Later that evening a man waited at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Airport awaiting his flight to Costa Rica. He had purchased a nice condo there many years ago as an investment, now it was his sanctuary. His flight carried him to Mexico City with a transfer to a flight to San Jose’. When he arrived at the airport after checking his luggage and putting the luggage through security, he immediately headed to go through customs. Sooner or later they’d figure him out and customs was the last check point that he thought that he’d have to worry about. He showed his passport to the customs agent and offered to open his carry on luggage and the agent scanned his passport, the waived him through.

Detective Black knocked on the door of the modest home in the suburbs of Montgomery. No one answered. When he got back to his car, he emailed a note to dispatch. “Be on the look out for Jack Jenkins, Jr. who is driving a new car likely with dealer tags, if you find him detain him for questioning. He is a person of interest in an attempted murder.” At that moment his cell phone rang and it was Jack, Sr. Jack had called his store manager to find out which car Junior was driving and what tags were on it. They had agreed to meet and the dealership and then reviewed the check out slips and found that Junior was driving a Blue Tango Sedan, the most popular color of the most popular model the manufacturer made. He also noticed that it was the lone dealer car without GPS and without an activated security system. He also checked the log to see which cell phone number Junior had. They tried calling the cell phone but it was not turned on. Senior had a hunch that Junior was on the run. He called Detective Black. “He driving a 2010 Tango Sedan, four door, color blue. License plate dXXX-1234. His cellphone is turned off. My gut says he’s running. He owns a place in Costa Rica that he’s visited for years. My guess, is that’s where he’s headed.”

Detective Black immediately got everyone in his office to start calling airlines, he needed to find out whether Jack, Jr. was booked on any international flights. He called INS and asked if Jack Jenkins, Jr. had been through customs in the last 24 hours. They checked their computers and confirmed that he had passed through customs at Atlanta Airport about an hour earlier. He’s fleeing. He contacted Atlanta Airport and asked them if there were any flights to Costa Rica leaving tonight. There were none, but there was one flight to Mexico City that had not left on Yuca Airlines. He called Yuca Airlines and asked if they had a Jack Jenkins or Jack Jenkins, Jr. booked on the flight tonight out of Atlanta. “Why, yes, but its already left the gate”, the lady replied, “and it will be landing in Mexico City in three hours”. Detective Black called the State’s Attorney. “We need an arrest warrant for Jack Jenkins, Jr., the charge attempted murder and vandalism. And then you need the Attorney General to call the Attorney General of the United States to get a fugitive notification to the Mexican authorities all within three hours.” “Wow, that’s a tall order, you’ve got your affidavit and the warrant prepared”, the prosecutor asked. “Yeah, and I’m emailing them to you now”, Black replied. “Good, I’ll go see Judge Moseley, he stays up late and doesn’t seem to get too upset when we ring his doorbell.”

February 1, 2010

Later that night, Jack, Jr. followed Elmo’s path and saw the motor mounts and bolts laying on the side of the road. He picked them up and put them in a dumpster behind a restaurant a few miles away.

February 6, 2010.

“Where are the motor mounts and the bolts?”, the technician asked the officer. “We picked up everything at the scene”, the officer said. “The motor mounts would have been several miles back, could you go back and look for them?”, the tech replied. “Sure” said the officer. After calling Elmo and retracing the route, he found no motor mounts, no bolts, no nothing. Somebody probably saw them as used parts to sell on ebay, he thought. He called the technician, they’re gone. “Thanks”, the tech replied. He looked at the bottom and it was clear that a rusty motor mount had been installed on the bottom of this car, much older than the rest of the body and it left an impression. “Barry can you come over here for a second, look at this on the bottom of this car, do you see what I see?”, the tech asked. “Yeah rust stains from where the motor mounts were, someone installed bad mounts on this car”, Barry replied. “So, somebody is trying to kill somebody”, the tech answered, “better forward that to the detectives.”

Detective Black was rather boring personality. Not the high energy types that you see on television. He is studious, insightful, instinctive, and experienced. He has been around the block many a time as he nears his retirement. At 55, he’s a bit arthritic, a bit laconic, and a bit overweight, those sausage sandwiches take their toll. He also smokes which makes him a heart attack waiting to happen. But if there is a tough case, he’s the go to guy. The Lieutenant called him into his office, “Maurice, I’ve got a stumper here. Jack Jenkins’ car was tampered with. The motor mounts were replaced on it, they failed and the car crashed while his driver was running an errand. We need to find out whether it was vandalism or whether someone’s trying to kill him”, the Lieutenant said emphatically. “My bet is on murder – find a jealous husband, and you’ve probably figured it out. The guy is a walking cougar magnet.”

Later that day, “Hello, Mr. Jenkins, this is Detective Black, I would like to come and interview you about the accident your driver was in.” “Thanks, I’d come to you, but I’m banned from driving due to a little indiscretion last fall and my driver is in the hospital”, Jack, Sr. responded. “How about 5 p.m. this evening”, the Detective responded not wanting the trail to get any colder. “Fine with me”, Jack said, “and I’ll hold off on the martini until later”.

