Unauthorized Vacation: Violent and Dangerous Criminal?

Spratt paced the room while drinking a few more beers before deciding to call his wife.  He dialed her number and she answered on the third ring.  It was very refreshing to hear her voice but it also filled him with a dreadful sense of loneliness.  Spratt started the conversation with, “How are you?”  His wife immediately replied, “Are you crazy!?  Calling this house!  You can’t call this house…they are looking for you!”  “Who is looking for me?” asked Spratt.  “The Cops are looking for you!  All of them!  Homicide Division, the Prosecutor’s Office, Department of Corrections, and the U.S. Marshal!”  She continued with, “They came to the house and took me to the prosecutor’s office in a police car the day that you escaped and told me how you beat up those two cops at the airport and ran away…they told me that if I had any contact with you they would arrest me!  You can’t call here anymore!”

“Wait a minute…wait a minute; just slow down,” Spratt said.  “What are you talking about?  I didn’t beat up any cops.”  “They said that you beat them up at the airport and stole the handcuff keys to escape with!  They have you listed as a violent and dangerous criminal and told me that you would spend the rest of your life in prison when they catch you!”  Spratt was incredulous; he hadn’t beaten anybody up and was not a ‘violent and dangerous’ criminal.  “Are you sure that is exactly what they said?” Spratt asked.  “They told me that you beat up those two cops and escaped.  They also told me that if I helped you at all then they would send me to prison and they said that I might as well divorce you now since you would be spending the rest of your life in prison!” “You even came out on TV and the Newspaper,” she said, “do you know how embarrassing it is for me to take the children to school now!” “Hey,” Spratt responded, “they are just trying to shake any loyalties that you might have in order to get any information out of you.  I’m NOT going to prison for the rest of my life; I promise you that!”  Spratt told her the real story of how he escaped so that she wouldn’t think she was married to some violent psychopath but wasn’t sure whether she believed his version or that of the cops.  It was clear that being driven to the Courthouse in a police car had caused a dramatic impact on her.

Spratt asked to speak to the children and she reluctantly allowed him to.  After chatting with them for a while, he asked to have their mother put back on the phone.  Spratt told her that he was going to send some toys to the children and some money to her via Western Union.  She immediately objected, “You can’t send anything!  The cops told me that I would be arrested!”  “Fuck them!” Spratt said, “I’m sure they told you that you can’t offer assistance to ME; they didn’t say anything about me assisting you!  You need the money for the children and this is money that I have earned…it isn’t stolen money!  Take it and pay some bills with it!”  She finally relented but told Spratt that she was going to have to inform them about the phone call to keep herself out of trouble.  Spratt didn’t like that idea but he also didn’t want her to have any problems.  “Whatever you have to do,” Spratt said, “tell them…I don’t give a shit.  They don’t know where I am anyway and can’t trace me.”  Spratt told her that he loved her and noticed that she didn’t reciprocate that sentiment before he hung up.

Spratt didn’t know what to do next so he opened another beer to contemplate the phone calls he had made that day.   He tried to interpret what little information he had gleaned.  He hadn’t beaten up any cops…they must be telling her that to make him look bad.  Then again, Hector did deny drinking in Atlanta; maybe that is the story they came up with to explain how he got away from them to avoid having to admit to getting drunk; they had to come up with some face-saving story but saying that Spratt is tough enough to beat up two trained police officers would still be kind of embarrassing to them…he guessed that getting beat up would be less embarrassing than admitting incompetence and drunkenness though.  If that is the story they gave though, it wasn’t good for Spratt; fugitives that are considered violent, especially violence against law enforcement, go to the top of the list as far as resources expended to hunt them down.  It also increased the chances of a violent arrest; he might even get shot if they found him.

