Spratt was determined to leave that very week and selected some clothes from his locker that wouldn’t make him look too out of place, from a distance anyway, once he was able to shed his prison uniform. He couldn’t control, and didn’t know, exactly where the detail would be working that week but he hoped it would be in a populated area…the closer to the city, the better. He decided to take the other inmate up on his offer to ‘steal’ his truck and planned for the flea market to be one of his first stops. Spratt settled into the humdrum routine of weekend prison life and, for once, looked forward to the beginning of the ‘work week’.
On Monday, after being locked into the van, Johnson drove the crew to the farthest part of the county to work on the river banks. Shit! This part of the county is so desolate that there aren’t even any houses around! I could run but where would I hide? I know that I could get away from Johnson but I wouldn’t be able to leave the area before they got the dogs out here to track me down! Spratt’s intention wasn’t just to ‘get away’ but, also, to stay away. He decided to wait for another day and see if they would be assigned to a more suitable location. Waiting would be a true test of his nerves as the inmates are strip searched upon returning from their work detail and, if his money was found, it would be confiscated and he would be thrown in the ‘hole’ immediately.
Upon arriving at the prison, Spratt nervously presented his clothes and boots to the intake officer for inspection. The officer barely looked at the boots and Spratt was allowed to go to his dorm. Spratt felt dejected; disappointed that he hadn’t been able to get away that day. Unfortunately for Spratt, most of the week would present the same, or worse, opportunity as Monday had. Spratt had to return to the prison each day praying that his money would not be discovered.
Friday morning, work was assigned in another desolate area of the county. Spratt had never realized how desolate and rural this part of the State actually was. Spratt decided that he would go for broke since he did NOT want to spend another weekend in that prison. He was going to make a break for it as soon as Johnson turned his head but Johnson was being especially vigilant…”Does he know something?,” Spratt wondered.
During the lunch break, the prison called Johnson on his two-way radio and instructed him to take his crew to the Parks and Recreation Department warehouse to load some folding tables needed for an annual Arts Festival in the Downtown area. After loading the tables, they would need to follow the truck downtown, unload it, and assist in strategically placing the tables for vendors to display their wares. The crew was loaded into the van and, once the tables were on the truck, they headed downtown to unload them. “Good!” thought Spratt, “this is exactly where I need to be!”
Spratt helped to unload the tables and put them in their designated locations but somebody, either Johnson or the Parks Department employee, was always close by. Spratt knew that he was going to run but at least wanted to get some kind of head start; he didn’t want to run with Johnson standing right next to him. Once the tables were placed, the crew was ordered back to the van. Spratt tried to lag behind the group a little waiting for the perfect moment but Johnson was right behind them. The Parks Department employee got into the driver’s seat of his truck and closed the door at about the same time as the first inmate of the crew started entering the van. Spratt thought this might be the opportune moment since he would only have to outrun Johnson now and not both Johnson AND the Park employee and he was just about to make a run for it when two of the inmates in front of him started fighting with each other. Johnson screamed at the inmates to stop, struck the pavement twice with his ax handle, and ran past Spratt to break the inmates up. At least twenty yards now separated Spratt from Johnson and Johnson was focused on the fight; Spratt spun around and ran as fast as he could (faster than he had ever run before!) in the opposite direction.
The vendors that had been milling around setting up their tables were just a blur to Spratt as he rounded the corner of the public building on the grounds; he didn’t know, and didn’t care, if any of the civilians were watching him…he just had to get as far away as he could. He ran across the front lawn of the building then sprinted to the other side of a four lane boulevard without even looking for traffic. Spratt ran down a side street and up an alley where he was able to climb a fire escape to the roof of a two story building. Spratt quickly removed his prison shirt leaving just his unmarked t-shirt on and sat down to take his boots off. Boots removed, he was able to unbutton his prison pants and take them off too. Spratt quickly put his boots on and was now solely dressed in a white t-shirt, a pair of Fruit of the Loom briefs with a pair of unmarked white boxer shorts covering them, white socks, and black prison boots. He knew he looked strange but this outfit would suffice barring any close scrutiny; from a distance, he would appear more normal than if he had kept his uniform on which would have screamed ‘ESCAPED INMATE’ to anybody that saw him. Spratt climbed back down the fire escape, ran to the other end of the alley and started walking, in an attempt to not draw attention to himself, once he reached the street. He turned the corner and walked two blocks to a main downtown artery and went inside a hotel where he knew there was a rooftop bar.