February 5, 2010

Elmo was driving out to the convenience store to pick up some smokes. Suddenly the car jumped and took off. It was like it was demon possessed or something. Elmo noticed that the pedal was all the way on the floor, like someone had their foot on the gas. He tried the brakes, but the car kept speeding forward. He tried honking his horn and weaving in and out of traffic to avoid a collision. Suddenly a large semi hauling a trailer appeared in front of him. He opened the door and dove out of the car and the car buried itself into the trailer. Elmo was hurt there was no doubt about it. He probably broke a wrist and perhaps a few ribs. Elmo then saw another truck bearing down on him and despite the pain, he managed to lung out of the way. The police and EMS personnel arrived within minutes and Elmo was rushed to the local hospital. The police impounded the vehicle and gathered the pieces of the car off the road to see if Elmo was hot rodding or if as he said the car just took off on him.

Jack, Jr. got a call that Elmo had been in accident. Since he saw his father talking to a customer at the dealership, he knew that his latest attempt had been unsuccessful and he just shook his head. He informed Jack, Sr. and the two of them headed off to the hospital to see Elmo and let the workman’s compensation carrier know that Elmo had been injured on the job.

When they arrived at the hospital, Elmo was livid. “They wanted to give me a ticket for reckless driving, the damn car just took off, it wasn’t my fault.” Jack, Sr., thought for a moment, and looked at Jack, Jr., “sounds like bad motor mounts”, Senior said. Junior just nodded. “Son, don’t worry, sounds like the car had a problem and I’ve seen you drive, you drive like an old woman, if I had been driving, it would be a different story. In the future, if that ever happens to you again, just slide the car into neutral and let it just roll to a stop. Other than that, how are you feeling, I heard you jumped out of the car?” Jack, Sr. asked. “Pretty bruised up and sore, but I’m alive”, Elmo smiled. “Well rest up and get better and we’ll see you in a week or so. You’re being paid for this week”, and Jack, Sr. patted the young man on the head and headed out of the room. Jack, Jr. saw that his dad was the consummate people person. As they left the hospital, Jack, Sr. looked at Jack, Jr. Motor mounts don’t go bad very often and that car is at the crime lab, if they was messed with, we’ll know it.”

February 1, 2010

Later that night, Jack, Jr. followed Elmo’s path and saw the motor mounts and bolts laying on the side of the road. He picked them up and put them in a dumpster behind a restaurant a few miles away.

February 6, 2010.

“Where are the motor mounts and the bolts?”, the technician asked the officer. “We picked up everything at the scene”, the officer said. “The motor mounts would have been several miles back, could you go back and look for them?”, the tech replied. “Sure” said the officer. After calling Elmo and retracing the route, he found no motor mounts, no bolts, no nothing. Somebody probably saw them as used parts to sell on ebay, he thought. He called the technician, they’re gone. “Thanks”, the tech replied. He looked at the bottom and it was clear that a rusty motor mount had been installed on the bottom of this car, must older than the rest of the body and it left an impression.

January 31, 2010

“Hello is Mr. Jenkins, Sr. there, this is Joanne Bo”, Sally said into the prepaid cell phone that Jack, Sr. gave her. “No trails for her husband if he came into the dealership snooping around”, she thought. It was the code name the two of them had agreed upon. “Hello, this is Jack Jenkins”, came a familiar voice into the headset. How are you today darlin’?” “Not so good”, she answered. “Beau saw me leaving the bar and saw you there, and he is jealous as hell. He already suspects something, but so far he’s not there yet”, she continued. “Hmmm, we’d better take a few days off and see what old Beau is up to. He can’t take too much time off from work to follow you around, or he’ll be unemployed. I know the ole coot that runs that Service station he works at, and he’d fire his daughter if he was mad. Let’s change our meeting place to that diner on 5th Avenue at about 9:30 a.m. tomorrow. Drive a circuitous route and not be make you paranoid, see if any car appears to be following you. He’ll be hard at work and that’s on the other side of town from his garage, so he’s not likely to go there for lunch and stumble on us. But if you see someone following you, just stop at the nearest grocery store, buy some groceries and go home. Then we’ll head out from there. You know your going to have to leave that SOB sooner or later, or you’ll end up dead, he’ll be in prison and your kids will be in foster care”, Jack added caringly. “I know, but I don’t want to leave into the arms of another man as attractive as that man might be”, she said in a sad tone of voice. “I understand”, Jack said. “Well I see you tomorrow then at the diner”.

That night, at the garage in the car dealership, Jack, Jr. had the pully system employed in the garage to hold up the engine while he swapped the good motor mount brackets for the old worn ones. He used latex gloves.

February 1, 2010

“Hey Sally, glad you made it.” Jack said. “I ordered us some coffee. Its pretty good.”

“I wasn’t followed, I swear”, Sally said. But someone had followed Jack.