar’s Nest. She told him that the others were already on their way. Now sitting back in the cell, there wasn’t much else to do but wait for the show. He was sure that Big Ed had met his match. Wonder how he’ll take learning that the Dukes now have an expert on the law as a family member. That whole “Suspicion of everything” crap is gonna get blown out of the water. In fact, it sounds as if the first part of the show was already under way in the booking room. Oh, come on. Come over to the cells. It wouldn’t be fair to have to miss the whole thing while stuck behind these bars.

“Well I was told that the other cousins were in the county, breaking their probation. I had an obligation to search the car.”

“And how is it that you plan to justify arresting Jebb when you searched the car to find that your informant was wrong? Did he refuse the speeding ticket?”

“Well, no. But he’s hiding the others. I’m certain of it.”

“Where? In his pockets?”

“That ain’t what I mean. He’s up to no good. I just know it.”

“And how is that?”

“He’s a Duke! That’s how I know.”

“So am I. You gonna arrest me on that basis too?” Kira really wished that Little wasn’t wearing his trademark sunglasses so she could have seen the expression in his eyes when she said that. “I’ll have you remember that the next time that you bring ANY of the Dukes up on phony charges, I’ll file a complaint of false arrest as well as unlawful imprisonment charges along with any others that I can tack on. And you’d so well to remember that Sheriffs don’t do well in lock up.” Kira did her best to stare down a man whose eyes she couldn’t she and was a lot bigger than her.

“Are you THREATENING me?”

“Nope. Just reminding you of the legal ramifications of your actions. Now, go and let my HUSBAND out of that cell.” Little tried to stick it out a little bit longer but knew that he really didn’t have a case and knew that he wouldn’t be able to bluff it with this woman who only moments before had produced her Bar Association card as a proof of I.D. Who just now announced that she was married to a DUKE.

“Get out of here before I change my mind,” He grumbled as he opened the cell.

With that, Jebb and Kira headed on out of the jail, waiting until they were out on the street to begin laughing at how the sheriff had looked when he realized that he’d been beaten by a Duke.




When the Duke Boys had all gotten back to town, and ended up at the Boar’s Nest for a couple of brews and to show Daisy that all of her cousins had indeed survived in one piece the events of the day, Hogg had seemed less than pleased to say the least. He had as much as gift wrapped Bo and Luke for Sheriff Little and he somehow had blew it. He’ll have to figure something else out to keep them out of the Hazzard Derby this weekend.

Over at the table, the Dukes were also thinking about the Derby. Bo and Luke were hyped up on the anticipation of the race. They already had plans to use the prize money to pay back Cooter for all the work he’d done on The General. Of course Kira had offered to square away the debt instead. But that danged stubborn Duke Pride wouldn’t accept it. After a couple of discussions, all mention of money was dropped. Kira had only wanted to help but she understood that taking money from her (or now Jebb) would make them feel like they couldn’t take care of things for themselves. They knew if they really needed it, the offer was there. So there was no need in repeating it.

After a while, the talk turned to the Motor Cross Races. Jebb and Kira had missed a couple of races this year since Jebb was working overtime at trying to get the farm ready to go for the next planting season and since there hadn’t been anyone keeping up the borders for a while, there was always fences that needed to be mended when there wasn’t anything else. Since Jebb wasn’t going, Kira wouldn’t have felt right going. Instead they’ve raced in a couple of the races in the surrounding counties. The Hazzard Motor Cross was in two weeks so they’d both be racing in it.

“I have to know. How can you two race each other without it causing any problems? I mean how do you deal with competing against each other?” Bo had thought about it and there was no way that he’d be able to race a girl and have her beat him on occasion without it affecting how he felt about the girl.

“It’s just what we’ve always done,” Kira answered as she shrugged her shoulder.

“As long as you can leave the track behind, there ain’t no problem, Bo.”

“I guess that would be my problem then. I wouldn’t be able to do that. So, which one of you is the better racer then?”

“Bo.” A simple one word warning that Luke had given his whole life, but he’d been caught off guard by his cousin asking that particular question. That could open a Pandora’s Box.

“It’s alright Luke. Bo, the answer to that question depends on the type of racing.” Jebb nearly laughed out loud as it looked like Luke had begun to prepare for him and Kira to get into it over who the better racer was.

“How’s that?”

Kira decided to answer that one. “If its straight racing, then Jebb’s got me beat. Barely,” Kira added with a grin.

