“Can anyone hear me?”

“This is Sheriff ROS-CO P. Coltrane. Ain’t anyone ever taught you that these CB’s aren’t meant for children to play on.”

“Sheriff! I need help! Two men broke in and took Kira. I can’t wake Momma up either.”

“Gi-jit! You want to say that again?”

“Two men in masks hurt Momma and took Kira.”

John ran over to the car from the farmyard as he heard his daughter on the CB. His brother following close behind him.

“Hang on, I’m on my way. Enos! I want you to get out to Jebb Duke’s farm right away.”

“Already headin’ there now Sheriff.”

“Someone contact the Doc and send him out that way too.”

“I’m already on my way Rosco. I was heading there anyway. I’m about five minutes out.”

“Hang on Honey. I’m on my way!” John hollered into the CB as he climbed into his car with Jesse getting into the passenger’s seat.

“DADDY!”

“Hang on. I’ll be there in just a minute.” John threw the car in gear and sent mud flying just as Daisy ran out of the house and jumped into her Jeep, having heard what was going on from the CB inside. Jesse grabbed the mic to get her attention.

“Daisy. I need you to run out to the back forty and get the boys. If they ain’t responded yet to what’s goin’ on it means that they ain’t at their car. Go fetch ‘em and bring ‘em over.”

“Yes sir, Uncle Jesse.”

“This here’s Crazy C. I just saw Jebb and Emily headin’ into the diner a while back. I’ll go tell Jebb what’s goin’ on.”

“Thanks Cooter.” Jesse gripped the dashboard as his brother slung the car up Jebb’s driveway. Looking up at his nephew’s home, he saw Emma running out of the house. As soon as John was out of the car, she threw herself at her father and began to wail. Jesse left his brother to tend to his daughter, and with a squeeze on his brother’s shoulder, went to go check on his brother’s wife.

Inside, Jesse found Pauline in the kitchen with a pretty good sized goose egg popping up on her forehead along with some other bruises already making themselves known. It also looked like she might need stitches on a gash just above her right eye, too. As Jesse leaned down to check her, his sister-in-law began to come around.

“Take it easy Pauline. Don’t try to move just yet. Doc’s on his way and he’ll check ya out.”

“What happened?” Pauline went to sit up but stopped once the room started to spin.

“I was kinda hopin’ that you could tell me.”

Pauline’s eyes went wide as she remembered the two masked men. “Emma! Kira! Jesse, stop wastin’ time with me and go check on those girls.” Pauline started to push Jesse away to send him upstairs.

“Take it easy, Emma’s out front with John.”

“Well, then go tend to Kira. I’d already called the doctor to come check on her this morning since she wasn’t feelin’ well. Go on.” Jesse looked away from his brother’s wife, not sure how he could tell her that their niece was gone, along with her unborn baby. “Jesse, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you goin’ on up? What’s happened?”

Jesse raised his eyes to meet Pauline’s, “She ain’t up there Pauline. They took her.” Pauline struggled to get to her feet but Jesse gently pushed her back down until the doctor could take a look at her. “Emma was a brave girl. She sent out the call for help, got everyone to runnin’. We’ll find her.”

Behind him, Jesse heard his brother coming in with Doc Applebee. His niece was clinging tightly around her father’s neck like she hadn’t done in a couple of years.




“You about finished, Emily? I think Cooter got tired of waiting for us to take him some food. Looks like he’s headin’ this way.” Jebb watched as the mechanic walked the square towards the diner.

“Uh-huh. Remember, you promise that we’d jump the creek, maybe even the pond, too.”

“I remember. Come on, let’s pay and head on out and take Cooter’s breakfast to him.” Jebb was out on the sidewalk by the time Cooter reached the diner, looking like someone had just kicked his dog. Handing the small box of food to his friend, Jebb teased him. “What’s wrong, Cooter? Couldn’t wait a few more minutes? You must really be hungry.” Jebb laughed ready to tease his friend since he was never known to pass up a free meal.

“Jebb, I think that you’d better head back to the farm.” Jebb’s face sobered at hearing the tone in Cooter’s voice.

“Kira? Something happened? What’s wrong?” Cooter glanced down at the young girl, trying to decide just how much to say in front of her. After all, it sounds like her mother was hurt, too. Looking down at his sister’s face, Jebb spoke to her, “Run on to the car Emily. I’ll be right there.” Emily looked back at the mechanic’s face then returned to her brother’s before running over to the car. “What happened?”

“Emma just sent out a call for help.”

“Emm-”

“She says that two masked men attacked your mother then took Kira with them.”

“What!” Jebb ran after his sister towards the car and caught up to her. Picking her up, he carried Emily the rest of the way across the square then the two got into the car, with his sister still struggling to fasten her seat belt.

Cooter watched helpless, not knowing what else he could do. But he was sure going to find out, that’s for sure. Glancing at the mud being kicked up by the car speeding out in the direction of the Duke farms, Cooter thought about how Emily had been wanting a wild ride in the car. It looked like she was certainly going to get it.




