Steve turned to Tom and exclaimed “it sounds like Diablo.”
Tom turned to officer Hanks and asked him if there was anything significant about the jumpsuit.
Hanks replied “yes, now that you mention it, the ass end of his jumpsuit was all torn out, like he’d been raped by an elephant or something.”
Steve and Tom looked at each other and both of them shouted “Diablo!”
“But why was he taken to the hospital?” asked Tom.
“He had a pretty good knock on the head, and lost a lot of blood,” said Hanks.
“Were you the one who found him?” asked Steve.
“No,” Hanks replied, “one of the other officers found him, he was here a minute ago. Now where did he go…”
Steve and Tom climbed into their car a few minutes later and headed toward the hospital. They had to try to interview Diablo and make sure that he was guarded at all times.
“Well, at least one of them is caught,” said Steve.
“Yeah, that’ll look good on our report of investigation,” Tom replied with sarcasm.
“Don’t be such a negative Nelly,” said Steve, “we’ll get the other two, it is just a matter of time.”
As they raced toward the hospital, something nagged at Steve’s mind, how did someone get the jump on Diablo so easily? This guy is one big dude, and whoever hit him must have been stealthy like a ninja. For that matter, where is the officer that captured Diablo? Most of the cops he knew would’ve stuck around for the high fives and photo opportunities that would have invariably ensued. He thought about mentioning this to Tom, but changed his mind, because he didn’t want to be an alarmist.
When they arrived at the hospital, which was in Bloomington, they went to the Emergency room and asked where the suspect had been taken. One of the nurses told them he was in the OR being prepped for surgery. They were told that they would have wait until he was stabilized before they could see him.
Steve asked the nurse if he could see the patient’s chart, and she asked him if he was a doctor.
“No,” replied Steve, “but would you believe that I played one on TV?”
“I don’t think so,” she said with a chuckle.
“Can you at least tell me what it says about his injuries?” Tom asked.
“Blunt force trauma to the cranium with a deep laceration and loss of blood. He has a cranial fracture, and is currently comatose,” she replied.
“Are there any other injuries?” asked Steve.
“No, no other injuries,” the nurse answered.
Steve looked at Tom, and shouted, “That’s not Diablo!”
“What do you mean, not Diablo,” Tom said, “if that’s not him, then who is it?”
“I don’t know,” said Steve, “but Diablo has at least one shotgun pellet in his face, and he was gored in the posterior by a bull. I don’t think either of those injuries would have been overlooked by the medical staff.”
Steve grabbed his cell phone and called the command post. He asked if someone could locate the officer who found the body in the bushes, and asked them to call him back when he was located and identified. He advised the command post that the body in the hospital was not likely to be Diablo, and asked them to check if any officers were missing.
A few minutes later, Steve got a call from the command post advising him that whoever had located the body, was no longer there, and that an Officer Simmons was unaccounted for and his cruiser was missing.
Steve asked the command post to try to raise Simmons on the radio, and to put out a BOLO (Be On the Look Out) for the missing cruiser and a possible police impersonator.
When he hung up the phone, Steve filled Tom in on what he had learned. Tom whistled between his teeth and shook his head in disbelief. This guy, Diablo had balls! Stealing a police cruiser in front of a dozen cops in broad daylight was ballsy for any criminal, but to do it during a manhunt was crazy.
Steve wondered how far Diablo could have gone since he fled the farmhouse in a police cruiser. Since the body had been discovered approximately ago, he could be anywhere up to a hundred miles away or so if he was really driving like a bat outta hell. Steve suspected though, that Diablo would be smart enough not to want to call attention to himself, so he was probably closer to thirty miles away.
When Steve and Tom returned to the car, Steve got a map out of the glove compartment and drew a circle around the area of the farmhouse for thirty miles. Tom pointed out that there were quite a few towns within the circle that Steve had drawn. Tom asked Steve what he was looking for. Steve replied, “If I were Diablo, I would ditch the police car and steal another car.”
