by Dale Leavitt
Pete went back to the store to get some food, drinks, etc. and then went back to find a parking spot in the apartment complex where he could see everyone that enters or exits. Within a couple of hours he see’s a gentleman that fits the description of the suspect Darrell exit apartment 104 and stretch like he had been sleeping all day. Darrell lights a cigarette and starts walking over to the clubhouse to see if anyone was outside. Pete knew this was an excellent opportunity to confront Darrell and drives over quickly.
As soon as Darrell turns the corner and is out of view from his neighbors, Pete pulls up next to him, jumps out of the car and grabs the young man pulling him in the back of the SUV. After questioning him about Grace’s killing and realizing this was the man that killed her. He also noticed the lack of remorse.and then attacks Darrell knocking him out with a few solid punches to the face. Driving to a secluded wooded area not far away, Pete pulls Darrell out of the backseat. Still unconscious, he then throws him to the ground.
Pete grabbed Darrell’s wallet from his back pocket and laid it about five feet away. He then walked to the back of his SUV grabbed a can of gasoline and proceeded to douse Darrell’s body with gas. He quickly lit Darrell on fire, placed a jack of hearts playing card next to the kid's wallet and took off.
The next night on the evening news there was a short segment on how the police were no longer looking for the murderer of Grace Keller as the suspect was found burned alive in a wooded area near the convenience store. Next, to the body, a jack of hearts card was also found. Ending the segment with hopefully the family of Grace can now rest easier knowing the murderer has been brought to justice. Although, the news footage did not ask the public NOT to take matters into their own hands. They did state that the police would like to ask if the public knows of anyone that might be connected with the murder of Darrell Wright, to please contact Crimestoppers.
In the following days, unbelievably there were a few calls from the witnesses at the convenience store that came forward saying there were two white guys looking for Darrell just before he was killed. They give what they thought was a good description of the two men and their vehicle to the police. For some reason, the detectives were unable to identify who these men were and closed the case.
Chapter 12. Date Night
In Fort Lauderdale, Florida;
Marie and Tito are enjoying their one year anniversary by spending the night on the town. The night started with a simple dinner and a couple of drinks at their favorite restaurant. They visited the local high school where football games are played every week on this night. They enjoy watching the young players, from the privacy of their car for about 45 minutes. Tito, now twenty-five years old, was a high school football running back during his tenure at this school.
The last stop of the night is where the young couple will be meeting up all of their friends. The hip-hop club is where the group of friends has met at least once a month for the last year. There are eight to the group, and all are couples. All have children except for Tito and Marie. Even though, they have been trying to have a child for the past six months. The girls enjoy the night on the dance floor, while the guys and ex-teammates spend their time together reminiscing about all the crazy things they use to do.
After a couple of hours of dancing for the girls and just as long slamming down beers for the guys, the group decides to call it a night and go their separate ways. What no one seemed to notice is that Marie appeared to pick up a secret admirer. A gentleman off to the side of the dance floor had been watching her all night.
As the group leaves the man follows at a distance behind. Taking it scaringly further, the mystery man follows Tito & Marie home without them detecting him. As the couple enters their driveway, they entangle in a long kiss. The stalker parks his car on the street gets out and starts to head towards the pair's vehicle, still unnoticed.
As the two exit the vehicle, they meet around the front of the car, hug each other and proceed to the door. With Marie wrapped around one of his arms and the door keys in the other, Tito is successful at opening the door. Right as they are stepping into the house, Tito hears a noise behind him and instinctively looks back.
It is the man that followed them home from the club. The man immediately knocks out Tito with one punch to the chin. He then grabbed Marie by the hair before she could even react to what was happening. He drags unconscious Tito in by the shirt and Marie by the hair, shutting the door after they are in completely.
Tying Tito up by the hand and ankles anchoring him to the stair banister, with rope from his pocket. It is starting to dawn on Marie that what is about to happen and she starts screaming in horror. The man pulls duck tape out of his jacket pocket and wraps around Marie’s mouth and uses the same tape to tie her hands around her back. He whispers in her ear that he will not hurt her if she cooperates. He then wraps the tape around Tito’s mouth and tries to wake him up.
Once the stranger knows Tito is watching he goes to Marie and slices her shirt right down the middle, exposing her breasts with a knife, he had in his back pocket. He then lifts her skirt up and pulls off her underwear. The attacker looks back one more time to see what Tito was doing. He notices Tito frantically trying to get loose and belligerently trying to talk through the duck tape.
The man then savagely beat and raped Marie. After five minutes of an intense attack, the man looks at Tito and smiles. He then set his sights on Marie grabbing her hair on the top of her head and pulling it forward. He placed his knife on her throat, looks back at Tito and slices, severing one of her main arteries. The man puts a pillow on top of her head to contain the blood. With one last look at Tito, he exits the house never to be seen again.
