to think that he must have missed something, even though his gut said he was on the right path. Jaxon glared at the picture of the man and racked his brain, trying to visualize the description he had been given. This guy met the description completely, except the neck. Granted the picture they had from the file was from years prior. He continued staring at this man, feeling like something was not quite right, when it hit him! The marks on his neck looked like birthmarks, but in reality, Jaxon believed they were a botched attempt to remove a tattoo, an identifying mark.
When Peter showed up, Jaxon showed him all he had done after asking how the doctor’s appointment went. Peter agreed that the similarities were too close, and they needed to hunt this guy down. They decided to ride the two train lines again together on Friday and see if they noticed him. Peter went in and asked the captain’s opinion of the pictures. Captain agreed that it was definitely worth a follow up, but he wanted one to be on the train and one to be waiting at the end of the R line. Then he wanted both to get on the A line together to try and find him. He told them to be careful because this guy was a very dangerous man. They agreed to be careful and went home to get a good night’s sleep before the next day’s stakeout.
Friday morning, Jaxon and Peter met at a coffee shop early and then entered the R train. They agreed to chat as if friends while monitoring everyone that came and went. They took turns moving up and down the hooked train cars and finally decided he was not on the train. They reached the end of the line and switched to the A train and continued the same process of searching. Three train cars away from where they were sitting, Jaxon believed he found Johnny and beckoned for Peter to join him. They found seats in the same car as Johnny. Jaxon knew they had found him when he began to tingle from head to toe, which happened when he found a mark. Unfortunately, because he was staring so intently for such a long time, Johnny got a glimpse of him and suspected that Jaxon was a cop. When the train came to the normal stop at Thirty-eighth and Blake Street, Johnny casually moved closer to the door. Jaxon attempted to meander slowly toward the door, with Peter following his lead, hoping they would not be noticed. When the train doors opened, Johnny jumped out, pushing people out of his way, and took off running. Jaxon rushed for the door and barely was able to get his arm in the doors as they began to close, forcing them to open up while setting off alarms and an automated voice asking people to move away from the doors as they are about to close.
The chase began, with Jaxon and Peter running hard trying to keep up with Johnny. Peter began to fall behind as he was intently calling for backup. At one intersection, Peter lost sight of Jaxon and figured he would have to wait for others to arrive. Every turn that Johnny made, Jaxon was right there on his tail. Jaxon could only think to himself that he wasn’t sure how long he would be able to keep up since he was in his fifties and not in great condition like he used to be, while Johnny was obviously in great condition and most likely would be able to outlast Jaxon.
Chapter 4
As Jaxon was chasing Johnny Markus, he was beginning to run out of breath and noticed that he had lost Peter but refused to stop and figure out why. He could see Johnny in front of him and was concerned, knowing that Johnny was not slowing down, but that Jaxon was struggling, showing his age and lack of daily exercise (secretly thinking he needed to start using the department gym). Trying to push himself past the point of stopping and giving up, suddenly, he was blocked by a woman who decided to step in front of him.
“Get out of my way!” Jaxon yelled while waving his hand at her to move.
“Do you need my help?” she replied in a very gentle, warm, relaxed style.
Jaxon stared at her for a second, completely confused by what she was saying.
“Move, you are interfering with police matter!”
“I know I can help you,” she said and proceeded to place her hand on Jaxon’s shoulder, while blocking his progress and slowing his momentum.
All of a sudden, Jaxon had a weird sensation that he needed to move forward and turn left. The feeling of exhaustion was suddenly eliminated, and his physical being felt better than ever. He sidestepped this middle-aged Caucasian woman wearing her blond hair short and sporting an athletic build, and continued running, maintaining eye contact, temporarily taking a mental picture, frustrated that he could no longer see the criminal. Jaxon figured he could return later and have a nice long conversation about interfering with police work and also, he really wanted to get to know her. He knew he was definitely going to need some time to process these feelings later.
When he got to the end of the block, he made a left-hand turn; not sure why but felt compelled to do so without even looking at any other direction. His years of training and reasoning were suddenly diminished. It was the strangest feeling he had ever had. Unfortunately, he was no longer able to see who he was chasing. He began to slow down but then had a need, or call it a desire or urge, to continue on to the next block, maintaining his unwillingness to concede defeat. He didn’t know where he got the stamina, but he was able to stretch himself, both mind and body, beyond reason.
Coming to the end of the block, he began looking in all directions for this guy. With no visual, he wasn’t sure where to go, but then just felt again the urge to turn right. This was the strangest sensation he had ever experienced. How long can he anticipate it lasting? This was a mistake in his mind because he just turned down a dead-end street. There was no way Johnny would have turned this way. He could not avoid his unabated need to just slow down and check this street out. He began moving trash cans and looking in all alcoves and behind other items scattered in the street. Suddenly there was movement from behind an old metal trash can. Johnny could be hiding behind it, but then out of nowhere, something came jumping out toward him and took off running to the left. His heart felt as though it had stopped right then and there. Using his eyes while slowly turning his head and taking a slow relaxing breath, he realized it was a raccoon that had surprised him. He thought about calling Peter and telling him where to meet up, but then he knew that Johnny would be long gone by the time he could get there. He was on his own to follow through with this part of the investigation. So he slowly moved forward. There’s only one large trash dumpster nearby. Feeling as if he was chasing air, he opened the lid, afraid a giant rat would be glaring at he with its big beady eyes, and believing no one would hide in this kind of filth. After the raccoon, he took a deep breath and prepared himself for anything.
“Oh, crap!” Jaxon screamed as Johnny jumped up and tried to escape. He grabbed him and threw him against the dumpster, flipping him with a single move of his hand. Johnny rolled and tried to get up, but Jaxon tackled him, flipped him onto his stomach, grabbing both wrists and securing them tightly in one hand while he grabbed his handcuffs. He couldn’t remember how long it’s been since he so easily exerted that type of muscle with that much success. He placed Johnny under arrest, reading him his Miranda rights while picking him up and slamming him onto the brick wall and flipping him around so they were eye to eye. Jaxon then pushed Johnny down into a sitting position and called Peter to tell him where he was. Within five minutes, backup showed up and quickly took Johnny, placing him in the back seat of the police car. Peter jumped out of the car and verified that Jackson was okay and then explained why he had slowed down and how he had lost sight of Jaxon and had been driving around until he heard from him. One down, many more to go, Jaxon thought.
A second cop car showed up with Billy Mack driving. Having worked with him before, Jaxon took a few minutes to see how he was doing.
“Hey, Billy, how are you doing?”
“Hey Jaxon, been doing pretty well. How ’bout yourself? Someone called 911 just before we heard from Peter.”
“Cool, after this run down, I think I might need a nap,” Jaxon stated with a chuckle. “It wouldn’t happen to have been a woman that called 911?”
“I’m not
