FanStory.com - Oh Crap!by Douglas Goff

The two male Wolf Bend police officers arrived at the county jail just behind their female counterpart. All three wore bullet proof vests and carried shotguns. They took up a perimeter position along with most of the other arriving officers.

Smoke could be seen coming from some of the outlying buildings just inside of the barbed wire double fencing, Both Stevens and Bivens County Deputies were lining up in a large group by the main entrance. Cops call it ‘stacking’ for entry.

“Chief Harsen!” Sheriff Warson shouted over. “You and your guys mind covering the front gate here while we go in and re-establish control? They haven’t reached the office building yet, but hang out here just in case.”

Greg led his two officers over to the main doors where they took up positions near the entrance into the complex. You had to go through steel double doors and pass through the office section in order to reach the courtyard that led to the housing units.

Two large columns of sheriff’s deputies in helmets with large plastic shields began passing through the steel doors. They carried canisters of pepper spray, batons, and beanbag shotguns. There were at least forty of them.

Once the last man passed through, the heavy doors slowly began to swing shut. At the last possible second, a bony hand caught the door and yanked it open. A skinny white man wearing an orange jumpsuit rabbeted out the doors and made a break for it. He had stringy brown hair and rotten black teeth.

The prisoner caught the junior Wolf Bend Officers by surprise. Chief Greg Harsen brought his shotgun up and buttstroked the man across the face with his weapon. With a sickening crack, blood spurted from the man’s nose and mouth, the blow sending him sprawling onto the ground while spitting up teeth.

Jesse and Katie quickly jumped on the scrawny escapee and cuffed him. He had a prisoner custodian badge on and must have been working in the office area when the riot broke out. The man probably hid, waiting for the entry crew to pass into the courtyard and then made a break for it.

“You didn’t have to do that!” the bloodied man groaned through his busted up mouth.

“No, I didn’t have to. It was more of a ‘want to’ thing.” Greg signaled two perimeter officers over to grab the prisoner and told them to secure him in a police cruiser until they got the prison under control. Two hours later, it was.

“Sweet baby Jesus, it’s a mess in there.” Bill Watson walked up to Greg after he exited the building.

“One prisoner was killed while several others got busted up. Luckily only three deputies were injured. Nothing serious.” Watson sighed. “The housing units are a shit show. They burnt the mattresses and any paper they could find, including all the toilet paper.”

“Guess they’ll be wiping their asses with their hands for awhile.” Jesse laughed. “How did the deputies get hurt?”

“All from falls. The bastards spread soap all over the floors, rails, and stairways.” Watson shook his head.

“Yes. Five inmates drove a trash truck through the back gate. Tower guards unloaded on them but they made it through both fences. The barbed wire flattened the tires and the truck got bogged down in the far wood line. We found one dead inmate left in the truck, shot and killed by one of the tower guards. We caught a second man a few hundred yards into the woods. He had a bullet hole in his knee and probably couldn't keep up with the others.”

“Jesus, Bill, what about the other three?” Greg was concerned. Panicked and desperate escapees are extremely dangerous.

“They made it to a dirt road back in the woods. Must’ve had helped. Either somebody picked them up, or staged a car for them.” Bill looked frazzled. “Sons of a bitches got at least an hour's headstart on us. We put out a state-wide APB and a manhunt is being organized now. Speaking of which, I have to go to the Command Center and help get things organized. Damn press is already here.”

As an afterthought, Greg called out to the retreating sheriff, “Who were the three escapees?”

“They were keeping some bad apples from the prison here due to overcrowding. It was some of those.” Watson stopped and pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. “A black fella named Cappy Hendrix. He was in for attempted murder. And . . .two Inju . . . er . . . Native Americans. An Enua Benson—”

“Oh shit!” Jesse turned and sprinted for his Blazer, two steps behind Greg who was running at breakneck speed.

“Break every speed limit law in this county, Jesse!” I’ve got to get to her.