After hours of trying to get loose, Tito finally manages to jar one hand free from the tape and eventually free himself from the restraints. Still, in shock over what occurred, Tito was able to call 911 but, the only words that could escape his mouth was help. He repeated that word four times before he dropped the phone and collapsed. Still not able to speak when police and detectives arrived, Tito was transported to the local area hospital being treated for shock. It will be hours before they get to talk with him and find out what happened.
The detectives process the scene and Marie’s body preserving all evidence. Back at the lab, seminal fluid was taken from the victim and immediately sent for DNA testing. Even rushed, a DNA profile will take days before they get the results. After hours spent on the crime scene, the detectives focus their sites on Tito who is recovering in the hospital. Tito is now awake, alert, and explains all the gruesome details of what happened. What everyone is having trouble figuring out is how did the attacker picked or found the victims.
Detective Pete Penroth, the lead detective on the case, orders all personnel to locate and view all video surveillance around the scene and at the club where the couple had just been. This part of the investigation yields results as they were able to pinpoint a man following the young couple out of the club. They were also able to see from neighborhood video surveillance where the man parked on the street. The suspect's image was immediately put on the local news stations, and it did not take long for a quality witness to recognize him.
A beat cop had arrested Kerry Carpenter three years earlier on an assault with a deadly weapons charge. With a little research, the name of the suspect was released to the public as a man of interest in the killing of Marie.
After a few days, DNA results confirmed that this was the perpetrator. An all out manhunt is underway, and the man identified as Kerry Carpenter made the FBI’s ten most wanted list. With a $50,000 reward for any information in the arrest of Kerry Carpenter, it was only a few days before he was turned in by one of the local street prostitutes, that had visited him a couple of times. With location information, the city's SWAT team was able to apprehend and detain this dangerous man; he was being held at the local prison.
Chapter 13. Jailhouse Rocks
Now home, Tito watching all of the events unfold on the news
feels an overwhelming sense of gratification knowing the man that took the life of Marie is behind bars. Although his safety is no longer an issue, he can still not mentally handle the sight (which is haunting his mind) of Marie’s life taken, right in front of him. After a few therapist visits, family, and friend support yield little to no results in the grieving.
Tito confides in an old friend named Oscar that has spent time in the local jail. Tito explains that he is thinking of ending Kerry Carpenters life while he has the chance. Tito knows that once the court hearings are over, Kerry will then be transferred to a maximum security prison.
Oscar immediately tries to talk sense into Tito, but, Tito is determined in ending Kerry’s life, even if it means he spends the rest of his life in jail. Breaking down and understanding, Oscar explains that there is a walkthrough from the prison to the courthouse and this will be the route detention deputies take Kerry to his court hearings.
At this prison, the courthouse is right across a two lane street. Transporting accused criminals from the jail to the courthouse is done by an elevated bulletproof walkway. This walkway keeps the accused safe from civilians when visiting the courthouse. Oscar explains that other than inside the courthouse, you will not see or even be able to get close enough to Kerry to do anything. He goes on to explain that the only way you could even possibly pull this off is by planting a bomb strong enough to penetrate concrete on the bottom of this walkway.
Even if you can do that undetected, then you have to know the exact time the prisoner Kerry will be crossing through, keeping that in mind, you will also be taking the lives of at least two detention officers. Oscar tells Tito that whatever he decides just to let him know and he will get him the explosives.
Tito weighing in on all factors is still unsure if he can take the lives of innocent people to avenge the death of Marie. Although he is not sure what he will do, Tito still follows the case and keeps note of all hearings and times that Kerry will be forced to attend. After painstakingly burying Marie, Tito sends a “good to go” text to Oscar. The explosives will be in Tito’s hands within a couple of days. With the date permanently set, and all the planning complete the two have decided the fate of Mr. Carpenter.
A couple of days later Oscar arrives with the explosives. Everything is prepped and put in the box that is the same color as the paint on the jail walkthrough. A jack of hearts playing card was added to a metal capsule outside of the box made to survive the blast. Two days later Tito and Oscar set out in a stolen painters truck on the way to the courthouse.
Equipped with a ladder and painting supplies, they park underneath the walkthrough. They begin painting the courthouse wall and bring out the ladder that will get Tito high enough to mount the box of explosives. Pretending to be painting around a window, Tito installed the box right under the walkthrough using an instant bond epoxy. After getting down from the ladder, the two packed up quickly and drove off without anyone even paying attention to what they were doing.
Two hours before Kerry Carpenter was expected to walk through, the guys rent a hotel room overlooking the street where the walkthrough is. Armed with a pair of binoculars, a detonator, beer, and pizza they hunker down and get comfortable taking turns watching through the binoculars awaiting the arrival of Kerry.
