An hour later

Alex pulls into a truck stop. He stops the car and looks over at Kimble. "Are you sure this is OK?"

"Yeah. Thanks," Kimble says, moving to open the door.

"No! I gotta thank you. You saved my life. Nobody ever went out of their way like that for me before," he adds, sadly.

Kimble looks at him with understanding. "Look, I don't know what's going on in your life, what you're trying to escape from. But taking drugs is not the way to do it. It's a one-way dead-end street. And if you keep going down it, someday you're going to wind up back in that emergency room and some doctor with try his best to save you…and he won't be able to." Kimble looks out the window, reliving another time. "And he'll think to himself…what a terrible waste."

Alex looks at him in silence.

Kimble shakes himself back to the present. "Tony's gone. You have a chance right now to turn your life around, maybe the only one you'll get. Get some help. Get clean and stay clean." Kimble turns to the door. "I gotta go."

 He gets out of the car and a thoughtful Alex watches him walk into the darkness.

FUGITIVE TASK FORCE HEADQUARTERS

The task force is sitting in a meeting room as Gerard walks in.

"Welcome back Philip." Eve says, "What's the latest word on Kimble?"

Gerard sits down and says, "It's been a week now, and still no trace of Kimble, other than his duffel bag, but I have no doubt he's alive. I hear Maggie Kimble-Hume managed to slip through your watchful eyes and leave town. Any idea how she managed to do that?" He stares at each of them in turn.  “Agent Holmes, I made you the point person on this assignment so I’m assigning the brunt of the blame to you!”

 

“Why are you blaming me?  Because I had no sympathy for you in Syracuse?  Captain Gerard, for as many times as you’ve lost Kimble I really don’t see how you can throw stones at any of us.  All I did was take a five minute doughnut break.  I find it amazing that I’m criticized for not being friendly with my co-workers and then when I finally do something nice for them, I still get criticized.  All we saw was the babysitter leave the house on Friday.  Nobody else entered or left the house until we saw Maggie Hume return on Sunday.”

 

“Agent Holmes, this has nothing to do with our argument in Syracuse.  I just think you dropped the ball.”

 

“Really, well how’s this for picking up the ball and rebounding it?  I got a tip that Kimble was in Cleveland.  Before I came into this meeting I had just gotten off the phone with a Cleveland cop by the name of Maloney who said he had a witness who saw Kimble in Cleveland on Friday.  I also checked the airlines when we saw Maggie Hume come home on Sunday and she came in on a flight from Cleveland.  It could all be coincidence but who really cares at this point?  I seriously doubt Kimble is still there…but, you can rest easy Captain, your life has meaning to it again!”  She smiles innocently at him.

"Well, then I think we can get back to work!" Gerard turns to leave the room abruptly.

 

Eve stands up and says, “Actually Philip, there’s something else you need to know.”  Eve, Kari, Eddie and Vic are all smiling knowingly like the cat who ate the canary.

Vic says, "Captain, Eddie and I have been looking into Charnquist while you were in New York. Eddie got a hold of one of the officers in Baltimore that Becca Ross mentioned."

Eddie breaks in. "At first he stonewalled me, but I took him out for a beer," he says with a wink. "He loosened up after a few. When I told him this guy was a suspect in quite possibly three murder investigations, he finally spilled the beans about what happened that night.  Kimble was telling you the truth, they did arrest Charnquist however, a little wrinkle occurred after the arrest and Vic was able to verify it with someone he knows over at the CIA."

"The CIA?" Gerard asks in surprise. "Verify what?"

Vic hands him a folder. His eyes get widen in surprise as he reads the contents. "You're sure this is confirmed?"

"Yes, sir." Vic, Eddie, Eve and Kari answer together.

Gerard sits back in his chair in stunned surprise. "How did a sleazebag like Ben Charnquist get a federal immunity code?"

 

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