Spratt went down to the lobby to use the computer and logged onto the Puerto Rican newspaper’s website.  He performed a quick search for his name and read the story filed about him.  Sure enough, it stated that he had beat up the two cops while waiting for a connecting flight at the Atlanta airport.  It stated that he was ‘duly’ restrained with handcuffs, waist chain, and shackles and that he stole the handcuff key from one of the disabled cops after the fight and removed the restraints prior to escaping.  He couldn’t believe it.  Who the FUCK would believe that story?  “Did anybody ask to see airport video?” Spratt wondered.  “Did anybody question how Spratt would be able to fight two cops in a terminal full of passengers and cops and the airport NOT get ‘locked down’?”  Since 9/11, airports got locked down for less serious reasons than this…surely they would lock one down if a prisoner had just beaten up two cops and escaped.  Surely the fellow passengers would help the cops to subdue the prisoner BEFORE he was able to take the chains off.  It was an unbelievable story and Spratt wondered how they got away with telling it.  He wrote down the phone number of the newspaper and decided to call that reporter.

Spratt returned to his room and called the newspaper.  The reporter was not on duty at the moment so he asked if they had a cell phone number for him.  The editor asked who he was and what it was about.  Spratt explained who he was and that he wanted to clarify a story published about him.  The editor told Spratt that she could take his number and then call the reporter and ask him to call Spratt.  Spratt told her that he was not in a position to give out his number and asked if she would call the reporter to see if it was okay for her to divulge the cell number to Spratt.  She said she would and hung up.  Spratt called back in twenty minutes and was given the reporter’s phone number; she said that the reporter was looking forward to speaking with him.

Spratt drank another beer before calling the reporter.  He finally dialed the number (again through the AT&T card system) and it was answered immediately.  Spratt introduced himself and immediately explained that the purpose of his call was to correct some errors in the reporter’s story.  The reporter stated that he didn’t believe the cops’ version entirely but that he rarely had the opportunity to get the criminal’s side of the story and he had to print what information was divulged to him regardless of how ‘one-sided’ it may be.  He told Spratt that he would listen to his version and investigate it if it was substantially different from the official version.  Spratt told his side of the story more so out of a desire to get his standing reduced from ‘violent and dangerous’ than to actually get the cops in trouble.  He DID promise the Sergeant that he would not tell anybody that they had been drinking but he felt that the Sergeant had released him from that commitment by lying about how the escape took place.  They could have just said that they went to sleep and woke up to find Spratt gone and Spratt wouldn’t have contested that story because it was mostly true.  To say that Spratt beat them up though…well he had to defend himself against that accusation!

Spratt told the reporter what REALLY happened and the reporter seemed to doubt some parts of the tale.  The reporter seemed to think that Spratt was exaggerating parts of it and may be outright lying about the alcohol.  However, the reporter stated that he would contact the Police Superintendent for a response to Spratt’s version since the information provided by them to the reporter never mentioned a hotel stay.  The reporter stated that they led him to believe that there was never an interruption in travel until Spratt beat them up and escaped.  Spratt reassured the reporter that HIS information was absolutely truthful and provided the name of the hotel that they had stayed in so that he could confirm, at least, that part of it.  The reporter said that he would perform due diligence and asked Spratt to call him later.  Spratt said he would and hung up.

Spratt knew that he had to leave now.  He was pretty confident that he couldn’t be traced by the phone calls but was still nervous.  Spratt felt that it would be wise to become mobile again and leave Orlando.  Where would he go?  How would he get there?  He decided to steal the contractor’s car and just head north.  Anywhere outside of Florida was the preferred location of the moment.  He packed his clothes and called the front desk to ask for a wake-up call for the next morning just in case the cops were able to trace his location (they wouldn’t find him there but may think that he would be returning since he asked to be woken up; that might buy some additional time).  He put his duffle bag in the trunk of the car and drove off in the direction of Jacksonville.  At some point, he decided to head towards Charleston, SC.  He knew Charleston intimately and he felt that he would be able to throw off the scent of his trail there.  That decided, he turned the radio up, cracked another beer, and drove all through the night.