“If he stole a car from anyone in these small towns, they would report it right away, but if it was stolen in Indianapolis, it might not be immediately suspicious,” said Tom.
Steve replied, “I don’t know that he’d want to drive that far in a stolen police car.”
Tom studied the map for a minute, and turned to Steve. “Where could he go to find a car he could steal that wouldn’t be missed for a few days?”
“A bus station, train station, or airport,” answered Steve.
“Correctamundo! You win the prize,” said Tom.
Steve took out his cell phone and searched for airports in the area. Using a search engine, he discovered that there were four airports of varying sizes in the area Steve had circled: Indianapolis, Shelbyville, Greensburg, and Columbus.
Diablo wouldn’t be able to park an out of county police car at the airport in Indianapolis without it being discovered almost immediately, and it was the farthest away of the airports mentioned, thought Steve. He looked at the airport in Shelbyville, and discovered that it was next to a casino. There would be plenty of cars there, they would have police parking spaces, and the stolen car might go days or even weeks unnoticed, thought Steve. Steve pointed this out to Tom, and he agreed.
Steve and Tom raced to the Shelbyville airport, and upon arrival swept the parking lot for marked police vehicles. They found one parked in a “police vehicles only” spot, and Tom got out to check on it.
The keys were in the ignition of the car, and the doors were unlocked. This was strange, because no cop he knew would ever leave their patrol car unlocked with the keys in the ignition. When Tom opened the driver’s side front door, the smell of vomit instantly assaulted his sense of smell. That was not necessarily unusual, because drunks tended to puke in patrol cars on the way to jail, however, most cops would spray air freshener in the car to mask the smell. When Tom felt the hood of the car, it was still hot, which meant that the car had to have been parked here a half an hour ago or less.
Tom called the command center on his cell phone, and confirmed that this was the missing patrol car. He reported the location where they found the vehicle, and asked for additional manpower to set up a checkpoint on I-74 Northbound before Indianapolis.
Steve walked over to the parking lot attendant and asked him what vehicles had exited the lot that morning. The attendant replied that about fifteen minutes ago, two guys had left the lot in a tan Chevrolet Caprice with Indiana tags. Steve asked him if there were and video cameras pointed toward his booth, and the man replied that there was one in front and one at the rear of his booth, in case someone tried to leave without paying, the video would capture the driver’s face and the tag on the vehicle. The man, whose name was Mark, told Steve that he would show him the video if his supervisor said it was ok.
“I think that the real reason that they installed these cameras, was to try to catch me sleeping on the job,” Mark told Steve conspiratorially. “I never sleep on the job, but my boss is a tyrant, who thinks that everyone who works for him is screwing off, because he is always scamming.”
Mark made a quick phone call to his boss, who asked if Steve had a search warrant for the video recorder. Steve grabbed the phone away from Mark and said “who am I talking to? Joe is it? I could take the next couple of hours to get a search warrant for your video recorder, but if
I do, our fugitives will have escaped with your assistance, and you would be subpoenaed to testify in court and produce evidence. I could always have the Department of Homeland Security audit your records and see if your airport is in full compliance with national security standards.” At this, Joe relented and asked Steve to hand the phone back to Mark.
A few seconds later, with a smile on his face, Mark showed Steve the videos. Steve took note of the license plate number on the car, and that the driver was wearing a police uniform.
Steve ran back to the car, and told Tom what he had discovered. Tom called the command center again and gave them a description of the vehicle, so they could relay this to the officers that were setting up the vehicle checkpoint.
Steve and Tom exited the parking lot and headed north on Highway I -74 burning rubber as they left. Tom turned on the emergency lights and called dispatch. “Delta 100, this is unit India 41 Alpha…Show my unit and Unit 42 Alpha northbound on I-74 passing mile marker 42 in pursuit of a Tan Caprice bearing Indiana tag number 436 Juliet Bravo Hotel. Request additional units for backup on a felony stop.” The dispatcher replied “Delta 100 10-4.”
