Thank you all for voting! This is the final chapter - and now we find out what happened, and whodunnit... dramatic sound effects

Chapter Five: The Almighty Conclusion

'…It was him!' The Mitsubishi Roadster pointed with her tyre. All eyes swiveled to look at which Delinquent Road Hazard she was pointing at. There was a huge outbreak of gasps, followed by an eruption of surprised and angry babbling. Doc Hudson and Sally were both speechless.

The orange Plymouth Barracuda bowed his hood in shame, feeling horribly defeated and almost disgusted in himself.

His companions stared at him in shock. Snot Rod… the shy, uncoordinated muscle car who you could barely call a delinquent. He had always been the least likely to perform any criminal activities that the others were so confident in doing for their own entertainment. How could it have possibly been him?

'…There… there's been a mistake,' Boost said perplexedly. 'He couldn't have done it, right?' He wasn't even believing his own words at his point.

'It was him,' Kelora said firmly. 'I remember it all from the night before, after seeing the Sheriff for directions.' She rolled to the front as everyone fell silent, and turned to the audience. 'Believe it or not, here is what really happened….'

I reach the outskirts of the town and pass a brick wall with a mural on it. There are two cars painted, both grinning widely, beyond the words "Radiator Springs: A Happy Place." I smile, knowing that I'll have to come back here some time.

I'm just about to head down the exit road when suddenly, a sputtering engine and some vague vocal grunts sound from behind me. I turn, and find myself face to face with a little stray tractor, looking lost and confused. It weaves over the road in a blind frustration, and upon seeing me, the poor creature appears to think I'm one of its kind. Before I know it, the tractor is following me.

'No! Bad tractor!' I say nervously, backtracking away from it. 'Go back to the –'

I suddenly utter a small scream as I tumble backwards off the raised road and into the large space of desert and cacti, which surrounds the outskirts of Radiator Springs. The tractor skids down after me, and gives me an almighty lick.

'Eugh!' I almost laugh as I scramble to my tyres and climb back up into an alleyway that passes the courthouse and stretches into the main road. I glance back down Radiator Springs – and instantly see the Sheriff being thrown against the wall, yelling in pain.

My mouth drops open and I gasp. Suddenly everything around me has disappeared, and all my attention is focused on a bright orange muscle car pinning the police officer down with a murderous look in his green eyes. He mutters something viciously, and then violently slams Sheriff in the hood with his tyre. My frame goes numb and I feel a nasty chill run down my roof as I watch in horror. The muscle car rips Sheriff's tyres out, mauls his side, tears his hood off… tears springs to my eyes and I'm about to leap forward and scream for him to stop it, but something jerks me backwards. It's the tractor again, obviously fascinated in me. I struggle desperately to get free so I can save the Sheriff, but the tractor persists, and I end up hauling myself back up the road away from it, until the muscle car is lost from sight completely… that damn tractor won't leave me alone!

'When the tractor finally stopped chasing me and wandered off, I found myself stranded in the middle of the road, miles away from Radiator Springs.' Kelora gave a mild laugh, in spite of her horrendous recount. 'Had the tractor not been so… insightful, I would have had a chance to save the Sheriff and stop that delinquent. It's strange, but it's all true.'

'Wait… didn't Snot Rod actually say that a tractor chased him?' DJ piped up.

'Yes.' Snot Rod spoke for the first time, his throat choked up with guilt. 'I wasn't lying about that part. A tractor did chase me… but that was before I decided to attack Sheriff. She pretty much described what the tractor was like for me just then.'

'So… why did you attack Sheriff?' Doc snarled, feeling his anger rise.

Snot Rod sighed deeply, feeling tears form in his eyes. He looked down at the floor. 'I… I don't really know…' He struggled to get the words out. They echoed around the courtroom, stinging the speaker like angry wasps. He plunged on. 'I just felt, well, really mad, is all… I-I didn't mean to hurt him that badly… I was just really sick of the situation, and pulling Bessie, and stuff.' He paused for a moment to blink back his tears, aware of all the cars around him. 'I don't know what got into me,' he mumbled finally.

