Chapter 11
The loud knock on the door startled her as she rolled over and instinctively touched the empty spot on the bed beside her like she did every morning. She quickly threw her robe over her pajamas and looked in at Stephanie sleeping soundly. She couldn’t imagine who was at her door at seven in the morning. The reporters had long since stopped coming a few months after Jackson’s sentencing five years ago. She felt the air quickly empty out of her lungs seeing the two police officers standing on her front steps. It instantly reminded her of the night they came to get Jackson. It was his last night at home. It had been over five years since he had stepped foot in their home that they had so proudly purchased before Stephanie was born. They had been comfortably living in a high-rise apartment in DC enjoying the Georgetown nightlife and close proximity of all the city attractions, but that all changed the day they found out she was pregnant. They immediately began looking for a house in the suburbs and in a few months they found a nice little colonial on a quiet cul-de-sac in Northern Virginia. It had a good structure but it needed a lot of cosmetic work which Jackson had spent hours doing, most of it during the middle of the night. She remembered seeing him come stumbling to bed early in the morning covered in whatever color paint he had been working on and going to work the next day. He had learned a new language putting in the vinyl kitchen floor, she was glad Stephanie hadn’t been here to witness that. He did a great job with everything and he refused to let her do anything because she had been carrying Stephanie. She still couldn’t believe he had been gone for so long. She continued to visit him in prison despite Jackson trying to convince her to move on with her life, but she continued to let him know they couldn’t make it without him. She had been forced to return to work after the incarceration due to the lack of money. The most difficult thing was the once a week question from Stephanie about where her dad was. They both had agreed not to tell her he was in jail, but it would only be a few more years till they would have to let her know the truth and they were both dreading that day so much and tried not to think about it. She still sent Jackson a letter every week letting him know how their days were and what they had done. She also reiterated how much they missed and needed him. It meant so much to him to hear everything Stephanie did each day. He so wanted to be her father and he was such a good one for the two years that he was there. She reached the bottom step of the stairs and glanced at the last family picture. They were all smiling and looked like such the perfect family. She had to force her hand to open the front door. She was afraid the news was going to be something had happened to Jackson. That had been her biggest fear from the first day he was in prison. He just wasn’t the prison type. It wasn’t that he was a wimp or anything, he had been anything but. He had been a star athlete in high school and college until he found out how much more he liked technology and directed all his energy from sports to that. It also had something to do with her because once they met they became inseparable. She still couldn’t believe he was gone. Jackson was still able to provide some income to them, it wasn’t much but he kept trying. He would write technology articles for magazines from within the prison. She took one more look at the picture and opened the door to the two officers who immediately stepped into the foyer and shut the door. The taller and thinner of the two spoke first.
“Mrs. Stewart we’re sorry to bother you, but we have some bad news on your husband.” Michelle’s knees went limp and she let the older and stockier officer grab her shoulders. She placed her hands over her mouth.
“Please no.”
“I’m sorry ma’am but your husband escaped a few hours ago and we have reason to believe he is heading this way.”
Michelle immediately straightened up. “What? He escaped. How? When?”
The officer briefly looked around at the pictures on the walls. “He broke out this morning and was last seen heading north.”
“How did he break out?” How could this happen? Where is he? “Oh my God, what do we do?”
“What we’re going to do is post a few officers here at the house in case he tries to contact you.”
“You think he’s going to come here?”
“That is what we have been told. We need to monitor the phones, email everything.”
She still couldn’t believe he was out. Jackson was out there somewhere running for his life. “I guess. I think I need to call our attorney.” She needed to get to the bathroom, she felt sick to her stomach. She was so nervous. What about Stephanie?”
“We’re not sure. We were told to report here immediately. I think the Warden has more information and they will be contacting you later this morning. She excused herself and ran upstairs.