When traffic was heavy, Steve would switch on the siren, and switch it off when traffic was light. The siren was so loud that it would give them bot a headache if they ran it constantly. Tom looked over at the speedometer, which read 120 mph. “Are you on your way to church?” he teased Tom, “My grandma drives faster than that coming out of her driveway.” Steve responded by flooring the gas pedal. As the engine roared, Steve replied “if we go much faster, we will travel back in time.”
After about ten harrowing minutes, Steve saw the tan Caprice in the distance. He switched off the lights and siren and slowed to a more reasonable pace. Steve followed at a discreet distance, but close enough that Tom could confirm the tag number with a set of binoculars.
Tom called the dispatcher and gave their current location and stated that they were behind the vehicle awaiting backup. The dispatcher replied that backup was in route to their location, and would be there shortly.
Chapter 46
Diablo saw a car come speeding up behind them, and slow down to keep pace with their car. He wanted to find out if they were being followed, so he slowed to about 35 miles per hour for a minute or so, and then sped up to 80 miles per hour. The car stayed behind them, so he knew that the car was following them. Time to get creative, he thought, as he stomped the gas pedal to the floor.
Doc turned his head and stared in horror at Diablo, as he started laughing maniacally. “What the hell are you doing? Fast, slow, fast, now crazy… do you need medication?” said Doc.
“The cops are behind us, and I don’t want to go back to prison, so I’m trying to lose them,” said Diablo.
The Chevy Caprice was now going over a hundred miles per hour, and weaving through the other cars on the highway. The sound of the roaring engine and the squealing of the tires was like a drug to Diablo. His adrenaline was flowing and his heart felt like it was beating a million times a minute. His vision narrowed, and sweat beaded on his forehead. He realized in a flash that he had been laughing like a crazy person, and when he saw the terrified look on Doc’s face, it just made him laugh harder. The other car was keeping up with them, so Diablo concluded that he would have to step it up a notch or two.
Diablo jerked the steering wheel to the left, and clipped a minivan causing it to swerve and skid across the lanes. The minivan struck a Honda Accord, which spun around to face oncoming traffic. Pretty soon, cars were skidding in every direction and colliding with other cars and trucks. All of this happened between the Police and the Caprice. This gave Diablo enough of a lead that he exited at the next off ramp, leaving the mess he had made behind.
Diablo looked in the rearview mirror, and saw a car exit the highway behind them. The car was a long ways back, but Diablo was sure they were still being followed. Diablo decided that he had had enough of this game, and when he made a right turn a few miles later, he opened his door and shouted to Doc “You’re on your own, now. I’m out of here.” Diablo tucked his chin and dove out of the car, rolling over and over into the intersection, where he was barely missed by a passing car. Doc screamed as the driverless Caprice went careening out of control.
Diablo got to his feet and ran to the nearest hedgerow that lined the street, diving into it for concealment. He watched the Caprice weaving down the road, and smiled when he remembered the shocked look on Doc’s face just before he had dived out the door and onto the street. He assessed the damage, and found that other than a few cuts and scrapes, he seemed to be ok.
Chapter 47
Doc leaned over and grabbed the steering wheel, trying to keep the car on the road. What the hell was Diablo thinking? That idiot was going to get caught, if he didn’t get killed first. Doc managed to slide behind the wheel just in time to careen into a fire hydrant.
The car came to an abrupt stop, and as Doc’s face smashed into the steering wheel, water went spraying up from the broken hydrant. That wasn’t at all like the movies, thought Doc, as the taste of blood flooded his broken mouth. Doc started picking hairs out of his mouth and wondered where the hair had come from. He looked down at his arm and realized that he had bitten a fair sized chunk out of his arm. His teeth felt loose, and his lips were bleeding badly as well.
Doc tried to open the driver’s door, but the door wouldn’t budge. Next, he tried the passenger doors, and discovered that they were stuck closed as well. Doc saw a wisp of steam rising up from the hood of the smashed car, and mistook it for smoke. Suddenly, Doc had a vision of himself stuck in a burning car, and he started to panic. He clawed frantically at the windows, momentarily forgetting how to open them. He flailed about trying to break the windows with his fist, and then with any object he could find in the car, and then he tried kicking the windows to break them. For whatever reason, Doc was unable to break the windows, and he started screaming and wildly thrashing around like a trapped animal.
