12:32 a.m., the officer ran to the gate and saw the plane backing out of the port. It was too late. No way, the airline will turn that plane around and no way air traffic will stop the flight without some dollars on the table. Then he saw a woman arguing with the gate attendant. He went over to see what it was. “My father is dying, I need to get on that plane. I left very early for the airport and still was late, this miserable traffic here.” The gate attendant told her, “we have a flight leaving in six hours that should be fine and we gave your seat to someone else so there’s no place to sit”. The woman was sobbing at this point, “no, no, no.” The officer asked the gate attendant, “actually I am here to apprehend a dangerous murderer who is on your plane, so if you get the plane to turn around for her, she’ll catch her flight, she can sit in his seat, and I’ll have my criminal. The gate attendant spoke into the walkie talkie and the officer heard certain oaths come out of the walkie talkie and then he saw the plane stop and lurch back toward the portal. “Muchas gracias, senorita”, the officer said smiling noting that he had to come back with some flowers for this gal.

One the plane had stopped, the officer stepped on board, and knowing which seat Mr. Jenkins was sitting in, he went straight there. “Senor Jenkins, may I see your passport please?”

Jack Jenkins, Jr. looked up at that point with a look of resignation in his eyes. “Yeah, its me”. “Stand up, Senor”, the officer barked. Jenkins stood up slowly and slid out from the seat. He was caught and there was no where to go especially with a cop with a gun on him. “Easy, officer, I’ll comply” he said as he held out his hands to get cuffed.

At that point, the officer put the handcuffs on Jack Jenkins, Jr. and led him to the headquarters for the Airport Police. As he was walking, he grabbed his walkie-talkie, “suspect apprehended and bringing him in”. When they reached police headquarters, Officer Juarez called the State Police, “we have your prisoner”, he told Dolores, “who’s coming to get him”. “I’ll have Officer Morales come by”. After she hung up the phone, she radioed Officer Morales. “We have a prisoner to transport here to headquarters, a Jack Jenkins, Jr.”. Then she called Inspector Gonzales. “Hello Inspector, we have apprehended a suspect, wanted in America. You need to make him not want to fight extradition”.

At 11:00 p.m., Hector Ramirez came back from his break and looked at the computer screen. He saw that there was an email from the US Attorney General’s office. Another fugitive heading south he thought. So much paperwork if we catch him. Court hearings, extradition papers, but his job was to print out the email and put it in a file and send it to the communications offices. He printed out the email, put it in a file and continued to watch his screen. He’d get it to communications when he was about to take his next break which would be in a hour or so.

February 7, 2010.

At 12:11 a.m., Dolores Rodriguez was sitting in the dispatch office when Hector Ramirez came by. “Oh, boy, here we go, another flirting session”, she thought to herself. Hector approached with a smirk on his face. “Hey, how’s things goin’, when are we going to get some tequila together?” Hector asked smiling, knowing that the nightly dance had begun. “Hector, you know I got a jealous boyfriend who would not take kindly with me coming home with Hector stink on me”, she parried back. “Is that file in your hand for me, or is it just a prop for hitting on me tonight”, she followed. Hector leaned backward, “Whoa, baby, just playin’”, he said unconvincingly, “yeah, the files for you”. Some Gringo is running to Costa Rica and changing planes in Mexico City.

“First boarding call on CR Airlines flight to San Jose, Costa Rica”, the stewardess repeated in English. Junior looked at his watch. 12:11 a.m. He showed his boarding pass and headed to the plane. Only 20 more minutes and I’ll be in the air and safe, he thought. He got a seat in the back of the plane near the window on the three seat side of the plane. If someone was looking for him, they’d have to survey a lot of faces.

“Airport Police, Officer Juarez speaking” came the voice over the telephone. “Yeah, this is Dolores Rodriguez at the state police headquarters, I am going to be faxing you a description of a man who is flying to Costa Rica his name is Jack Jenkins, Jr. who is wanted by the United States authorities. Hopefully, you can nab him before he leaves”. “Gracias, Senorita”, the officer responded. After hanging up the phone, Dolores tried to fax the document pages. The line was busy. She set the fax to autodial and left. Sooner or later it would go through. Officer Juarez periodically went by the fax machine and checked the stack of faxes that were coming in. None from the State Police yet.

The plane started backing out of the port. Jack leaned back and let out a sigh. He was going to make it. After about 30 seconds, the plane jerked to a stop and started forward again into the dock. “This is the captain speaking, we have to stop to get another passenger who has a medical emergency and has to get to San Jose, we apologize for the inconvenience we’ll be delayed just a minute.”

12:30 a.m., Officer Juarez, picked up his walkie talkie, “who ever is closest to the CR gate, please apprehend a passenger on the flight to San Jose, named Jack Jenkins, Jr. and bring him to me”. As response came back thirty seconds later, “I’m pretty close about two minutes away, so I’ll go”.

The doorbell rang at Judge Moseley’s house, “a rumpled figure opened the door, what’s the emergency this time?” he asked snappily. The young assistant prosecutor said to the Judge, “we have a suspected felon fleeing to Costa Rica. He will be in Mexico to change flights in 2 and a half hours and that may be our last chance to grab him.” The judge looked at the affidavit, looked at the warrant, and signed it. “Good luck, young lady.”

The phone rang at the home of the Alabama Attorney General. “Buddy, this is Sid, how are you doing.” “Its midnight, how do you think I’m doin’?, the AG snapped. “I’m sorry, but we’ve got a fleeing accused felon who is about to land in Mexico City, I’ve emailed a copy of the arrest warrant to you, I need to you to get someone to nab this guy at the Mexico City Airport, or we’ll probably never catch him.”

Jack, Jr. exited the plane into the International terminal at Mexico City airport, the good news was he didn’t have to pass through Mexican customs where his passport might be flagged. He tried to think where he could sit and wait for his plane. He found a small cantina that was darkly lit. “Una cerveza, por favor”, he told the waitress. Shortly a beer appeared in front of him. “Uno Dollare”, the waitress said. He gave her a dollar bill and a dollar tip. “Gracias”, she said smiling. He sat quietly in the darkened cantina and began to feel more comfortable with his plan.

The phone rang at the home of the Assistant Attorney General International Division, “we have an arrest request for Mexico arising out of Alabama for attempted murder. Its urgent”. “Go ahead and send out the wire to the Mexican State Police with all information about the suspect”.

An email came onto the screen at the Mexican State Police headquarters which named Jack Jenkins, Jr. who was transferring to a Costa Rican flight to San Jose’ at Mexico City.

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”.