Chapter 12
He couldn’t believe he had been able to sleep, but he looked at the clock and it was 4:00PM. It had been a little stressful taking the back roads and eventually ending up on Route 1, the alternate way into DC. It used to be the only way in from the south, but with the building of 95 and 395 it was now a four-lane road showing signs of old age. He stopped in one of the older motels along the road in Alexandria. There were numerous ones, and he chose the oldest and scariest. He dropped the Prius, off about ten miles south and taken a bus to the hotel. He knew they would find the driver and eventually find out about the Prius so he had to dump it. He wasn’t planning on sleeping so long, but it had been a long night, and his body was paying the price for it, but he felt much better. It felt like the last five years had been wiped off his life and he was starting over fresh again. He immediately flicked on the 27” color TV that was locked to the obnoxiously old and worn TV stand. He couldn’t imagine someone trying to steal it, especially since even in the Conduit they had flat screens, but maybe that was for different reasons he wasn’t sure. They were hung high and out of reach of any of the prisoners. With no remote control, he sat close to the TV and began switching channels. The TV had one of those old knobs you had to turn to switch channels. Finally, he came upon a local news station that was just beginning their broadcast. He kept his fingers crossed as the local anchors discussed the Redskins new draft pick. Apparently, they had the number one pick overall and had settled on a running back from Penn State. He watched as they showed stock footage of the running back breaking tackles and landing in the end zone. Then they went to the weather, which was always a strange thing in this area this time of the year, because pretty much the weather was the same every day, hot and muggy with a chance of thunderstorms. The anchors then went on to discuss shootings in the District and one in Prince George’s County, but nothing about an escape from prison. Feeling confident when the sports caster came back on and began talking about the Redskins again, he shut it off and took a risky venture into the shower area. It was worse than the prison showers, but at least it was private, so he removed his clothes and enjoyed the hot blast of water removing the past five years’ worth of prison stench from his body. After about fifteen minutes he figured he needed to keep moving, so he quickly dressed and dropped the key in the checkout box bypassing any more contact with the manager. Although he was sure the place was already crawling with shady characters, he didn’t want to take any chances. He still had about fifty dollars of Hoover’s money left that he had pocketed before he dropped the wallet. He ran across the busy street and sat down at an IHOP and enjoyed a huge plate of scrambled eggs and bacon. He thanked the waitress, left a three-dollar tip and began walking down Route 1 to the next bus stop which was only a few hundred yards away. He waited by himself for a few minutes until he saw the bus for Reagan National coming and jumped on. He was right back on schedule.
“Were you able to find anything?”
The Sergeant shook his head. “Nothing Sir, I’ve been through his cell three times with a fine-tooth comb. There’s nothing here with any information on it.”
Warden Dever stood in front of his desk pacing back and forth. “Does anyone know anything? What about Carlos the Thomas?”
“So far nothing, he just kept to himself. He neve
r talked to anyone not even Carlos.”
“This just doesn’t make sense how he could do all this on his own. I mean I almost had him twice and both times it was like he had some magic angel over his head pulling him away.”
“Just like what happened here.” Harris added leaning slightly forward on the upholstered chair in front of Dever’s desk.
“How’s Hoover doing?”
Harris slightly leaned back against the chair. “I saw him in the hospital earlier and he was starting to wake up. They said he’ll be fine just like Carlos. Apparently that stuff he gave them shuts down your system for about four or five hours.”
Dever shook his head. “That’s a whole different issue how he got that stuff in here.”
“We’re looking into that Sir.”
“Good, keep looking and do it quickly and let’s get started on the computers too.” He muttered. He felt exhausted after chasing Stewart all day long. He finally gave up after spending an hour or two on 95 and not seeing anything. It was basically impossible not having a car description. Apparently, the owner of the car was nowhere around because no one reported anything being stolen yet. Just as he had expected, he hadn’t been on the train. He had already contacted the Marshall’s office and they were working on tracking his movements. “So tell me again what happened?”
Sergeant Harris spent the next thirty minutes or so explaining the whole sequence how Jackson had gotten out. He looked at the floor several times especially during the part when he didn’t ask him to take off his riot helmet and let him walk right out the door.
“Don’t feel bad Sergeant, it could have happened to any of us; we’ll deal with that later. I told you he got me twice today. The important thing is we need to learn from this and make sure it never happens again. I expect you’ll write up the new procedures?”
Harris nodded and rose to his feet. “We’ll get him Sir. We always do.”
“Let’s hope so Sergeant, let’s hope so.” He was trying to think what he was going to tell the Governor, but first of all he needed to meet with the press who has been camped outside the prison all day. He quickly packed up his reports and placed them in a folder, checked his tie and hair in the mirror on the back of the door and began the dreaded walk.
“Warden is it true the drug Rohypnol was used on the guards?” A small man holding a microphone that almost completely hid his face called out.
The Warden nodded, “A chemical was used we are not sure at this time of the exact one that was used, but that is correct.”
“Is he considered armed and dangerous?”
“As far as we can tell he isn’t armed.” They had found his weapon under the seat of the stolen station wagon. He sure wasn’t going to mention it was his. “As far as dangerous, any prisoner on the loose would be considered dangerous, and I urge everyone to use extreme caution if you see him. We will be providing a photograph at the conclusion of this press conference.”
“Is he in for murder?”
“Yes, he is serving a twenty-year sentence for murder. You can view the crime records online.”
“What kind of prisoner was he?” A young woman impeccably dressed stood up an asked.
