Jack was the smartest criminal of them all, he never left anything to chance and planned his crimes all down to the last minute detail. Despite that, the only reason that he was in jail for his crimes today was the fact that he inadvertently slipped when riding his bike on a rainy day and rammed into a police car and happened to drop his bag which was full of surgical instruments and his “murder keepsakes”, the little finger of the right hand of his victims. When the cops helped him up from his fall, they noticed the plastic bag with the fingers in them and immediately knew that Jack was the famous Finger Keeper murderer that they had been looking for all these months. Jack had been let down by the rain gods.
Even in prison, based on his limited interactions with fellow inmates Jack could clearly see that more than the anything else, the fear of retribution from the cops was what kept all the inmates peaceful, docile and obedient to all the prison rules. However, he had made up his mind, he was not somebody to go down so peacefully and started studying the security system of the prison. He promised himself that he would be out of this place before completing 30 days in here.
By the end of the third week in prison, he had come up with the perfect escape plan. He had identified a 30 ft high point in the wall which was very close to the prison hospital. Based on his estimates, the other side of the wall had a small 10 ft wide path beyond which were the woods which ended at the railroad. He had spent enough time at the prison hospital feigning asthmatic attacks to study the movement of trains and had decided that 3.00 AM in the morning would be the perfect time for him to scale the wall, go down the other side, make his way through the woods, and be in time to jump on to the 3.40 AM freight train which plied on this route daily. After that, he would make further plans based on where the train took him.
By working in the laundry division, he had also managed to obtain one police jacket and a cap which when worn over his prison shirt and regular black jeans (which was part of the prisoner uniform) would enable him to be effectively disguised. The only thing, if anything that would give him away was his bald head, his disheveled beard and the plasters covering his scar which had been given to him by one of his fellow inmates for having refused to share his food with him. But Jack figured that as he was escaping in the wee hours of the morning, the darkness would anyway prevent anybody from seeing him at that time.
His plan was perfect, he would take a couple of sheets from the hospital, tie them up, tie a small pan (once again taken from the hospital) to one end of the sheets and throw that end up the wall. The heavier end of the sheet would hit the electric fence, the alarms would then be turned on, and power to the fence would be turned off. This would force all the guards in that area to rush to the spot where they saw the sparks from the fence.
What Jack would do in the meantime would be to hide in the broom closet closest to the hospital entrance, wait until all the 5 guards patrolling this zone would rush to the spot where the fence was supposedly breached. He would then make his way to the nearest guard tower and go up to the top, approach the guard hoping that he would not recognize him in the uniform due to the darkness, kill him with one quick jab at the neck, and then make his way over the wall, given that power to the fence was turned off.
His was the perfect plan.
On the 30th day of his prison stay, he decided to make his move. Everything went well, when he threw the heavy end of the sheet at the fence, the alarms were turned on and power to the fence was cut off. He then immediately ran into the hospital and hid in the broom closet. He just had to wait it out till the guards ran to the spot, he counted the footsteps, one….two….three….four, just one more guard to go.
And then suddenly, the light streamed through the keyhole of the broom closet. The door opened with a jerk and the nurse holding the flash light blinded him with the sharp glare of the light. She let out a loud scream, which immediately brought the fifth guard to the spot, and upon noticing Jack’s beard he took out his Taser and tased Jack into submission.
Even when being tased, he wondered what went wrong. He then noticed the wet muddy footprints on the white hospital floor leading from the entrance to the broom closet. He had failed to notice the small drizzle outdoors which had made the path surrounding the hospital wet and muddy. Once again, he had been let down by the rain gods.
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This post was written for the Today’s Author Write Prompt for 03-Sep-2013 where the post had to include the line “The light streamed through the keyhole”
This post was heavily inspired by this Deccan Herald headline of 01-Sep-2013, and is my first attempt at the crime fiction genre.
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Image courtesy: Google images search for ‘escape route’
