by: Susan Porter

Rosco Coltrane exited the home he had once shared with
his mother, his pet beagle Toodles, hugged to his
chest. Rosco was in a hurry. Once again he was late,
this time it was for an appointment with Doctor
Appleby, Jr. for his annual physical. He had
forgotten about it until his phone had rung a few
minutes before and a friendly voice, Appleby’s nurse,
reminded him of his forgetfulness.

Toodles bark brought Rosco to attention. At his feet,
he had nearly tripped over it, was a package wrapped
in brown paper. As he bent to pick it up he felt
something nick his ear. Irritably he flicked at it
as, nearby, a car back fired. The screams of a woman
across the street and the warm trickle of blood
alerted Rosco that he had been shot.

Putting a hand up to staunch the flow of blood, Rosco
quickly made his way to his car and drove himself to
the doctor’s office where he was met by his anxious
staff of auxiliary deputies.

“Did you see anything, Rosco?”

“Mrs. Murphy, the lady who lives across the street
from me, she was screaming when I left the house.
Daisy, could you go talk to her? Maybe she can help.”

When Daisy was gone and Bo and Luke had gone to
relieve Cletus and Cooter, Rosco and Enos, both
veteran lawmen, eyed each other uncomfortably. They
both knew the situation had just become much more
serious than they had anticipated. “Rosco, we have to
get them out of harms way. These guys are out to kill
us. Maybe we should consider calling in the FBI.”

Rosco shook his head. “We can’t do that, Enos. If we
were to call in the feds the first thing they would do
is call off the celebration. We have national media
coming in to cover the opening of the chest. I’m
hoping this will attract business. Hazzard needs
this, Enos.”

Enos sighed. Rosco was right. Hazzard needed all the
economic help it could get. “We’ve got to do
something, Rosco. I don’t want Daisy hurt.”

Rosco examined his repaired ear in the mirror,
wincing. “This sure hurts worse than it looks.
Enos,” he turned, “I don’t want to see civilians hurt
any more than you do. I agree that this has been
moved up a notch and that we need to do something.
But what? Tell them that we can handle this and that
they don’t need to serve as deputies anymore. That
should keep them out of the way.”

Enos shook his head, handing Rosco his hat. “You and
I both know the Duke’s aren’t going to quit helping
just because we ask them not to. No, we’re going to
have to draw those bad boys out. And we’re going to
need Bo and Luke’s help.”

“What about Daisy?”

Enos shook his head. “I want her out of this, Rosco.
Any way we have to.”

Rosco eased into the passenger seat of his patrol car,
allowing Enos to slip behind the wheel. “All right,
we’ll keep Daisy out of this. I can’t say I
particularly enjoy putting her in danger anyway.”

Meanwhile Daisy was interviewing a very frightened
Mrs. Murphy who had gotten a surprisingly good view of
what had happened. “I’ve never seen sucha terrible
thing in my life, Daisy! Someone shooting at Rosco!
Why, what are things coming to!”

“Did you see the man who shot at Rosco?”

“I should say I did! Got a good look at him when he
dropped that package off just before Rosco came out of
his house. Then, oh, he stood right on my sidewalk
and shot at poor Rosco…”

“He dropped off a package?”

“Yes, it’s still sitting there.” she nodded toward
Rosco’s front stoop where Toodles sat beside a small
plain wrapped package. “Oh, he was frightful looking
Daisy. And that gun, he just pulled it out of his
jacket pocket and shot!”

Keeping an eye on the package, Daisy tried to comfort
the frightened womnan. “What did he look like? Can
you remember any details?”

Mrs. Murphy chewed her bottom lip. “He was a tall
man, skinny. Dark hair, clean shaven, I think. He
was wearing jeans and a jean jacket. No hat. Oh, and
he had a scar on his face. Left cheek.” she ran her
finger down the length of her own cheek then shivered.

“Did you see where he went after he shot Rosco?”

“He got into a car and drove away toward town. I
think it was blue, maybe black. It was one of them
new sports cars.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Murphy.” Daisy patted the older
woman’s gnarled shaky hand. “You’ve been a great deal
of help.”

Mrs. Murphy’s keen eye, she had once been a school
teacher, caught the glint of Enos’ ring on Daisy’s
finger. “Is that what I think it is young lady?”

Daisy laughed uncomfortably. “Yes, ma’am. It’s an
engagement ring.”

“Enos?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Are you going to marry him this time or am I going to
have to return yet another wedding gift?”

“No, ma’am. This time I am going to marry Enos
Strate, nothing can stop me. I love him too much.”

“It’s about time, young lady. Your Uncle Jesse needs
some little ones around the house again, keeps a body
young. That’s why I still teach piano. Mark my
words, girl, that man will make you a fine husband.
And a good father. You take care of him.”

“Yes, ma’am. I will. Speaking of men, I’d better go
and check on Rosco.” she backed off the porch and
went to her patrol car, leaning in to get the c.b.
when she heard Mrs. Murphy call from her front porch
rocker.

“You will catch that awful man who shot Rosco, won’t
you?”

“Yes, ma’am. We’ll do our best.” she turned and
spoke into the hand unit. “This is Daisy calling
Rosco and any other deputies that might have their
ears on out there. I just talked to Mrs. Murphy and
she gave me a fair description of the man who shot
Rosco. The same man left a package on Rosco’s front
step. I’m going to get it right now. I’ll bring it
to the courthouse.”

“Daisy, this is Enos! Keep away from that package!
Rosco and I are on our way, we’ll handle it!”

“But, Enos, I’m right here, I can…”

“Do as I say, Daisy. You don’t know what’s in that
package.”

Fuming Daisy gripped the steering wheel, her anger
turning her knuckles white. Enos was treating her
like a child. She realized the danger that the
package posed and only meant to remove it from Rosco’s
neighborhood before anything further could happen.
But Enos wasn’t listening, he knew everything…

Rosco’s squad car pulled up in front of his house
followed by Cletus and Cooter in a separate patrol car
carrying a large metal box. Daisy sat in her car,
fuming, and watched as Enos and Cletus placed the
package in the box and carried it away from the house,
running to dive behind the car when the box rested on
the ground. The explosion that followed rocked the
box but left it intact. As the smoke cleared and the
others drew close to inspect it, Enos approached
Daisy’s car. Angrily she started the engine and put
the car into gear, revving the engine. “Daisy, I…”

“Save it, Enos. You already put me in my place.
Stupid Daisy, get herself blown up without you to
protect her.” she began to pull away but Enos stopped
her.

“Where are you going?”

“On patrol I’ll file my report on the shooter’s
description at the courthouse. Don’t worry, I won’t
mess that up!”

As she roared away, Enos stood in the middle of the
road, watching her as she disappeared in an angry
cloud of dust. If only she could know that he was
trying to portect her. “I love you, Daisy.” he
whispered before turning back to the men gathered
around the smoking metal box.