“He was a good prisoner. He didn’t pose a problem to anyone and followed directions appropriately.” He looked around waiting for the next question, but it came from the same woman. She had a soothing voice. “Is it true he had total access to the prison’s computers?”
“No he didn’t have total access to the computers. He was limited to working on the ones in the prisoner’s library, like all the prisoners.” He must have reprogrammed those to give him outside access, he thought. They had already called in the state’s computer forensic experts but they hadn’t arrived yet. They needed access to those as soon as possible. They would hopefully show some kind of clue as to where he was headed. He listened and answered questions for the next forty minutes until he felt like he was saying the same thing over and over again and his communication director ended the press conference. Warden Dever quickly went back into the building knowing exactly what he had to do next.
Chapter 13
Michelle couldn’t believe it; she was glued to the TV and internet all day watching the coverage of Jackson’s escape. She had Stephanie go to her friend’s house after school because she needed time to come up with a plan on what to tell her. The two officers were in and out of the house all day checking the phones and cars driving by. She knew he wouldn’t dare come by the house he was too smart for that. She just didn’t know what to do and she wasn’t sure what she was going to tell Stephanie about it, although she would ask why the policemen were there. As far as she knew, none of Stephanie’s friend’s parents knew about Jackson either. They just assumed he had spilt and she was a single mother. No one ever asked and she never volunteered any information. She kept checking her Gmail account. It was the one she used to email him in prison sometimes. She wasn't sure how he was able to use email in prison, but somehow he made it work. She knew the police were watching her, but at least they were giving her some privacy on the computer, although they would walk around where they could see the screen every once in a while. He was out there by himself running from law enforcement. She had seen too many movies and news reports to know how it usually ended, but she was keeping hope. She had been careful about who she became friendly with since all this happened. In fact, she only had two close friends; one was Liz, who was the office manager where she worked as a bookkeeper and the other was Barbara, Stephanie’s friend’s mom, where she is now. None of them asked about her husband, but she had seen them both looking at her wedding ring every once in a while. She knew they wanted to ask but they never did. Stephanie was still under the impression that her dad had to go away for a while. She just wasn’t ready to find out the truth, but she may have to tell her now. It was a school night so there was no way she could spend the night at her friends, and besides she wasn’t the type of kid who liked sleepovers. They had tried once last year but she had only made it about 11:00PM when Barbara called and asked her to pick up her daughter because she kept saying she wanted to come home and wouldn’t go to sleep. They had grown so close over the last five years, almost more like best friends than mother and daughter. She knew it wasn’t the best thing, but it worked, and she wasn’t about to change anything. She watched the replay of the warden’s press conference. She almost smiled hearing how Jackson had used a drug on one of the guards to escape. He was so clever just like she knew he was. She began to cry until one of the officers came over to make sure she was okay. She told him she was, but she knew she wasn’t. She was all torn up inside. She decided to send an email to Jackson. She knew he would still find a way to check his email. He always did. He would always plan everything out, spending hours and hours getting things ready, and then he would do whatever it was he was planning for. Like the house. He spent days and days coming up with drawings and color schemes until he was satisfied and then he did it and it and everything has remained exactly the same since. She still couldn’t imagine him in a prison cell. She even had nightmares about him dressed in his prison uniform and being beaten alive by some drug crazed prisoner, but now he was gone from all that and was somewhere out there on his own running for his life. “Please Jackson be safe,” she whispered loud enough to cause the officer to turn around. They both immediately jumped hearing the phone ring. Michelle looked at the officer who gave her the thumbs up as she lifted the receiver while he picked up an extension. This was not right, what about her privacy. “Hello,” she quietly said expecting to hear Jackson’s voice, but instead she heard a deep scratchy voice with a slight southern accent.
“Mrs. Stewart, this is Warden Dever. Sorry to bother you ma’am, but we have reason to believe your husband is heading to your area.”
“How do you know Warden?” She asked not sure why.
“He was last seen on I-95 North a little south of Richmond.” She watched the officer replace the phone in the cradle after realizin
g it wasn’t her husband. “It is of utmost importance that as soon as he contacts you, and he will, that you let us know.”
“I will Warden.” She felt out of breath.
“You’re his wife, so I know it will feel natural to try and protect him, but if you want to protect him you will turn him in. It is the safest way.”
“I will Warden. I want him safe.” She wasn’t sure what she wanted.
“I’m going to send a few more of my men up there to help out the officers already there. I know it’s an inconvenience to you, but it’s the only way.”
“I have a little girl Warden. What am I supposed to tell her?” The tears were welling in her eyes.
“We are aware of that ma’am and we will do our best to stay out of her way. We will need to send an officer to school with her as well.”
“What?” How was she going to explain this to her and the school?
Evasion Page 5