“And if it’s a track that requires a lot of stunt driving, well, Kira is about the best stunt rider around. She’ll do stunts that even I wouldn’t touch and make them look easy.” Bo looked back and forth between his cousin and sister. “Of course most of them I think I’d rather her not do no more, but I know that ain’t likely to happen.”

Kira eyed Jebb but it looked like he was going to let it stay right there. He wasn’t going to go into detail about which stunts; she had a good idea which ones he meant. The same ones that he hadn’t liked even before they had started to date. The same ones that had probably caused him to start paying attention to the (at that time) new comer to the track in the first place.

How do you argue with someone that won’t argue? He always does that. Just states his position and then goes on and continues with whatever conversation that had started the could be argument without skipping a beat. He knew that she’d be more likely to go practice those same stunts if he said much more. Maybe. It wasn’t like he was claiming that she COULDN’T do them. Just that he’d wish that she didn’t.

“Hey Kira? Didn’t you hear me?” Kira looked up and saw that Daisy had joined them sometime during her daydreaming. And no, she didn’t hear what she’d said.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t payin’ attention. Sorry. What’d you say?”

“I was just saying how Lulu wanted us all to change the Ladies’ Auxiliary meeting this week. We’ll meet next week instead.”

“Oh, alright.” Kira was mentally chastising herself for letting her concentration slip. She usually wasn’t absent-minded. Throwing herself back into the conversation, she tried to let it go.




On the morning of the Motor Cross two weeks later, Kira went to get dressed in her favorite pair of jeans to wear to the race but noticed that they didn’t seem to fit right. They were too loose. Not enough that anyone else would notice, but enough that SHE noticed. Of course she hadn’t had much of an appetite lately; in fact she had fallen into the habit of skipping lunch. Right frankly she’d skip breakfast instead if she didn’t have to worry about Jebb fussing about it. The thought of food in general just wasn’t all that appealing to her lately. Which might be the reason she’d been getting a lot of headaches lately. She’ll have to try to force herself to eat something later to try to keep them at bay.

After the race, all of the Dukes were suppose to meet over at the orphanage to help out with a craft project that the Ladies’ group had arranged. Kira hadn’t really liked the idea of going. Call her crazy but after bouncing around from one orphanage to another, and then from foster family to foster family before just taking her chances on the streets, going to one to spend an afternoon voluntarily just didn’t sit right with her. But, she couldn’t exactly be the odd man out so she’ll go. Reluctantly, but she’ll go. So after brushing her long locks back, Kira went on out since she was sure that Jebb was by the bikes ready to head over to the Boar’s Nest already even though the race wasn’t to start for an hour.




“Watch yourself out there. I’ll see ya at the finish line.”

“You too. I’m not the one that Kinnison will be gunnin’ for though.”

“I’ll be alright.” Jebb lower his face shield but not before grinning at his wife.

“As always,” Kira mumbled more to herself than Jebb since he’d already was revving the engine on his bike. They both took their places at the starting line along with the other participants. When the starting pistol went off, it didn’t take long for the riders to separate into packs. Jebb had the advantage on this course since he’d ridden on this terrain since he could first ride. He’d gone a few practice laps with her in the last couple of weeks so Kira felt comfortable with the various dips in the road and turns, that if they’d been any sharper, they’d cut glass. She used those dips to help her. She’d get a little lift from them and actually JUMP some of the other riders. Up ahead, the next rider was a familiar rider in blue dueling it out with an even more familiar rider in all black. She knew that Jebb would be in the cross-hairs. And he wanted HER to be careful.




“Does anybody know who we’re supposed to be pulling for?” Bo looked around as he spoke.

“Anyone with the name Duke,” Luke smirked. “Why are you makin’ such a big deal out of this? Jebb and Kira seemed used to this. If one of them wins, it’s not goin’ to be the end of the world for the other.” Bo just shrugged his shoulders. It still seemed odd that those two could race each other so casually. After the ONE race that he and Luke had entered together, they’d agreed to never race like that again. They were both just too competitive. And they were just cousins, brothers in nearly every sense of the word. Jebb and Kira were married. That had to up the ante a bit.

“Hey everybody! The frontrunners are comin’!” Daisy shouted to all who had gone into the bar for a drink while waiting for the riders to make their way back to the finish line. As one, the crowd headed back out to watch the riders race the final stretch to the line. As the sounds of motorcycle engines were drawing closer, all of the Dukes tried to see just who was in the front of the pack.

“There they are!”

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