Doc started hyperventilating and was on the verge of a full-scale panic attack. He started fishing around for a paper bag, because he had seen people breathe into a paper bag when they were panicked in the movies. He could not find a paper bag, but he found an old gym sock under the back seat. It stunk badly, but it had to work, he told himself. He held the sock over his mouth and started throwing himself into the windows, to try to escape from the vehicle which he was sure was about to blow up.
As if this wasn’t enough, the car started to fill with water from the broken fire hydrant. The water was now up to his chest, and rising, since it had nowhere to go. A primal scream escaped Doc’s lips, as he desperately clawed at the back seat in an effort to rip the upholstery so he could exit the car through the trunk. Doc knew that if he made it to the trunk, most cars had a safety release inside the trunk, which would allow him to open it from the inside and escape this “death trap.” This continued for several minutes, until he heard a tap at the driver’s side window.
Chapter 48
Steve looked inside the wrecked Caprice and what he saw made him laugh. A one armed man was thrashing about like a trapped wolverine slapping and kicking the windows, and clawing at the seats. The man let out a scream that would have rivaled any horror movie heroine. To top that, he had a dirty gym sock dangling from his mouth, and a crazy, frantic look in his eyes. Tom tapped on the driver’s window calmly with his pistol, and the man inside the car froze in mid-motion.
“Help!” screamed the man with sweat beading on his forehead and a wild look in his eyes.
“Police, open the door!” shouted Tom.
“I can’t!” the man moaned.
“Stand back!” Tom shouted, as he struck the window with his pistol. The window shattered, and thousands of little cubes of safety glass rained in on the trapped man. Tom raked the rest of the glass out of the window frame, and Steve reached in for the terrified man, who gratefully reached for Steve’s hand.
Once out of the vehicle,
the man thanked Steve and Tom, and seemed so relieved that he even tried to hug Tom, who would have none of that. It occurred to Steve that Tom was more than just a little homophobic, and was definitely not a hugger.
Steve decided to have a little fun with this, and chided Tom, saying “Aw, come on Tom, give him a hug. You just saved his life, after all.”
Tom grimaced at Steve as he backed away from the one armed man, who was still trying to hug him. “What the hell, man!” shouted Tom as he tried to back away from the crazed man.
Steve saw that Tom had had enough, and spun the man around to get a good look at his face. He instantly recognized the man as Doc, and told him that he was under arrest. Since he had one arm, Steve put a belly chain around Doc’s waist, and looped a par of handcuffs through the links of the chain securing Doc’s one arm. Doc went willingly, and even seemed grateful to Steve and Tom for arresting him.
“Thank you, officer,” said Doc. “Please take me back to jail, I don’t think I could survive another day on the run.”
Steve started laughing when he thought about all the things that this wretched human had been through since he escaped from the facility. He asked Doc, “Where are your other two partners?”
“You mean Diablo and Slasher?” Doc asked.
“Of course,” Steve said.
“Diablo dove out of the car a few minutes ago just before it crashed, and I haven’t seen Slasher since the cave.”
“Where did he dive out of the car?” asked Tom.
“At the last intersection, we took a sharp right turn, and he dove out in the middle of the turn,” said Doc.
Steve ushered Doc into the back seat of a patrol car that had just arrived, and told the officer to take the prisoner back to the Sheriff’s Office for questioning.
Steve and Tom got into their car and Tom fired up the engine as Steve called it in on the radio. They circled the block looking for anything unusual, but nothing caught their eye. Soon the place would be crawling with cops, and Diablo wouldn’t stand a chance. Would he get desperate enough to try to take hostages? At the thought of this, Steve and Tom renewed their search with a greater sense of urgency, shining their flashlights into side yards and hedges as they slowly cruised the street.
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