“It’s floored, boss. Sure wish we’d brought your charger.’ Jesse looked scared. Lenny had shot and nearly killed the man last time he was free. “Do you really think Lenny would go after Jenny?”

“From everything I’ve heard about her ex-husband, I’m sure of it.” Bill Watson’s voice kept repeating in Greg’s head. They got at least an hour's headstart on us. That’s too much time. Way too much time.

“I’ll kill the bastard.” Jesse looked about as grim as Greg had ever seen him look.

(For those who have not read the earlier books in the series here is an excerpt from The Bear Cave Chapter 10 to explain who Lenny is:

“The whole ugly story?”

“I need it all, Jenny.”

“Okay.” She frowned. “Marriage only lasted two years. It was about a year in when Lenny started hitting me. The first couple of times it was a shove or a kick. It steadily increased until he was throwing full blown punches. He beat me unconscious a couple of times. Never hit me in the face though. Said my face was too pretty to mess up.”

“Probably didn’t want to leave visible evidence.” Greg tried to keep his face neutral, even though her story enraged him. He hated abusers.

“Oh I know he didn’t. Lenny used to say he’d kill me if I ever went to the police. So I secretly got a lawyer and started to save up money with a plan to run. Once he got served with divorce papers, I was going to just leave the cafe, Wolf Bend, everything. I was going to escape.” She hesitated, her eyes moistening up, with a single teardrop hanging between two long lashes, seemingly plotting its own escape.

“But that never happened, did it, Jen?”

“About a month after I spoke to the attorney, I found out I was pregnant. Numerous tears were now making a break for it, flowing freely down her cheeks.” Greg reached out and grabbed both of her hands.

“Lenny was happy about the baby, until he downed a fifth of Hennessy one night. Then he told me he had never wanted any children and commenced to beating the shit out of me. He punched and kicked me in the stomach until I passed out.”

“That’s awful.”

“Jesse found me lying on the floor bleeding the following morning. He took me to the medical center where they told me I had lost the baby,” her voice was no more than a whisper, and then cracked. She broke down at this point, big sobs racking her tiny body. Greg felt like an ass for making her relive it, but it couldn’t be helped. He comforted the distressed woman as best he could, also needing to wipe away a couple tears of his own, until she was ready to continue.

“After Jesse found out I lost the baby, he stormed out of the hospital and went after Lenny. They had a tremendous fist fight. Lenny was big and built, but my brother is a scrapper. He beat my ex nearly unconscious. When he turned to leave, Lenny pulled out a pistol and shot my brother in the back, twice.”

“Damn.”

“Yeah, Jesse was in surgery for ten hours. He nearly died. My brother is damn proud of those scars.” She pulled her hands free and wiped her face. “I guess I am too. Lenny got a taste of what it felt like to be beat down.”

“So that’s why Lenny’s in jail?”

“Not for shooting Jesse. The District Attorney dropped the case. Said even though my brother had been shot in the back, the fact he sought out Lenny, kicked in the front door to his house, and attacked him left too much room for a self-defense verdict.”

“That’s typical. DA’s only take cases to trial they know they can win. It’s just how the legal game is played.”

“They ended up charging Lenny with involuntary manslaughter for the baby. Said they couldn’t go for murder because Lenny claimed he didn’t know I was pregnant. I had no proof that I had told him.”

“So you testified against him?”

“It was all set to go to trial, but a week out, the DA offered Lenny a deal. If he pled guilty to domestic violence, they called it a class B felony, then they would drop the manslaughter charges. Lenny jumped on it.”

“Sounds like the system is as broken here as it is in Chicago.”

“I made a victim impact statement at Lenny’s sentencing. Fortunately the judge let Jesse make one as well. He talked about how the death of my baby drove him over the edge and he ended up getting shot by my ex. It must have moved the judge because he gave Lenny the maximum sentence of ten years. Ten years for taking away every single day of life my child would have ever had.”)