Rosco had been driving Boss to check on a business venture when the distress call from the Duke Farms sounded. All thoughts of business were forgotten as the two rushed to the child that was pleading for help. Once they’d pulled up, Boss was uncertain what to do but went to offer whatever help he could to Jesse.

Rosco asked Pauline some questions about the attack and sent Enos into a separate room to talk to Emma. She was still plastered to her father but Rosco didn’t see the harm in letting John stay with his daughter during the questioning. Bo and Luke had come in right about the same time as he did and it seemed that they’d split up to hear what had happened.

Luke was standing in the doorway to the living room watching as the doctor continued his once over of Pauline as Rosco asked his aunt some questions. Bo was leaning in the doorway to the downstairs guest room where Enos was talking to Emma. When Enos was finished talking to Emma, he and Rosco stepped off to the side to compare notes. They were still talking together off to the side when Jebb pulled up into the drive. He ran in ahead of Emily and took the steps up to the porch three at a time. When he walked in and saw his mother sitting on the couch, looking like something that the cat drug up, he rushed over to her.

“Mom!” He ran over and hugged his mother as she started to cry at the sight of her son.

“I couldn’t stop them. They just...” Pauline quickly was reduced to sobs and Jebb couldn’t understand what she was saying any longer.

“Mrs. Duke, I have a couple more questions if you don’t mind.” Rosco came back into the room. He waited as Pauline wiped her tears away and tried to pull herself together long enough to answer a few more questions. “Emma said that one of the men had a piece of paper that he claimed he got from you. That paper seemed pretty important; do you know what she’s talking about?” Jebb looked at his mother waiting for her to answer.

Pauline looked back and forth between her son and the sheriff. “I... uh...Well, I had taken Kira’s scrapbook up to her earlier, we’d been going through it. I’d gotten her to tell me about some more of her past. In the back of the book was a letter to her.”

“A letter? What was in the letter? Who was it from?”

Pauline swallowed hard since she knew that she had to admit to snooping. “The letter was from Benjamin Kyle, given to Kira at the reading of his will.” She bit her lip before continuing. “She hadn’t read it yet. She was supposed to read it only after she gives birth.”

“Why did she choose to read it now?”

“She didn’t. She told me to put it away... When I came downstairs, I steamed the envelope open and read it without her,” Pauline said the last part as quietly as she could, already hearing complaints about how she always pokes around in other’s business in her head.

“What was in the letter?” Rosco asked again. It sounded as if whatever was in that letter kept the men from killing Kira. It was only after the men read it, did they decide to take her with them instead.

“It explained how Ben had set up a trust fund for any kids born in the ten year time frame following his death. I can’t remember the exact details.” Jebb was taken aback. What would that have to do with the men taking Kira?

“Jebb, do you know where we might be able to get a copy of that letter again?”

“Ben’s business partner might know something. He’s the executor of the will I believe. Kira kept in contact with Tom and his wife.” Looking at Rosco, he saw the unspoken demand to go ask so he got up and went to Kira’s office and flipped through her roll-a-dex to find Tom’s number.

While Jebb was on the phone, Bo and Luke discussed what they’d each heard while listening to their aunt and cousin talk to the policemen.

“Kira had Emma hide under the bed as soon as she knew that something was wrong. It sounds like they were here to kill her,” Bo whispered to his cousin so no one could hear him.

“Why? And why did they change their minds and take her instead?” Luke asked even though he knew that Bo didn’t know anything more than he did. “Can you get through to her yet?”

“No,” Bo sounded dejected. “I keep tryin’ but I got nothin’.” Bo was worried that he couldn’t get Kira to respond to him through their psychic link. “Emma said that they took off in a black van and turned left out of the driveway. Come on, let’s go.”

“Wait.” Luke grabbed his cousin’s arm to keep him from jumping into their car before they knew just what was going on.

Their Uncle John had joined his wife on the couch with his daughter still hugging tightly to him. The doctor was trying to convince Pauline to go to the hospital for further tests, certain that she had a concussion along with some bruised ribs, but she was adamant that she wasn’t going anywhere.

“Pauline, if the doc says you need to go, then you’re goin’.”

“But what about Jebb, the girls... We have to ...”

Daisy and Jesse walked over and Daisy knelt beside Emily as Jesse placed a hand on Emma’s shoulders. “We’ll take care of things here, Pauline. John, go ahead and get Pauline to the hospital. Come on Emma; let’s let your daddy take care of your momma.” Jesse eased his niece off of his brother’s neck as Emma exchanged her dad for her uncle for a security blanket. Jesse could tell that she was still shaken to the core.

Jebb came out of the office and stood in the doorway of the kitchen to the living room and filled Rosco in on what he’d learned from Ben’s business partner. As he listened to Jebb, he felt a nagging feeling pull at him. He only hoped that the good cop that he’d been years ago was rusty enough to be wrong in what he suspected was going on, for Kira’s sake.

“Is there any way that anyone else would have known what was in that letter?”

“Tom said that Ben left similar letters to both his daughter and son. Shawn had a kid of his own about eight years ago I think.”