Spratt walked through the lobby imagining that everybody was staring at him but most barely even gave him a second glance. He took the elevator to the 15th floor which was only occupied by the restaurant and lounge. Spratt walked into the bar area and noticed there were no customers in there; just a bartender and a waitress setting up their stations. Spratt asked if they were open and the bartender nodded yes but looked strangely at Spratt. This was a ‘high class’ place and Spratt certainly wasn’t dressed in a suit and tie. Spratt hadn’t come here for a casual drink but he needed to buy some time; he was only a few blocks away from where he had escaped from! Spratt knew that this lounge had a ‘lookout’ area that gave a great view of the street below it and he expected to look down and see a hundred police cars scouring the street. He couldn’t just walk over there and sit down without an explanation though as that would make him seem even more strange and the bartender might call security. Spratt told the bartender that he had just returned from hiking on the river and needed a beer to quench his thirst before going to his room in the hotel. The bartender still looked skeptical until Spratt placed a hundred dollar bill on the bar to pay for his beer. The bartender quickly opened a Michelob and handed it to Spratt.
Spratt ordered a pack of cigarettes as well and sat down on the barstool. He was dying to go look out the window but didn’t want to seem overly anxious and rouse the suspicions of the bartender. Spratt made small talk for a while and ordered another beer. The second beer now in hand, Spratt walked to the window and looked down expecting to see all Hell breaking loose. He saw nothing; just the usual traffic…not a single police car in sight. Spratt wondered why there wasn’t an all-out manhunt going on but knew that he couldn’t just sit back and relax; he had to leave that area as soon as possible. The U-Haul storage center was only about a mile away from here so he went to a pay phone to call a taxi and waited five minutes before tipping the bartender and taking the elevator back to the lobby.
Spratt waited for the taxi in the lobby while trying to blend in as much as possible but grew more anxious with each passing minute. He expected to see cops coming in the front door either as part of the search party for an escaped inmate or simply because a hotel employee may have deemed him suspicious enough to have called the police to have him ejected from the property. Spratt was relieved to see the taxi pull up before any police cars did and got in the back seat quickly while giving the address that he wanted to go to. The driver, an elderly black man, barely glanced at Spratt as he started to drive off. Spratt scooted down as much as he could in the back seat but was still able to see his surroundings. There wasn’t a policeman anywhere and Spratt imagined that they may all be at the scene of his escape.
Spratt asked the driver to wait for him as he went inside and opened the combination lock to his storage locker. Spratt had quite a few things in the locker but he went straight for the suitcases in the corner. He opened one and quickly changed his clothes. He had a pair of brown leather work boots and a pair of sneakers in this suitcase and Spratt quickly decided on the sneakers. He threw his prison boots into the corner of the locker, grabbed two suitcases, and locked the door upon leaving.
Spratt wanted to leave town immediately and thought about having the driver drop him off at the bus station but that was downtown also and only a few blocks in the other direction from where he had escaped. Besides, Spratt knew that the bus station would be one of the first places that the cops would look for him at. Spratt could have had the taxi drive him across the river into South Carolina but then what? Spratt decided to take his chances and spend the night in Georgia so that he could visit his ‘friend’ at the flea market the next day and ‘steal’ his truck for transportation. Spratt told the driver to take him to a hotel on the South side of town where he unloaded his two suitcases and paid his fare. When the taxi left, Spratt walked two blocks down the street to another hotel and called a different taxi company who drove him to the Northwest side of town. Spratt paid for two nights at a cheap Scottish Inn motel that was right next to a Holiday Inn and close to the Interstate. Spratt ordered supper from the Waffle House in the adjacent parking lot, went to the next door convenience store for beer and cigarettes, returned to pick up his ‘to go’ food order and went back to his room for the night. Spratt ate his dinner and then drank most of the beers while waiting for the eleven o’clock news. He switched back and forth between the three local stations but didn’t see any report of escape at all. There wasn’t much ‘big’ news in this town…surely an escape would garner at least a ‘mention’ on the news. This concerned Spratt for some reason. He finished off the beers and took one last look into the parking lot to make sure there were no cops out there before going to sleep for the night.
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