Chapter One

:: one ::

J

eanine managed to pull it off! The greatest break- out since three inmates escaped from Alcatraz some decades earlier. Now that she was a free woman, Jeanine had to act quickly before she was found out.

        The first order of business was to hitch a ride toward home. I will never be imprisoned again, she thought, as she maneuvered her way pass the lazy guards, pass the overpaid parking lot attendants, and through the busy maze-like parking lot of the institution where she’d spent the past five years of her miserable life. Her incarceration was the punishment for slaughtering Jeff, the ring leader who orchestrated the gang rape on Prom night while she was in high school. Her life changed forever on that fateful night.

       “Hmmm, who might be going my way?” she asked herself, as she spied an attractive, older gentleman walking toward his black Mercedes just ahead of her.  As she hurried her steps, she breathed in the crisp fresh air of a beautiful day outside the walls of the institution. “Excuse me, sir… can you help me out, please?” she let the words ooze from her lips like Elmer’s liquid glue oozes from an uncapped bottle. Jeanine had not lost her charming feminine wiles. She knew she had him.        

        He turned and stared at her. At sixty-nine-years-old, graying, and carrying thirty extra pounds on his six foot tall frame, it had been years since Mr. Derek Jones had been approached by such a pretty young woman. He was a dead ringer for award winning actor Sidney Poitier, cocoa colored skin, proper style, etiquette, and impeccable mannerisms. Derek was charming and had had his share of women— two failed marriages and two large monthly alimony payments. A pain-filled relationship with the mother of a child born out of wedlock some twenty years earlier when he hooked up with a woman half his age…

        Completely caught off guard, Derek was speechless. He managed to pick up the jaw that had dropped when he saw Jeanine and stammered, “Wha-what’s that? Oh, how can I help you, miss?”

        Jeanine was still quite beautiful. The institution for the criminally insane had not taken its toll on her physically, as it had done to many female inmates before her. In fact, one might say that prison added a hint of wisdom to her dark eyes. She had learned some new tricks from the female inmates, whom she lived with, talked to, ate with, showered with, and fought with for the past five completely useless years of rehabilitation...

       This is too easy, thought Jeanine, as she concocted a magnificent story to share with her new acquaintance. She needed money, clothes, and a car. This fine older, gentleman was her ticket out of the loony bin and would provide her with some necessities until she could do better.

        “My name is Jeanine. I was just visiting an old friend who is in here for several more years… Poor girl! She is the most psychotic person I’ve ever met. But I promised her mother that I would visit her every week, like clockwork, so that she wouldn’t have to see her daughter in this place. And, wouldn’t you know it, I come out after an intense visit with Stephanie to find that my car over there, is not starting.” She pointed to a random spot in the parking lot, as she continued her lie. “I find myself stranded in this parking lot with no way back to New Jersey...” Jeanine smiled coyly, pleased with her fairy tale. She adjusted her large breasts and stared deeply into Derek’s eyes. Time to bring this baby home, she giggled, as she held a silent conversation with herself. “I’d do anything, anything, if you would get me back to Secaucus!”

        Jeanine was good. She built lie upon lie like logs on a hunting cabin. It appeared that Derek was buying it all; hook, line, and sinker. There was something about the way Jeanine deviously squeezed her small nipples when she adjusted herself that made Derek answer too quickly, “Of course, I insist! My car is right over here…”