“So he’d know about the trust fund and how his access to it might change now that Kira’s having a child of her own. How has Kira gotten along with Ben’s kids?”

“She didn’t. They couldn’t stand her; especially Shawn. He never tried to hide his disgust for the fact that Ben adopted Kira.”

“Shawn Kyle? You said that he hated your wife?” Boss got a cold sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Boss?” Rosco noticed how his fat little buddy had gone pale as Jebb mentioned Ben’s son.

“Hate would have been a bit mild. Especially since he blamed Kira for taking what he considered to be his inheritance. He fought the will tooth and nail from what I’ve seen. Tried to have her disinherited when Ben left her more in his will then his own kids.”

Boss grabbed a kitchen chair and sat down. “Oh no, oh no, oh no. I thought that he was just a concerned family member. I didn’t know, I didn’t know.”

“KNOW WHAT?” Jebb turned facing the commissioner.

“I didn’t know that he hated her. He acted concerned for her, wanted to be kept in the know of what was going on. He seemed sincere.”

“WHEN DID YOU TALK TO HIM?”

The rest of the family heard Jebb’s uncharacteristic outburst and all crowded around the doorway to see him leaning over a guilt-ridden Boss who was cowering under the posturing of the young Duke. Right attitude, wrong blond. Anyone who’d ever known Jebb knew that he wasn’t prone to losing his cool with anyone. But having your wife and family attacked can tend to make a man act as he normally wouldn’t.

“He came to see me shortly after the bank robbery last year. Wanted to know when there was any changes with Kira, said that he was just keeping an eye on her. He even called her his little sister. How was I supposed to know that he hated her?”

“What all did you tell him?” Jebb asked still mere inches from the bald man’s face.

“He wanted to know about travel plans, health, anything that a woman might usually tell her family. That sort of thing.”

“Wait a minute? Travel?” Luke asked from where the family was looking on. “Did you tell him about her driving in to Atlanta last June?” Boss nodded his head slowly. “And she was run off of the road right after she learned that she was pregnant. Which very well could have terminated the pregnancy then and there.” The rest of the Dukes looked to Luke as they saw his line of thought.

“And then there was the shooting on the way back from the race,” Daisy added. “The state police never did find out what that was about since the shooter died before he could tell them anything afterwards.”

“Boss, did you tell Shawn about Kira being on bed rest?” Bo asked from behind his oldest cousin. Again Boss nodded.

“J.D. Somehow I doubt that you kept passin’ on information to that man just for the sake of keeping a family member in the loop. He paid you didn’t he?” Jesse asked in a disappointed tone.

Boss couldn’t find his voice. He glanced over at Rosco and saw that if any of the Dukes decided to take their frustrations out on him, he just might let them do it. Or at least take his time in pulling them off. Even Enos had lost his perpetual smile and was giving him a harsh look. He looked down at the floor in shamed silence.

“Boss, I’m goin’ to have to bring the state police in on this. They’ll want to know everything that you’ve told Mr. Kyle.” Luke snapped his head around to the sheriff since he’d never known the man to voluntarily bring the state in to investigate into his county.

“And Bo and I are going to need your permission to leave the county just in case we need to while we’re looking for Kira,” Luke added. He wasn’t sure where they’d start looking but he wasn’t about to stop in the middle of searching to grab a piece of paper that they could very well get now.

“Where should we start?” Jebb stepped back and was ready to head out the door with his cousins. He needed to get out there and look for Kira.

“Not so fast Jebb. We have to treat this case as a kidnapping for ransom. It’s all we have right now since they could have…” Rosco cleared his throat. “They could have killed her here. They didn’t so we have to believe that they are keeping her alive for a reason. I need you to be here in case they call.”

Jebb turned and fought the logic of staying behind. How could he just sit here and do nothing when Kira and the twins were in the hands of two masked men? After fighting an inner battle with himself, he nodded to the sheriff in silent acknowledgement that he needed to stay.

“We’ll get her back Jebb.” Bo put a hand on his cousin’s shoulder.

“You’d better,” Jebb replied in almost a whisper.

“Come on Bo,” Luke said as Boss handed him the paper that he’d just finished filling out for the boys.

“Hang on, Luke. Take our car while y’all are looking. If...” John looked at his son then continued. “When you find her, it’ll be easier to get her into our four-door car than The General.”

Luke took the keys as he and Bo ran out ready to follow the tracks in the muddy road. Luke only hoped that the van stayed on the dirt roads, silently thanking God for the torrential downpour that had fallen for days making the tracks in the mud easy to see. Behind him, he saw his uncle get his wife into Jebb’s car as they left for the hospital. In the passenger’s seat, Bo continued to try to reach his sister. If only Kira could tell them where she was at.

“We’ll find her. We have to,” Luke said as he watched his cousin as he grew more agitated at the fact that he couldn’t reach his sister. “Help me watch the tracks.” Luke said trying to give his cousin something to keep his mind busy and not thinking about what could happen if they didn’t find Kira.

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