At approximately 12:01 p.m. they spotted the suspect and two guards in the walkthrough. Waiting until Kerry is directly over the bomb, Tito detonates the explosives and nearly blows the walkthrough down on one side. It was a direct hit as pieces of a body in an orange jumpsuit are strewn across the road underneath.
Unbelievably, and not without injuries both deputies survive the blast. One deputy had gone ahead to open the entrance door to the courthouse, and the other had lagged behind. This news was bittersweet to Tito, as killing deputies was one thing he did not want to do but, had prepared himself mentally for their loss. Without saying a single word to each other after the incident, the two separated and Tito went home to prepare himself to be visited by the police.
This moment came one day later when the police came to Tito’s job site. The owner of the company Tito worked for was a good friend and stated Tito had been working with him all day the incident occurred. The officers knew they had no evidence that could link Tito to the explosives or the crime scene asked Tito not to leave town until they can finish their investigation. Tito politely obliged and started walking back to where he was working.
After hearing the news of the death of Kerry Carpenter by bombing, and the finding of a jack of hearts playing card, Jason finds himself seeking solidarity and texts Laura that he will be stopping by her restaurant tonight.
Chapter 14. Finding Jason
Jason is on his way to meet up with Laura runs into an argument between a local convenience store owner and a homeless Spanish man in his mid-twenties. The young man was playing his guitar on the sidewalk in front of the grocery store, and the owner did not want him there.
As the two were sparring with words, the business owner who was in his late forties and well overweight, began to kick the young man in the leg very hard. While kicking him, he also started to yell racial slurs on how the world has gone downhill ever since we begun to let them in. The young man curled up in a fetal position to protect himself and his guitar.
Seeing this, Jason could not help himself from getting involved. He grabs the store owner by his bushy hair and begins to enlighten the owner on how the guitar player was not bothering anyone. The guy just wanted to get out, play some music, and possibly make some spare change. Some people need that just to eat he explains. Not listening, the store owner tries to take a swing, but, comes up short, Jason still has him by the hair, and with his long arms, he cannot reach him.
With pure emotion, Jason begs the man to live his life with more compassion. He explains about how a young boy and friend just lost his life on these same streets due to some idiot with no sense. Hearing sirens approaching in the background, Jason sticks a jackass card in Max’s shirt pocket and then throws him to the ground.
The crowd that had slowly grown claps in appreciation of Jason sticking up for the young guitar player. As the police arrived, everyone was ecstatic to let the officers know that the owner had assaulted the young man because he was playing guitar in front of his business. The business owner, who's named Max was immediately handcuffed and put in the backseat of the police cruiser.
Max being led into the jail for his assault on the guitar player by the police, beggingly offers up his encounter with who he thinks was The Jackass Killer to the police, he tells the officers that he can also help them draw a portrait of the man, in hopes for leniency. One of the officers calls Mark Timbers to make him aware of what the prisoner has to offer. He immediately orders them back to the station and calls the police artist to meet them.
When Mark arrives, he asks Max why he thinks his encounter was with The Jackass Killer and Max states, because, he mentioned the kid Tyrell who got shot not long ago. He acted like he knew the kid and you can tell Tyrell’s death bothered him. It turns out Max did a pretty good job of describing Jason’s facial features as the drawing was close to how he looks.
Detective Timbers now having an artist's sketch of possibly The Jackass Killer in his hands, spends a lot of his time casing the streets where the last known sighting was. Jason spending very little time at home after the incident with Max decides to visit Laura at the restaurant. Walking down the street about two blocks from Laura’s, the two find themselves crossing paths, with the detective stopped at a light and Jason walking by in the crosswalk. The two make eye contact, and both immediately recognized each other.
The detective takes a second look and then looks at the sketch. It was a pretty good match, so Mark immediately pulls over to the side of the road, gets out of the car and yells at Jason to stop. Jason peeks back and keeps going, walking a little bit faster. The determined detective starts to run and shouts that he just has a couple of questions.
Jason finds himself running from
Detective Timbers. Staying ahead of the determined detective seems to be quite challenging also. With Mark calling for backup, it looks like Jason’s time of being a free man may come to an end. Darting in and out of alleyways and buildings, Jason just can’t seem to shake the detective.
Finally, in the knick of time, he has his eye’s set on a possible way out. There is a slow moving train coming, and it looks like Jason can make it across the road before the train passes. With a lot of buildings on the other side of the road, if he can make it, he will surely lose the approaching detective and the police cars just now arriving.
With the train's horn blowing and Jason diving over the tracks. He makes it to the other side, rolling once to soften the blow of hitting the hard pavement and hopping up all in one motion. The detective is now pissed off and out of breath. He radio’s in the whereabouts of last known location of someone who fits the description of The Jackass Killer and decides to take a seat on the curb in hopes of catching his breath while he waits for the train to pass.