There was silence all around. A rather strange kind of silence, really. The situation had been solved, but it just seemed even more worse to know what had really happened.

'It's kinda odd of him, really,' Wingo said, breaking the silence. 'He's not the murderous type.'

Doc sat on the podium for a moment, thoughts encircling his hood like a halo of solved and unsolved mysteries. 'Well…' He sighed and looked Snot Rod right in the eye. 'All four of you are clearly known to cause havoc around here, but this… what you have done here… this is just appalling. I would have expected better of you. Attacking an elderly and respected police officer like that, when you couldn't have sunk any lower! My fury for your actions is indescribable. And it's now that I sentence you to –'

'Look, JUST SHUT UP, ALL RIGHT?' Snot Rod bellowed angrily.

More gasps. The other three Delinquents stared at the Plymouth Barracuda.

'Just SHUT UP about it!' he snapped again, shaking between a mix of frustration and sorrow. 'I know what I did was wrong, okay? There's no need to go on and on about it! There's no need to give me all that crap! Just throw me in jail and be done with it! My life has gone downhill for as long as I can remember, and this is no surprise. "When I couldn't have sunk any lower?" Yeah, right. I'm sinking all the time, and I don't need all this mouth of yours to make it worse.' He stopped, staring heatedly up at a surprised Doc. Tears glittered in Snot Rod's eyes again as he looked fixedly at the old Hornet, his expression melting from angry to what could not have been denied as shameful.

'…I want to apologize,' he murmured.

It was late in the afternoon, and the recent horrific happenings in Radiator Springs had dissolved into a peaceful, sleepy atmosphere, after everything had finally calmed down about the mystery. Three young male tuners waited side by side outside Doc Hudson's clinic. Two of them were talking quietly to each other. The third one was asleep in the heat of the sun.

The double doors slowly creaked open, and Snot Rod emerged. DJ awakened and mumbled something to himself about Eminem, then saw Snot Rod and snapped to reality. Boost and Wingo stopped talking and gazed back at the muscle car, unable to work out the odd expression on his face. Was he depressed… or happy?

'Well… what happened?' Wingo asked gently.

The Barracuda's expression remained sincerely neutral. 'It was hard for me to apologize… even though I was the one making myself say sorry in the first place. But I'm surprised Sheriff even forgave me after what I did. I tore him up so bad.' He voice wobbled a little as he said this. 'We sort of had a little conversation… it was kind of okay… and you know what? Sheriff told me I was free to go. Because of the way I treated him just now after traffic court.' He smiled faintly. 'So I guess I'm not a jailbird, even though I deserve to be one.'

Boost and Wingo stared at him, not knowing what to say.

'…It's times like this I were as nice as you, Roddy,' Boost said eventually. 'I could never be so… kind, to a cop like that.'

Snot Rod chuckled. 'It doesn't hurt. Besides, why would you want to wind up like me anyway? I've never been a great gang member, really.'

DJ nudged him lightly with his tyre. 'But you're our friend, and that's what counts.'

A moment of happy silence passed between the Delinquent Road Hazards, like a warm aura that seemed to reflect the good side in this seemingly bad boys. Just then, Kelora approached the clinic, looking past them to open the double doors.

'Uhh, hey,' Snot Rod began.

Kelora turned to face him. 'Um… yes? Mad that I got you in trouble?'

Snot Rod shrugged. 'No. The opposite, in fact. You kinda… told the truth about me, and… I feel better now that I've had a chance to apologize and everything. I would have been too scared to confess myself. So in a way, I guess you helped me.'

The Mitsubishi Roaster stared for a moment – and then smiled compassionately at him. 'Hey… you're one of a kind to deliberately set everything right like that. And I know that no other car could have possibly owned up to being truly… guilty.'

THE END

Yay, the end! Thank you all for reading and commenting, you've been GREAT. Here are the voting results, by the way.

Boost - 3
DJ - 2
Wingo - 1
Snot Rod - 7