Chapter 15 Gotcha, in the Cops and Robbers Game.
Jack had stopped listening long ago. It wasn’t a voluntary thing, he was just too captivated by the sight of her to care about anything else. After she had stopped reading she caught his gaze, which was locked on her eyes. They both smiled and kissed a kiss so passionate that it belongs in a movie. They damaged her mantle piece with the love they made.
Later, he sat on the edge of the bed, brooding. Jack never brooded in jail, but he brooded now, naked, sweaty, and coming down off an endorphin rush. His busty satisfied lover next to him sleeping and breathing heavy, happy breathes.
Jack truly did love Kate, and because he loved her he had never been more conflicted. Jack knew that the reason he hadn’t been caught and thrown back in jail so far was because he had managed to move from place to place. So now he had to make some choices. He had been here with Kate for three weeks now, he knew if he stayed much longer it wouldn’t be long before the cops would catch up with him.
“What do I do?” he thought. Does he risk getting caught and keep her at risk, this living gift that Jack had received after years of apathy and suppression. Or does he flee, leaving a note for his lover explaining why she may never see him again. Either way, he knew he would hurt Kate, and that was exactly what he was trying not to do.
He sat on the bed for two hours, trying to think of a way to elude the police and keep Kate. The more Jack thought about it the more he realized one way or the other Kate was going to find out that Jack was a fugitive. If he told her and she was okay with it, she would get locked up for aiding and abetting, and that was something Jack would never let happen. He would sooner take a bullet than let this woman go through the hells he did in prison. Especially a women’s prison, where she will be subject to the already sadistic guards.
He needed to clear his head and think. He put on some clothes and shoes and a beanie Kate had given him that she knitted herself. He kissed her cheek, then walked to the corner store to buy a pack of camels.
This turned out to be a mistake.
Jack got the cigarettes and left the 7 eleven with no confrontations, as he usually expected when going to a market at 3 at night. He lit one and smoked as he wandered the neighborhood and parked his ass on a bus bench, chain smoking and trying to figure things out.
Jack went through four cigarettes when he first heard the sirens, he thought nothing of them. He hadn’t been here that long, there was no way they could find him.
They did. When one of the six squad cars parading the area turned the corner and started speeding towards him. They braked suddenly by the bench, the red and blue sirens illuminating Jacks face from a fierce and distressful red to a chilling stunned blue in a taunting back and forth.
They blocked off the sidewalk with the car and before Jack could react or flea, another car came and blocked the sidewalk in the other direction. Jack had a cop car blocking either side of him and he now had four cops standing in front of him blocking him from fleeing across the street. Each one was strapped in kevlar and had their gun drawn. Within another the ten seconds the helicopter appeared and the light was right in Jack’s eyes. In a last attempt to keep his freedom, Jack blindly sprang to his right and managed to leap over the hood of the cop car and out paced the spot light momentarily. But he didn’t outpace the rookie’s taser which sent 50,000 volts into Jack’s body for what seemed like an unreasonable amount of time to take down an unarmed fugitive. When Jack came to he was in handcuffs, sitting on the curb with some schmuck in a suit and trench coat standing in front of him like some Law and Order SVU cliche.
I’m agent smith of the FBI, as you can guess you are under arrest Mr. Lewis.
Jack nodded. he read him his rights and then took in one of the most wanted men in America.
The news hit the media in less than an hour. While he was out Jack was just another transient to the world, now he that he was back in he was a celebrity, the entire world was captivated by the man who walked out of prison. Hashtags started trending for days, ones like #LongLiveLewis #JackAttack #WeLoveJackLewis he had become a folk hero of sorts to some. To others it was a chance to reveal their darker side of the internet once again with hashtags like #frylewis #LifeforLewis and the less creative #wehateJackLewis.
He used his phone call for Kate, he got the machine, she was dead asleep. Jack said he got arrested, gave her the station number, and said don’t bother trying to bail me out, they wouldn’t let it happen, there’s a lot I didn’t tell you, but if you give me a chance to explain… I will. I love you.
As he hung up he realized a bunch of the deputies were watching him and laughing at him. and mocking him “I love you..(grunt) yeah right”
“Bullshit”
“You’ll say anything to get people on your side won’t you.” were some of the jargon. This officer then shoved jack’s head, not enough to be called brutality, but just enough to remind Jack he was in and was powerless. That’s how the police operate in this world, they remind the citizens they are powerless. Jack knew this game, and he had played it his whole life. Who is the court going to believe the cop or the three time felon? The cops were going to remind Jack of that the entire time he would be in holding.
The other cells were full, so they threw Jack into the drunk tank but kept him under round the clock surveillance. It was futile effort Jack just sat there hanging his head until Kate arrived. When she saw him she leaped to the cell door and hugged him and kissed him. She asked what happened before Jack could explain a cop had his baton between the two and he pulled Kate just out of arm’s length.
“At least two feet from the bar Miss.” jack noticed when the guard started pulling Kate away with his arm his hand noticeably brushed Kate’s breast. Kate noticed it, and Jack definitely noticed it. And the deputy definitely confirmed it as he smiled small but smugly as he walked away.
Later this cop would be sorry. Jack made sure of that, the next time he came to tauntack he had a surprise for him.
But now he had to focus, Jack didn’t hesitate, he wanted this to be as quick and painless as it could be. So Jack just spilled the beans, he told Kate everything; the escape, the wandering, Nancy, the head wounds, the crippled hand, Alice and the sorority girl, all of it.
Kate was speechless for five minutes, then when she got the chance as the guard wasn’t looking planted long wet kiss on Jack’s lips. “Let me know when the arraignment begins. I’m there with you the whole way. I love you.”
“I love you too” jack said and meant it. He never knew one could fall in love in such a short period of time, but he did.
Kate left, confident she could help Jack in someway, unaware she had helped Jack in the best of ways. Her presence in his life had given him something to live for, something to fight for.
Jack was left desperate for more of her company, this look was blatant on his face, and it drew the cop who just sexually harassed Kate over. He had some new material to taunt Jack and was about to use it. Jack hadn’t been in there for twenty four hours and already sixteen different cops have taunted him right in front of the holding cell door. This time the pervert cop got greedy, and opened the cell door and stepped in and out and in and out. “Look at me” he teased “ I can come and go as I please, just like a certain Mister Jack Lewis thinks he can. I can just waltz out of here and visit my friends and go and have sex with my girlfriend any time I want and wait, why don’t you too?” He kept the door open and stood aside while he raised his palm directing Jack like he was free to go, sarcastically of course, but the cop finally made a mistake he did this standing inside the cell. The three drunks in the tank made a leap for the door but were immediately clotheslined by the cop. “not you drunkies. Come on Lewis. go for it.” Jack hated it when he was addressed by his last name; this was the final straw. Before the cop could react Jack grabbed his outreached arm, twisted it like a motorcycle handle, then brought it down with all it’s gravity onto his knee. The bone began to stick out through the flesh as the elbow was now bending the wrong way, the guard yelped with pain, and Jack used the cops weight to chuck him on the ground, smacking the back of his head on the concrete floor causing a nice concussion He grabbed the cell keys and the gun. He stepped out and slammed the door and locked it, and told the drunks to “go nuts.”
The cops injuries were so bad he was given early retirement.
Jack made it out into the hall in a sprint but was once again stopped by some offensively high number of volts that leaped out from behind and bit him in the back.
James J Jackson 